Sunday, January 22, 2006

Riots, racism and minorities II

While surfing the net I came across a story about an incident at a pool in Melbourne where lifeguards were beaten by members of a minority group. I previously blogged about the reactions of bloggers to the riots in Sydney which were triggered under similar circumstances, so I decided to see what bloggers were saying about this latest riot. I was, once again, not disappointed.

Once again, also, Australia provides an interesting contrast to South Africa, where there is very little racist scapegoating of the white minority when some members of that community are accused of a far worse crime:

"Three female employees of a dry-cleaning operation were put one by one and still alive into a large washing machine containing chemicals before being tied up and strangled, the Vereeniging Magistrate's Court heard on Wednesday."
source


It is wrong to use the behavior of members of a group as an excuse to attack that entire group, and, once again, I think that South African whites are fortunate that attitudes towards minorities here are far more tolerant than they appear to be in parts of the First World.