It just stuns you sometimes...

[tcpip]

This piece from erudito, a person not prone to making up stories.

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Bad ideas not yet dead

Recent scene at Morwell RSL. 40 people – men, women & children – from the local aboriginal Co-Op and childcare centre have booked a Christmas Party at Morwell RSL – fax received confirming it and all. They arrive at the door, say they have a booking. Doorman replies No abos are coming in here tonight. In somewhat stunned amazement the point is made they received a fax confirming. The reply: No abos are coming in here tonight. The head of the Co-op keeps things calm and announces they are going to a particular hotel instead. As they are leaving, they can see through the windows the table for 40 with the waiting staff waving to them to come in. They continue to the hotel.

Now, obviously the doorman was being racist, nasty, stupid and illegal. As a result of my housemate Jennifer’s sojourn in the Latrobe Valley, I have become much more aware of the problems of that troubled region. One of which is persistent racism.
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I've written to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Gavin Jennings, to the Attorney General, Rob Hulls, and to the Member of Morwell, Brendan Jennings. Seeming that I know all three people quite well I am expecting a response. But even if you don't know them, I suggest you drop them a (brief, polite) line as well.

gavin.jennings@parliament.vic.gov.au
brendan.jenkins@parliament.vic.gov.au
rob.hulls@parliament.vic.gov.au

Comments

[ktwhoopi.livejournal.com]

Why does the doorman have the authority to stop them coming in?? O_o Does he own the place or something? Awful.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Doormen are usually the first line of authority. I guess after those comments they didn't really want to take it up with management.

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

Was the doorman related to Bruce Ruxton?! *shocked look*

[angel80.livejournal.com]

The saddest part of that story is that they didn't stack on a turn. Can you imagine white people putting up with that sort of treatment? Assuming the doorman did not reflect the views of management (who took the booking in the first place), they'd have got him the sack on the spot. The incident (their defeatism) demonstrates that the Aborigines have zero expectation of support for their rights from others in the community.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, for what it's worth I rather suspect that the Vic ALPs policy committee are going to get pretty fired up about this.

What's particularly sad is that for years Morwell was Keith Hamilton's seat - a kindly, gentle member of the "hard left", who was also the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs - and very well respected among local Koories.

Expectations (and lack thereof) is often a more subtle means of restraint that opportunity (and lack thereof). Politically however, the former must previal before the latter can change.

[angel80.livejournal.com]

I got a reply to my comment from splodgenoodles (I think that was the name). I tried to respond to it, but LJ told me that it was screened and I had neither the right to see it nor to reply to it!!!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have comments by non-friends screened. But being the complex program that livejournal is (parts of it are like a database where multiple users can access the same record), sometimes things like this do happen.

I've unscreened the comment and will check out splodgenoodles. I wonder if they have anything to do with the Melbourne film club called Splodge?

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

...I may be being overly cynical, but I suspect they've had some pretty negative experiences in the past when they try to be assertive about their rights....the CEO was probably more interested in everyone having a nice evening without a fuss than having to risk the involvement of *possibly* hostile police, risk having to bail out unjustly arrested employees and explain to a hostile press that they aren't a bunch of troublemakers....

The saddest part of the story is that they couldn't risk the consequences of stacking on a turn, even though they were in the right.

Just to explain the sourcing

[erudito.livejournal.com]

The (female) Co-op employee who made the booking and was one of the 40 told my housemate Jennifer (who she knows very well). Jennifer told me, I posted it almost immediately.

The hotel they went on to was the Merton Rush.

Re: Just to explain the sourcing

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

OK, thanks for that. I know this technically isn't my battle, but I'm going to raise a fuss unless told otherwise by the appropriate people (i.e., those directly involved).