'Community's anger spills over'

The Age has published an article about how Kevin Andrews comments about Africans have given permission for people to bash Sudanese:

Youth leader Paul Bor Gatwech said said the minister's comments had given others licence to attack Sudanese people. He said an apology from Mr Andrews would help quell community fears that Sudanese-born migrants were being targeted.
Yesterday Mr Andrews was standing by his remarks on Sudanese refugees. A spokeswoman for the minister said: "Funerals are a very emotional time and the minister stands by his comments."

The full article is here.

Counter SMS campaigns

Kitty sent me this on Wednesday morning:

C mon Melbourne lets spread the message that Aussies of middle eastern appearance ARE welcome here!
forward.

I forwarded it on, then realised half the people I sent it to were actually in the Western district, or interstate. By the time I had gotten to work one of the people had already sent it on to one of my workmates whose number I didn't have myself.
Also, just read about this:

We don't have a racism problem!

John Howard said yesterday 'I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country.'. Lucky he said that, otherwise I would've had the wool pulled over my eyes, good and proper.
In case you're in a different country and haven't heard about it, the weekend before last some Australians, who looked Middle-Eastern, bashed some lifeguards at Cronulla beach, in Sydney.
During the week text messages were sent between Australians of Caucasian ancestry, telling each other to take revenge against 'Lebs and Wogs'.
At least 5000 Caucasians turned up at the beach on Sunday. Various white-supremacist organisations were present, including the Patriotic Youth League. Many had t-shirts saying things like 'Wog Free Zone' and 'Ethnic Cleansing Unit'.
They assaulted several people who looked Middle-Eastern or Southern-European. They also attacked police and ambulance officers who were trying to get Australians of Middle-Eastern and Southern-European appearance out of the area safely.
Luke Connors from the Patriotic Youth League said, 'I have had people calling me all through yesterday, and today, and all through the night, just asking me when Melbourne is going to erupt in riots because they want to go and join in.'
And all this time they've been trying to get us worried about terrorists of Middle-Eastern origin.
But I'm glad the PM has cleared everything up. I was worried for a moment.