Anti-Immigrant Prejudice in 1950s Australia: Greasy | Chapter 6 | Razor-Wire Round Our Hearts

How can one word mean both "Socrates" and "suspicious"? In Chapter 6 of RAZOR-WIRE ROUND OUR HEARTS, a ten-year-old in 1955 Armidale watches the owner of the Athena Cafe arrive for Sunday lunch. He is a stately, gracious man, and her parents treat him as an honoured guest. And yet he is Greek. Her father is a Classics professor who loves ancient Greek above all things. She knows that democracy, philosophy and the great stories all stand on Greek foundations. But the everyday Australian world has taught her a very different set of words, and they have slipped into her anyway. Then a sister shares a buried piece of family history: the insult once thrown at their own father, a dark-haired barrister courting their mother in 1930s Sydney. If he could be labelled that brutally, what did real newcomers endure? The chapter closes with a warning from history, and from the news. IN THIS CHAPTER A Greek cafe owner, a Sunday lunch and a child caught between two worlds Greek myths at home, prejudice at the pictures The "New Australians" and the welcome they didn't get Olive oil, dripping and the food of suspicion A family insult from the 1930s Why wounded pride can harden into rage, and why history asks us to be careful CONTENT NOTE This chapter quotes ethnic slurs and "jokes" from 1950s Australia to show how prejudice was passed on. It includes a brief reference to the Christchurch mosque attack. It is told in the spirit of truth-telling. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 0:00 Chapter 6: "Greasy..." 0:00 The man from the Athena Cafe 0:00 Greek: Socrates or suspect? 0:00 The sign on the shop 0:00 New Australians at the pictures 0:00 Olive oil and dripping 0:00 A family secret 0:00 A warning PLAYLIST Previous: Chapter 5, "The other" [link] Next: Chapter 7, "Beginning to see" [link] Full playlist, every chapter in order: [link to playlist] ABOUT THE BOOK Razor-Wire Round Our Hearts is a memoir of race, love and reconciliation, moving from 1960s Australia to Kathmandu and back again. Its message: truth-telling can help set us free. Get the book: [link] Author website: [link] Follow: [Instagram] [Facebook] [TikTok] If this chapter moved you, please like, share and subscribe, and tell me in the comments: what was the first word you were taught to be wary of, and who taught it to you? Acknowledgement: This chapter is set on Anaiwan Country. We pay respect to Elders past and present. #RazorWireRoundOurHearts #Memoir #MigrantStories