I was at an event over the weekend where a conversation occurred between two white women which went something like this:
WW1: “Hello, my name is so and so, nice to meet you, where do you live?”
WW2: “I live in x suburb”
WW1: “Oh that’s a lovely area”
WW2: “Well it used to be before the influx of Afghans, the only thing missing now is the camels”
WW1: “Oh”
WW2: ‘I’m not racist though….”
In that particular moment, my husband and I, who are both visibly people of colour, were standing in earshot and within eyesight of this conversation. Instinctively we both simply moved away in silence but in obvious discomfort. When we left the event and got into my car, the first thing we did was turn to each other and say “can you believe what that woman said?!”. I remember thinking, if she had said that directly to me I would have responded with, “so in your definition, what does racism actually equate to”.
As many of us who have been on the receiving end of it know, racism occurs everyday in both blatant and subtle forms. According to the Australian Human Rights Commission: “Casual racism refers to conduct involving negative stereotypes or prejudices about people on the basis of race, colour or ethnicity.” For myself and people that look like me, casual racism and microaggressions are just things that we’ve come to accept in order to protect ourselves from more blatant and overt displays of racist behaviour. In this particular instance the reference to camels made teeters on what would be considered an overt racial slur.
According to All Together Now, a not for profit whose vision is a racially equitable country, “Australia has a culture of denial when it comes to racism”. Unpacking this further the denial of racism can be seen as a form of racist violence itself and notably, the denial of racism perpetuates racist behaviour. All Together Now’s research in 2022 indicated that ‘1 in 3 people who speak a language other than English reported discrimination’. The particular report detailed identifies that ‘minority groups from lower socioeconomic groups are particularly vulnerable to discrimination on the basis of skin colour, ethnic origin, or religion’. The latter highlights the intersectional nature of racism in Australia. In the case of the weekend’s incident, this vitriol was directed at recently settled Afghan refugees.
What I must also highlight here is that the 1 in 3 number relates to cases that have been reported. This means that the actual number is much higher as so many of us who have experienced racism in Australia have never gone on to report it. Almost every single migrant or person of colour who I have come across in this country has their own story or stories of being subjected to racism in one form or another in their lifetime.
The inherent denial that exists in this country when it comes to racism is one of the biggest obstacles to having open conversations about race. The go to mechanism tends to be downplaying things or statements as not being truly racist because they are not as overt as other aggressions. Or in the pattern of the white woman over the weekend, to immediately follow up said racist thing by declaring ‘but I’m not racist’. Disclaimer to that woman, identifying that you are ‘not racist’ does not excuse your vilification or make that thing that you just said any less inherently racist.
As I reflect on the entire situation, I still can’t figure out how having a thriving multicultural community is a bad thing. I have to wonder if this woman has any idea about what is currently going on in Afghanistan and if she properly understands what life under the Taliban means as a woman in the country. But then again, maybe she just doesn’t care. The entitlement and privilege that this woman felt to say something of this vein in front of two obviously brown people is wild in a way, but also, completely unsurprising. As detailed by a plethora of research projects into racism in Australia, the most commonly reported instances of racism occur at an interpersonal level. This means within interactions between people that maintain and reproduce racial inequality.
As I reflect on this situation I am annoyed at myself for not speaking up at that particular moment. I suppose we are ingrained as minorities in this country to simply look down and walk away whenever we come across racist behaviour as a method of self preservation.The truth is that all too often the onus of responsibility of educating white people about racism falls to people of colour. To be honest, I’m tired of having to always bear that burden and to consistently be the one reminding someone that actually yes, what you just said is inherently racist and it is not okay.
Some helpful resources about racism:
https://huecolourtheconversation.com/
https://alltogethernow.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/casual-racism.pdf
I blog for Change. 