WTH!?!? I have two on my car and racism was the LAST thing I was thinking when I put them there! Crap! I'm an Aussie born and bred, my roots go back to England, Ireland, Germany and further back Jerusalum! I know that, and I'm proud of all that but I'm an Aussie now and the very fact some academic thinks it makes me racist is insane!!! It doesn't matter if you were born here or you chose to be here, being Australian is Being Australian! I do think you should become a citizen if you want to call yourself Australian, but that's where it ends for me....I fly my flags like millions of others because tomorrow is Australia Day and we are SUPPOSED to celebrate our differences! Get a life Professor Farida Fozdar.... Read this and roll your eyes!!
"Oh for crying out loud." - Jack O'Neill Australia Day has been celebrated for much longer than cars has been in the country and the nation comes together to celebrate it. We are a multi-cultural island/continent and part of the British Empire, how does a small scale version of the nation's flag on a mode of transportation symbolises that an individual is racist? It sounds like the University of WA put out that study just to garner a reaction and publicity on the eve of celebrations.
That's exactly what my husband said, and they probably have shares in the little flags we are all displaying! I know I saw ALOT MORE of them this year and I'm sure people raced out and bought them when the story broke!
Having read the original article, it didn't say that if you flew the flag you were racist, it said those who were racist were more likely to fly the flag. Not that I found the article necesary in the first place (Racists identify with patriotism? Well I never!) but it was interesting to watch this whole thing unfold and count the people I knew who seemed to get all their news from skim reading other people's facebook statuses.