Are aboriginal people helped too much? (1 Viewer)

[MichaelRichards]

no

 

[Examine]

Yes. They are now reliant on welfare which has made them turn into alcoholics and petrol sniffers.

 

[MichaelRichards]

that sounds like a great argument you should bring it up at the next young liberals meeting

youve really cracked a winner here

 

[Galladrim]

This thread cracks me up, can't tell if srs.

I know some of you rage over anecdotes but I can't really illustrate my feelings without an anecdote (at the end). For the record, I disagree with most forms of welfare, but that's a separate story. I used to be fairly intolerant of abos and sort of still am, but really only Gen Y abos and beyond, the older generations I have a bit of sympathy for.

I don't know what the solution is, but it is clear that affirmative action has not had any sort of dramatic effect on lifespan, educational outcomes, socioeconomic outcomes or anything else that would satisfy the criteria of leveling dem abos up.

So my storyis; I was in Wilcannia for the day and was being guided around by this local Aboriginal man who had recently come back from the big smoke. Wilcannia has about idk 1200 people, a school, a hospital, a grocery store that sells staples for exorbitant amounts, an employment agency (lol), Country Energy, a council and a petrol station and a police station that houses about 11 police. Serious.

Anyway so this guys job is to spend all day every day driving around checking on the local people, taking them to doctors appointments, delivering medication, general liaising etc. He was telling us as we drove the streets all the problems the community faces; alcoholism, suicide, depression, domestic violence, poverty, drugs, etc.

What happens is:
1. If the kids finish school (most of them don't), one of two things happen. They move away to find better job prospects, or they stay in town. Invariably, most that leave town come back within a few years because their lack of education has made it impossible for them to gain employment. Most come back with a drug habit, and import drugs into the town.
2. The suicide rate in Wilcannia is the highest in NSW for men aged 16-30. This was quite sad to hear, but having been in the town for 2 hours it made a lot of sense. It just gives you this overwhelming sense of depression just being there. The isolation, the boredom.
3. If they don't neck themselves, they form alcohol problems. The Golf Club is the only place in town that sells alcohol. In order to curb alcoholism and alcohol fueled violence, the club (which is run by aboriginal elders) only sells light strength beer after 2pm and stops at 10pm or something idk
4. Domestic violence like u don't even believe

Anyway so the problem is, the guy was saying, was that everybody is aware of the problems. There is a community group of elders and respected men/women who are trying to find ways to help their people, because you have to understand that there is a deep mistrust of white people and tbh for good reason.

The guy (he was like maybe late 40s?) detailed how when he was a kid, black fellas weren't allowed (kids) and adults were only allowed in town to get groceries and then leave again. Kids didn't go to school, if you were an adult and were found "loitering" in town, you went were arrested or flogged. He was saying that his grandmother lived down along the Darling, but when white settlers/farmers came, a lot of the Aboriginals were displaced. Many of them ended up working for the farmers during the boom time (google Wilcannia's wool history like woah) but when the boom went bust, and the farmers left the area in hoardes, what was left was a group of people who had become dependent on white man to survive because, well in all honesty, their land had been stolen, and now they had nothing.

Anyway epic story is epic, but I guess what I am trying to say is that for every Wilcannia, there is another town just like it. A lot of the bad shit happened a long time ago, but it was still only recently that Aboriginals were treated like second class citizens. You can't expect dramatic improvements from a group of people that until the 60s, didn't have the right to vote, weren't allowed or were segregated in schools, were forced to leave school by age 12, etc etc.

Clearly the answer is a push from welfare and an emphasis in education, but the poverty and depravity is so firmly entrenched that I don't know how this is achieveable.

As somebody has already said??? I really don't know how else it can be done without removing children from families.

And therein lies the whole problem. They are locked in a cycle. I have no problems with supporting them through welfare payments, but the problem is they don't work and no knows how to fix

 

[ZombieApocalypse]

I feel sorry for aboriginal people who live like what KT explained in her anecdote.
I wish fixing the problem was simple

 

[katie tully]

Mate it was depressing as shit, sure, and deplorable.

But at the same time it's not representative of what all Aboriginals face today. Wilcannia is isolated and that brings different problems, but in large regional towns or cities, the excuses are running out.

 

[SylviaB]

do you really think racial segregation was a bad thing in schools

other than the fact that abos had to sepnd so much time around abos

 

[Lolsmith]

yes

marginalising ethnicity does no one any good

SylvesterBR:
http://www.electricretard.com/majority-rule/

 

[SylviaB]

^wtf that's retarded

have you even lived near many abos before

let alone go to school with them?

My highschool had heaps of abos and they either had to hold the whole class back while the abos tried learning multiplication AGAIN

or we would leave them behind and they would play up and get in trouble

 

[boris]

i went to school with abos straight off the misson
sure some were retarded but no more retarded than most of the whites and they were better athletes so we used to dominate the football

 

[SylviaB]

so you think abos are equally as smart

but are better athletes

so you're an abo supremicist alright cool

 

[boris]

where did i say anything about equally smart can you even read are you sure you arent abo

 

[SylviaB]

wait so now you hate black people huh

 

[boris]

no just niggers

 

[Garygaz]