What are you talking about man ? I’m not going to go into it … but race has nothing to do with anything other than they were the foundations for the rival gangs . You had 5t , Assyrian Kings , the Lebanese crime gangs that were running amok out of inner western Sydney . It lead to racial tensions , which boiled over once the skaf thing happened .
Then you also had Serb v cro brawls for what reason ? I dunno I’m not from there.
The jumping off point was the heroin shortage in Cabramatta lead to rival gangs especially around Fairfield and Cabramatta fighting for territory , which then obviously fed to Bankstown etc. a lot of those early gangs then went on to form and join bikie gangs .
There was constant brawls and violence and dudes getting stabbed and trolley polled , beatings , kids getting rolled.
You could avoid it ,, sure , but for some of us it was unavoidable .
And man you have zero idea what background I am ? Or anything about me .
Racial tensions were extremely high around the 2000-2004 mark in west Sydney . Everybody clinged to it like a badge of honour , and it led to all kinds of really bullshit from anyone between the ages of 16-25. Once the Cronulla thing happened and the fallout of that , the police took control and yea . I don’t really know post 2004 , as I left and wasn’t in Sydney anymore.
But it seems to have simmered down a lot , and I feel most people consider themselves Australian / whatever background they are . Which is a huge step from when I was a kid where you had 75% Anglo and 25% whatever , and they’d claim the whatever , because it was far more socially acceptable , and less likely to bring you trouble .
I’m happy that 25 years on everyone is becoming integrated , but that doesn’t change the fact at one point just prior to the olympics and a few years after , shit got out of hand with the racial politics in Sydney. Which definitely 💯 started with the heroin shortage of the late 90s.
Because at the time 70% of junkies were Anglo , because 70% of the country was . I mean I could go right into it … because for me it’s not anecdotal . It wasn’t just this thing happening . It yea it’s an interesting time in history .
And to my original point as an early 40s man , I wonder how much of that “I hate this shit hole, I can’t wait to leave “ mentality still exists . Because it definitely existed when I was a kid . And I spent a lot of time around different people from Liverpool through c town , through playing rep footy , socially , cousins etc .
