{"id":375,"date":"2006-08-30T06:53:15","date_gmt":"2006-08-29T20:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=375"},"modified":"2007-05-11T14:42:18","modified_gmt":"2007-05-11T04:42:18","slug":"andrew-fraser-sorry-for-racist-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=375","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Fraser “sorry” for racist remarks…"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

…the fucking liar.<\/p>\n

‘Academic sorry for racist remarks’<\/a>
\nAlyssa Braithwaite
\nAugust 30, 2006
\n[AAP]<\/p>\n

A SYDNEY academic who created a racial furore by claiming African refugees were linked to high crime rates has apologised for his comments.<\/p>\n

Macquarie University Associate Professor Andrew Fraser sparked the racial controversy in June last year when his letter making the remarks was published in local newspaper, the Parramatta Sun<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The university subsequently suspended him from teaching after he made further comments about Sudanese refugees and non-white immigration.<\/p>\n

Safi Hareer<\/em> from the Sudanese Darfurian Union<\/strong> sought a public apology from… Fraser in a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission<\/a><\/strong> (HREOC<\/strong>), saying the academic’s letter had breached the Racial Discrimination Act<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

[Fraser] received a letter from HREOC<\/strong> president John von Doussa<\/a><\/em> in April saying his comments were unlawful, and rejecting the professor’s submission that the letter held academic merit.<\/p>\n

Mr von Doussa invited [Fraser] to a HREOC<\/strong> conciliation with Mr Hareer, urging him to apologise for the letter.<\/p>\n

At the time [Fraser] said an apology \u201cwas out of the question\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Mr Hareer’s lawyer, George Newhouse<\/em>, said [Fraser] had apologised to his client and the matter had been settled.<\/p>\n

A public apology will also be published in the Parramatta Sun<\/em> newspaper today.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter mediation, [Fraser] agreed to apologise to Mr Hareer and to the Sudanese community in Australia,\u201d Mr Newhouse said.<\/p>\n

Mr Newhouse said [Fraser] had acknowledged that he had hurt fellow Australians.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew Fraser has apologised for his hurtful statements and Safi Hareer has accepted his apology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Mr Hareer) was really pleased that two people with different views could sit down and discuss and resolve their differences in a human way, man to man.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll credit to [Fraser] for apologising, and I’m glad it was done without going to court because really, no-one wants to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Fraser] could not be contacted last night.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not unexpectedly, news of Fraser’s ‘apology’ has been greeted on Scumfront<\/a><\/strong>, Fraser’s strongest supporter, with some dismay — and this appraisal by James Newman<\/a><\/em>, the bonehead who videoed the Cronulla riots, added a Skrewdriver<\/strong> soundtrack, then uploaded it to the site:<\/p>\n

As [Fraser] said<\/strong> at the [Sydney Forum<\/a><\/strong>]… He apologized for hurting any thin-skinned people who may have been offended [by his remarks,] but still believes that importing [sic<\/em>] large numbers of blacks to Australia is a sure fire way [to] increase… crime and other social problems. [This] they can[‘]t deny because it is the truth[.] That[‘]s why they never took him to court because they knew they would lose. [Fraser] said<\/strong> they could do what they liked with the apology[,] but there is no way he would [pay] to have it printed in the media.<\/p>\n

This is nothing but spin from that dog Newhouse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As usual, the bonehead in question gets it arse-backwards: if Fraser “apologized”, it was likely because he<\/em> estimated that, if it went to court, he<\/em> would lose. Still, the bonehead’s account is useful if for no other reason than it demonstrates the (in)sincerity of Fraser’s “apology”.<\/p>\n

Further, the fact is Fraser has been very active since June 2005, the date of publication of his racist letter<\/a> to the Parramatta Sun<\/em>, reportedly a result of Fraser’s “…seeing a photograph of a Sudanese child” in the paper. “Associate Professor Fraser wrote to the newspaper saying ‘an expanding black population is a sure-fire recipe for increases in crime, violence and a wide range of other social problems’.”<\/p>\n

