PS: I read your op-ed in The Herald, and I guess I was amused but also sort of dismayed at people asking for political commentary on Indigenous folks from you.
CB: [sighs] Yeah, the response to that op-ed was interesting — they actually just called me yesterday, I owe them another one this weekend. But I was fresh off the boat at that point, and I had people from the left telling me that I wasn't critical enough of Australia at large because of all they've done to Indigenous people. And on the other side, on the right telling me, "Thank you for writing this. See? It's not that bad here for the Black population." And me in the middle saying, guys, there's an entire history here that I could not possibly be expected to negotiate in the three weeks since I got here. And that's not really the statement I was trying to make, but it was interesting that people across the spectrum were able to reflect their own views into it.
PS: I think that actually speaks to a central theme of the book, which is heightened expectations to toe the line perfectly in that liminal space — especially of tokens.
CB: Mmm.
![PS: I read your op-ed in The Herald, and I guess I was amused but also sort of dismayed at people asking for political commentary on Indigenous folks from you.
CB: [sighs] Yeah, the response to that op-ed was interesting — they actually just called me yesterday, I owe them another one this weekend. But I was fresh off the boat at that point, and I had people from the left telling me that I wasn't critical enough of Australia at large because of all they've done to Indigenous people. And on the other side, on the right telling me, "Thank you for writing this. See? It's not that bad here for the Black population." And me in the middle saying, guys, there's an entire history here that I could not possibly be expected to negotiate in the three weeks since I got here. And that's not really the statement I was trying to make, but it was interesting that people across the spectrum were able to reflect their own views into it.
PS: I think that actually speaks to a central theme of the book, which is heightened expectations to toe the line perfectly in that liminal space — especially of tokens.
CB: Mmm.](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/-Y6XiqT4UAOGd_LiVResenl0m4o/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2020/11/17/687/n/1922283/b7e27cd99d8bf445_GettyImages-1217797911/i/PS-I-read-your-op-ed-in-Herald-I-guess-I-was-amused-but.jpg "PS: I read your op-ed in The Herald, and I guess I was amused but also sort of dismayed at people asking for political commentary on Indigenous folks from you.
CB: [sighs] Yeah, the response to that op-ed was interesting — they actually just called me yesterday, I owe them another one this weekend. But I was fresh off the boat at that point, and I had people from the left telling me that I wasn't critical enough of Australia at large because of all they've done to Indigenous people. And on the other side, on the right telling me, \"Thank you for writing this. See? It's not that bad here for the Black population.\" And me in the middle saying, guys, there's an entire history here that I could not possibly be expected to negotiate in the three weeks since I got here. And that's not really the statement I was trying to make, but it was interesting that people across the spectrum were able to reflect their own views into it.
PS: I think that actually speaks to a central theme of the book, which is heightened expectations to toe the line perfectly in that liminal space — especially of tokens.
CB: Mmm.")
