Possibly my first encounter with genuine, hard-as-nails racism came on a trip to the Northern Territory in my teens. A publican in Alice Springs said to me, “I don’t ban anyone on the colour of their skin, I just have a dress code — and I’ve never seen a well-dressed Abo yet!” On the same trip, I also encountered the visceral hatred of Aboriginal teenagers for us “white cunts”.
To damn them with faint praise, at least people like that were open about their racism. Far more insidious is the racism that masquerades as “anti-racist” virtue-signalling.
Indigenous Australians and First Nations people from across the globe are being offered ticket discounts of up to $170 under new “Mob Tix” concessions launched by the nation’s elite ballet, musical, arts, cultural and sporting bodies and institutions.
Special mob discounts of up to 80 per cent for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Maori, Pacific Islanders and other First Nations people have been established in the run-up to the October 14 referendum to enshrine an Indigenous voice advisory body in the Constitution […]
The Australian can reveal leading institutions including the Sydney Opera House, Australian Ballet, National Gallery of Australia, the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Sydney Fringe Festival, Australian Open and music festivals are offering discount tickets for First Nations people. The Australian Ballet earlier this year introduced a Mob Tix discount scheme for Indigenous patrons, including First Nations people both from Australia and abroad.
First off, any white person who affects Abonics, using words like “mob”, “deadly” and “grog” when they’re trying to parade their cred just sticks in my craw.
Secondly, how many Aborigines or Maoris are going to give a rat’s arse about the ballet or the opera? Even fewer than other ordinary Australians. These are the most elite pursuits imaginable, the preserve of the black-tie, designer dress upper-class.
This is virtue-signalling of the most odious, condescending degree: pretending to be generous when, in fact, you know it will never cost you anything.
The only people who’ll benefit from this are inner-city box-tickers: the well-off, conspicuously white Australians who pretend to be “Aboriginal” in order to glom onto the free stuff.
No proof of eligibility is required to access the tickets and those who identify as a certain race or ethnic group will have their details kept confidential […]
“Mob Tix pricing is available to people who identify as being either Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Maori, Pasifika or First Nations,” the Australian Ballet website says. No proof of eligibility is required and selection of this price type is at the discretion of the purchaser.
The best thing to do is to get the word out and get everyone to tick the box and get the discount. Watch how soon they backpedal.
Because, at the moment, they’re smugly assured that it won’t cost them a damn cent.
Institutions approached on Monday could not provide any data showing an increase in diverse audiences or higher attendance by Indigenous Australians and First Nations people.
Of course not: because who in a remote community can afford to even travel to Sydney or Melbourne, let alone buy even discounted tickets to something as poncy as the ballet, anyway?
Opposition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie said “disadvantaged Indigenous Australians are not going to the ballet or the opera or coming from all the way from Wilcannia or Kununurra to the National Gallery”.
“Helping affluent Indigenous people access elite cultural practice will do nothing to close the gap. Australians who go to these events are not the poor and the marginalised,” she said.
Other, actual Aborigines are faintly insulted.
Prominent Indigenous activist and No campaigner Warren Mundine, who has paid full price when he attended the opera, said the decision to cut prices for First Nations people was a “box-ticking exercise”. He said if institutions wanted to go down that path, the concession should be available to all disadvantaged Australians.
“I don’t like this idea of diversity. It’s bizarre. You’ve got to have a bigger picture. I don’t know if this is going to help or make any difference. I don’t get the point of it,” he said […]
“The target should be opening up these institutions to a larger audience in places like western Sydney and other places like that. That would make a difference.”
The Australian
Ugh. And let a bunch of bogans from Punchbowl and Mt. Druitt into the opera? They’d rather eat iceberg lettuce.
