Make a difference

Even today when the world has changed its thinking and has taken a step forward in technology and other fields it still lacks behind in some cases such as racism. People need to understand it is important to know the meaning of racism, they need to know a person well before form or make a judgement about them. When such judgements are made about a particular person just because of their best friend they are being unjust to that person. 

People need to change their thinking about such issues, forget the past, move on with the future and take things in a positive manner. People who make judgements without thinking should be informed about websites such as newsvine and other blogs where they can see where the world's thinking is heading and they are way behind the rest of the world. 

My only advice to the viewers is that do not make judgements before knowing someone. Racism is a never ending issue and it wont change till people start making a difference.

Posted by Shreshta Belani 

Where to make complaints about racial discrimination

Information about racial descrimination lagistation can be found at any of the Federal or State offices. There should also be information available in workplace from Equal Employment Opportunity or Access and Equity Contact Officers, or trade union officials. Most State school systems have adopted anti racism policies and procedures: information is available from school principals or student counsellors.

All universities have grievance procedures for those who have been subject to descrimonation, and some institutions have specific anti racist policies and complaint mechanisms. This information is available in university handbooks or through the student unions, student councillors or equal employment opportunity units.

Posted by Karina Ekasari S.

Racism, A Never Ending Issue

Working on this project for several weeks have given me enough time to learn from researches on racism toward the Middle Eastern in Australia. Despite knowing issues and cases and pulling perspectives, everything I have done led me to a conclusion that racism, toward any race in any place, has no exact resolution.

In the issue of Middle East people in Australia for example, it is the matter of how government works in tandem with Australian residents, especially in terms of immigration. Years and years, the media have also portrayed the Middle Eastern as dangerous, carry the tendency to terrorist attacks, labeled them with the prejudices toward the Muslims.

The culture of stereotyping as the based of racist behaviors is also something that is hard to be taken away from the society. When another culture comes to an already existed culture, the result will be clash and differences, which lead the existing culture to act defensively. This explain the tendency toward the Australian to be prejudicing the Middle Easterns, ignoring the fact that Middle East itself is complex and can not be labeled with one assumption.

The solution? No exact answer, yet maybe..In accordance to the issue of Middle East people in Australia, the media plays a big role in terms of portrayal and stereotyping. The result? Nearly all the aspects of live in the society is bombarded with racist behaviors. Start from the issue of religion to a more complex issue of immigration that include government, then spread to a place called university, a field of education that should be based on equality.

By : Stella Chandra

Lebanese Migration to Australia....

Lebanese Christians have been immigrating to Australia over a longer period and in much greater numbers than Lebanese Muslims. This is reflected in proportion of christians and Musilims who have been in Australia more than 10 years. While two-thirds of the Christians Lebanese have been in Australia more than 10 years only one-third of the Muslim Lebanese have been here that length of time. The sect with the largest proportion resident in Australia more than 10 years are the Maronite Catholics and the sect with the lowest proportion are the shi'a Muslims have been in Australia between five and 10 years.

Although the Lebanese Christians sample has been in Australia longer and are more numerous than the Lebanese Musims sample, in the last 10years Lebanese Muslim migration has been slightly larger than Lebanese Cristian migration and respectively.

Posted by Karina Ekasari S.

Sharing a story

Hey Stella after reading your post a story stricked my mind as well. I won't mention names either. The story is of an Middle Eastern woman who went shopping to one of the stores owned by a known name and was accussed of stealing. She wasnt given a chance to defend herself and was forced to sign on some legal documents which stated that she wasnt allowed to step onto the premises. If done so, she would get arrested or taken into custody without any arguments. There was no proof that she stole the items from that shop. The security guard saw the item in the bag she previously bought that day and assumed it had been stolen as she did not pass the checkout/ payment counter. After a while she came back to talk to the manager to explain herself the manager agreed that she was innocent. She asked for a written legal apology but she wasnt given one and was threatened by the security guard. This is called racial discrimination.

This case is of a woman who regularly from the last 6 six years has been shopping in that store. Shopping is a thing people do on daily basis but getting accussed as such is just wrong. The woman in this case was accussed of stealing because she was a Middle Eastern, some people just assume that Middle Easterns are to be blamed for every illegal thing which is wrong. The case mentioned above truly becomes a case of consumer rights and Fair Trading. According to the law of Fair Trading, it is the shops duty to provide their consumers with fair and ethical practices. The woman when wasnt given a written apology threatened the manager to complain to Fair Trading after which she was given a written apology by the store.