Indeed, according to the Canadian<\/em>-born Fraser in an interview with Ray Martin<\/em> on ACA<\/strong> (July 17, 2005), the ‘typical’ Australian<\/em> is and should be “the sun-bronzed, blonde, blue-eyed Aussie. That is what brought me down here. That is what, I would say, brought many people down here, the belief that what was really attractive about Australia, was that it was populated by [sun-bronzed, blonde, blue-eyed] Australians”.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Soon afterwards, Fraser’s membership of and status as ‘legal adviser’ to the (now largely defunct) Patriotic Youth League<\/a><\/strong> (PYL<\/strong>) were exposed (‘Top academic accused of neo-Nazi links’, The Australian<\/em>, July 20, 2005); his lying protestations to the contrary undermined by Melbourne resident Luke Connors<\/a><\/em> of the PYL<\/strong>. One measure of Connors’ character may be found in the same email in which Fraser’s status was revealed: “Mr Connors said he had conducted an online poll asking PYL members to identify the most troublesome minority in their area: ‘abos, curry munchers, wogs or chinks?'”.<\/p>\n

Following his refusal to have his contract bought out by the University (Fraser was due to retire in June this year) and then being suspended<\/a> from teaching duties, Fraser had his essay ‘Rethinking the White Australia Policy’ — Fraser’s Big Idea is a return to a White Australia — rejected by Deakin University for inclusion in the Deakin Law Review<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Denounced as a racist and a shoddy academic, as a show of support for Fraser, the fascist Australia First Party<\/a><\/strong> (of which the PYL<\/strong> was its nominal youth wing) organised a rally on October 8th, 2005 outside Kirribilli House. Led by the neo-Nazi criminal Dr. James Saleam<\/a><\/em>, AFP<\/strong> could only manage to attract a handful of protesters: the bulk of Fraser’s support was generated by racists and fascists on sites such as Scumfront<\/strong>. Still, one good turn deserves another, and in February 2006, Fraser travelled to Virginia in the United States to address the White supremacist 2006 American Renaissance Conference<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After having been informed in April 2006 by HREOC<\/strong> that, in their opinion, his original letter was illegal, Fraser declared that he was unwilling to ‘apologise’. According to Greg Roberts (‘No apology for linking Africans to crime’, The Australian<\/em>, April 4, 2006):<\/p>\n

In a landmark ruling that raises fresh questions about the limits to which academics can engage in public debate, HREOC<\/strong> chairman John von Doussa has found Professor Fraser’s comments were unlawful because they amounted to a “sweeping generalisation” that was not backed by research…<\/p>\n

But Professor Fraser told The Australian<\/em> he would not apologise to anyone.<\/p>\n

“Even those who disagree with me should be appalled at this attack on the freedom of academic debate”,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This gives the lie to all those politicians who’ve claimed that racial hatred legislation would not curb freedom of expression in Australia”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After having denied<\/em> the offer of a free ticket to one of Rain Pryor’s performances at the Melbourne Comedy Festival<\/strong>, Fraser accepted<\/em> the opportunity to cite the convicted neo-Nazi criminal Ben Weerheym<\/em> in his essay ‘Rethinking the White Australia Policy’. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Finally, last weekend Fraser addressed the fascist Sydney Forum<\/strong>, an address which may, in turn, have been a way of saying ‘thanks’ to AFP<\/strong> following their ‘action’ in support of Fraser at the Sydney office of George Newhouse on July 26.<\/p>\n

And now<\/em> he’s sorry?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…the fucking liar. ‘Academic sorry for racist remarks’ Alyssa Braithwaite August 30, 2006 [AAP] A SYDNEY academic who created a racial furore by claiming African refugees were linked to high crime rates has apologised for his comments. Macquarie University Associate … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-fascism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-63","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}