I am like my paternal grandfather politically and socially. He established the CSIR (later CSIRO) in Katherine, Northern Territory, in 1946 and lived there until 1955. He and my grandmother were kind to Aboriginal families and befriended the butcher and his wife (his wife was Malaysian, and she'd come over to work and fell in love while here. When her visa was going to expire, she married him, and they had a daughter. Their daughter was my father's age and his playmate, and she used to ask him why she was darker, and guess what his response, as a little boy was. "Don't go out in the sun as much."). Before that, he was in Darwin for 27 bombing raids, and in 1955, he and my grandmother and my father, aunty and uncle, hosted a Japanese American businessman and his wife. My grandfather was asked if he was anti-Japanese, and he said, "One dropped a bomb that exploded 50 feet from where I was standing, and if I saw him today, I'd say, "You were a crook shot," but other than that, no." I have met some lovely people from all over the world, and some horrible ones, too.

I am autistic, and so was my grandmother and I think my grandfather had some traits (he liked the quiet, he was knowledgeable).

Autism is NEVER an excuse for racism, but I say that most autistic people are not racist. There is no excuse for racism, not even fighting against the Japanese in the war or serving in the Vietnam War is an excuse for it.