2020 June 22nd Update
I no longer agree with my views below and think this is a perfect example of my rationalization to adhere to the cultural zeitgeist of "racism doesn't exist in Australia"
There's also an element of victim blaming
I kept the below post intact as a record of my own thought process back then
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Recently something quite tragic (though I can't say I am surprised), happened in Sydney.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/a/-/newshome/13513195/chinese-students-fear-sydney
http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/a/-/newshomef/13530527/chinese-students-at-risk-in-australia/
A few Chinese international students were assaulted and robbed in Sydney. What's more disgusting arguably in my opinion is the media position and how the Chinese community have reacted.
Being of Chinese decent and ethnicity, I've quite often had to deal with racism growing up. Though not quite as often the older I got, either because people become more educated or they become less inclined to show their racist ideology in the open.
But as you grow older, you also learn how to deal with racism and learn how to diffuse the situation. I've strongly disagreed with any media (even Australian) classifying these attacks targeted racist attacks and its even more ridiculous for any media (especially Chinese) to claim that Australia is somehow unsafe for international students for other ethnicities.
If the issue was racism, then the color of my skin should determine the amount of "racially motivated" assaults I'm exposed to/be a victim of. KKK did not discriminate between African American or Native Africans.Why then is it that international students seem to be the center to these attacks?
The truth is, the criminals committing these acts of violence are targeting people who are vulnerable to these attacks. International students need to reach outside of their shells and circles and learn how to avoid these situations much how you learn not to get pick pocketed or ripped off by street vendors (at times because of your race or origins) in China.
It angers me that one of the students went to social media and tweeted "Australia is not safe, no security at all" despite the perpetrators being arrested a few stops later on that same train. I would be more than surprised if he can find me an example of Chinese police doing better.
@Australian Media, please stop calling these attacks as "racially motivated" because someone threw in an ethnic slur. The focus should be on the perpetrators rather than the victims, those kids would have mugged anyone they could.
@Chinese Media & Netizens, stop pretending China is any safer for international students. A few rich Chinese international students in Australia get beat up and make headline news in China, set your priorities straight, there are worse things in China that you might want to start reporting on.
