This is the title of a column by Andrew Bolt on the 15th April as he writes lines like

MEET the white face of a new black race – the political Aborigine.

I’m not saying any of those I’ve named chose to be Aboriginal for anything but the most heartfelt and honest of reasons. I certainly don’t accuse them of opportunism, even if full-blood Aborigines may wonder how such fair people can claim to be one of them and in some cases take black jobs.

I’m saying only that this self-identification as Aboriginal strikes me as self-obsessed, and driven more by politics than by any racial reality.

but goes on to target people like Larissa Behrendt, Associate Professor Anita Heiss, Lowtija O’Donohue and Mick Dodson among many other indigenous high achievers, claiming what seems to me that as some are from mixed heritage, or don’t look black they should not describe themselves as Aboriginal. In the case of Mick Dodson it seems he shouldn’t call himself aboriginal because he went to a Catholic boarding school from the age of ten. Mick doesn’t look white so I guess Mr Bolt needed some other reason to disparage his heritage.

Chris Graham the editor of the National Indigenous Times has responded in the Croakey Health Blog (part of Crikey.com.au)

From the Croakey article:

For the record, here’s what Bolt and his followers are actually arguing: white people are pretending to be black so they can access benefits. But they’re not really black. They’re white. And that’s why black people are bad.

Let’s pretend, for the sake of argument, that Bolt is correct. White people are milking the tax-payer to access money set aside for disadvantaged black people. Well that reflects poorly on white people, not black people.

And yet Bolt’s vitriol — and that of the sycophants who egg him on through his blog — is directed at black people. Now that’s what I call self-loathing.

I urge you to read both Andrew Bolt’s column and the rebuttal of incorrect facts and argument from Chris Graham.

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Tagged as: aboriginal, Andrew Bolt, Indigenous, racism

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