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Racism in Australia?

Is there racism in Australia? Is it really as bad as the media is portraying? Or is it worse than that?

There is a possibility that this topic can stir up quite a heated discussion.
As long as this helps prospective students or immigrants to Australia, I am
quite happy to take any amount of criticism on my opinion on this topic.

First of all, a brief discussion about myself so that the reader can get the
grips of my past in Australia.

I am 29 years young, a Mechanical Engineer by profession and have been in Australia for
the last 7 years. I am still an India
by heart and passport. I first landed in Brisbane
to pursue my Masters. After a year at Uni, I have been working as an Engineer
for the last 6 years. I have spent time in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney long enough
to understand their differences in cultures and social behaviours.

To answer the question in discussion in one word, YES! There is racism in Australia. Do
you know a place where there isn't? I certainly don’t know of any such place. I
am happy to be corrected on this opinion.

I would rather call it favouritism. Let me explain. Favouritism is any form of behaviour in which an individual prefers treating another, differently to everybody else for reasons such as being
genetically related, of the same caste or religion, of the same geographic
relation, of the same skin colour, of the same race, speak the same language,
of the same gender and so on.

Now there are acceptable levels of favouritism such as a female wanting to discuss something privately to another female is very common whereas for instance in any workplace, a female manager
favouring a female candidate for a promotion over a male, is sexual
discrimination.

Having fun with people of same skin colour is socialising whereas making fun of a different skin colour by a group of people of the same skin colour is racism.

Now coming to what happens in Australia is definitely favouritism and this happens every where else. Let us look into our own mother land. There is severely more discrimination in India
than in Australia.
I don’t need to elaborate on that and that is certainly not the topic of
discussion. Is there anyone who will disagree with me? Please let me know if
that is the case and we can discuss about it.

Now as much as I like the support this racism hullabaloo is getting us Indians in Australia by the media and the Government of India, I do despise the wrath Australia
is being forced to bear as a result. In this case, I will call Australians “tolerant”
than racist.

Now think about it, have you observed the way a group of Indians behave in public here? Have you noticed what the usual behaviour of people here is? When any Indian is alone out here, they are quite
and discreet. But wait, when their phone rings, suddenly it is as if there is
no body else around us. The loudness in which one speaks on the phone has no
respect or consideration for others around. It is so embarrassing when this
happens in a public transport compartment.

Now put a group of Indians together and suddenly the quite and discreet person that we are when alone has a transformation. There is roar in our talk and laughter, the stare in the eyes
is so offensive. We look at everything as if it is ours and not to mention the
staring of women is so thwarting.

We Indians have an unusual knack for attracting trouble. We work in gas stations and 7 Elevens, work night shift jobs usually restocking or cleaning. We are on the road very often in the middle of
the night talking loudly as usual on our mobile phone. No wonder why we get
mugged. We use the public phones to call India with a phone card. Now, when
we are on the phone, it has to be for hours before we hang up. If someone is
waiting, who cares?

Recently an Indian student was mugged in Brisbane at around 10PM, his wallet and mobile phone stolen when he was on a public phone. The news made it all over the news channels. How can you even think it is racism?

I can go for long about all these but what is the point? I am not trying to support Australia or Australians either. Like everybody else, Australians have their share of flaws. All I want to say is
before we complain about how racist Australia is, I think we need to
ask ourselves the question, “How adaptable are we?”

If we migrate to Australia or to any other country for that matter, I think it is our and only our responsibility to blend in by learning the culture there. Learn the ways people behave in public, learn the
ways people respect each other and follow it.

We come here as migrants and enforce our rude disrespectful behaviour on people around us and behave conspicuously differently. We flag ourselves as targets and then complain that we have become targets.

The last thing I would like to highlight is this; “In India how do we react to migrant people from other states in our city who behave as I
have just discussed above?”

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Prateek Gujral on February 19, 2010 at 1:34pm

Hi Anil,

While I appreciate your thoughts, I dont see a reason why you would explain the incidents in Australia by showing how down-toward we Indians are ourselves.

There is no doubt that such incidents have happened in Australia - but the answer to this is not putting Indians down. You dont go to a doctor with a wound and expect a lecture on how it is all your fault - you expect a solution :)

My friend, lets keep focus on what the purpose of this site is - not to put down Indians, but to encourage and educate them on how safe Australia is.

I myself am an alumni and have been in australia for many years and do understand and appreciate your points on the Australian culture - this is what the key message needs to be :)

Peace!!

