A thought experiment

Speaking as someone who has experienced racism at its ugliest and also been called a racist, this issue of 18C has touched a fine nerve of mine. I planted my feet back in Australia in 2007 to continue my secondary education in Sutherland Shire, only a few years have placed itself between me and the Cronulla Riots. I am also fundamentally anti-China for as long as I can remember, to the degree that I got called out by my white friends that I’m being racist (technically not true but that’s a different issue for a different day). So I can see both why the existence of such a protection is necessary and also a possible hindrance. No, I’m not simply shifting my position based on my needs at that time, rather I now have a fair dose of being on both sides of the issue.

I shall begin with my personal views on this one. I believe that 18C should not be completely repealed but amended such that it becomes an avenue of last resort. That way Bill Leaks can still feel the long rod of the law up his delicate areas while making sure the fine lads at QUT don’t. Everyone has a right to be stupid, and yes, we should let the public be the judge. Hell, there’s even a Mao Zedong festival being planned for Sydney and Melbourne (see why I’m anti-China?), and I’ll be the first to protest it if it does indeed go ahead.

But let us entertain the idea that 18C is repealed. Andrew Bolt and Bill Leaks will probably be very happy to know that this became reality and they’re free to let whatever dribble disguised as dialogue run free from brain (or some equivalent of it in their head) to mouth without caring for consequences. It will also be the hard core Libertarian’s wet dream, second only to privisation of prisons. What will also happen next is a temporary wave of verbal and probably also physical violence being directed towards anyone who’s complexion differs from the Caucasian norm. Don’t take my word for it, look at the increase of inter-racial violence ever since the Brexit referendum. But these don’t last long, since it does get boring shouting down the 25th Indian Taxi driver in a month.

The real change comes from social attitudes and people’s response to them. I predict two, very different outcomes, and I sorely welcome any and every criticism to these predictions. I haven’t based these on ideas I pulled out of thin air, I instead noticed the type of struggle undertaken by those who live under oppressive regimes. Why oppressive regimes? Because every openly racist society oppresses those who are not of the majority. Simply switching the parameters from “intelligentsia” to “skin colour” and we’ll get the same result.

So, outcome one, the one where the oppressed unwillingly but without struggle accept that they are officially out of legal protection to fight against racism perpetrated by or in the public domain. What that will create is a situation of mild to moderate hostility but increasing hardship for the minorities. And it will increase exponentially. While not technically discriminated against by the government, and while theoretically they too have the voice to fight back, the simple matter of the odds stacked against them by sheer number renders any type of struggle useless in their mind. They continue with their lives and becomes second class citizens in all but name. Their social mobility is hampered, even their ability to marry away their genes so their children do not also have to bare the burden of having their melanin concentration of the wrong amount is slowly taken away from them. Welcome to 18th Century America, but without government approval or disapproval of racism.

Here comes the second outcome, one where the browns, the yellows, the leftists and the odd weed smoking hippie turns around and they all give a collective “fuck you”. A fuck you to passively receiving racism and also a fuck you to anyone who tries to dish it out to them. First signs of this will be the creation of a network of support groups and community support centres specifically to fight any form of racism that may present itself. The minority will also being to aggressively tackle racism, whether it be literally by body slamming anyone that dares cross their path or through civil law suits. Different sections of society will become the besiegers and also the besieged at the same time. There will also be a radicalisation in the policies and election platform of minorities who hold public office, which will be met by an equal radicalisation of the policies from the racial majority. Pauline Hanson may find herself standing on the far left of this new political spectrum, with The Daily Telegraph becoming the new Huffington Post. What we have now got instead is 1960s Singapore, where racial tension is open and riots between different cultural groups are common place, with many resulting in multiple deaths. Or something resembling the Polish resistance in occupied Poland, but instead of one group fighting against another, it would be a multitude of small groups fighting each other and the greater majority.

Again, I didn’t pull these out of my ass. The Kurds have experienced basically a revamped version of this type of oppression for decades, so have the Tibetans. The Kurds chose to pick up a rifle, the Tibetans chose to self-immolate.

Of course, these are just the very worst of what could happen. The literal worst. Chances are some mild version of this either or both of these will play out, but may progress one day to the end stage of these scenarios.

Again, this is but a thought experiment. Criticism is necessary and very welcome.