I read something shortly after returning from my trip along the New South Wales coast that got me thinking about the first time I visited a dentist in Sydney.
I was laid out horizontally waiting for the man himself to get to work on my pearly whites. I don’t mind going to the dentist’s – as a rule of thumb, he/she is usually the chatty sort, makes me feel comfortable, and I’m not particularly averse to the fact they’ll shortly be rummaging around in my mouth looking for any signs of badly behaving teeth.
As the dentist leaned over to begin his business, he asked me if I was house hunting yet and, if so, how it was going.
“Pretty good,” I replied. “We’re looking at a few options but we’re thinking the North Shore might be a good place to call home.”
“You should look at houses in the west of Sydney,” he said. “Lots of big, grand houses out near Penrith way. Built for wogs. Depends if you like your woggy houses. Lots of concrete and ornate metal railings. Not my thing but some people love those woggy places.”
In the end, I smiled awkwardly and said nothing, unsure of the territory I was in and concerned that I might be in danger of over-reacting (or under-reacting). With the conversation grinding to a halt, he got on with my check-up.
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| Photo credit: Jiaren Lau |
‘Wogs’ and ‘Lebbos’ (those of Lebanese descent) were the obvious terms I would regularly hear. I witnessed various jokes about the ‘Abos’ (Aborigines) and increasingly came across negative comments about people from other cities and countries (us Brits top of the list of course, closely followed by the Yanks, the Kiwis,and so on). This was heard from a relatively small percentage of the people I came across so, in those early weeks and months, I realised I should probably ‘put up’ and ‘shut up’ if I wanted to fit in.
The problem is that, although most of these words are as much a part of the light-hearted Aussie vernacular as the ‘barbie’ or the ‘ute’, they sometimes come very close to crossing the line and often, as Lauren reminds us with reference to the use of ‘Chocko’ or Abo’, they do.
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| Photo credit: maHidoodi |
I previously posted on my experiences in Canada and Australia, and how the two countries are separated by more than just water. My view was that Australia preaches tolerance, where as Canada believes in accepting a person, wherever they’re from or whoever and whatever they are. The question is whether this basic attitude of tolerance in Australia is good enough to carry forward in the modern many-cultured world.
Hmmmm, that’s a tricky situation, especially when someones got a drill in close proximity to a sensitive part of your anatomy. It seems you hit the nail right on the head when you said that Tolerance was practiced in Oz, rather than acceptance. My guess is that even if your opinion differs from your dentist, you’ll be expected to tolerate his choice of words – it’s the Aussie way, right? He may not even be particularly racist, just speaking from the same commonly accepted lexicon.
The problem is that the more words like that become a normal thing to hear, the less sensitive we become to them – after all, it doesn’t bother us if we’re in the right group (white, hetro, etc.) But how do you know you will always be in the right group? What does it feel like to be on the other side of the fence?
Identifying people through their differences is a creeping, insidious, practice. Very soon the lines become blurred about what is actually offensive, and it’s easy to slip up a gear – after all, if the derogatory name is tolerated then it’s not a huge leap away for the derogatory stereotypes to become common.
It’s all too easy to pigeon-hole people according to their differences, we all do it, but we should be wise enough to recognise this is a divisive and narrow-minded practice and do our best to be more accepting. Having the nouse to think for yourself instead of toeing the party line is what separates the more cerebral among us from the sheep.
Canadians are pretty commendable, overall, for their accepting attitude. Where else in the world provides countrywide bilingual signage, packaging, documentation, etc. for a province less than a fifth of it’s total size? http://wp.me/p1J9Lk-HB
I grew up in the UK in an area where words like Paki (for Pakistani) are used in various ways. Some people seem to think that if it’s a term of description (Paki shop/Chinkies for Chinese takeaway), that it’s not a racial slur – a way of othering.
My response? I feel that if you use similar terms for everyone then maybe there’s a case for that, but I never heard ‘Pick up some milk from the whities shop’, because such terms don’t exist.