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Permalink Reply by Vikram Singh Rana on February 25, 2010 at 11:21pm

Hi Guys,

I think its not the question of, whether there is Racism in Australia or not?
Racism is everywhere, around the globe, even in India. Sometimes we Indians try to look the other way instead of standing together against it.

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Permalink Reply by Anil Puttaswamy on February 26, 2010 at 4:56am

Hi Prateek,

Thanks a lot for your participation in this discussion. I appreciate your point on the purpose of this webpage, i.e. to encourage and educate prospective students on how safe Australia is. However, I do not agree with you saying that my article has put Indians down. Certainly not. Why do you think that I have put Indians down? All I am doing is pointing out what we do wrong and how we can correct ourselves so that we have a better understanding and bonding with the community here.

Nobody is perfect my friend. I sure can point out several things wrong the Australians do. But again, that is not the purpose of my article. We should not forget that we are the ones migrating into their country.

Cheers,
Anil

Prateek Gujral said:

Hi Anil,

While I appreciate your thoughts, I dont see a reason why you would explain the incidents in Australia by showing how down-toward we Indians are ourselves.

There is no doubt that such incidents have happened in Australia - but the answer to this is not putting Indians down. You dont go to a doctor with a wound and expect a lecture on how it is all your fault - you expect a solution :)

My friend, lets keep focus on what the purpose of this site is - not to put down Indians, but to encourage and educate them on how safe Australia is.

I myself am an alumni and have been in australia for many years and do understand and appreciate your points on the Australian culture - this is what the key message needs to be :)

Peace!!

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Permalink Reply by Megha Gupta on February 27, 2010 at 2:54pm

Hi Anil,

I think, as you mentioned in the begining of your post, this topic is controversial. It will start a debate. Whether that debate is on the topic of 'Is Australia a racist country' or 'Are Indians not able to integrate with the Australian culture', it doesn't matter. I think it is high time that we as the alumni of Australia start these debates.

However, I just have one concern and that is in this debate let us not forget the a simply underlying issue which I think is fueling whatever is happening in Australia. The fact that certain wrong elements have entered the education industry of Australia needs to be the focus here.

These wrong elements are not only promoting the wrong impression of Australian education industry in India but they are also bringing the prospective students to Australia with false hopes.

I think it is important that all the stakeholders involved in this industry - The Governments of both Australia and India, the universities and their marketing people along with the alumni need to ensure that these wrong elements are not given the chance to destroy this industry.

Hope all of us, the members of the site, will be able to do our bits to right this wrong!

Cheers,

Megha

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Permalink Reply by Shalini White on March 3, 2010 at 4:43am

Your attempt to tackle this complex and controversial issue is admirable. Everyone has an opinion on this based on her or his life experiences and views.

You are right in that racism and reverse racism is everywhere (I like how you use the word 'favoritism' - as I'm sure most people will know how foreigners are treated like royalty in India - generally speaking of course).

Racism is not just an Australian issue, it is a global issue. Even positive stereotyping of Indians (we're all over-educated hardworking IT specialists with 30 university degrees?) eventually somehow hurts our position from a 'race' perspective. Having moved to Australia in 2000 from the US, I found a lot of similarity between the tolerance of the midwest's 'melting pot' to Queensland, where the people are fun and accepting (generally speaking).

However, I still do not think the behaviour patterns you are describing (loud and rude in public places, working night shifts etc) are inherent to Indians only. I have seen so many people doing this - of all races, shapes, genders, sizes etc - you get my drift.

You make an excellent point about the media dramatising everything - the key story is that someone has unfortunately been mugged. The media can turn that into a race story. They do this to everyone - there is a bashing somewhere and suddenly it becomes relevant that the alleged perpetrators are Aboriginals - this adds a 'race angle' to the news being delivered and in my opinion can make for a really loaded political agenda!

I could go on and on for days about this - it is an issue that touches me on a lot of levels. I made it a point to specifically study discrimination when doing my degree out of interest. The history of the discrimination cases is an invaluable tool to the changing dynamic of race and culture in Australia.

I see your point about us 'adapting' - we need to bear in mind that the beauty of migration is that we bring the *positive* influences of our culture and language to Australia to enrich our new home and leave the negative behind. Let's not forget our differences are also what makes our country great and diverse. Generally speaking I think Indian migrants are doing this remarkably well given the various socio-economic and cultural transitions that usually need to be made.

