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The ugly hand of racism

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Adam Goodes

The following opinion piece was published by the Guardian Australia on June 12, 2019

Watching The Final Quarter documentary about AFL legend Adam Goodes and the racism he endured, I thought about the incredible strength that allowed him to get up and keep going.

To see the abuse so clearly laid out in the film, is disturbing and confronting. Adam Goodes is a champion and still, he experienced the humiliation of racially motivated attacks.

Adam Goodes showed the strength that so many of us have in surviving these attacks. When he walked away from the game, he said enough is enough.

But what Adam Goodes suffered is not an unusual experience for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We’ve endured the ugly hand of racism for generations.

Whether it’s in the city or in regional communities and towns, whether we’re in public spaces, catching the train, the bus or a flight, getting abused, ignored or refused service or getting followed by security, racism is damaging, it makes us sick and it threatens lives.

Racism is everywhere.

The 2018 Australian Reconciliation Barometer found 33 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had experienced at least one form of verbal racial abuse in the last six months.

Forty-three per cent of Indigenous Australians experienced at least one form of racial prejudice in the last six months, including verbal abuse, being refused entry to a venue or physical violence.

The constant exposure to racism in our daily lives, in the media, hearing it in our parliament, dealing with it every day undermines our sense of self. It can erode self-worth, and our confidence in engaging in the world around us. It certainly contributes to collective feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness that leads to far too many of our people taking their lives. The experts are telling us that racism is a factor in the suicide crisis gripping our communities.

During my national consultations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls for the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) project, I heard horrific examples of racism and discrimination. I heard from our girls across the country a boundless potential to be all of who they are. But in the same breath as they told me about their strengths and dreams, they also told me heart wrenching stories of constant bullying from classmates whose insults were heavy with racist sentiments. They’ve told me how teachers have refused to believe the racism they’ve encountered from their peers. As a result, girls have told me that they have questioned their identity, thinking that the problem is because they are Indigenous.

This is the life-threatening harm and violence that results from structural and institutional racism. There is nothing abstract about these terms. They come from a dangerous generational inequality, which has enabled a culture of racism to go unchecked in our institutions.

This is what I am hearing everywhere.

As a country, we need to listen to the real experiences of people, the truth of how racism impacts lives across this nation. It’s crucial that our voices and experiences are heard. 

Adam Goodes is one powerful voice, amongst others, in telling us this truth. His story told in The Final Quarter challenges us to work harder to end racism.

We have to talk about racism to end racism. To do so, we will need courage to have honest conversations.

To start the conversation the Australian Human Rights Commission has released Let’s Talk Race; a guide on how to conduct a conversation about racism. It’s part of comprehensive education resources for the Racism. It Stops with Me campaign.

The film, the guide and other resources gives us an opportunity to move forward with a renewed commitment and determination to eliminate racism, because racism has no place in Australian society, on or off the field.

Photo: Wayne Taylor, Fairfax

Published in Guardian Australia
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Ms June Oscar AO, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner

Area:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice