Last night the talent segment of the show featured a parody of the Jackson Five, which involved 5 guys in blackface dancing behind a guy with a white painted face. Harry Connick Jr was a judge for the segment and was incredibly offended by it. This is understandable, I’m incredibly offended by it. However, I’m more offended by the attitudes being sploshed around today, which I will now address.

1. It’s only offensive to Americans.
Um. No. Sorry. Australia also has a long history of racism against black people. The White Australia Policy anyone? Raising aboriginal children to be servants and maids? Ring any bells? Sure, the blackface tradition originated in the US, but that doesn’t mean in any way it’s only offensive to Americans to show this sort of thing as “Entertainment”.

2. The movie Tropic Thunder featured an actor in blackface, and no one complained.
Wrong, people DID complain. Loudly.

3. The guy in whiteface was Indian, so it’s okay.
Sorry, no it isn’t. Someone else made the point (and I don’t recall where, probably online somewhere) that racism is racism, regardless of which direction it travels. I’d go along with that.

4. Harry Connick Jr had no right to impose his culture on ours, and shouldn’t have said anything.
Disagree 100%. I’m GLAD Harry said something, I’m glad he explained why he was offended. It’s sad that people believe blackface is okay in Australia though. “Oh he was only offended because he’s American”. Not so, but why should nationality make a difference? Maybe Americans are more sensitive to blackface as a form of racism, perhaps Aussies aren’t as aware of how and why it’s racist, but even so there should be some understanding from the resulting fall out.

5. It’s okay because Daryl Somers (the host) apologised.
Except that he didn’t. He apologised to Harry, yes, because he understood that people from America find it offensive, but he didn’t give a general apology for allowing the act to air in the first place. Big difference.

6. People just want to be offended these days, and make a fuss about nothing.
I’m actually pretty hard to offend. I may not find all comedy funny, but I find very little of it to be offensive. I actually tend to take the above line myself on a lot of things, but in this case – no, I don’t believe it’s a fuss about nothing.

On an episode of the 1970s British comedy “The Goodies” they end the episode in blackface. On the commentary all three of them draw a sharp breath and say, pretty much in unison “I wish we hadn’t done that”. It’s not the 1970s, it’s the 2000s and we’re supposed to, as a culture, be more advanced than we were then. Even understanding that the episode was made in 1976 or whenever, it’s not comfortable to watch.

A few weeks ago Sam Newman held up a photo of a Malaysian man and called him a monkey, and claimed he wasn’t long out of the jungle. Yet he’s still on air. Daryl Somers is aching to get Hey Hey back on air full time, and this incident won’t damage his chances of doing so. THAT is what’s really wrong here –  racism is still apparently mainstream entertainment, to be applauded and enjoyed.

Traditionally, religion is considered an untouchable thing. Even these days I often get the feeling that no matter who I discuss god with, they consider themselves to have “won” the discussion by virtue of being a believer. Questioning religion, wondering about the events and stories that created what people follow today – regardless of faith – should not ever be anything people are ashamed of. I would encourage any religious types to answer questions honestly and well, and allow the person you are speaking to the option to keep asking. If you have such strong faith, you should be able to take a little curiosity about it.

I don’t accept that it’s okay for religious views to be imposed on the rest of society. I don’t accept that it’s fine and dandy for church rulings to be included in national law. I reject the notion that it’s perfectly acceptable to hate, and abuse, and destroy other people simply because they don’t attend the same church as you.

I understand the community and fellowship of church going, and for the most part I don’t have a problem with people believing whatever they want. I refuse to let religious ideals about women, behaviour and belief be imposed on me. I have a button that reads “It’s your hell, YOU burn in it” which pretty much sums up the feelings i have there.

I believe it is possible to live a good, moral life without having to subscribe to outdated laws and beliefs. For example, I may be a heathen but I am not and never will be a murderer. I will not commit adultery. I give to charity and volunteer my time for various causes. I am polite to old ladies in the street. I care for animals. It IS possible to live a good life with good morals without having to be told you’re going to hell every five minutes. It’s possible without fear of punishment.

Over the years I have met many deeply religious people. Most of them are very good about their faith and know that trying to get me to go to church is about as fruitful as nailing jelly to a tree. Pointless, tedious and ultimately there are no winners. I don’t avoid religious people, just as I don’t avoid religious second hand stores (bargains people, bargains). I do wish more so called Christian groups were doing work like the Salvation Army who seem to actually make a difference to people’s lives rather than preaching about it.

In short, I don’t believe in god. You can believe all you want, but don’t judge me as less than you for my “lack of faith”. I have faith in nature, in life and in science. This faith is just as strong as anything anyone gets from a book of fables.

Happy Blasphemy Day.

In real terms, it means that a blacklist of websites created and maintained by the Government will be inaccessible to the average user of internet in Australia (I’m not, of course, counting those who can figure out workarounds). The filter will block content that is “Harmful and inappropriate for children”. Again, I’m all for filtering net access for children, but as an adult, I find it hard to swallow that an entire nation must be filtered in order to protect the kids.

The other reason for the filter is, supposedly, to prevent the transfer of child pornography and other illegal things. It’s a bit like when you were at school, and 1 kid in the class mucked up, so the whole class was kept in. A blanket filter over the entire country is basically saying “We need to look after the kids, so the rest of you can suck it.” Sen Stephen Conroy went so far as to suggest that if you were opposed to internet filtering, then you were clearly FOR child pornography.

Leaving out all the other considerations as to why this filter is a bloody terrible idea, what this will effectivly do is push illegal activities underground. Masked IP addresses, using snail mail etc – it’s basically going to make the child pornographers that much harder to trace and catch.

So, tonight I’m going to send a message to Sen Conroy, and I put this out here on the internets in the hopes maybe one or two (or more) people will do the same thing. I’m going to grab a blank CDr. I’m going to label it “Child Pornography”*[see note below]  and add a note saying “There’s more than one way to transfer information”. Then I’m going to mail it to him.

If you’d like to do the same, you can send the CDs to:

Senator Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002

While I don’t hold much hope at all that this will make any difference to a misguided plan, at least I’ll feel a bit better about it.

If you’d like to know more about the clean feed plan, please check out No Clean Feed.

*Note: upon thinking about it, I decided to not be QUITE so crass. Instead I will label the CD with “Evil nasty stuff”. Because if Sen Conroy wants to treat us like children, I choose to act like one.