I also agree with you Megha - a few 'rotten' ones always wreck it for the many!

Cheers
S,

(Expressing my opinions only).

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Permalink Reply by Ikroop Kaur Bajwa on April 16, 2010 at 8:40am

Wow.... Its a hot discussion. As per my experience so far. I work with Aussies and they are just wonderful. I am not denying the fact that people who have sick mentality of racism do not exist. They do but they are very small in percentage. For hand-full of bad people we cannot blame he whole community or country.

Why do we need to divide ourselves on the basis of country borders and different races. We are human being and part of this planet earth. The way things are turning up is just absolutely horrible. Why do we need to hurt someone to feel better and satisfy our ego.

For me I have learnt alot being on this land. I have learnt to be independent, consideration for others and politeness. No matter few things are bit weired but which part of the world is fully perfect. To be a wise human being we need adopt good values only.

Mu humble to request to everyone is please don't carried away with this media hype and attitude of horribly behaving people. Just think how we are contributing to make up the things.

So instead of dividing things to start the blame game why can't we try to fix the situation by behaving maturely.

Please give a thought to it. By balming eachother we just making the things go out of hand.

I agree with this guy "S".

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Permalink Reply by Amit on February 8, 2011 at 11:35am

All these comments are from somebody ...not from the blog..Ok Indians you are at fault.Thanks for these moral lessons.

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Permalink Reply by Amit on February 8, 2011 at 12:43pm

May be a global issue but this understanding does not help the reality of Racism in Australia.Merely knowing this should not means submit to this because it is everywhere. I think being from India we are very much characters in ourselves that we rationalize everything and it comes from our history of being oppressed from centuries by mugal invaders and then British.We say it happens in India also,Yes it does but to compare Australia which claims to be a fair go country and developed and having settlement for 200 years with a country which is developing and been independent for 60 years only is not fair at all.

This is a typical thing with Oz and you guys can argue for life that they are friends with no nation..pacific countries,Indonesia, China ,American( say them seppos), Newzealand...and for Indians they are too good...you guys know what i mean and seen the drama Aussies created in Commonwealth and did everything to show that Indians are dirty ,not organized and all sort of too good things...it seems Australians in general are nice people as long as you are not competitive with them but scene turns very ugly once they are challenged in any way, very very sore...They don't want a person especially from a background of developing country seem bright and telling them things...Nice untill hello,Hai but not that..see cricket. and you know it.

Lot goes to Australia's origin on foundation of aboriginal genocide..and it does not take a genius to see their condition in this country and its a joke they blame it on them..typical Australian habit of blaming back...always and always..

Guys who is joking who..there is nothing like country of origin compared to country of migration especially country like Australia who were so busy in minting money from Indian students that when other issues like social impact of mass migration erupted they were like OHHH we never though about this..and Indians also thought what a chance to get PR but this was all greed scam and nothing else..in capitalist economies money is the ultimate thing.say we should assimilate.. so blame given...Reconciliation is not because they love us because they are loosing money.

Even if you are earning 90000 that may be the second best dig deep and look hard is that the best or second best or because for us its Ok because we use to have not this much in India and they know it...they know it.

India a powerful country today and a sore thumb in eyes of west..don't forget it this is jealousy and origin is how come these poor and uncivilized people taking the world stage..it hurts when they are not used to that for so many years and it will take time to digest this truth.

As things will change in future in India and things for Indian people will change elsewhere..India becomes powerful and so do its people have confidence elsewhere so hold on and lets work towards a stronger India.

Wait a minute i will be surprised if Americans, Japanese, Chinese will take it from OZ and you know why not..I appreciate some of the members are trying to be very understanding and that is admirable and positive but that might be due to desire to stay in Oz..good effort that is...

Yes, Australia is not racist...LoL sorry don't take that..Sudanese, Lebanese now Indians but game is different here..

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Permalink Reply by Anurag Jain on February 8, 2011 at 1:15pm

Hi Anil,

I do not disagree totally with you but also I do not completely agree with you. I have been to Australia for two years and I observed certain patterns that can be used categorize certain society, age group and profession of white Australians who use racism and favariotism as a means to justify their dislike towards diffrent race, skin color and culture. I observed that Australian youth is more about what you describe as favariotism as they would usually not hang out with non white guys and would make fun of people from Asian or African continents. However people of the age bracket above 50 in Australia are the one who have superiority complex of their race but would be nice to you if you could tackle that. I have also observed that people forming the lower section of the society are the one who are most dangerous to vulenrable foreighners from South east asia. These people don't mind abusing, insulting or picking a serious fight with any asian they can dominate.

