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Normal country with normal responses to an uncontroversial, obvious claim from people who've been occupied for 20 years.
The Brereton report is extraordinary because it comes from within the defence force, from the soldiers themselves. The reason why we haven't seen the usual hideous scapegoating "they're playing the victim card", is for this and this alone: the call comes from inside the house.
It's not true, it's "leftie" propaganda, it's untrustworthy brown people trying to smear good white people or to get attention etc., these are all the go-to lines from the establishment in response to refugees who try to tell us how they're being abused. They couldn't do it here.
But you can see how well conditioned some Australians are to this racist rhetoric in these responses and others across social media. It's been just a week and the silence in our media on this is appalling. Not surprising but still fucked. We need to hear more from Afghan people.
This is a key part of why the Murdoch media were so keen to leap on Bobuq for daring to write a blog on the subject: because they could employ these same disgusting strategies, to dismiss, denigrate, distort and deny, when it came from an Afghan. https://twitter.com/OmarjSakr/status/1331358683536584706?s=19
Bobuq has received an influx of death threats and abusive messages and emails since those articles were published, as the people behind it knew very well they would. Dismiss, distort, denigrate, deny and otherwise try to destroy. That is the conservative model.
There is a deep ongoing disconnect between what our soldiers commit in our name—the violence they inflict on others, on themselves—and how responsible we are for it. It does such a disservice to the soldiers who risked everything to speak out, for our media to respond so poorly.
Knowing what is irrefutable now, what is our responsibility to the Afghan community and to Afghan-Australians? Where is the principle of care and community in our response? Why haven't resources been put aside to help them through this? Why haven't we heard from them directly?
If you work for a newspaper or broadcaster of any kind and you're not advocating for this, quit your fucking job.
Struggling not to give into despair tbh. My heart is breaking every day.
We've just been told by @GuardianAus that they don't "have the capacity right now" to publish Bobuq's excellent commentary on the fallout from the Brereton report. This is crap. I am cancelling my appearance for the Guardian's @wheelercentre event as well as any future promo.
I was also meant to do their Full Story podcast to promote the anthology, Fire Flood Plague, that features my essay. Not anymore. I am sick to death of this two-faced industry that tries to pretend it is progressive in the most superficial manner, while behaving in this way.
You're not going to throw my Afghan kin under the bus and then expect me to cape for you to sell some of your shit?? Everyone over there should be ashamed of themselves, you gutless cowards.
Here's the thing. I've worked in this industry for nearly 10 years now. I am an experienced writer and editor. I know what a piece needs in order to be publishable, and this article is relevant, well written, and presents fresh commentary from a voice we need to hear.
When there's no real reason, beyond political cowardice, you get that line about capacity. And I'm supposed to do what we always do in these situations and just swallow it, think of my career, whatever—not today. Fuck this.
We have the whitest and most conservative media in the world. It's an absolute farcical shitshow.
But then, I keep making the mistake of expecting better. https://twitter.com/joshuabadge/status/1332082434934857729?s=19
Do you know how tiring it is to be a brown Muslim in this country? Like. I regularly turn down offers to be on TV just because I dread the attacks that will come from more mainstream audiences. I tweeted a paragraph from a short story earlier this year and got death threats FFS.
And you know what endlessly bugs me?Beyond the fact that these are not situations that warrant this kind of response and it's routine shit? It's that people think we get ahead or get off on this. I'd be ten times as famous if I wasn't so endlessly drained and fucked over tbh
Point is, being tokenized and used as the occasional bit of diversity fluff is deeply dehumanising, and exhausting. It does not help us. I am not enjoying this. I'm going to log off now.
