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posted by martyb on Saturday February 16 2019, @08:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the Better-than-a-rat-race dept.

Is a religious group a 'race' or isn't it? Is someone 'racist' if they publicly state their dislike of a religious group? An Australian tribunal has answered this question by ruling that Muslim is not a race, and as such, a person who vilifies them in public, an act which is currently illegal in Australia, would not have broken the law.

In 2016 Sonia Kruger 'called for an end to migration from Islamic countries' saying that she wanted people to feel safe when going out to celebrate Australia day. Sam Ekermawi, a Muslim, filed a complaint to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal claiming the comments were racial vilification.

The tribunal was unable to conclude Muslims living in Australia "are a 'race' by reason of a common ethnic or ethno-religious origin" and dismissed the application. This is an important milestone in the legal and cultural development of the ocean-bound nation which is still attempting to balance the melting pot of cultures and people who have migrated to the country from all over the world. This ruling may be a key threshold for defining what the word 'race' actually means in the legal and social and cultural context and how laws will be interpreted in the future.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nuke on Saturday February 16 2019, @10:57AM (5 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Saturday February 16 2019, @10:57AM (#801993)

    Black parents generally have black children, white parents white children, and one black parent with one white parent generally have brown-ish children. Clearly something biological is going on, although scientists these days seem to be too frightened say anything other than they "Cannot detect it".

    Saying there is no such thing as race is like saying there is no such thing as musical notes (A, B, C, E# etc) because they are connected by a continuous scale of frequencies. In analogy, the SJWs would say that you must not refer to Middle C (262 Hz) or D (294 Hz) because they are both notes, and you could play a note of 280 Hz. Nevertheless those notes are different physical things, and the fact that certain frequencies are defined in music notation is analogous to the sociological recognition of race.

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  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @11:38AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @11:38AM (#801999)

    Get a capo, you moron! And learn to play Alicia Keys, or I mean, in different keys. Any frequency can be your middle C, just tell me what you want.

    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:02AM

      by Bot (3902) on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:02AM (#802459) Journal

      Spotted the guy with no absolute pitch ear.

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      Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Arik on Saturday February 16 2019, @01:18PM (2 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Saturday February 16 2019, @01:18PM (#802026) Journal
    "Black parents generally have black children, white parents white children, and one black parent with one white parent generally have brown-ish children."

    All statistical generalizations that don't really tell you anything beyond themselves. The skin color (and other traits as well) of children *usually* appear similar to that of their parents. Usually, certainly not always. But what makes you think that color is anything more than color?

    "scientists these days seem to be too frightened say anything other than they "Cannot detect it"."

    That's utter nonsense, and shows you don't actually read science. Scientists are very much aware of genetics.

    "In analogy, the SJWs would say that you must not refer to Middle C (262 Hz) or D (294 Hz) because they are both notes, and you could play a note of 280 Hz. Nevertheless those notes are different physical things, and the fact that certain frequencies are defined in music notation is analogous to the sociological recognition of race."

    Yeah, that's a pretty awful analogy. Notes *are* set to frequencies arbitrarily - read up on the sharp wars or pitch inflation. A might be 440 or it might be 435 or even 420, depending on time and place. There is no essential character of e.g. your middle C, it's just an arbitrarily chosen pitch that relates systematically to other arbitrarily chosen pitches, out of which music can be created. The character of the middle C depends very much on the context in which it is presented, and very very little on the specific pitch assigned to it. If I play C/Bb/A/C the C has quite a different character than if I play Dm/C/Bb/Dm for instance, even though the pitches are the same and the context is also very very similar in some obvious ways.

    But that's not why it's an awful analogy - that's actually why it almost works! But notes are not people. We aren't abusing or oppressing the sound waves when we create them, when we create music. It's no damage to them that we choose to use A440 instead of A418, or vice versa. They didn't exist until we created them, they cease to exist shortly afterwards, they're our creation.

    Other people are NOT our creation! We each come in a specific 'pitch' so to speak, and we do suffer when we're forced sharp or flat to fit someone elses composition or their prejudice.

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    • (Score: 3, Touché) by fustakrakich on Saturday February 16 2019, @05:12PM

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Saturday February 16 2019, @05:12PM (#802087) Journal

      Other people are NOT our creation!

      Oof! Don't tell your mother...

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      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 4, Touché) by Bot on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:05AM

      by Bot (3902) on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:05AM (#802463) Journal

      >We aren't abusing or oppressing the sound waves when we create them

      I gather you are not familiar with the life and works of Justin Bieber.

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