This post continues the theme of elite hostility towards Western peoples, most unambiguously demonstrated by the drive to break down Western, and only Western, nation states by transforming them into multi-ethnic states. The ethnic antagonism behind this goal is exemplified by senior journalist Greg Sheridan who recently described the effect of mass Asian immigration – the displacement of Anglo Australia – as “benign cultural genocide”.
Ethnic conflict was common in the human past and still is. So it is to be expected that ethnic conflict is a major cause of hostility within multi-ethnic societies, such as Australia has been made over the last forty years.
A recent example of animus towards white Australians comes from the tragic terrorist attack in Sydney in which a Muslim extremist, Man Haron Monis, took 17 hostages in a cafe and murdered two of them. Monis was anything but a member of the political or cultural leadership but the latters’ responses to the siege revealed much.
Even before the victims were killed media commentators began expressing concern about potential popular reaction. Muslims were interviewed on the subject. Concern about possible anti-Muslim reaction was expressed across television and radio channels. There was not one voice speaking for Anglo Australian interests or critical of Muslim behaviour, though in recent years all of the many terror attacks – more attempted than successful – have been committed by Islamists. And predictably there was no backlash, with no incidents being reported.
That media climate reflects long preparation by the humanities and social sciences, where “anti-racism” ideology has long been a staple of the curriculum and lecturer bias. One strand of that curriculum has been “whiteness studies”, in which Western peoples, especially white Americans, are singled out as uniquely racist.
So it is not surprising that the hashtag “#illridewithyou” went viral on Twitter. The message was popular because it was seen to express sympathy for (potential) innocent victims of a (potential) white backlash to the siege, a theme for which the younger generation had been primed. Its underlying bias could all the more be overlooked because its assumption that white people are especially prone to ethnically-motivated thuggery was not noted or criticised in the media or twitter. As a result those who relayed the tag had no way of knowing what motivated its originators. Probably the overwhelming majority of retweets had only prosocial motivations. Not so the professionals who formulated it.
Tessa Kum, who wrote the hashtag, attributes the inspiration to a facebook entry by Sarah Jacobs, in which the latter expected an ugly backlash by Australians against Muslims. Jacobs reported showing sympathy for a Muslim woman who had removed her headdress, a gesture that Kum’s tag distilled.
Jacobs is a 37-year-old lecturer in Education at the Catholic University in Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland. In an interview in the Brisbane Times on 16 Dec. 2014, Jacobs expressed intense suspicion and distance from her fellow citizens. The goal of her facebook entry was to make people “think about the victims of the siege who were not in the cafe”, meaning she wanted people to care not about the actual victims but those who might be victimised should a backlash occur. The backlash would be massive, an “avalanche of ignorance”. In fact the reaction to her post was such that she described it as an “avalanche of kindness”. Still, she sees the social media campaign that she initiated as a “pre-emptive strike against racism and bigotry”, against “fear and ignorance”, and against the “racists, bigots and anyone who dares to derive a message of hate” from the incident, namely judging all Muslims by the actions of one terrorist. Jacobs admitted that “there are reasoned and tolerant people that walk among us” and declared that anyone who spreads intolerance towards Muslims is not welcome in Australia. Jacobs stated that she is the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Jacobs’ view that Australians are ready to negatively judge Muslims on the basis of one terrorist is out of touch with the common knowledge that Australia has been targeted by numerous Islamist attacks and plots in the last decade. There appears to be no basis for the imputation that native Australians are unthinking compared to immigrants. But Jacob’s alienation from the Australian people is mild compared to that of Tess Kum.
Kum is a writer based in Melbourne. Her hashtag, #illridewithyou, was taken to be an expression of compassion by an ABC interviewer. But Kum explains in a long post that her hatred of white people is at least as important a motive as care for non-whites.
“I’m learning about hate because I am coming to hate you, white person. You have all the control, all the power, all the privilege, and there is nothing holding you accountable. I hate the double standards and hypocrisy you display, the rank dishonesty of your conduct. I hate that you can harm us, when we cannot harm you. I hate that you have actually impacted on careers, multiple and not even directly, with your hypocrisy. I hate that you’re so dominant in the publishing industry there’s very few venues I’d consider safe to even submit to now. I hate what you have done to PoC I don’t know. I hate what you have done to PoC I do know. I hate what you have done to me, and I was not involved.“ [“The Long Campaign Against Racism”, 6.11.2014]
Notice the categorical criticisms and hostility directed at whites. When expressed by white people against non-whites, such spiteful incitement could qualify for prosecution under the Racial Discrimination Act. It would certainly not qualify for glowing reviews.
The esoteric terms “PoC” (people or person of colour) and “WoC” (woman of colour) occur throughout Kum’s blog. She notes their American origin, where they are part of the jargon of the anti-white Marxist ideology known as whiteness studies. She takes these concepts very personally, identifying herself as a WoC made to “feel cheap” by white hegemony. “My privilege is being ambiguous in my physicality; as it’s not easy to identify which ‘other’ I am, most people are hesitant to voice what they know to be racist-ass opinions around me. The discrimination and bigotry I experience is largely unconscious and insidious . . .”.
Kum is obsessed with racial enemies and is intensly hostile towards them, a frame of mind rare among Australians and other Westerners. This does not fit the image promulgated by the media of a racist majority subjecting tolerant PoC to verbal attack.
The same hashtag message served two opposed motives. It was invented by an individual who sees Anglo Australia as a hated enemy tribe. To Tessa Kum white Australians are restless natives, alien and threatening. But the message was accepted by many Anglo Australians as a message urging tolerance and love between ethnic groups. Multiculturalism carries the same double meaning.
Neither Sarah Jacobs or Tessa Kum occupy high positions or command great resources. Nevertheless, taken together with the support it received from the mainstream media, the Jacobs-Kum hashtag should be counted as an expression of elite hostility towards white Australia.