“Reclaim Australia” – How racists are co-opting multiculturalism

Commentary by Ruby Hamad:

Even the name “Reclaim Australia” is a dead giveaway. Reclaim it for whom and from whom? Despite the nod to the “traditional owners”, they clearly they do no want to reclaim it for them. It’s about the ideals of whiteness.

As experts are now warning, we are going to see a lot more of this sort of thing in the future as our understanding of race and racism evolves.

When the dominance of the white race was indisputable and seemingly insurmountable, racism was simply about skin colour. Now, decades after the abolition of the White Australia policy, the civil rights movement in the US and the end of apartheid in South Africa, it’s about assimilation. Who is willing to play by the rules, to show us they are really “one of us”?

Islam is the primary target of Reclaim Australia not because of any real threat it represents to our country but because many Muslims visibly and defiantly hold onto their traditions and clothing. Islam and its traditions – be it the hijab, halal food, or praying at the mosque – is regarded as an explicit rejection of Australian (and more broadly Western) ideals, and for that reason, Muslims are seen as a threat that must be extinguished.

Never mind that “tolerance” is one of those values we supposedly do better than anyone else.

Racist statements and ideologies do not magically become non-racist when a non-white person espouses them. Nor does racism have to take the form of neo-Nazism (although there appears to be plenty of that lately), but simply the persistent insistence that non-white people fall into line, that we know our place and that we acknowledge that white culture is the best one.

How racists are co-opting multiculturalism.