The same thing exists in many other areas of life too of course. I could write about this for hours, so I will be back.
I heard many similar things growing up in the UK and I’d forgotten about ‘Chinkie’ or ‘Chinky’, which sounds so bad when I repeat it now. Folks I know back in the ‘motherland’ still make those references as if it’s not out of the ordinary and I’ve been guilty myself in the past.
Looking forward to you coming back and continuing to contribute to the discussion!
“You’re damn straight”, I think the saying here goes. Very tricky situation indeed with a drill so close by!
But you’re right. I don’t think the dentist was being racist but simply talking in his own words and language, the way things are said here. I’ve heard folks say that “even the wogs call themselves wogs”. I don’t know this if this justifies thing or simply excuses them but it definitely caught me by surprise.I have to admit that, in Canada, I did detect a little anti-French feeling from a number of the Anglos. But then, when I lived in the West, there was resentment to the ‘whole’ of Canada so I suppose it’s part and parcel of such a rich cultural heritage.
Thanks for the great comment. Always appreciated here.
This is nothing compared to the what the Turks call the Kurds. I’ve heard appalling views from people who thought that the recent killer earthquake in Van (an area of Turkey mostly occupied by Kurds) served them right for supporting terrorism. This left me speechless. But, I’m not one for extreme or blanket PCness. For me it depends on the meaning behind the comment and where the person saying it is coming from. In general, I love the average Aussie’s lack of deference and self-deprecating demeanour. It’s a breath of fresh air.
Russell, this is a very brave post. I recall thinking about this set of issues last summer when I interviewed Gabrielle Wang, a Chinese Australian who writes books for young adults under the Penguin label, for the collective blog I write for, The Displaced Nation.
Gabrielle told me that the themes of her books — her heroines are mostly Chinese girls, but she’d recently done a series about a half-Chinese, half-Aborigine girl, Poppy, thereby becoming the first non-white Australian author to tackle such themes — are motivated by how ashamed she felt growing up Chinese in Melbourne. She hopes that by making her books available in Australian classrooms, she can do her bit to build tolerance of other cultures among the predominantly white population, and to make non-whites feel less marginalized.
Shortly after meeting Gabrielle, I got together with a Chinese friend of mine who happened to be passing thru NYC — she’d gone to school in Canada and to university in the US, but now is back living with her family in Hong Kong. I told this younger woman about Gabrielle. Somewhat to my surprise, she said wasn’t surprised at all. She told me there are still places in Australia she wouldn’t want to go NOW as a Chinese woman because the Australians have a streak of white supremacism that scares the hell out of her.
Sad to say but what you’ve written here rings true with what I learned at that time.
You know, I’ve always felt it was the role of an outsider to raise uncomfortable issues and ask questions of the culture one is immersed in. Certainly, I always tried to do that when living first in the UK and then in Japan. So, while recognizing how tough it is to raise these issues, I applaud your efforts.
p.s. I didn’t know about Lauren’s article — will look that up.
Good for you Russell. I’m all for giving a little leeway based on intention (did you mean to utter an ethnic slur or is it just ‘what everyone says’), but in the end we all decide what words pass our lips. If you feel empathy for others and can put yourselves in their situation, then you start to feel uncomfortable with certain words that you might have been exposed to. How else do societies evolve from using racist, sexist, homophobic or ethnically insensitive remarks? What was acceptable 100, 50 even 20 years ago may not fly today. Acceptance of others and rejecting names/phrases that label people as ‘other’ or ‘not like us’ doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. So listen to the little voice of discomfort: it’s your conscience telling you a line has been crossed. You don’t need to make a major scene, often a raised eyebrow, simple ‘ummm, no thanks, not comfortable with that’ or leading quietly by example will do. Besides, political correctness is often just a term used to slam others for having the courage to follow the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Every major religion contains words to that effect. I can tell you I’d rather be one who listens to their conscience than one who throws around such phrases (and the stereotypes they represent).
