Today’s Repulsive Bill Leak Cartoon Proves Racism Is Alive & Well In Oz

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Pedestrian TV

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Controversial Aussie cartoonist Bill Leak has put up today’s ‘Bleak View‘ cartoon and it is… horrifying. To say the least. 
In the image, a policeman is holding a young Aboriginal boy by the scruff of the neck in front of his father, and says “You’ll have to sit down and talk to your son about personal responsibility”. 
The father, who is holding a can that looks like VB, responds, “Yeah righto. What’s his name then?”.
Source: Bill Leak / The Australian.
One has to wonder where ‘The Australian’ considers the line to be crossed. At what point would an approving editor turn around and say, “Hmm, no… this is simply *too* racist”. Does that line even exist?
This incredibly blatant nod to racial stereotypes that Indigenous Australians have fought against for generations is likely referring to the current situation at the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre in Darwin. 
The detention centre was the subject of a report by ABC‘s ‘Four Corners‘, which showed footage of gross maltreatment and horrendous abuse of its teenage inmates, including one teenager being tear-gassed, being dragged and shackled, abused by guards, and restrained in a chair with a hood over his head. 
Don Dale houses a number of Aboriginal children who are being abused and mistreated by guards, but Leak’s cartoon relies on the gross cliché of ‘absent/unfit black fathers’ in order to place the blame on Aboriginal parents rather than the obvious culprit in this heartbreaking story: aggressive guards abusing their power. 
Plenty are stunned by Leak’s latest offering:

Leak is well-known for his conservative and and racist cartoons – he caused international fury back in December last year for a cartoon titled ‘Aid A La Mode’, which depicted Indian people eating solar panels. It was released as clear commentary on Paris Climate Conference, with Mahatma Gandhi‘s grandson and Indian politician Tushar Arun Gandhi calling it a “racist creation of uneducated arrogance”.
But Leak’s speciality is reducing Australia’s First People to devastating clichés that offend at least, harm and kill at most:

Yet Leak seems unwilling to accept that horrifically outdated and factually incorrect racial stereotypes are not fodder for his craft. 
Regardless of whether it’s a purposeful magnet for the anger of the Left – Leak seems neither funny nor clever enough to create that ruse – his scribble is in a mainstream, national newspaper seen by hundreds of thousands of people. 
And that can and will have great impact; racist ‘jokes’ have undeniable ability to harm minorities through perpetuated hatred.
Racism is alive and well in Australia, make no mistake about it. 
Source: Bill Leak / The Australian.

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