Trembling with indignation!

March 16, 2007
Issue 

March 14 was Black Bashing Day on Tim Blair's blog . Most other days are Muslim-bashing days, but on this day his red-neck cyber-mates decided to pick on Jakalene X, Aboriginal activist, rap artist and the lead candidate on the Socialist Alliance upper house ticket for the March 24 NSW election.

Blair is the opinion editor for the Sydney Daily Telegraph and one of the featured bloggers on the Sydney Morning Herald website. The Herald has lauded him as "top dog among the new Australian digerati ... an experienced, conservative political commentator who some days draws more than 20,000 readers to his website".

The commentators on his website appear to have all crawled out of the same slimy crevice. They don't put up arguments; they specialise in racist, sexist gang abuse.

Jakalene was ridiculed as "yet another self-appointed black urban activist"; a "wigger", short for "wannabe nigger"; a "Yugo ratbag whose great grand-dad once stunned a numbat with a stick" who is fearful of the prospect of a "full blood" coming up to her at a rally and asking: "Got any blackfella in you?"

A remarkable thing about racists is that while they love to complain about Aboriginal activists not looking dark enough, when they are out to discriminate they seem to be able to pick out the slightest physical characteristic that could suggest some Aboriginality.

After questioning her Aboriginality and mocking her personal struggle to reconnect with her family (see ), Blair's cyber-mates then went on to sexist abuse as well.

Doesn't this kind of thing make you shake with anger? This is 2007. How many people have shared the simple hope so memorably articulated by Martin Luther King Jr 43 years ago?

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character ..."

We still have a long fight ahead of us, but we are building a movement that will, one day, make racism, sexism, exploitation and injustice history. We are seeking out the sisters and brothers who will make this movement stronger.

As Ernesto "Che" Guevara said: "If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine."

The movement for justice cannot march on indignation alone. It needs resources.

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