Sequence 4 | Source: Cronulla Riots — reaction to ‘Life-savers’ incident
Conflict over territory is not unusual in male youth cultures, but the popular media, notably tabloid newspapers and talk-back radio, spent the following week exaggerating the numbers involved, the brutality of the attack, the extent of injuries, and the frequency of such events, and racialising all of these as aspects of the inherent criminality and deviant masculinity of Lebanese-Australian young men. The process spiralled into a classic moral panic, and numerous moral entrepreneurs called for a crackdown on ‘Middle Eastern’ thugs.
Source: Scott Poynting in Greg Noble (Editor) (2009) Lines in the sand: the Cronulla riots, multiculturalism and national belonging, The Institute of Criminology Press, Chapetr 3, page 45. Republished with permission.
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