Fen left a comment, on a previous post, about how the racist pricks are depressing.
Yes, in more ways than one.
Think about it -
discrimination depresses the economy, industry and the government.
A racist prattles his/her bullshit into the ears of the next generation teaching them to feel inferior and to fear which spawns hate.
That group of youngsters grow up believing they are under threat from a skin colour other than their own which,
they are also brainwashed into believing, is given special treatment by govts and govt agencies.
These youngsters see no reason to try at school, to strive for further education as they think they will be 'discriminated' against in favour of another skin colour.
These kids end up in minimum wage positions or on welfare
(some ending up in the criminal justice system), a self-fulling prophecy but blaming their lot in life on a skin colour that has had
absolutely no influence in their lives other than the lies they were taught from childhood.
These kids perpetuate the racist lies with their own children who, again, feel no need to chase further education or career goals.
Now, multiply that by a bajillion and you see a drop-off across the country in many university subjects/degrees, creating a vacuum into which international students step, to not only take up the education available but to generate the monies associated with each student attending university.
Some uni subjects are dropped completely, in a bid to entice further international students and to cater for the more popular subjects amongst domestic students, leaving yawning gaps in areas that are only filled by overseas-trained professionals
(IE -many archaeology units were dropped in recent years with an exodus of lecturers heading overseas where students were actively encouraged and enrolling as archaeology garners a great deal more sponsorship and grants than here in Oz).
The racism, in various forms, keeps Indigenous kids from striving to chase goals, obviously.
Not only the blatant outright attacking type of racism but the subtle, misleading racism we all read/hear about everyday.
If you present negative images and stories about a person, their family, culture or heritage over and over and over again, day in and day out, under the guise of 'news' or 'statistics' the people involved will come to believe it.
These kids see no role models of their skin colour/culture who have achieved anything beyond basic schooling which underscores the
(intentional or otherwise) subtle message of
"don't bother trying, don't bother making an effort, don't bother pushing yourself harder, you'll never make anything of yourself, you are in a mould in which you will always stay".
And so...they don't.
Many, like their non-Indigenous counter-parts, have minimum wage positions, are on welfare, over-represented in the criminal justice system and they teach their own children to stick to the tried and true way of life with exaggerated half-truths and myths drummed into them from the media rather than their own families and culture.
Or if one person
does go on to further study, a successful career, etc, there are claims they are funded by the tax payer or given an easy academic ride or other misleading lies to not only justify the white under-achiever getting nowhere in life but in a bid to 'bring the black fella back down to size'.
Yes, this is over-simplified as there are many differing instances and influences I haven't included (namely physical abuse) but these above scenarios can be applied to migrants, 'boat people', Indigenous communities, Muslims, the disabled or someone with a funny sounding name.
Racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, bias, antipathy - call it what you will but it's depressing for Every.Single.Person.
