Cronulla Riots Reflective Essay

Reflective Essay- Cronulla Riots 2005

This essay will be reflecting upon how culture can influence individuals by the analysis of the Cronulla riots of 2005. It will touch on and emphasise how differing perspectives, thoughts, ideals and values are determined by a variety of cultural backgrounds and how in essence this defines each individual from the next. The experiences mentioned in this essay are of my own along with those of friends and family members that witnessed the cultural clash on December 11th 2005.

The Cronulla riots began when allegedly a group of men with Middle Eastern backgrounds assaulted or attacked the Cronulla life guards on patrol. In the week following this incident, particularly on the 11th of December Cronulla's residents saw a gathering of 4000-5000 people (some local residents and many outsiders from other beachside areas) rallying to protect their Australian beaches and protesting against these assaults. The media portrayed a great deal of negativity towards many of the Middle Eastern individuals that were defending their name and their identity for the many weeks to come after the incident. The local residents and individuals of Anglo descent were also condemned for the inappropriate racial slurs that were being chanted amongst the crowd such as "No more Lebs"(Sydney Morning Herald ‘Mob Violence Envelops Cronulla 2005), just to name a few.

Coming from a mixed background of Pakistani, Indian and Burmese just to name a few, I don't look like your average blue eyed, blonde Australian. However I was born in Nowra, and have been brought up in the Sutherland Shire. Growing up in an area that was predominantly Anglo Australians did prove to be a bit of a challenge. Integrating into the "aussie" culture wasn't as easy when you have dark skin and dark hair and are surrounded by much fairer people. The physical appearances wasn't the only thing that distinguished me greatly amongst the other kids, the food I ate, the rules I lived by as a child were quite different to those of my fellow peers. I have lived in the Sutherland Shire now bordering on fifteen years. And in those fifteen years I had never once had anyone direct any racial comments towards me purposefully with the intent on making me uncomfortable or condemning me because I was different.

That however changed after the Cronulla Riots incident. Do recall I was 15-16 at the time, and I was forbidden to travel to Cronulla to go to the beach, enjoy time with my friends or even take a stroll down the open mall. Why? Because, I look Middle Eastern. The affects of those riots were felt even after the chaos died down months later. An incident that can demonstrate this is the situation where a gentleman of White Anglo decent asked my mother what her background was. When she did tell him she was from Pakistan he promptly informed her that she could not say that anymore as it might cause trouble for her. Fortunately there were only a few cases such as these but they were still apparent. How can such a multicultural society suddenly turn upon its fellow neighbours and friends that have been of different cultural backgrounds the entire time? Before the Cronulla riots even took place?

But before we begin to analyse the cultural aspects experienced we must ask an important question, what exactly is culture? How can we define it? Sinnl and Brocke (2011) state that culture is a broad and blurry concept, because it is associated differently depending on the context. In other words no one definition can be applied to culture as it changes with circumstance and condition. According to Hofstede (cited by Cindy Nguyen) culture can be classified as a sort of system that allows for the collectiveness of shared values. This in turn distinguishes individuals from one another. But where did our cultural sensitivity (Christopher & Deresky 2008) disappear to, our awareness and caring for other peoples cultures when we as Australians were condemning individuals of Middle Eastern background to be nothing but "grubs"? (Alan Jones, 2005, 2GB Radio). The kind of behaviour that was being displayed by the local residents of the Sutherland Shire and others that attended the riot/protest can be closely correlated with that of parochialism. According to Christopher & Deresky (2008) parochialism is when native-born citizens of any country expect heavily that the immigrant population of that country behave as they behave.

To further this argument, research conducted by Dr Kevin Dunn (Christopher & Deresky 2008) exemplified how ‘marginalised' the minority of Australian Muslims and people of Middle Eastern origin are in the Australian society. Australians are thought to be of the opinion that people with these cultural and religious backgrounds are the least likely to be able to fit into the culture of Australians (Christopher