Privilege.

There’s a lot of privilege that is associated with living in a country like Australia. A country that is considered to be ‘developed’ and part of the wealthier Global North cohort. Our health systems in this country are well developed, run relative smoothly and are universally free to access for the most part. For those of us Australians that came to this country within our own or our parents generation there is a lot to be thankful for. I’m extremely proud to be Australian, to be Victorian and this country has moulded certain parts of my identity that wouldn’t have been there had I not migrated here when I was little. I am grateful for so many things that this country has afforded me, but I am consistently reminded that the colour of my skin makes a minority and where there isn’t overt examples of racism that occurs around me, there is a lack of consideration of lived experience of people of colour in general.

I currently co-chair the Australian Council for International Development’s (ACFID) Racial Justice Community of Practice. Within this group we have often spoken about the microaggressions we are subjected to every single day of our existence either working within the international development space or within our personal lives. I remember trying to explain and name some of these incidences to a group of my colleagues, none of which were people of colour at the time, and watching as their faces remained the expressionless when they listened to my story. Some of them expressed their apologies but others could not grasp why these particular incidences were problems at all. It demonstrated to me that without lived experience, people who come from places of privilege cannot envision that such deep levels of discrimination exist. Whether that be of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia or anything else.

My thinking around all of this has been added to and I’ve found myself utterly triggered by groups of unvaccinated people claiming that the current vaccine mandates have created this ‘segregation’ and an ‘apartheid system’ which is discriminating against them. I’m wincing just typing this and the only thing that comes to mind is… ‘ohhhh the privilege’. Let me just remind everyone that segregation in the United States was an abhorrent systemic oppression that targeted people simply because they were born the wrong colour. These people were subjected to inhumane cruelty, violence, taunting and had their dignity stripped away from them because of their skin colour. Lynching was a particular weapon used against Black people, in most cases, to teach them a lesson. They were hung in the streets; they had their lives taken away from them because they weren’t white.

The system of apartheid in South Africa saw forcible evictions, state sponsored assassinations, weaponised racism and police and state brutality to the most unimaginable extremes. I think of people like Steve Biko, whose “I write what I like” quote I have tattooed on my foot. Steve Biko was Black Consciousness leader, an eloquent speaker and scholar. He led a movement in which he implored Black South Africans to educate themselves and use their knowledge as power. As a result Biko was systematically targeted and endured extreme levels of brutality from the state. He died at the age of 30 after being so brutally beaten by the police that he suffered brain haemorrhaging. Under the apartheid system being Black was enough to get you killed.

So I ask, how are these 2 cases comparable to anything related to vaccine mandates? Being unvaccinated is a choice; during times of segregation and under apartheid people did not choose to be coloured and therefore be vehemently discriminated against. It was never a choice and by people trying to connect these two it is undermining the weaponisation of racism. It is belittling the trauma of people of colour who survived these periods. It demonstrates coming from such a privileged position that one can’t see the difference between having the ability to make a choice and state sponsored racism, oppression and discrimination in which people were murdered on a daily basis because of the skin colour they were born into.

These people need to stop co-opting the struggles and the trauma of people of colour in order to try and validate their choice to not comply. You are not eligible to garner sympathy from me or anyone else because you are making a choice that is going to make your life slightly more difficult to lead. Again, you are choosing this. You have not been discriminated against because of your identity, you are being locked out of the economy, of parts of society because you are making a choice. One that puts the your own needs, over those of the majority. Oh it if it was only so easy for people who lived under segregation or Apartheid to wake up one morning and choose to be white. If only…..