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ANTAR is committed to combating racism in Australia through our advocacy for justice and respect. ANTAR believes that all peoples, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, have the right to live their lives free of racial discrimination. This is an established principle and right in international law and one that Australia formally adopted through ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The parliament passed the Racial Discrimination Act, which brings that Convention to life in Australia, in 1976.
ANTAR believes that a truth-telling process holds the key to addressing the prejudice that is experienced by the people that have the world’s oldest continuous culture. By engaging in open dialogue about the impact that previous government policies and practices have had on shaping the way Australia perceives non-western cultures, we begin to actively question biases and breakdown the structures which work to further marginalise communities. In doing so, we build confidence in calling out racism where it becomes easier to identify and establish a zero tolerance approach.
The Australian Reconciliation Barometer (ARB) 2022 report found that 60 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had experienced racial prejudice in the last 6 months, and 57 percent agreed that Australia is a racist country. Similarly, the Call It Out Interim Report 2022 identified that 35 percent of reports were people who had witnessed racism towards a First Nations person, with the top three types of racism relating to; negative attitudes or stereotyping; discrimination; and institutional racism. Reports of where racism occurred were primarily; in the workplace, in a commercial place; and online.
The Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies explains that there are significant differences in bias indicators that are due to the distinct historical and socio-cultural positioning of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within the context of settler-colonialism in Australia. These biases can be revealed through individual remarks being made based on visual appearances or negative stereotyping of a First Nations person or community. They can also be revealed through institutional policies and procedures which relate to the employment of First Nations people or matters which affect them or as a result of working within a specific space.
Identifying racism in public spaces, behind closed doors or online is made easier when you have the appropriate resources to do so. Some resources and tool kits can be found below which will be useful for both individuals and organisations to take the first step in confidently identifying when your friends, family members, peers and colleagues are experiencing racism or discrimination.
The 2022 Kep Enderby Memorial Lecture highlighted the growing rate at which racism occurs unmediated on social media platforms and the need for legislation to protect users from experiencing hate crimes which impact significantly on the wellbeing of individuals and communities. The lack of hate crime laws in Australia leaves the burden to seek justice for discrimination to the individual and fails to hold online platforms to account for policies which fail to provide any real protection or remedial actions.
Once racism or discrimination has been identified it is important that an intervention eliminates the likelihood of it recurring and also educates the perpetrator of the harm that their actions, words or policies cause, so that they or the organisation are able to address biassed attitudes, policies and procedures that impact others.
Calling out racism can come in many forms and there are instances where intervening in physical or online spaces may not be safe or appropriate, however, there are other ways that you may contribute to combating racism that is witnessed. Reporting an incident to the appropriate place can assist in identifying patterns that may be elicited from particular individuals, spaces, organisations or platforms. Data plays a significant role in identifying racism within our community and also guiding reform to policies which relate to racism. Reporting incidents when they occur contributes to data which represents the lived experiences of the Australian population. The Racism. It Stops With Me website provides a number of ways you can report incidents such as:
Other methods of reporting incidents of racism may include:
A key document in Australia that serves to protect people in Australia against discrimination and racial bias is the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (RDA). This particular document has been adopted in Australia to protect individuals against the harms of discrimination on the basis of race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin.
Despite attempts by parliamentarians and specifically the federal government’s attempt to repeal section 18C in 2014, a FairFax poll in March 2014 found that 88 per cent of people agreed that it should remain unlawful to offend or humiliate someone on the basis of their race. Whilst debate continues on the limitations that 18C poses to freedom of speech there remains consensus around the need for this section to maintain the ‘balance between freedom from racial vilification and freedom of speech’. Attempts to water down the Racial Discrimination Act threaten to increase the acceptability of discrimination and racism in Australia. Despite the existence of the RDA, the Australian Reconciliation Barometer 2022 report highlighted that racism continues to impact on the right to live a life free from racial discrimination.