221 years on we remain a land of bigots
Tory Shepherd, Health Reporter: The Advertiser | March 25, 2009
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25247299-5006301,00.html
MORE than 200 years after Europeans arrived, Aboriginal people face discrimination in public places and institutions, Flinders University researchers have found.
And the distress racism causes affects Aboriginal health.
The authors of In Our Own Backyard said it appeared racism was alive and well, with more than nine in ten Aboriginal people experiencing bias, abuse and violence, and two thirds experiencing it often.
They also found twice as many Aboriginal people were teetotallers, compared to non-Aborigines, while three times as many smoked. Most Aboriginal people surveyed felt society did not look after disadvantaged people.
One woman, Amy, said racism made her feel physically ill.
“. . . it’s like a shockwave you know, you have the ripple effect . . . a week later and it’s still playing on your mind . . . I just feel sick in the guts or you might throw up,” she said.
Professor Fran Baum said the research team was shocked by the “persistent and relentless racism that Aboriginal people in Adelaide face in their everyday lives”.
“They’re things like being verbally abused, being called names, going to a shop and feeling they were being ignored,” she said.
Another researcher, Dr Anna Ziersch, said people experienced racism in a range of settings and it could lead to them avoiding the doctor, education, or other institutions. “A huge proportion talked about being frustrated, being angry,” she said.
“People who experience racism regularly have poor mental health. They talked about the stress of racism . . . a sense of hopelessness.”
The researchers said “closing the gap” between indigenous and non-indigenous life expectancy, which is 17 years, would be impossible if racism was not addressed.
They suggest a range of policies, including making indigenous culture more accessible to the mainstream, teaching more Aboriginal history and encouraging more Aboriginal-controlled organisations.
Aboriginal health-care worker Simon Peisley, who took part in the study, said people needed to work together and acknowledge Aboriginal people as the first people in Australia.
Racism must be tackled to help indigenous health: study
Larine Statham: The Independent Weekly | March 26, 2009
Health disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians will not end unless racism is tackled, a new study shows.
The report on indigenous people in urban South Australia revealed 93 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who took part in the study had experienced racism.
And people who had experienced racism were, as a result, reluctant to visit their doctor or seek educational opportunities, Anna Ziersch, one of the Flinders University project’s chief investigators, told reporters today. [more …]
Comments:
Lying Jewish tarts!
The following comment was refused publication by The Advertiser.
If a White person is bashed and/or robbed by an Aboriginal, it is standard police procedure to ignore it if they can. Indiginous communities no matter their socio-economic condition are getting a handout from Prime Minister KRudd – Poor Whites don’t get it.
Under Centrelink rules and regs, if an Aboriginal gains fulltime employment, he/she continues to receive payments from the government under an Indiginous only handout scheme ontop of their wage – Poor Whites don’t get it.
How about an apology from Indiginous Australia for the brutality dished out at the end of a fist and boot against Whitey? Sorry? … No, only Indiginous Australians get that.
The following comment was published in the The Independent Weekly comments at
http://www.independentweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/racism-must-be-tackled-to-help-indigenous-health-study/1470610.aspx
Come off it. How about the prejudice against all poor people? Those in the country are much worse off than those living in the city, but that isn’t politically correct to talk about these days. Race has replaced class in debates to such a point that poor White people are tossed aside, told they already get everything and allowed to die in abject poverty while by comparison, the indigenous just need to put a hand out and the world is theirs for the taking.
Cailen.