oh my nigga 



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I spent about 5 1/2 years living in Melbourne. My first year at uni, I wanted to get a part-time job to help with expenses. I called in response to an ad in the uni paper- they were looking for someone to help sell their cleaning services. I'm British but from a Pakistani background- I suppose my accent is fairly neutral and hard to gauge over the phone. The lady asked me where I was from and I explained the above. Her next question was: "Oh, ok. Let me ask you something...are you particularly dark-skinned?".
I did a double-take as you can imagine and kind of mumbled some response. She went on: "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. It's just that the last chap we had was from
Sri Lanka- lovely boy but really dark. He had a rough time. Some people that you'll meet around industrial parks aren't quite ready to mingle with people from your part of the world just as yet". Believe it or not, I was desperate enough for cash that I actually finished the rest of the phone interview and turned up for the in-person interview a couple of days later.
I turned up and introduced myself. She said "Oh! You're not that dark at all! Come on in". Good start. She asked me a couple of standard interview questions and then asked me: "[My name], is that a Christian name?". I explained that no, I'm from a Muslim background. Her response "Oh, that's alright I suppose dear. You're not all terrorists are you."
Here's the funny thing. She actually turned out to be a lovely lady- I wouldn't have stuck around if that wasn't the case. I could just see that this was a very normal part of life for her- to view non-whites as lesser beings. I took it as a personal challenge to change her view about these things. Believe it or not, over the course of the next year or so I did a lot of part-time work for her and even struck up a friendship.
That's just one of many stories. Over the course of 5 years, it gradually broke me down to the point where I just didn't want to put up with it anymore and decided to move back to the UK. Here are some other examples:

- At a golf club, a 50 year old man saw me putting on sunscreen and asked "Mate, why are you bothering? too late to save yourself from a tan". His mates got a good laugh out of that one.
- I was at a bar with my friends and started chatting with a beautiful, funny girl. One of those things where there's immediate chemistry. She just happened to be white. Her friends came over, interrupted us, pulled her away and I distinctly heard one of them say "God, what are you doing talking to that Curry guy?". ('Curry' is the word Aussies use to refer to people of Pakistani/Indian/Sri Lankan appearance).
- In my last year, my girlfriend at the time was in the UK. Long distance relationships are rough on any one- I mentioned that to my boss' wife when she asked about it at a party- she said "Well, I'm not surprised. Your girlfriend is living in a modern country now- maybe she's discovering that she gets to make her own choices now rather than being dictated to by her man- must be a big change for her coming from your culture".
In Aus, there are two kinds of racism in my experience:
1) In your face, 'bogan' racism. These are the flag waving, ridiculously small minded caricatures who rightly get ridiculed.
2) The subtle, every day racism that is disguised as 'the Aussie sense of humour'. You're made to feel like the problem lies with YOU if you're not cool with racist humour.
Sorry for the long post. This post is obviously fairly negative towards Australia (because of the nature of the question) so I should mention that for balance, I did meet some truly wonderful people in Australia and have many fond memories. That said, I feel like it's decades behind the UK (especially London) in terms of racial integration. I had a nice time there but I'm glad I don't live there anymore.