Hi Russell – I’ve heard very little by way of these casual offensive remarks, but i’m living in Esperance which is a tiny and extremely conservative place. I think different places are bound to be worse for it. I certainly did hear more of it during time in larger towns on the East coast. I think, as you say, that most of it is meant harmlessly. It is a brave man who speaks up when his mouth is full of scary dentistry implements though – so i’m not surprised you shoce to keep quiet on that occasion – i’m sure I would hve done too!
I agree. I’m also not keen on full-blown PCness and living here has taught me that it’s no bad thing to speak your mind and offer a direct viewpoint, even if the recipient might not like what you have to say.
I was listening to the radio this week and a heated discussion was taking place as to whether ‘ranga’ is discriminatory or not. Ranga meaning red haired. I also heard that someone has gone to the UN demanding that ‘Pom’ be recognised as a xenophobic term or the like. Interesting.
Hi Liv – For the most part, I think it is. Sometimes spoken naively but you can generally tell when something goes beyond jest or innocent behaviour and develops an altogether different meaning. In Sydney, I’ve heard that things get worse the further west you head – any truth in that?
Thanks, Linda. This is an important comment because you’re absolutely right. It’s about listening to that little voice, that uneasy feeling and, if it doesn’t feel right, there’s a reason for that! The reaction is also key as you point out. Stomping your foot or blowing up about a remark someone just said probably won’t help. But making some sort of reaction will.
I was just in a meeting with colleagues at work and brought the subject up to seek their reaction to my post. Interestingly, all of them agreed with the view that the use of certain words in the Australian vocabulary has gone too far. One colleague regularly has lunch at a local Japanese restaurant with another co-worker. This co-worker will send her emails before lunch asking if she’s ready to go to that Jap restaurant. So is ‘Jap’ offensive? He meant it innocently enough but it sounds kind of sinister to me… A throw-back to the wars of the last century…
Another colleague felt that the commonly-held Aussie view was this: “it’s not racism if you are equally mean to everyone”. Food for thought…
Thanks for your comment, ML. Much appreciated. Gabrielle’s story is very interesting and offers another insight into life here.
This is a really tough area to write about because it isn’t black and white and there are lots of extremely good people here as well as the less deserving types. I honestly believe that cultural attitudes have changed over the last 50 years. If you take Sydney as an example, the city has radically transformed even in the last 10 years since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. From food to living standards, the arts to popular culture, many things have improved. But I still come across the odd attitude or remark where someone will make reference to the large numbers of Asians living here and the fact that jobs are being taken away from the average Australian, the way business is done has changed as a result of Chinese ownership, things just aren’t the same (meaning good) anymore. For a country dependant on immigration, these remarks fly in the face of such policies but I believe (and hope) they are the remarks of the ignorant few, whipped up by a headline-seeking media.
When I read articles like Lauren’s, it reminds me of those conversations I’ve had and those statements I’ve heard and I start to wonder just how widespread this ignorance is. I agree that the outsider’s role should be to raise uncomfortable issues and query these uneducated comments – I may be way off the mark but here’s the perfect place to tell me otherwise.
Thanks again.
Hi Russell – I don’t think it is worse the further West you go! I think that sounds like a Sydney excuse.. ;o)
I’ve travelled around the coast of WA from Esperance in the south all the way up to Exmouth. I can’t speak for everyone everywhere of course, but I found the smaller communities certainly seemed far more harmonious places, in terms of everyone getting on and not slagging each other off (jovially or otherwise). The truth is that there will always be someone somewhere that wants to feel superior to others though & I think that is where this behaviour stems from, someone’s inner insecurity.
The comment from ‘Alex Paull’ was actually me Russell. My work computer signed in as my predecessor’s twitter name! Sorry to be confusing!
