# Blackness in transversal politics: taking space  
At this point in Australia's history, blackness is bound up with resisting whiteness, asserting a presence in Australian society, and creating positive black spaces. Across the examples discussed in this chapter, joining with other black people, despite the cultural and linguistic diversities that exist across communities, is important because of the overwhelming whiteness of Australian society. In some cases, the colour of the epidermis is considered significant because of the isolating experience of not seeing oneself reflected in the faces of the majority of the population or in Australian cultural production. Among Caribbean community members, for example, the desire to live near other black people is a choice some people have made in order to feel a greater sense of belonging in Australia (Binnie, quoted in Smith, 2014, p. 127). Aboriginal people have joined together in Fitzroy for similar reasons, and have, over time, created a community. Communities of the African diaspora have also expressed their connection to a local inner-city suburb in West Melbourne. In this suburb cultural diversity is the norm, constituted among others by the different African groups who live and socialize there. Some have described the place as feeling like Mogadishu; it is familiar and safe, and sometimes there is not a white face in sight (Oke, Sonn and McConville).