The Wog

To those who are not familiar with the term “Wog”, it is a colloquial term for someone who is an immigrant to Australia, and can be extended to the children of said people. It is usually a derogatory term used to express bigotry toward your heritage. It is in some way, a way to make you feel inferior to those who were born here and have blood lines that extend to England. Due to my olive skin, brown eyes and black hair, I am branded with this title form time to time. My father is an immigrant and my grandparents on my mother’s side did too. Had I not inherited the Mediterranean complexion, and more the “Arian” of my mother’s side, people would not have a clue to my heritage. It is usually during the winter months that I find trouble as I still appear tanned.

When growing up as a child I was feared to be deaf because I didn’t speak. It was ruled out because I would do as I was asked. However, I would be asked to do things in three different languages, all of which I still understand and two of which I can speak fluently now. With immigrant parents you are exposed to cultures that extend for thousands of years. They are the product of them, passed down by countless generations but you are on your own. You don’t belong to one or the other and have to find a compromise to satisfy all of them, a perpetual world of understanding without belonging and continually judged on things that were not of your choosing.

I had been recently called a “Wog”. The distaste of this label was exasperated by the person calling me it. Here I was confronted by a person that had not worked a day in their life. Their only claim to being Australian was the fact that they had been born here and had family ties to convicts. A person who had health issues because of their obesity and lifestyle. A person who’s self obsession is their self and that everyone around them is inferior to them. I get called this, when this person knows, I have represented and served for this country. I have worn its uniform and stood accountable with my life for it. I have earned everything I have ever owned and my title of being Australian.