I was told it's racist to suggest people of various ancestry could choose their "race." I was told to my astonishment that my views on this issue were unlawful. I do not want to go through any more legal nightmares, so will not comment on today's report in The Australian: Ngambri elder Shane Mortimer... had no inkling of his own aboriginality until early middle age. The son of a successful engineer, he'd enjoyed a "life of privilege" growing up in Sydney's north; weekends were spent at the Ku-ring-gai Motor Yacht Club, or game fishing, or ice-skating. At the age of 34, when he was living in Manly and working as a theatre publicist, he was looking one day at a family photo album with his wife when she mentioned that his Aunty Vi looked Aboriginal. No, he said, my mum's side are of Pacific Islander stock. But it piqued his curiosity, and led him to the Office of Aboriginal Affairs, where he discovered an amazing thing: a maternal line going back to his great-great-great-grandmother Ju Nin Mingo, who was born to a Ngambri woman and pastoralist James Ainslie in 1827. There are important points to make about this, in my opinion, particularly since they involve matters of public policy. But our absurd laws against free speech make it too dangerous to make those points. How dangerous are those laws? Well, ask Mortimer: POOR Don Aitkin.The former University of Canberra vice-chancellor never dreamed they'd come for him, too. He never imagined a fair-skinned man in a possum cloak would front him and say hoy, I'm an Aborigine offended by your racist "slur" about my complexion. Hand over $6 million... So Aitkin will now take my place in the dock for allegedly breaching the same law in the same kind of way, by wondering on his blog why Shane Mortimer was harping on about being an Aboriginal elder and performing "welcome to country" ceremonies in Parliament House, when his looks suggested he also had many ancestors from other ethnicities and cultures. "He looks about as Aboriginal as I do, and his constant references to his ancestors make me scratch my head," wrote Aitkin. I admit that before the Federal Court washed my mind and reprogrammed it, I might have said the same. In fact, I did. But now I know better. Now I know such stuff breaches the law and could get you accused in court of sharing the ideology of the Nazis who drew up the Nuremberg race laws. Now I know such opinions are considered genocidal - likely to make young, pale-skinned children too terrified to say "I'm Aboriginal, too." Now I weep for Mortimer, who wails that judging his Aboriginality by the colour of his skin "treats me contemptuously, disrespectfully and offensively." Thanks to reader Kevin.