Just happened to have the TV on and caught episode 1 of the new Australian series of The Apprentice. Normally I may have changed channel but given that one of the contestants is the uber-attractive Sabrina Houssami, I had to stop and watch the whole thing. For those that came in late, Houssami (23, Sydney-born to Lebanese and Indian parents) was Miss World Australia in 2006 and the first and only Muslim to receive that honour.
Given that the intelligent and articulate Houssami is being touted for a future political career and clearly wants to be taken seriously, The Apprentice seems a strange move, given the show's penchant for nastiness. Let's see what happens.
Recently Houssami was interviewed in a News Limited article about her appearance on the show, but the topic also turned to racism in Australia, which then became the main story. She spoke about her experiences growing up being picked on for looking different, which led to the attention-grabbing title "Apprentice hopeful Sabrina Houssami says Australia 'racist'". Here are some responses from commenters:
jk: Whinge, whinge, whinge .As Australia is a multi-cultural country, I assume she includes all the many races that live here as being the racists? Or is it just the white ones? If so, then I find her remarks RACIST !
bjm of perth: FORMER MISS WORLD AUSTRALIA..not sure who voted her in but we cant be that racist if we made her represent our country..if we were all racists she wouldent have been there..
Um, did she say every Australian was a racist? I don't think so. This is like those who say that racism is over in the US since they elected Obama.
Gee: Gee a person of Indian heritage calling Australians racist,, i think she had better go have a look in India and see the way they treat their own people, thanks to their dicriminatory caste system.
Defensive, much? The amount of times I've heard this kind of crap... For a start, Houssami is an first and foremost an Australian talking about Australia - India is irrelevant. But more importantly, the argument that Indians have no right to complain about Australian racism because India is allegedly so much worse... its a rubbish argument. Either Australia has problems with racism or it doesn't. If it does (and yes, it does) then we should speak out about it. India is probably a racist country too, but that is irrelevant.
The above commenters perhaps think only about their experiences. If I were to base my opinion solely on my own experience, maybe I would say that racism is not a big problem in Australia, since it hasn't been a major factor in my life. However, if I asked my African friends, they would say something different; just as based on Houssami's experience, she feels that there is a lot of racism in Australia.
If you wanna know about racism, trying asking someone who has experienced it, rather than someone who hasn't.
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