Adelaide Spirit Festival

I went along to the Adelaide Spirit Festival this morning to do a few interviews for the racism show on The Stand.

It was a strange entrance at first. I think it was the first time in my life that I have entered an area and felt myself to be in the minority. A great sea of black folks enjoying the beautiful weather and great entertainment.

Very soon, this faded. A great welcoming feel greeted me, and within minutes I was just another member of the crowd, and thoroughly enjoying myself. I met up with Natasha Wanganeen who was interested in doing an interview for the show. She had no time in the end as she was hosting the festival at the time, but she put me onto some wonderful folks who handed me around like the media noob I am, until I got a great interview for the show.

Then, after a great Aboriginal hip-hop act, a comic came up on stage. He did a bit about aboriginals which made me quite uncomfortable. Every negative Aboriginal stereotype got an airing, and I squirmed in my shoes for the entire time. It may be that I am just an uptight white guy, but I really felt that he was being quite racist towards his own people!

It wasn't until later when Rod Lewis pointed out to me that this is a common thing amongst certain minority comics. They utilise the stereotypical view of their race/creed/minority group and poke fun at it. The members of that same group KNOW that the stereotypical view is incorrect, so can laugh at it.

Can you guess the next realisation?

I was uncomfortable listening to the Aboriginal comics material because I BELIEVED THE STEREOTYPES!!!! Here I was, a modern intelligent guy doing a radio show exposing racism, and I was behaving in an incredibly racist way!

I learned a lot today, and that's what I love about this radio show. Every subject we cover, I learn a LOT about. When left to one's own devices, the tendancy is to intellectually stagnate. The old thoughts, unstudied, unrefreshed, go unchanged. With the calibre of the GSS panelists, how could I help but learn?

Xmas etc

Well we are coming up to the end of the year, and the seasonal celebrations are approaching fast.

At this time of year I always feel a little fucked up. I despise the holiday and almost everything it stands for. The ONLY reason I have anything to do with it is to see my family, who I really don't see for the rest of the year, and I kind of object to that.
I actually skipped the celebrations one year, simply because I hate being forced into some uncomfortable social situation for the sake of a god-being I don't believe in.
That didn't go down well of course. The family cares nothing for activism, they just want to catch up.
One year my Christian cousin actually said at the table, 'Lets all remember why we are here today to celebrate', and I had to seal my mouth shut so I wouldn't say, 'Well it's sure as hell not for your mythical saviour matey!'.

I guess in the end we all do things to make our families happy. Most folks probably have a closer tie to their family than I do, but even I feel the need to go do the Christmas thing.

On the upside of course, my Aunt Beth makes the very BEST roast potatoes in the history of mankind.

Win.