No worries. Always nice to have a couple of names to hide behind!
Thanks for your WA insights, Liv. Agree with your last comment for sure.
It’s such a tough topic, well done for tackling it.
I lived in Tokyo for seven years and the city/nation is still close to my heart. Yet now I am in South Korea I have to deal with nasty comments about Japan most weeks. I do understand the role of history – and don’t condone any bad things one group of people do to another. It’s just hard to live with sometimes.
I’m Maltese and proud of being a wog in Australia! ha ha joking apart ……….. in the 6 years I have been living in Sydney I have heard similar remarks several times but never experienced any real racial inequality. It is a challenging topic, thanks for writing about it. I hope you enjoy the sketch below!! Marie aka Padre Ralph
Especially if you’re not from the region yourself but have a connection to a particular place. It would be hard not to be defensive a lot of the time which, in itself, would cause you longer-term problems.
Hi Marie – I absolutely love the sketch you’ve attached. It perfectly sums up how Sydneysiders view each other.
They say here that Sydney is basically a city comprised of many unique smaller towns… and who generally avoid/dislike each other! I work in the inner west but live on the northern beaches. Many folk I work with have only been to the beaches once or twice, complaining that it’s too far away and not their thing (it’s a 20 minute drive)… so they stay local amongst their ‘own’ people. A very insular perspective.
Thanks for sharing and you carry on being proud of your own unique heritage 🙂
Get used to the Aussies mate. As an expat of 14 years and lived Aus and NZ you have to get used to different attitudes and ways of living. Aussies are in your face and more so if you are a sensitive potential whinging pom. Their outlook on life is brash and fair dos they actually appreciate being bitten back. They enjoy the upfront stuff. Too many sensitive expats can’t adapt to that give and take and hence whinge about “Not doing that sort of that thing” Aus is a raw adolescent society where contact sports reign and culture is not so easy to find.
NZ by comparison is a quieter more old england type place with the same sort of colonial niceties probably based on the fact that settlers out there were posh and not tainted with the original raw stock of Aus. ]
I hate the term Abo and it really is considered slightly derogatory in Aus except in the country where racism really is rife. Lebbos and wogs is tame stuff.
Dont forget if you talk to an aussie for the first time and he knows you are a pom he will test you out. Just start talking about the Ashes cricket or Rugby world cup and he will grudgingly laugh along with you
Appreciate your insights, John.
As an expat of 9 years lived across three continents and married to a wonderful Australian lady, I’m used to many varied and different attitudes and ways of living – some good, some not so good. As a dual citizen, I’m also engrained in this place in more ways than one.
I think the issue here is about more than just getting used to a bit of rib tickling or a little stick here and there. What Lauren revealed in her piece for the Telegraph were the more sinister comments and undertones that can creep into daily conversation… and often under the cover of the Aussie brashness and banter that we hold so dear.
As for the good ole Ashes, this expat and (hopefully not whinging) Pom was a front-row bystander at the recent series finale in Sydney. And this not several years after witnessing a 5-0 thrashing upon arrival in Australia. To say it was a sweet thing to watch, and continue to remind the locals of, is an understatement. All good fun…
A most interesting read thank you! It comes at a time when we are trying to see whether to move to Australia (husband was offered a job last week) would be a good thing for our eldest daugher who has finally settled and found new friends after 2 years of bullying. I personally feel that although the move would be ideal for my husband, it would be hard on her as she hates attention, being different and is quite a shy bookish person. The below comments especially have helped me in getting an idea of the Australian mentality, something I have been struggling to find. She is witty, so could possibly give as much as she gets…but still worth noting that she would have to deal with being seen as an outsider.
