All it took was a couple of quick sentences, a heavy swig of narcissism and a flock of pigeons to turn something that was mildly amusing at the start, to a reflection of the status quo. And I am angry with myself for playing a part in it.
The other day Rachael Hocking, who wrote a piece for SBS as part of its National Youth Week 2015 coverage, shared her insight into phenomena she termed ‘Black Guilt’. An experience shared by many Aboriginal people, especially youth, characterised by the complex interplay of socioeconomic and sociocultural factors that can be ascribed to the forces that disadvantage Aboriginal people. It is a phenomena that rarely gets talked about openly in the public sphere, and especially rare for a young Aboriginal person to be given such a far reaching platform through which to share this story from. My ire is directed toward one particular media actor and his engaging in, those literate in internet, would term ‘shitposting’.
I will not name nor talk any further about what is, nothing more than a narcissistic cyst that can afford to play the fool. In a few whiny sentences, he successfully shifted the topic from one that he was in no way the focus of, to that of his bruised ego. More galling than that, the social media response was to tacitly reinforce this. As quaint as drawing the ire of a pundit is, we need to be talking more about the experiences of our black youth throughout Australia. A profound sense of guilt and shame, deeply embedded in our consciousness as black people is a major barrier to improving the health of not only our individual selves, but also that of our communities. It prevents us from seeing our self-worth and acknowledging the walls we have to continually break down in a society that was built on our exclusion. It is a source of the rampant youth suicides occurring in our communities.
If we allow the experiences of Aboriginal people, the stories so fundamental to our heritage and wellbeing, to become victims of some twisted culture of celebrity, where powerful stories too often become the playthings of the hollow: what hope do we have of ever having a proper discussion? I fear it could be too much to ask, as we live in a time where the farcical Recognise campaign can draw millions in public funding and get in bed with the likes of Transfield, while entire Aboriginal communities and frontline services are threatened with state-sanctioned guillotines. A world where silk suits debate the value of Aboriginal knowledge and perspectives while we watch on from behind the bars of the twisted zoo contemporary Australia has created for us.
I watched on social media as wave after wave of ‘friends’ congratulated the author for drawing the attention of hot air, and very few sharing and discussing the issue at hand. I berated myself for taking part early on, thinking it was somewhat quaint, but only noteworthy as the kind of trinket you put on a shelf. I was upset that someone who had put so much thought and effort, and a lot of bravery in putting that piece out into the public sphere, had it hijacked from the start.
Some people can afford to be dishonest before a court of law, and spin bullshit around serious issues. We as Aboriginal people do not have that luxury, and if it were my media account, I would have told people to back off and consider what was actually relevant:
Laying down our burden as black Australians, so that we may examine it.
If you haven’t read Rachael Hocking’s article, you can catch it here
This post was originally published on 9caratstories.wordpress.com. Kyle Webb is a member of Blacademy.
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