This is a thing that can happen with anyone even when they are innocent. Thanks to laws such as Fair Trading and others that are made for  culturally diverse communities consumer/ human rights. We dont know what good such laws and organisations can do to us but its always worth a try!

Posted by Shreshta Belani

What can we do about racism?

It has been shown in the argument to this point that racism is objectionable, undesirable and indefensible. However, racist attitudes are not illegal. Within their own minds and within the privacy of their own homes, Australians may hold whatever views they wish. However, when racism is manifested in certain behavior towards other people on the ground of their race, color, descent or national, it becomes racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is unlawful by virtue of a number of pieces of Commonwealth, State and Territory legislation which are explained below.

Racist attitudes one form of racism, and the only way of changing attitudes is through education, a long term process . However, racially discriminatory behavior can be changed by legislation involving certain consequences to the perpetrator if the racist behavior is not changed. The two approaches education and legislation are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, it can be argued that one does not work, or work effectively, without the other.

Legislation defines the boundaries of civilized society by proscribing behavior that is unacceptable, although these boundaries are not immutable. The government of the day sets its agenda and attempts to implement this agenda through the social policies it formulates. Social policy can be useful tool in changing an organizational culture: for example, in addresing systemic discrimination within established institutions.

Posted by: Kathy Stevko

Discrimination Hit the Education...and the Educated

In writing a post, I used to be focusing on such big issues as Cronulla riots, Islamophobia, and immigration. Recently, I just realized that there is a close, and probably the nearest, story of discrimination in my daily lives, university.

I did a little research and interview for the podcast project on the same topic, and found out that one of my campus friend has a precious story to tell. For the sake of privacy, I won't mention her name.

Basically, the story was that this girl, from Iraq, attended a lecture. Her lecturer made a racist comment on Middle East people, and that comment hit her nerves. Nobody knows whether the lecturer did it on purpose, but it is obvious that it affected her. This girl reacted so badly, got angry, and confronted. The fact that she felt like being offended by the comment also contributed in ruining her willingness to come to the lecture.

That is probably just a little case, but what is surprising and dissapointing is that it happened in a campus, in a university, in an environment in which racism and discrimination are taboos. More irritatingly, it was done by a teacher to a student. University should be a place with a condusive climate for learning comfortably. Yet, such case happened to my friend has done no more than creating a battle.

How far can we rely to a figure called a teacher then? Rather than offering an open minded perspective, the teacher has made the campus life supportive to racism.

Education should be free from any prejudice, because knowledge belongs to everyone, and equality is an absolute requirement.

By : Stella Chandra

Do you Believe Muslim people?

Do you trust Muslim People?

I reckon a lot of you will says no...., but in 17 December 2008 there is some changing.

A second round of partnership funding is now available for groups wanting to build relationships and improve trust between Muslim communities and local police, national Race Discrimination Commissioner.This funding of up to $10,000 is available to those projects which are approved by the Steering Committee, the membership of which is made up of a balance of police and community leaders.

This program relations through the Community Policing Partnerships Program (CPPP), a partnership between the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Australian Multicultural Foundation (AMF). This is to encourages police and Muslim communities to work together in responding to current issues identified and agreed upon by Muslim communities and police.

Police and community trust building programs have been established in some areas, while other programs encouraged young Muslim Australians to enter the police force.

Even more specific projects were funded such as Tie the Knot the program in Sydney’s South West, which aimed to raise awareness of domestic violence in Australian Muslim communities.

The time has come to focus all of our efforts on social, cultural and economic inclusion as the best way forward in helping all groups within our society feel like they are stakeholders in Australia’s future.

All of the 19 projects funded around Australia under the first round have helped to build bridges between local police and Muslim communities.

The CPPP provides a real opportunity to add value to cultural diversity in community life and demonstrate positive responses to community policing.

The CPPP is one of several programs the Australian Human Rights Commission is running until the end of 2010 with special funding of $250,000, it aims to promote social harmony across the Australian community.

This is just a good start builder trust each other between Muslim and Non Muslim

Posted by: Kathy Stevko