Was "The Australian" right to publish this?

because society now has access to "Twitter", and wish to share their enlightened opinion with everyone.

aka "because they can"

 

At best it's in bad taste. The Australian should not have published.

 

I Live in the NT and have worked extensively with the remote Indigenous population on Community.

It's a very complicated problem.
Everyone, from all sides wants answers.
Equally, no-one has a good response.

Indigenous people need to live on country. It's not a want, it's a deep cultural need. However, in the modern world, when you do that...there is nothing to do. Jobs are few and far between and the remoteness of these places means that it is very hard to leave even if you wanted.

Then there's the beautiful culture of giving and sharing. What's mine is yours. Should anyone need anything, it shall be provided. This is a system that's been employed for thousands of years, and allows the community/tribe to function as a unit.

However it's this same system that causes serious problems in a capitalist economy, "oh, you've got a job! great! Now you can feed all your extended family...forever!". For most people, it's much safer to stay on welfare, hence you get all the issues that come with that...

These are only 2 examples of about a zillion...

This cartoon only highlights the offensive pointy end of issue. Noel Pearson is right - in that people need to step up and look after their kids...The kids on four corners recently are the result of three or four generations of disconnect/neglect/bad policy(eg.baby bonus)...The kids also might just be plain bad themselves...but adding all that other stuff to the mix doesn't exactly help...

The myriad of reasons as to why this happens is not discussed enough. Government after Government, tries to do the right thing by throwing money at it, at the bequest of the inner city voters who come from another planet.- the thing is that If this "help" is not done absolutely perfectly, it will cause more harm than good.

It's almost a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences...

So whilst the cartoon is deplorable with it's offensive racist image, it's equally laudable in continuing to bring this conversation to the front of the national agenda.

I only hope that people will start to see past the ugly result of thousands of well-intentioned/poorly delivered ideas.

We need to work this out because as a country, we are better than this.

 

I worked in a remote Indigenous community in Western Australia for more than a year and your summation is the best explanation I have seen of the complex social issues experienced in these communities. I have particularly referenced your comment above because the result is a lack of purpose. Lack of purpose leads to many social issues that cannot be understood by many people. This problem is not unique to Indigenous people.

I agree that people in the cities see there are issues and would like to address them but don't really understand how. My observation is the cartoon has not prompted much discussion about underprivilege and social issues in Indigenous communities. It has prompted outrage, condemnation, calls of racism, censorship, free speech etc. So instead of discussing the issues, we have made it about us (white Australians), what we are allowed and not allowed to say, how racist we are or are not, whether the cartoon should or should not have been published.

 

Because mainstream media seems to be aligned to the left and thus has provided minorities with a disproportionate voice. An example of political correctness out of control.

However @hammer eloquently hit the nail on the head regarding the problems affecting many in the aboriginal community. It would be great if there was an eloquent solution as well because solving these problems could also help many other communities in our country.

 

My main issue with a cartoon like this is that a portion of people will see it and think, 'yep he got it right' and then go on to their next superficial thought without any reflection at all. So what did that cartoon really achieve other than to confirm a bias already held?

With regard to the point about it generating discussion...the people who want to discuss these things already know the issues are complex and won't get much insight from that cartoon either.
I don't think the cartoon is there to initiate constructive conversation. If anything it just gives each side further confirmation of their existing thoughts.

I don't have a problem with controversial cartoons but given my above opinion, it seems the only real measurable outcome from this cartoon is clicks to The Australian website.

Media - 1, Social change - 0

 

I just had lunch with 6 aboriginal colleagues. Every single one of them would be offended by this cartoon. It is racist. Simple.
It is not helpful.

 

You are right that it would be great if there was an eloquent solution. If there is a solution, I don't think it is something that can be imposed on these communities from the outside. It is something that needs to be driven in part by the people in the communities. The problem is that many in the communities feel helpless/hopeless and this is passed down from generation to generation (learned helplessness). It's a difficult cycle to break and results in people who find it difficult to become part of a solution.

You are also right that other communities in our country face similar struggles. Intergenerational inequality, learned helplessness and social exclusion are not unique to Indigenous communities. Perhaps a solution would benefit these communities also?

Social exclusion is defined as occurring "when people or places suffer from a series of problems such as unemployment, discrimination, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime, ill health and family breakdown", according to a report titled 'Child social exclusion: an updated index from the 2006 Census'. When these issues combine, they can create a vicious cycle, the report notes.
​

I don't know of anyone who has developed a solution but Warren Mundine has shared some thoughts on this subject: Communities can take the initiative | Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce

 

How many aboriginal people vs non aboriginal people have commented on what they are feeling in this thread till now ? Now extrapolate this ratio to all the sections of media or society.

