Shouts from the desert

Some UNSW academics have released a map of Sydney showing the areas where people are "tolerant" and "intolerant".

I do not like the word "tolerant", because it implies to me that there is some burden to be endured. I do not believe that treating people of all cultures fairly entails a burden, so I prefer the term "accepting" - I describe those who others call "tolerant" of other cultures as people who are "accepting of difference".

The map reveals something that surprised me - the Ryde area, which forms the bulk of the Bennelong electorate, is in the "less accepting" (below average) category. My area - Epping (just south of Beecroft) - falls in the "accepting" (above average) category.

Perhaps this explains something I had never noticed as significant before - the Bennelong Friends of Refugees is based in Epping. They have their meetings in an Epping bookshop, and their most active members are in Epping and neighbouring Carlingford. Could it be that the north-western tip of Bennelong is an island of accepting people in an electorate that otherwise falls on the racist side of average?