As Sydney enters ever tighter lockdown restrictions for longer periods of time, it has become increasingly obvious that the NSW State Government has a different approach to combating the virus depending on the economic class of people whom it is showing up in.
Three weeks ago, when a few Delta variant cases were discovered in Bondi the NSW Government decided that instead of locking down the area immediately that they would respond “proportionately”. By "proportionately" we now know that that meant doing squat all and allowing people to buy things at Prada and Gucci. Right wing conservatives in the media cheered them on as the lie was kept up that the NSW Government would try and contain the outbreak with contact tracing. They didn’t. Instead, once the virus jumped the famed "Red Rooster Line" in Sydney, that meant that the authoritarians in the government could have a field day.
If the there are positive cases of the virus in the Eastern Suburbs and richer areas, then the solution is to get private school children vaccinated as quickly as possible; including if that means that they jump the queue, such as was the case at St Joseph's College and an unnamed girl's school. But if there are positive cases of the virus in the Western Suburbs and in poorer areas, then the solution is increased policing, fines to be handed out and even police brutality for the lucky few.
The messaging to the general population is vastly different. For cases in the Eastern suburbs it becomes "We need to balance stopping COVID with avoiding imposition on people. Buying bath towels is essential."
However, for cases in the Western suburbs it becomes "We are launching a major police operation. If you have food, don't leave the house."
Very classist messaging is very often followed by racist messaging because one of the things that the Enlightenment gave us along with the ideas of freedom, liberty, and human rights, is the idea that there is a socio-political order based upon physical difference.
Although the media might not be conscious of the fact, I keep on hearing the phrase "multicultural communities in western Sydney" from the media when the expression that they should be reaching for is "people in western Sydney". How come the media never speaks about “multicultural communities in Eastern Sydney"? I suspect that "multicultural communities in Eastern Sydney" don't exist until those people happen to own and operate ethnic restaurants; in which case they then become part of the rich tapestry of society.
On the other side of The Red Rooster Line, those multicultural communities magically seem to become ghettos and enclaves according to the media. Suddenly they don't want to assimilate into society and are othered by the media. That othering by the media then translates into people spouting racist claptrap in the comments section of newspapers and media outlets' YouTube channels.
Admittedly a lockdown is a good idea but only because of the gross incompetence of both the Federal and State Governments and especially the Federal Government's dereliction of duty when it comes to matters of quarantine, vaccination rollout and ironically, border protection.
Sydney's Western Suburbs do not need extra police patrolling the streets. It needs Doctors and Pop-Up clinics who can administer the vaccine. That of course means actually ordering and delivering the vaccine instead of merely announcing it. Telling me that I have been booked in for a vaccination on September 23 is kind of a bit late with respect to the current lockdown in July.
What Sydney's Western Suburbs do not need are to be made scapegoats for a failure in Government policy. I now know of at least four cases where the media has hounded someone for getting the virus. I find that incredibly knavish when we know that this current outbreak was started by an unnamed entitled darling who lives in the Eastern Suburbs.
If this current Delta variant outbreak of the virus has taught us anything it is that the media who have employees who predominantly come from the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, don't really see us who live West of the Red Rooster Line as worthy of respect or perhaps even as human. There is definitely class warfare going on and the side of the city who controls the media are winning.
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