I am very sorry to hear your colleague experienced this embarrassing racist incident. I really don’t know what to make of the woman. On one hand, she does sound ignorant but on the other hand, maybe she had all but unfortunate experiences with Chinese tourists or those of Asian descent. Earlier this week I was on the tram on the way to work. Now, we all know you have to touch on your myki/public transport card when boarding the tram in Melbourne. At one point, about 30 Chinese tourists – all chatting very loudly – boarded the tram with a tour guide. Not one of them touched on a card. Everyone else on the tram – all kinds of Australians of all skin colour – were staring at them. Clearly stereotypical Chinese behaviour, and in that moment I was really embarrassed about being Chinese. Sure, I and many other Chinese don’t fit the stereotype, but we are also very proud of sticking up for each other and you know, being Asian and a part of the Asian community in general.

But back to the woman on the Brisbane train. I’m inclined to think she does not know better and how she spoke to Fred, it sounds like she makes judgements based on face value at first sight. It’s not how we look or how we sound that determines our personality – more rather our experiences and where we’ve been. Good on Fred for handling the situation with a cool head. Who knows, the woman might have walked away with a different impression of the world.

You are certainly right in saying not all Australians are like that woman. I live just on the fringe of the city in Melbourne and everywhere you go, you do see people of all shapes and colour. Every seems to go about as they please and more importantly, as they belong. Sure, you do see groups of Asians and groups of Westerners hanging around together in their own groups, all alongside different races mixing together. I think many Melbournians are sane and respectful enough to know that whatever background each of us comes from, that is us and who we are is a part of life here.

I like your humour in this post with the image. So true. Some of our eyes are smaller than others, but it certainly doesn’t undermine our skills and what and who each of us can become. Making jokes about stereotypes and our culture is also more and more a part of our lives these days. Where I feel the line needs to be drawn at this, is when people intend these jokes to be hurtful or said in an ignorant, brash context.

Thanks for the shoutouot, Gaz. Really humbled you thought of me. Takes forever to write a blog post. This next post I’m working on has already taken almost a month D: I really haven’t been writing many posts on racism or bring ABC of late…but I feel like it is time to do so again at some point 😀