Frank wrote on Nov 9
th, 2022 at 4:28pm:
While the ABC has rightly highlighted the shocking statistics of the problem, it has been less vocal on the greatest contributors of the problem – badly behaving Aboriginal men.
Accepting this for the sake of the argument, the question which must be asked is...WHY are black men behaving badly?
Quote:Consider that the ABC article featured several faces of innocent Aboriginal women who died violent deaths or are missing, yet the perpetrators’ faces were not shown. I suspect this is because they are often Aboriginal men. The article reports on the life and tragic death of one Aboriginal woman, and the name of her killer, her boyfriend, is given. However, the article does not report that he is Aboriginal; surely a noteworthy omission.
Yes I agree, sometimes it's obvious a black man is the perpetrator, but the ABC is no doubt trying to stay away from "race"'/identity politics
Quote:The article does refer to recent research published in the British Journal of Criminology. The journal article uses terms such as ‘neo-colonial’ and ‘settler’ to remind readers that Australia was invaded, perhaps in case some did not know. Quoting from this academic article: ‘In accounting for disproportionate rates of domestic violence against First Nations women, First Nations academics have consistently linked domestic and family violence to the historical and ongoing violence of ‘settler’ colonisation.’ These academics would do well to read Peter Sutton’s Politics of Suffering to understand that aspects of violence in Aboriginal communities, particularly against women, go back long before colonisation.
Straying onto shaky ground with that argument; men have historically been guilty of violence against women in ALL societies.
Quote:If some dismiss Sutton because he is not Aboriginal, they should read the 1962 biography of Aboriginal man, Waipuldanya, entitled I, the Aboriginal where he states: ‘The corroboree is banned to all women. They must remain at least half a mile away. If a woman went close to a Yaudurawa in my grandfather’s youth her head would have been chopped off at once. Even today death would be likely.’ Lest I be accused of sensationalistic racial bias, let me state that such brutality is no different to that of non-Aboriginal people if you go back far enough.
...so all socities are guilty...
Quote:The academic article referred to earlier, states: ‘Such failures suggested systemic police apathy towards First Nations women as victims of violence …’. This would seem a gross generalisation and misrepresentation of the police. While apathy may account for police failings in a minority of cases, there are other explanations. Police intervention can often mean that a perpetrator is arrested and jailed. When this happens, there are the predictable shouts of racial profiling and high incarceration rates. And of course, if a perpetrator should die in custody, we can expect to see activists use the death to promote the lie that Aboriginal people in custody are at greater risk of death than non-Aboriginal people in custody. This could explain why some police are reluctant to get involved in domestic violence cases involving Aboriginal people.
It's not a lie, it's fact.
Quote:If the horrible statistics and stories of Aboriginal women as victims of domestic violence tells us anything, it is that more can be done to ensure that Aboriginal women live the lives that most non-Aboriginal women take for granted. Our best bet is to focus on building thriving communities where adults are working and kids are in school (/highlight];
aka government intervention.
Quote:also and essentially, [highlight]stop the [highlight]instinctive portrayal of Aboriginal perpetrators of violence as the victims of colonisation, and therefore not responsible for their behaviours. This is a huge insult to the many fine Aboriginal men who are peacemakers.[/highlight]
As noted above, the level of aboriginal social dysfunction we are talking about is undoubtedly much greater since colonization, than before it in the customs/laws-based hunter-gatherer communities.
(There was no disastrous post-colonial grog addiction, for a start....)
Quote:Further, the continual claims of racism and apathetic police are not helpful. According to NT Supreme Court judge Judith Kelly, as reported in the Australian: ‘It’s not racism that’s doing any of these things; it’s the violence of the men against the women.’
Once again, agreeing for the sake of the argument, and examined above; but the question remains, WHY is it so?
Quote:Finally, we must swim against the tide of political correctness and ensure that Aboriginal women have the confidence to report violence when it does happen and know that they will not be harmed by perpetrators or their protectors. This is something the proposed Parliamentary Indigenous Voice, if established, could consider.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/11/violence-against-aboriginal-women-is-not-new-news/
Now...THAT is a sensible proposition which a voice might enable.