Racist slur claim in Australia

Background: The Liberal party in Australia really is concerned about individual liberty -- It is Australia's major conservative party.

"A Liberal Party operative has been accused of making a racist slur in the background of a press conference by Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell .

Mr Woolcock allegedly said "Chinese always ask for more money" as mainly Chinese parents at Hurstville Public School lobbied Mr O'Farrell for more funds for the school.

Channel Ten reporter Hamish Macdonald reported the remark on his blog. He described how Mr O'Farrell was approached on Wednesday by a group of Chinese parents who "half-jokingly" asked about "more money for the school". "[Mr Woolcock] leaned over to us, speaking quietly, and said, 'The Chinese always ask for more money,"' he wrote.

Mr Woolcock, a veteran of Liberal campaigns dating back to Malcolm Fraser, denies the remark. "He says he didn't say it, so that's the end of that," said a Liberal spokesman. "He's very experienced; he's not stupid …

The Australian Chinese Community Association of NSW said it was unfair to characterise the community as always asking for money. "I would describe the Chinese community as a very responsible citizen," association vice-president Phoebe Alexander said.

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If I said that NASCAR fans drink a lot of beer, would that be a slur or would it just be the truth?

Just because you make a generalization about some group it does not make it a slur.

I am a great admirer of the Han Chinese people but I still think that this is a true generalization: "Chinese tend to be bad drivers". They're not all bad drivers, obviously, but China does have about ten times the rate of road accidents that we have in the West.

As far as I can see, the test of a generalization should be its truth and nothing else. If I say false things about Chinese it could be racist or it could simply be mistaken. It is not racist simply because it is about Chinese.