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A proud recently-diagnosed ADHD survivor and queer-adjacent settler on unceded Wurundjeri land is today furious that her ten years of language policing and hardcore identity politics have been completely undermined by literal Nazis calling for genocide in her apparently progressive city in broad daylight.
And what’s worse, this isn’t the first time these dangerous men have taken to the streets to advocate the same dangerous political ideologies that Australian diggers fought and died to prevent from reaching our shores in World War 2.
As an ardent opponent of problematic behaviour, Hazel Wyatt-Ileet (29) is today faced with an identity crisis. Not as one of the many Jewish or Transgender Victorians who are being forced to watch angry young fascists calling for their extermination in the middle of the city – but simply as a Melbourne resident, whose hometown is now undeniably the white supremacist capital.
A year after the state of Queensland quadrupled the number of Greens MPs in the Federal Lower House, it seems that Melbourne is now the home of deplorable bigotry that people like Hazel tried so hard to project onto uncultured Northern states.
“I’m just at a loss at what to do” says Hazel.
“I’m usually the first ally to throw myself in front of minorities to protect them from microaggressions and unconscious bias”
“But actual vilification and genocide… I don’t know how to approach this”
Prior to these displays of out-and-out Nazism in the streets of Melbourne, Hazel couldn’t imagine that Melbourne would have to contend with anyone more offensive than the Boomer university feminists who keep liking J.K Rowling’s tweets. But Nazis are a whole other level.
“The moment I found out they began their demonstration without observing an acknowledgement of country, I knew they were bad news”
“None of them have social media accounts. So we can’t report them to their employers. They are literally an underground community of white supremacists… I’d always accused people of this.. But I never thought I’d see it being proudly embraced in the middle of the city”
“To be honest. I kind of expected this from Queensland or like, rural New South Wales. But not in Naarm” says Hazel, while trying rather hard to insert ‘Naarm’ into another sentence without it looking forced.
“I’m not 100% certain, but I dare say most of them must’ve been shipped in from out of state. This kind of radical white supremacy can’t possibly be happening down here. Not in Naarm”
As Hazel points out, it’s almost impossible to find any online petitions calling for the end of Melbourne Nazi rallies in broad daylight, which makes being an activism quite difficult when you aren’t willing to throw any support behind the anti-fascist punks who chose to fight the Nazis with toxic masculinity.
“I guess all we can do is pretend there isn’t bigger issues and focus on the things we can change. Like the bathrooms signs at Monash Uni” says Hazel.
