Hey Hey it's racism

That there is debate over the nature of the skit on the Hey Hey Re-union Show sequel suggests that there is indeed a dedicated racist black spot in fortresss Australia -- a very large, very arrogant, pervasive and nationalistic racist POV of the type that will assure you " but we're not racist..."

Of course you're/we're not!


So making with the Golliwog get up and playing it up with Minstrel Show buffoonery is just the good olde Australian sense of humour apparently . After all the performers weren't your everyday plebs but all were doctors and most of them from 'multicultural backgrounds' .

After all, it was only a bit of fun...

The fact is that if Harry Connick Jnr had not disowned the skit there'd be no fracas and Hey Hey would have got away with the same puerile level of racism, sexism and homophobia it always traded in. Before the Footy Show got down and dirty with women and gays -- there was always Hey Hey it's Saturday to top up the nation's collective xenophobic reserves if they warranted prime time .

In the context of the furore over the way Indian students and taxi drivers have been targeted and physically attacked in this country maybe a penny has dropped -- that a key pillar of federation of Australian states is home gown racism. Always denied and often stirred.

The present court case over a bashing murder in Melbourne's Noble Park is a stark reminder of what breeds here :

A MAN bragged he was going to kill blacks and "take his town back" minutes before bashing a Sudanese teenager to death.

Clinton David Rintoull sprayed racist graffiti on the walls of his house and complained that immigrants had "turned his town into the Bronx" before fatally beating Liep Gony in September 2007.Mr Gony, 19, suffered horrific head injuries and was left to die in a Noble Park street."They probably don't respect our way of life ... f....g niggers chasing us around,'' Rintoull allegedly said."We should go get 'em, f...g bash 'em. Someone's got to do something.''(Read report...)

Another recent incident in Melbourne was similarly motivated:

The security guard says you can keep on playing, don't worry about it. And after an hour they thought we'll leave, it's all safe now we can go and while they were going towards the car park they saw like 70 to 75 people in car park waiting for them."He says the people in the car park were shouting; "You Indians, go back to your country". Police have confirmed four Indian men were attacked outside an Epping bar on Saturday night.Four men were arrested for assault questioned and then released.A Victoria Police spokesman says officers at the scene saw only 15 people gathering, not 70.Onkar Singh says his brothers-in-law have serious injuries and the police have been slow to act."Sukhdip got very badly injured in that, and Gurdeep has his jaw broken, and Mukhtair the uncle, his shoulder is broken.(Read report...)

So Hey Hey's 'bit of fun' ain't much fun at all if you are on the receiving end when the humour gets serious....