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