tcpip: (Default)
Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2003-12-24 02:44 pm

It just stuns you sometimes...

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

[identity profile] splodgenoodles.livejournal.com 2003-12-24 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
...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.