Hi Micheline – I’m pleased the post helped in some way in terms of clarifying your decision-making process. If your daughter hates standing out and is shy, she’ll need to be careful as she could be picked on for being different. Then again, it depends on where she is from, how different, etc. It also depends on where you plan to move to – Sydney is very different to other cities and you might find some more welcoming than others (e.g. I have heard very good things about Perth and Western Australia). As long as she makes an effort to fit in, she would do well. A lot of the culture here is based around outdoors activities so it would also help if she was into that side of life; however, there is always a place for a bookish person in my view!
Hi, I´ve lived in Perth for almost 5 years. I´m Portuguese, but have also lived in South Africa for over 20 years and have never felt excluded or made to feel different for not being Australian. Might be different in Sydney, a lot more nationalities, different mentalities? I´m glad the Australians are more accepting in Perth!
Hi Sami, thanks for commenting. I’m very pleased to hear that all is good in Perth. Maybe, for us, it is related to being part of such a large metropolitan area. Regardless of whether there’s an issue here or not, do keep on enjoying your Perth experience!
From the Aussie who now lives in the cultural melting pot of London, I had to reread this to kind of sort my thoughts. before responding. Wogs out of Work was a huge show when I was living in Melbourne (as was the following Wogarama) and there was many a tv comedy sketch show that took the p*ss out of wogs as well as all other comers. And I laughed. A lot.
So for me it is more about ‘the line’. Is it crossed when the intent changes? How do you get by in any cultural mix without a little political incorrectness?
It’s important to stand against demeaning comments whether racially motivated or otherwise but I’m more interested in building relationships and understanding rather than simply being right.
Hey Kym, I do appreciate you taking the time to comment. It’s not an easy one, is it?
I’ve seen Wog Boy 2 which I thought was pretty funny. I absolutely see where you’re coming from. I’m all about a little non-PC. My time in Canada was often so frustrating because they were – and still are – so PC. Coming to Oz in some ways was a breath of fresh air listening to people tell you exactly what they felt, making jokes about anyone and everyone, generally having a good poke. I really don’t mind that at all.
But you’re spot on. It’s when the intent changes, when someone says something and it doesn’t feel quite right. They smile and say ‘just joking’ but you know it’s more than that. That’s when you need to speak up.
Hope you’re enjoying being in the middle of that cultural melting pot over there 🙂
Always Russell always…it’s one of the main reasons why I love living here 🙂
There is nothing wrong with the term wog. You will find that ‘wogs’ themselves use it. Further, as a ‘wog’ myself, I have no problem with it, and neither do any of the wogs i know. If you don’t like the way things work in australia you could of course just leave rather than feel people need to do things your way ….
And I’m very pleased to hear it. Thanks, Kym. See you over here again soon I hope 🙂
I think the initial surprise for me with the word ‘wog’ was that, in other countries, it means something completely different. It was this that made my jaw drop. But I’ve long since learned that here it has a different, less insulting definition and, although I still occasionally do a double-take when I hear it, I understand it’s an innocent enough word.
I actually do like the way things work in Australia. What I don’t like is when I come across covert racist behaviour (regardless of the country I’m in). If this is how things work in Oz (which I don’t believe it is, except with a certain few), then it falls to us as a collective to stand up and say “no, not appropriate”, regardless of which country it is or how things are supposedly done… and not to run away because we don’t like it.
Thanks for stopping by.
Russell not sure on your meaning that the word ‘wog’ means something different in other countries, the word means the same thing is Australia as in Britian at least from what this Australian who left and never returned to Australia in part due to it’s intolerance.
No, I believe my meaning is sound. The term is used quite differently in the two countries. Have a look here at Wikipedia’s explanation as an example – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wog
It states that “The term is essentially used differently within the UK and Australian context: in the United Kingdom, historically it referred to “dark skinned” people and in its modern usage is considered overtly racist and is not used in polite conversation; while in Australian English the term was originally a pejorative for “Mediterranean” migrants, though in recent decades its offensiveness has been defused in certain contexts by common usage in pop-culture produced by the descendants of Mediterranean migrants.”
I therefore wouldn’t be using it in England!