That ratio is an indication of dis-empowerment and the helplessness, when someone / anyone (with racial privilege) tells you (for centuries) what you are supposed to feel and behave.

When the constitution takes away the human rights and equality and allows governments to make and implement laws based on race, voice has been stifled.
Section 51(xxvi) of the Australian Constitution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constitutional reform: FAQs - Why reform of the Constitution is needed | Australian Human Rights Commission
Section 25 : For the purposes of the last section, if by the law of any State all persons of any race are disqualified from voting at elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of the State, then, in reckoning the number of the people of the State or of the Commonwealth, persons of that race resident in that State shall not be counted.
Section 51 empowers the Parliament to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:
The people of any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws.

Minorities do not have a disproportionate voice or even a proportionate (if any) voice. The constitution makes discrimination legal and all echelons of society gleefully enforce it.

The cartoon is but a small reinforcement of victim blaming, wherein the newspaper has sought to blame an entire race for their victimization

 

Looking at the cartoon it would seem that the policeman is also Aboriginal, what is peoples take on this?

 

People are missing half the cartoon..

The "police officer" is an aboriginal community police officer.
He is a member of the same tribe trying to span the bridge between law, order, ingrained cultural respect and ingrained cultural loss.

It's these aunties and uncles who are trying to help their people as well but the middle strata of parental responsibility and intergenerational dependence and support has been drunk and drugged away by poverty, crime and cultural erosion.

By putting an aboriginal community officer in, this cartoon shows the complex mess of the breakdown of the entire social fabric in these missions.

It's not racist. It is tragic.
And it's accurate. The younger generation have been let down by the caretakers.
They then grow up and the cycle of hopelessness continues.

 

Disappointing if that is the case. Companies need to stay right out of the whole ‘confected outrage’ scene IMO. That’s just giving oxygen to the simplistic voices of Pauline Hanson and Trump etc who are absolute dills but are smart enough to know this whole overblown PC thing is destroying society.

In answer to Mark’s question – I would’ve said I preferred the Australian did not publish this sort of thing. Not because of any mistruth in the message but it just upsets teriffic Murri people and creates un-needed division in society, so I would definately rather seek harmony wherever possible.

On the other hand if Suncorp wants to do my political thinking for me, then I will get very upset. I’ve got almost a dozen policies coming up next month for renewal, and have been with them for decades until now. I expect them to be my insurance company and not my political conscience – I get a vote every three years to handle that aspect thanks.

 

Seems a bit crude and as Simon said, the issues stem back to the original invasions.

 

Was the cartoon crude? Yes. Was the cartoon vulgar? Yes. Was it racist? Possibly. Did it refer to a widespread unfortunate reality? Yes.

Was the Australian right to publish it? They certainly have the right to publish it. Whether it was the right decision from the editor is subjective.
Judging by Suncorp's stance in becoming our 'Big Brother' and moral guardian the potential loss of revenue suggests from a commercial standpoint it was a mistake.
https://writingwrongsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/1394012_226767420818632_1321336280_n.jpg

 

Oh dear. Here we go, people trying to defend hate speech by yelling political correctness or some such rubbish. Poor Bill, he is a martyr to cause, make sure you light a candle for him and St Bolt the Vile.

 

Who's defending hate speech? It was a ....cartoon. Don't read too much into it with feigned outrage.
Let's deal with the actual problem not a cartoon.
Bill Leak's Indigenous cartoon prompts Suncorp to cancel ads in the Australian

 

Oh I don't know, maybe this coprolite from earlier in this thread.

Because mainstream media seems to be aligned to the left and thus has provided minorities with a disproportionate voice. An example of political correctness out of control.


Help help I'm being repressed yells the Murdoch media.

 

Were they offended? Did you ask them? Did they talk about the probems or solutions? (Not having a shot at you )

As @turk and @xactly mentioned and i also noticed is that the police officer is also aboriginal. Why is no one talking about that? He's providing leadership and support but seems to not get a mention. He has broken the cycle. That's what needs to be aimed for and talked about, not just running for the pitch forks cause all those bloody whiteys are at it again!

There's no one simple solution and throwing buckets of money at it does not seem to have worked!

I wonder how many social justice hero's have any idea or experience other than from behind their iphones in the city? The problem as usual is the "noise" in the media. There are people out there doing good things but unfortunately they are not heard. I spoke to a lady in the far north qld who would often ring Alan Jones and Co to get her opinions out there for her community, simple things like building awning structures with a place for a fire rather than "3x1 houses", that's what they would use. But... where it got more complicated is that she is a good advocate and trying to help, but did not have full support of the community because she wasn't "full blood" . She was still going to fight on though.