"5000 people rioting and attacking swarthy individuals isn't racism, nudge nudge, wink wink."
SMHPrime Minister John Howard today refused to call Australians racist following the mob violence in Sydney.
But he said attacking people on their basis of their race was totally unacceptable.
He condemned incidents in which up to 5,000 people descended on North Cronulla Beach, chanting racist slogans and attacking people of Middle Eastern appearance.
The violence sparked apparent reprisal attacks late last night, with cars damaged at Maroubra Beach.
"Mob violence is always sickening," Mr Howard told reporters.
"Attacking people on the basis of their race, their appearance, their ethnicity, is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians irrespective of their own background and their politics," he said.
"I believe yesterday's behaviour was completely unacceptable but I'm not going to put a general tag (of) racism on the Australian community.
"I think it's a term that is flung around sometimes carelessly and I'm simply not going to do so."
Message understood.
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