"Go back to your own country!" Alongside 90 other students, I sat in my sociology lecture theatre and watched a video of hundreds, thousands even, of Aussies my age, going to university just like me, wearing the kinds of clothes I probably would to the beach.... Slandering every Lebanese, Italian and Greek in sight. I felt sick to my stomach. One of my friends had been there that day, but had left before the fights broke out, and he and his family lived within the area, their neighbours a young Lebanese couple, and across the road an Italian family. For months afterwards, he'd said they scarcely left their homes, except for work and to go shopping.
There is a common misconception that discrimination is caused by some sort of defective personality, but the harsh reality is that some part of society simply culture people to think racism and discrimination of any sort is perfectly acceptable, almost a "right". My family are Greek refugees, but according to most people, I don't "look" Greek, and when I hear of my other friends getting called "Paki", "Chong" "Wog", etc., I wonder if it's because I don't "look" like the stereotypical Greek that has saved me from such discrimination.
After watching the documentary on the Cronulla riots, I suddenly realised that although we have come a fair distance in discrimination, especially racism, in Australia, we still have an immense trek to go, and although policies and legislation have been more fairly balanced (except our very sad step back in Indigenous rights, a.k.a the Aboriginal Intervention policy), there still exists a very strong, very poisonous undercurrent of racism.
This is my small act, the start of many more. It's time to break the silence on racism, be a protagonist in the battle to stamp out discrimination. I was walking with my friend Todd*, a 22 year old guy whose family had migrated to Australia from Pakistan. We were walking through the city of Brisbane, just hanging out, talking, laughing.... We walked past a group of younger guys, maybe 18-19 years old. As we passed, one of them yelled out "Go back to your own country, PAKI!" and he and his mates started laughing.
I remembered the footage of the Cronulla riots, and suddenly my legs had stopped walking.
"What are you doing??" Hissed Todd. "Don't worry about it. They'll learn one day."
"Yup." I nodded. "Today."
My heart was racing but we were in a public place and there were plenty of people around us so I wasn't in too much danger.
"Excuse me," I said to the guy.
"What the f*ck do you want?" He snarled.
"What if I called you an Anglo and it came with all the connotations of Paki, Wog, N*gger, Chong?" I listed off all the names some of my friends had been called in the past. "What if you got insulted just for walking through the street, just because you looked 'different' from the person that was insulting you? Take a look around, does everyone here look the same?"
"I was only making a joke," He mumbled.
"Well it's not funny, is it? It's words like that that take society backwards. Do you honestly go home at the end of the day, congratulate yourself on your racist comments for the day? You think it's your right to make people feel bad by vomiting up derogatory names like that? Yeah, well done mate. Hope you sleep better tonight."
His face was a dark red now, and he had nothing left to say. I turned, and Todd and I walked away. Todd had tears in his eyes and he gave me a little smile.
I know that on the day of the Cronulla riots, some of my friends and their families had their worlds shattered, and speaking up against racism can be confronting because some people really do think they have a "right" to be racist, but it's not okay, and we can help stamp it out by standing up and speaking up.
Here are some great websites to help us fight racial discrimination:
http://www.racismnoway.com.au
http://www.australiansagainstracism.org
http://www.reachout.com.au
