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“When I look at the corridors of power, whether it be politics, the public service CEOs, boards, the media, there are so few people that look like me and most of us in this room.”
A powerful statement spoken by Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Giri Sivaraman.
He’s speaking at a conference held by the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia in Brisbane.
A report from the group, commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Commission, has uncovered stories of racism and discrimination from across the country.
Carlo Carli is the Chairperson of the Federation and says the results show the need for a comprehensive anti-racism strategy has never been stronger.
“The thing that we really did notice about the report and the 860 interviews is the tolerance that people have for racism, and we’re talking about the victims of racism, they are silent, and that is the thing that we really need to confront. We do not want it to be silent, we want it to be out in the open and we can deal with it.”
Along with interviewing people from diverse and marginalised communities, the Federation ran an online survey asking people what they thought about racism.
They received more than 400 responses, with more than half of respondents born overseas.
The results found people’s main concern was systemic racism – which they said occurred mostly in the workplace.
Beyond that, people also shared experiences of systemic racism at health services, schools, and when interacting with police.
The report also found governments and the media are culpable of further marginalising people through a culture of silence.
Chandri Kantaria is a frontline healthcare worker.
She says she’s experienced racism since the beginning of her career.
“I’ve been a healthcare worker for 10 years and I have experienced racism in many forms, including racial slurs and people not wanting me to treat them. I think when you’ve encountered racism many times you become very fragile and more receptive to microaggressions that exist in your daily environment.”
Sociologist Aaron Teo says many experiences have been driven by recent global events including overseas conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Teachers in these spaces face forms of interpersonal racism from students as well. So, for instance being called the virus during COVID-19. So, what this sort of resulted in was really this hypervigilance in a lot of cases during covid, particularly around the fear of being discriminated against even if it didn’t actually happen.”
The report found that racism is widespread across Australian society and impacts people of various ages, faiths, sexualities and cultural backgrounds.
It’s also often experienced at the same time as other forms of discrimination including disability or sex discrimination.
In total, the report made 11 recommendations including calling on the federal government to lead change through a national anti-racism framework.
“I am truly hoping that it is bipartisan support that we get for this national anti-racism framework because racism affects everyone, doesn’t matter who you vote for, racism is going to affect you. So we want, and everyone should want for our society to be better and more equitable and to have more respect and dignity.”
The report will influence the national anti-racism framework that the Human Rights Commission will to hand to the government in November.
