University of Western Australia (UWA) researchers surveyed 513 people at the Australia Day fireworks by Perth's Swan River last year to see if flag flying and racism were linked, Perth Now reports.
Of 102 people who had flags on their cars, 43 percent agreed that the "White Australia Policy" had saved Australia from problems suffered by countries elsewhere.
Only 25 percent of people who didn't fly flags agreed with the statement, UWA sociologist and anthropologist Farida Fozdar found.
The White Australia Policy was an unofficial government strategy that barred non-Europeans from migrating to Australia until it was scrapped after World War II.
The survey also found 56 percent of flag flyers feared for Aussie culture, compared to 34 percent of non-flag flyers.
And 35 percent of flag flyers thought people had to be born in Australia to be "true Australians", compared with 22 percent of non-flag flyers.
re: Aussies who fly Aussie flags 'more racist' (karma: 6)en>frfr>en By Bat2 Comments: 2247, member since Wed May 25, 2011
On Mon Jan 23, 2012 07:37 PM
Nationalism is necessary to a degree to maintain a nation's identity, but can get out of hand. I wonder what the standard is to call flag wavers "racists". The word is so tired that it has lost any meaning.
Edited by Lord_Haw_Haw (82577) on 2012-01-23 23:10:08
Bat2 wrote:
Nationalism is necessary to a degree to maintain a nation's identity, but can get out of hand. I wonder what the standard is to call flag wavers "racists". The word is so tired that it has lost any meaning.
there are ways to display nationalism, such as bringing cultural artifacts from home
