Stan Grant - 'Can an Aborigine be a Smiths fan? I can be whatever I damn like'

[Graham2001]

This article is one I find myself agreeing with. I find that identity politics does more to hinder the dealing with issues like racism and sexism than help.

That I am an Indigenous person is a fact of birth: my father is a Wiradjuri man from central and south-west NSW; my mother is from the Kamilaroi people of the state's north-west. That is who I am but not all I am. The reality is more ambiguous, defying easy definition even as I may prefer to cloak it in a veil of certainty. To borrow from Franz Kafka, identity is a cage in search of a bird.

....

But I have grown from the boy I was and my country has grown from the land it was. Can I truly see privilege as "white"? Is it "black" to suffer crippling disadvantage? If these things are true, then I am assuredly "white."

I am an Australian, with all the privilege that brings. I am in the highest-earning category in the country, I live in a nice house, I have a good car, I can eat out and not bother to check the bill; my children have been to the best schools money can buy, not just in Australia but around the world. I have had a career that has allowed me to realise all my dreams.

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/comment-stan-grant-can-an-aborigine-be-a-smiths-fan-i-can-be-whatever-i-damn-like/ar-AAkqVXo?li=AAgfLCP