There was a fight on the

railway station platform yesterday - or so I am told. My informant told me that a drunken aboriginal man was staggering along it. He was apparently in genuine danger of falling onto the tracks so someone caught hold of him. Then the "fun" started and there was a "fight" as he lashed out and called those who had gone to his aid, "F.... white bastards."

I am glad I was not there to witness the event but it made me wonder yet again about just who is responsible for what. I wondered who would have been held responsible if the police had been around - as they often are at the railways station.  It is all too likely that, if charges had been laid, the white men intervening would have been called out for "racism". The idea that they might actually have been doing their best to help would perhaps have been taken into consideration but they would almost certainly been asked if skin colour had anything to do with their actions.

And what would have happened to the aboriginal man. "F....white bastards" is a pejorative term is it not? If the word "black" rather than "white" had been inserted then wouldn't any reasonable person see it as "racist"? 

"They were just trying to help," the person telling me the story said. She had been shocked and a little frightened by the incident. "I know he was drunk but the way he was behaving was just going to make someone be racist."

 Before it eventually closed I had a long association with a school for children with cerebral palsy. All the children there were considered able to learn, some less and some more than others. They were all considered able to learn something of great importance - good manners. It was something the school was very, very particular about. When manners were being talked about there would often be a reminder that these students might need more physical help than other people. It was absolutely vital that they accepted help graciously, that they said "please" and "thank you", and that they made the effort to do as much as they could for themselves. 

It was an approach which worked. The students of that school have turned out to be fine citizens. All those with the physical an intellectual capacity found employment. In some cases it was "niche" employment in roles designed to suit them but many of them went into open employment. Those able to do it went on to further education, several went to university. Until the school closed they had an annual reunion. I was always invited even though I had not attended school there. The same level of good manners was on display at the reunions. 

I have heard horror stories of other reunions but these were always a way of getting together, of checking on each other for well being before social media took over our lives. They had grown to be the sort of people who would, given the capacity, have reached out to help the man on the railway station platform. 

Racism is abhorrent. I have been with friends when they have had racist insults and slurs directed at them and I know it hurts. It should not happen but there is the other side to the story too. There is a need to accept help graciously when it is needed and know how to decline it when you can do something on your own. There is absolutely no reason to hit out at help and call the would-be helper "f.... white bastard". That just makes it more difficult for people in the same position as yourself.