The "unwritten rules of multiculturalism"

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When I was a kid my dad used to take me on long camping trips, usually in western NSW. We’d drive for 4-500 kilometres each day, set up camp outside some tiny town, and do it all again the next day. At the time I sulked a lot because I wanted to be at home playing Runescape, but besides a loathing for Steely Dan (we listened to a lot of Steely Dan) my memories of these trips have gotten a lot fonder over time.

On one of these trips we went out to eat at the local Chinese restaurant one night. I don’t even remember where we were — Moree maybe? — but you know the kind of place. Sweet and sour pork. Salt and pepper squid. Mongolian lamb. Big lion statues out the front. A name like ‘Golden Dragon’ in wonton font. Places like that have carried regional towns on their backs since the war.

As we were waiting for our food I started eavesdropping on the people at the next table over — not eavesdropping really because they were pretty loud. They were four older people, all white, and the topic at hand was how the Chinese were taking over Australia. It went on right up until the waitress brought over their fried rice and spring rolls. Without skipping a beat, they all beamed up at her and started gushing about how much they loved Chinese food.

I thought of those people while wading through the latest outpouring of racist hysteria about Fatima Payman in Australian media outlets. I wrote about this on Friday, but over the weekend another cohort of professional opinion-havers gave themselves nightmares imagining a nonexistent Muslim-interest political party that will apparently destroy Australian multiculturalism, electoral democracy, and Western civilisation.