A foreign man standing over a lone female surfer on a secluded Australian beach and wanting to sit next to her has sparked criticism of mass immigration.
A woman who was passing by took a photo of the man, who is of Indian subcontinental appearance, as he spoke to the local at on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast earlier this summer.
The bikini-clad surfer also filmed the interaction but later deleted it after social media users accused her of being racist, even though she did not say anything about the man’s background and only asked why he wanted to sit next to her while the whole beach was empty.
The photo was sent to the surfer and later shared on Instagram, where many Aussies said it was disgraceful that the woman had been abused and blamed for sharing her experiences, and said there was a growing problem with recently arrived immigrants not understanding Australian beach culture.
“You can call me racist I don’t care, this is unacceptable desperate behaviour. I don’t care what colour you are, what nationality you are, this kind of desperate behaviour is unacceptable in our culture,” one woman wrote.
“Last summer I was sunbaking at Lorne Beach next to my family in a one-piece bathing suit, my straps were down but I wasn’t bare-chested and a north African elder man with other males walked right by me and stood next to me starring long enough for me to realise I was now suddenly laying in shade!” said another.
“They made me feel like I was laying bare-chested. Really low-level uncivilised type of behaviour.”
“It’s the beach, we’re red-blooded males. Window shopping is one thing. But you don’t stand over a woman or even stare and make her uncomfortable,” one man wrote.
Header image: The man speaking to the surfer (supplied).
