Are Australians racist toward black people?

Don't believe all the phooey about the egalitarian spirit and the noble undercurrent of equality that the Australian gov't spews forth.  There's racism everywhere, and of all places, Australia has a history steeped in discrimination. Just because they've put a Chinese family on Neighbours and you can go down and get an authentic gelato on Lygon doesn't mean Aussie fathers are ready to marry their daughters to anyone but good ol' fashioned white Okes. I'm not sure about black people, but there's definitely racism towards Asians, and it goes without saying that the Aboriginals have been and continue to be treated unjustly.

i think you're going too far there davidc. there is racism in australia yes, along with a few very nasty incidents... but the racism is very minor. for instance there might be a racist comment, but very rarely a racist bashing. aboriginals have historically been treated badly and they are currently stuck in lots of bad social problems but the government and others are trying hard to fix that and have been for decades. the general rule of thumb for aussies, i would argue, is live and let live if you respect ou culture, we will try to respect yours. if you want to avoid racism then educate people about your culture without being patronizing - as most racism is based on ignorance.

I thought I might share my attitudes to race as I am an aussie (I am looking into expat relocatio because my husband is an expat and I have spent a great deal of time overseas and haven't settled back in. My experience is that I was not brought up to be racist. I went to school wirh children of different ethnic origins but mostly caucasian. I noticed differences, found them interesting but did not comment on these. I also went to university with predominantly caucasian students. I travelled to Britain and discovered that when people met new people the first thing that would be commented on was race and therefore evaluated. I found this interesting. As I spent more time in UK I discovered that the reason for this is mainly the social aspects associated with the different groups. In contrast my experience as a child in Australia was that we were all at school as students first and that race was a personal individual characteristic not a separator and that this did not need to be a reason for not befriending someone. The main reason why friendships would not be made or difficulties encountered (which at my schools were minimal) would be social, value and interpersonal behaviour. As we mostly all behaved similarly, spoke the same language and observed similar values there were no problems. We also had aboriginal classmates who were well behaved, well presented and happy and were not treated differently. I have encountered more issues in the work place ini Australia and this relates more to the difference between how westernised the person is of different race. If they do not feel comfortable wirh Australian social habits and pasttimes this creates a distance e.g. If they go home to family members who do not speak the language or their religion causes them to engage in unusual practices then there is not much to share. It seems to be a practical difference. On one occasion I witnessed a Foreign student denigrating the Australian aborigines. I found this offensive as I consider them to be our people. So in summary my experience is that Australia is a kind place but appreciative of good manners and respect for the home crowd.

in my family we don't really like aboriginals because of experience whilst living in Townsville, I think that Australians are only against aboriginals if they have done something towards them

just check Australias policys, past and present, it takes more than a generation to remove that type of racism