The violence of racism
By Sally Low
"Black Violence — Why whites shouldn't feel so guilty".
Oh no, this couldn't be true, not in the supposedly small "l" liberal Sydney Morning Herald. But there it was in black and white in the February 16 edition.
Readers were treated to the views of white psychiatrist Jock McLaren, "who has spent the last three and a half years working with Aboriginal communities out of a four-wheel drive in the Kimberleys".
Violence by Aboriginal men against Aboriginal women, the article claimed "is a scene of Aboriginal life which is acted out every night across the land". Statistics from the Northern Territory showed that in 1987 Aboriginal women were victims in 79% of chargeable offences involving deaths. Then followed the unsubstantiated claim that "those who are not killed are at constant risk of beatings and rape". We're meant to assume that all the perpetrators are, of course, Aboriginal men.
Violence occurs in Aboriginal communities because "Aboriginal society was always violent". His idea is that, in traditional Aboriginal society, violence was used as a way of enforcing rules. Really? How novel! What society has not and does not still use violence to enforce its laws?
And what of the rise of violence against women and children in the non-Aboriginal population? In Britain, the mother of white "civilisation" in this country, a recent survey found that one in four women between the ages of 18 and 54 has been raped. The most likely perpetrators were the women's husbands.
If McLaren meant that violence against women and children arises from the fact that we live in a society that is inherently violent, perhaps he would have a point worth considering. But that is not what he means at all.
Violence, alcoholism and other social problems can be attributed, claims McLaren, to peer group pressure and traditional violence. His theme is that white Australia needs to stop feeling guilty about Aborigines, because when we feel guilty "you feel the need to protect them and thus you automatically disempower them".
It's true that white guilt per se will not help Aboriginal people, but neither will white racism. It is beyond belief that anyone could sincerely deny the relevance of living conditions and other social and economic factors when trying to analyse the causes of violence within society. You don't have to be guilt ridden in order to recognise reality.
"If we're dying", said Aboriginal activist and author Ruby Langford, when asked her opinion of McLaren's views, "it's because of the dispossession of our own land". It's because Aboriginal people have to fight "tooth and nail to keep our culture alive".
Women can't afford to let racism cloud our perspective on us comes from and how it can be stopped.