Abstract
In December 2005, in the predominantly Anglo surf community of Cronulla, in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, a skirmish between two lifesavers and young men of Lebanese cultural heritage precipitated events that produced some of the worst scenes of race rioting Australia has seen in recent times. In response to the skirmish, which would have passed unnoticed perhaps at other times – but which powerfully intersected with post September 11 moral panics regarding a vaguely defined ‘Muslim’ terrorist threat – locals organised a ‘protest’ publicised through SMS messages, which called on ‘Aussies’ to ‘support Leb and wog bashing day': ‘Bring your mates and let’s show them that this is our beach and they are never welcome'. In response, an estimated 5000 people turned up to ‘reclaim the beach’. Many young members of the crowd were draped in Australian flags and displayed racist slogans such as ‘we grew here, you flew here’ and ‘ethnic cleansing unit' on t-shirts and bodies. After a morning of drinking and chanting the crowd began to seek a target for their anger, resulting in a handful of youth of ‘Middle Eastern appearance’ being violently assaulted by a riotous mob. Angered by the violence, the following evening small numbers of young men of Lebanese heritage drove to Cronulla to retaliate. Arrests were made on both sides, leaving media, politicians, social institutions and the public to sift through the remains of the ‘riot’, to make sense of what had occurred and particularly what it meant for Australia’s self-perception as a ‘laid back' and harmonious society (Johns 2015).
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 249-254 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of Intercultural Studies |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- culture conflict
- multiculturalism
- race riots
- racism