I am Australian and born in Barossa VaIley South Australia of German and Spanish great, great grandparents. In the Barossa we call ourselves at times ‘Box Heads’; I am a box head from Nuriootpa. In my state most people would know then, that I am of Barossa German background. I take no offence at the term when someone I know uses it, or when someone uses it in a way that is in good fun. Nothing racist here. However I would not usually call my Italian friends Wogs, however if it was a real good mate and we were messing around we might affectionately use it.
With Australians you need to be able to read the body language, hear the inflections and have some knowledge of the person to make a judgement if it was being used as racial prejudice. Which makes it a very tricky situation.
When I lived in Zambia I was stunned that over there they called the various races by the following terms, Blacks for black Africans, Whities for us white ones and coloured for those mixed, which often included people from India. Growing up in Australia I was told that you could not use the term ‘Black’ when referring to people with brown or dark skin. It took me many months to be able to use their terms. Please note that they used the terms matter of factly without prejudice.
There is another terms we South Aussies use when referring to New South Welsh men – East Coasters, and Victorians are often called Mexicans by NSW and SA as they are South of the Border. Queenslanders are banana benders and Western Australian’s are sand gropers. I could go on. It all depends on how I use these terms whether they are derogatory or not.
Thanks for your insightful comments, Jackie. Some interesting examples there. In your view then it’s how a word or phrase is said, not what that word or phrase necessarily is? This might explain how some people ‘affectionately’ use certain words here, whilst others might use the same words in a derogatory way – and this makes for a big difference in understanding people’s approach to you/others. Thanks for sharing and I enjoyed learning about how Australians view each other across the different states.
Racism in Australia? Yes, of course it exists but after a couple of years getting used to newcomers most of us are just too lazy to care any more although the original racist language survives and can be very unpleasant. Years ago Greeks and Italians began to come to Australia in great numbers and they stood out because of their language in particular; now they are just Aussies like the rest of us. Same happened witht he Chines immigrants after Tien an Min square (hope is spelled that right). There was some initial antagonism but after a few years it just died away.
Poms and Kiwis are a bit different; they’ve always been here, indeed many of us descend from people from the UK, but cricket divides us from the Poms and the Kiwis and Rugby divides us from the Kiwis (this is all tounge in cheek) but the fact is that Australians tend to be very blunt in their speech and what is just an ordinary greeting of a good friend can be seen by some as a terrible insult to others. You just have to get over it and use the language as we do, or you’s bee forever troubled by it.
Sceptic tanks (Yanks) are a special group in some ways. They find it very difficult to get over their inbred arrogance about all things US but in spite of that Australians do accept them but we don’t make special allowance for them in our language.
For what it may be worth, my father’s family came to Australia from the English midlands via Canada and New Zealand. I have at least one native American in my family history and there was some early German Jewish influence in there too. My Mother’s family were mostly from Ireland, Wales and Scotland. I think there is some Aboriginal Australian in the mix too. We have Americans who have married into our Australian family. Among our friends we count people from China, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, Australia’s aboriginal population and I don’t think we are at all unique.
So far as I am concerned everyone is welcome here and should bring their own cultures with them but they should also be ready to accept Australians for what they are. We are far from perfect but there is more racial harmony in our country than any other multi-racial cultrue can boast. We are among the most polyglot countries on this planet and glad of it.
Thanks for your insights, Evan. I think you summed it up when you said “Australians tend to be very blunt in their speech” even if it’s just an ordinary greeting and that’s been my impression, especially when I first arrived six years ago. That directness with little tact is a powerful thing that needs to be used quite carefully.
I definitely agree that people should feel safe to bring – and promote – their own culture and also accept Australian culture and everything it is – and wants to be. I’ve always thought the Canadian example was a good one – a mosaic of cultures with each one contributing to the broader Canadian identity. But, however you look at it, Australia has come a long way, even if some feel it still has some way to go.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment – appreciate it!
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