The Fear and Loathing of Racism and Bigotry

We are racists …

We are racists when we slag off a group of people for the way they speak, dress, the food they eat or even the way they drive. We are racists when we start a joke with, ‘I’m not a racist, but…’ We are racists when we boo champion footballer Adam Goodes because he stands up for his people. We are racists when we verbally or physically abuse people from other lands as they travel with us on public transport. We are racists when we refer to someone as a chong, a gook, a towel head, a curry muncher, a monkey, a paddy or a frog.

We began racist …

The first act of racism was committed when the English colonisers arrived at Botany Bay in 1788 and took this land for themselves, while the first peoples could only look on in horror. It took until 1967 before we recognised

Aboriginals as fellow citizens. That’s 179 years.

From 1901 until 1945, successive governments promoted a ‘white Australia policy’ designed to keep out Asians, Africans, Pacific Islanders, and Southern and Eastern Europeans. It was originally introduced because Chinese goldminers were doing much better than their white counterparts. It took until 1973 before Gough Whitlam got rid of the policy completely.

We continue to be racist …

If your family is Italian, or Greek, or from any of the dozens of European countries from which migrants arrived here in the mid-twentieth century and set about building the infrastructure that we enjoy today, ask your parents how they were treated by the predominantly English society.

And then came the Vietnamese. Fleeing an oppressive communist regime in the 1970s, they were offered sanctuary here by some, but abused by many.

While there have been Lebanese Australians here since the mid-nineteenth century, the Lebanese Civil War saw a large influx of Lebanese Muslims arrive in the mid-1970s. It was that community which became the subject of the Cronulla riots in Sydney in 2005.

They were followed by the Somalis and Sudanese who were escaping brutal regimes in Africa, only to suffer taunts and prejudice from fellow Australians.

Yes, they are all Australians.

Racism as fear

Our political masters are not afraid to use racism to frighten us. Witness the long — a barely seaworthy boat with 233 souls on board that sank near Christmas Island in 2001, from which the crew of the HMAS Canberra set about rescuing terrified asylum seekers.

Then Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, Defence Minister Peter Reith, and Prime Minister John Howard told Australians that ‘these people’ were throwing their children into the sea to force rescue and a safe passage to a new life in Australia. That later proved to be a lie: a lie to exploit our fear of a torrent of unwelcome asylum seekers and present the Howard Government as a strong hand so that it could win the 2004 election. It worked.

Border control as racism

And so it goes. Today, victims of brutal and oppressive governments continue to get on rickety boats and sail hazardous seas in the vain hope of finding somewhere safe for their families to thrive.

More than one million people fled Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq for Europe in 2015. Europe is struggling to cope, but it is trying. In the first month of 2016, another 150,000 made that journey.

As at November last year, Australia had 1,852 asylum seekers imprisoned offshore and 558 in community detention on the mainland. That’s all. Yet we put them in prisons that pressure their endurance, their health, their dignity and their sanity, every hour of every day.

Are we all racists and bigots?

Dishonest governments use racism as a tool to cling to power. Small-minded Australians who fear strangers use racism and bigotry. The bully, the mean-spirited and the envious use racism. And while we don’t find much evidence here of the hardcore white nationalism found in the USA or in pockets of Europe, it would do us no harm to be mindful of how we treat our new neighbours, and take a breath before we resort to old habits.

Our Union: committed to being racism-free

The ETU badge is the Southern Cross. Under this flag, our champions of democracy said this: ‘Irrespective of nationality, religion or colour, we salute the Southern Cross as a refuge of all the oppressed from all countries on earth.’

Our Union believes this wholeheartedly.

To honour all the Australians and the generations of workers who joined these pioneers to make Australia what it is today, we pledge to call out intolerance and prejudice wherever we find it. We will name it and we will shame it. Racism and bigotry have no place in 21st century Australia.