Source: Australian Human Rights Commission
Nearly every day, my phone buzzes with messages of distress: community leaders, faith groups, families and individuals from all walks of life, each carrying the weight of racism’s impact.
A mother fearful for her child’s safety calls after yet another racial slur at school. A faith leader grapples with hate targeting their congregation. A teacher gets in touch because they confront racism daily.
The stories are different, but the pain is the same – frustration, exhaustion, asking what can be done. The hard-fought progress that we have made towards equality is being challenged before our eyes and we cannot risk going backwards.
Bearing witness to what many others do not see, and supporting those affected, is a responsibility I do not take lightly. I cannot do it alone, however. Everyone has a role to play.
Last week, a Jewish doctor emailed me asking how we can stop anti-Semitism after the confronting video of two nurses in Bankstown saying they would kill Israeli patients. The tone in his email was urgent. He was concerned for the safety of Jewish healthcare workers and patients.
In his email, he focused on the need for education and building an understanding of racism, but I could feel his frustration.
In the weeks prior, a Muslim woman sent me messages about white supremacists letterboxing in Adelaide. She sent me screenshots of the abhorrent leaflets and asked what I could do to get police to take the matter more seriously. Again, frustration.
The weeks before that, it was messages from members of the Indian community, sending me videos of racism towards Indian fans at the cricket. Bewildered, they also asked me what could be done.
Each reflect a system failure that enables racism: a health system where staff and patients feel unsafe; a justice system that is focused on criminalising offences after the harm is done, rather than early community-led prevention; a sporting sector that cannot protect victims of racism.
The thing about systems is that they can be fixed, when we know how to diagnose the problem.
For those who are unfamiliar with racism, it is easier to imagine its more overt forms. People are familiar with the racist uncle you see once a year, or the one racist person at work whom your colleagues tolerate because they’re part of the furniture.
The reason why it’s easy to imagine this form of racism is because it is easy to separate ourselves from it. We tell ourselves we do not do that and we move on.
For those who are familiar with systemic racism, we know that it is everywhere. Many of the examples I hear sit with me long afterwards.
One was of a Palestinian child whose picture of a Palestinian flag was thrown in the bin by their teacher. Another was of an African-born mother whose son was told that he could not walk onstage to accept his first ever academic award because his hairstyle didn’t conform to school standards.
When his mother raised it with the all-white school executive and administration, she was dismissed and told rules must be upheld. She was persistent, however, and produced photos of white kids with much longer hair who were allowed onstage. Eventually, the school conceded it was wrong, but the damage had been done.
At no point in this story is there name-calling or the hurling of abuse. The school claimed it was applying the rules equally to everyone. Yet it is another example of the pervasive nature of systemic racism and the way it operates.
African hair did not fit the school rules, and without the courage and resilience of an African mother nothing would have happened. The burden to challenge racism falls too greatly on its victims.
Late last year I launched the Australian Human Rights Commission’s National Anti-Racism Framework. The framework comes at a time when race is on the front page of our newspapers every other day. Anti-Semitism, anti-Arab racism, anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia are on the rise, with disgusting displays of hate and racist violence becoming more frequent across communities.
In this climate, I cannot think of a more pressing need for a national approach to ending racism. Solutions to systemic racism are in everyone’s best interest. A society where everyone can flourish benefits us all.
Systemic racism is like cancer. The tumours can be removed, but the cancer will keep making us sick until we confront its source.
It is an illness that began 237 years ago. As Stan Grant wrote, “Racism isn’t killing the Australian dream. The Australian dream was founded on racism.”
When I meet with First Nations communities, one of the common threads among the conversations is that colonisation is not just a date in history but an ongoing reality. It has impacted every institution and informed every dominant way of thinking since 1788.
So, when we talk about systemic racism in Australia, we are talking about systems that have been built to advance the interests of colonising white settlers. These systems don’t consider or protect the interests of First Nations people and others who experience racism.
Our education system is built for white knowledge and our workplaces elevate white people into leadership by default. This is not just a mere inconvenience for people who experience racism – these systems cause harm to communities, so that those who benefit can thrive.
We only need look at the over-imprisonment and harm experienced by First Nations people within our legal system for an example of the systemic bias baked into our society.
To say, then, that it can be disheartening when my bid to call out systemic racism falls flat is an understatement.
Recently I’ve even been asked why I’m so focused on race when we’re facing serious levels of economic and class inequality, which can also impact white people. For those who feel the harms of racism, however, these issues are deeply intertwined.
Migrant workers of colour have become even more vulnerable to exploitation in order to keep their jobs. Worse, economic inequality is exploited by racist rhetoric that blames migration for what are far more complex and deeply entrenched problems.
When migrants are blamed, too often the only signal as to whether someone is a migrant is the colour of their skin. Race compounds the inequality experienced in hard times and is vital to consider when we chart the way forward.
The commission’s National Anti-Racism Framework has 63 recommendations for eliminating racism. They span government, education, healthcare, justice, workplaces and the media.
The framework calls for a hard look at the composite parts of our nation. We need to examine the insidious way in which racism has made its nest in almost every facet of Australian life. Then we need to deploy our tools: law reform, new policies, relevant training and whatever else is needed to dismantle racism at its roots.
In education, this means making the need for anti-racist education explicit in curriculums from early childhood through to our tertiary institutions. In healthcare, this means partnerships and shared decision-making with at-risk communities, so that those who are most harmed by racism in our healthcare system have a stronger, louder voice.
Online, it means better regulation of racist hate. It means a more coordinated anti-racist approach to collecting data on racism.
Across sectors, we have also outlined the need to deepen our understanding of how racism continues to be upheld, with a mandate to prevent and eliminate these vicious cycles. We’ve highlighted that listening to and valuing the leadership of First Nations people is essential to this work.
We are at a critical juncture where race and racism need to go from “too hard” to actionable, durable solutions. The longer we leave things to fester, the more severe the outcome. It is our collective responsibility to act now and do more.
Racism is estimated to cost the Australian economy $37 billion each year. It would cost a fraction of that to implement the recommendations put forward in the National Anti-Racism Framework.
It is not good enough to expect those who are most affected by racism to be responsible for calling out and addressing racism in their schools, at work and in the community at large. We need a more preventive, systemic response.
Many people came forward as we developed the framework to share the ways racism has diminished them, and to offer their solutions for change. We all deserve to live without fear and with dignity.
Our next step in the journey must be one that results in a fairer and more equitable society that allows us all to be our whole selves. A united commitment will lay the foundations for a safer future where everyone can thrive free from the damaging impacts of racism.
We need our leaders in politics, civil society and business to be brave. They’ve been handed a road map. It’s time for the rubber to hit the road.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on March 1, 2025 as “How to fight racism”.