The gap between Xmas and the first Monday after NYE is an important break for many. A time to reflect in the old year and prepare ourselves for the new.

For many Indigenous ppl the period of rest and reflection is especially important because January in Australia is a dumpster fire of politicised racism, animosity and being misunderstood and misrepresented, often accompanied by actual fires across the nation.

This year was period of respite was stolen, not just by the announcement of a ‘new anthem’ or those who have fawned over it, but by those who seem to think that such gestures represent a ‘small step in the right direction’ rather than recognising a slap in face when they see one.

The gesture itself is hollow and pointless and frustrating, but the realisation of how many people are on board with it, or how many people have zero idea why many Indigenous people are pissed about it, is a bit overwhelming... even tho we already knew it to be true.

Even tho we know well what Dr Perkins told us, that we are forever to be thrown crumbs off the white man’s tables and told be grateful, it was overwhelming to be t-boned by the warm indifference and misguided solutions of white moderates while we were trying to catch our breath.

Even tho right wing violent extremism is ever on the rise it is, as MLK wrote, the white moderate who remains our greatest stumbling block... those are ‘more devoted to "order" than to justice’;

The one ‘who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;"’

Those ‘who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom’

“Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection”

Those who would call themselves our ally, who are quick to include the true owners of the stolen lands they live on in their bio, are also among the first to police Indigenous identity, or to accuse of ‘setting back the cause 100 years’ when we do not say ‘thanks for the crumbs!’

Those who say we should be grateful and not bicker that ‘young’ is now ‘one’, and that ‘closing the gap will take as long to close as it did to create’, who tell us that we must smile and be polite in the face of white moderate racism if we ‘want to achieve true reconciliation’.

Those who, anytime they are pulled up by an Indigenous person for doing something problematic, scream and shout about how they have ‘supported Indigenous causes since the 1967 referendum’ but now ‘will never support anything Indigenous ever again!’

Those who justify trolling Indigenous people they disagree with as not being racist because they ‘support real Indigenous people, not fake ones’ and sleep well at night knowing they can’t be racist anyway as once in 1996 they had an Aboriginal friend for 5min at a dinner party...

Last night I had one such white moderate accuse me of perpetuating ‘us and them’ discourse, which I do, but the ‘us and them’ I care about is ‘those who fight for Indigenous rights’ and ‘those who are in the way’... there is no fence to sit on here, you are either ‘us’ or ‘them’.

White moderates and white supremacists alike are both in the way, and that is not to say they are both the same, but it is to say that they are both active and persistent stumbling blocks on the path to Indigenous rights and freedoms.