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December 14, 2005
Australia not racist?
Grrr. Australia not racist, says PM John Howard but I'm not convinced. It seems pretty counter-productive to tar all Australians with the same brush but I can't see how saying we are "tolerant and decent" holds up either. We should admit that we've got issues and acknowledge the yuck side for what it is - growing pains. My nationalistic pride takes a further body blow when I hear jingoistic crap from our glorious leader, the same right-wing slimebag who cruised into office stirring up the racist pot with allegations about boat-people throwing their children overboard.
There is a problem, nothing to do with lawbreaking, and it would be good if we can mature to the point where we could acknowledge it. All bug reports are useful. At the start of the year I started casting for my film, Sanctuary, in Sydney. I originally wanted a 16 year old Eurasian girl to play the lead. Having no idea about the logistics involved, I even suggested a preference for Anglo/Cambodian to fit a minor point of the backstory. How many Eurasian actors did we end up auditioning? None. Why? No reflection on our Casting Director or his agency, but it appears that there simply isn't any demand for Asian girls in Australian media (not in PG rated media anyhow). Apart from SBS (our revered 'ethnic' channel), Australian TV is about as whitebread as it comes. If I wasn't white, I might find that even more disturbing than I do.
Posted by .M. at December 14, 2005 06:53 PM
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