I agree we have problem in India of caste, color, religion but its not that seviour where one would take every opportunity to hurt other person beacuse he is diffrent. I also agree with you by saying that Indians are also responsible to some extent for not being able to develop that respect for their community because of lack of holding good position private and govt. , lifestyle of trying to save too much money by living shabily some times and trying to stick to the country at any cost even if that means cleaning toilets and driving taxis for the rest of their life, not holding good positions in jobs as compared to Chinease or white Australians. However beside all that I would also say the Australian society is also responsible for that to the large extent and there is no way to justify why incidents of killing and injuries happened to Indian students only whereas we all know there plenty of students from other coutries also studying in Australia. Moreover the deaf ear and false promises given to the cries of Indian society and Indian goverment by Australian authorities. I think its time to stand up and face the challenges and issue rather than skipping about it. There are countries like Canada and US where Indians have earned name and fame and because the society accepted them well and made them part of their being and Australians have long way to go to reach there but if we start today may be it will make a diffrence in coming years.

Regards,

Anurag Jain

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Permalink Reply by Amit on February 8, 2011 at 2:43pm

Racism in Australia is not a matter of opinion at all.It is there and very much alive more than any other advanced nation and even Australian watch dogs have started admitting it gradually with their usual back up thoughts.

Australia is the only country in the world which had official white policy, it would be naive to think that mere erasing it from Government papers will change mindset of the old inhabitants of this country who used to think that they are superior to other people for double century.

Indian students who come here give them every opportunity to make a valid point that we are not good enough..come with poor linguistic skills, working in 711 is like luxury job and can't find a job and then Taxi..our standards are no better than India just a bit polished and it is Australia and work is worship...totally crap taxi driving is not a dignified job and a dangerous job for an average Australian and Indian students drive them day night ..what that reflects of Indians dirty and filthy look for not having a sleep and shave for F sake 5 days..money money ..damn it was better to stay in India.

Average indian student is skiny piece due to mortal stress and look malnourished in an average healthy and fat society so what that makes of us..just a point to them.

Australia at any cost for some people..lol

The kind of racism in Australia is like predictable

Sudanese blacks>Muslim country > Developing countries >>>>>>>>>>Americans and British European will may be feel no racism because they are white and the image of their countries is not that bad as Bangladesh and India, pakistan so these people get all the SShi..

I laugh at when some of my friends say its everywhere..yes but cast-ism in India is not the same thing, India is not inviting people to their country, making money and beating them thats internal and as long as money comes no Racism, comes to jobs and PR and citizenship rights ....beat up.

Australia is a education shop and they have to give warranty for goods delivered,the best students anyways not come to OZ because they go through GRE,GMAT US andwith virtually no money spent..OZ is you know , what calibre of students come here...i know myself.

PR granted now what Sushil kumar or Adam will get the job..guess who..Sushil kumar with an accent and Adam with a TODAYYYYYY...

Citizenship granted..learnt to speak mate but still question is there..five pictures one German migrant,,british migrant,austrian migrant, Indian migrant ..all Australian in paper but who is still Indian in day to day life ,not hard to guess..so color matters a lot...so does the race in this country for the moment..

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Sumitra Arora on February 9, 2011 at 10:40am

Hi anil

certainly i agree with what you have discussed. I am a scientist and working for Indian Govt. Recently I was in SA for 6 months for some research work under an award fellowship by Aus Govt. Before leaving i was very scared but after reaching when I got to work, I never observed such kind of things which was aired through media almost evryday. Later on my family also joined me, even they cdnt find such rumors happening there. Such cases had been there but in different forms and shapes.

I would be happy to visit Aus once more if given any chance.

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Permalink Reply by Amit on February 9, 2011 at 11:21am

With all respects to one of our esteemed members, its one thing to be on a short visit under a Govt. scheme and with a professional qualification having not to compete for anything with ready-made arrangements and saying hi and hellos in a posh office where everybody knows you are temp resident and seeing the best of OZ and other thing being a student at the age of 18- 22 and with limited resources and competing for an ordinary jobs on day to day basis with Australians and especially in a place like Victoria where there are 90000 Indian students inciting an all together different community response than going to another state where they are not bothered to see 20 in 10000. To understand racism in Victoria , you have to be challenged with the similar life circumstances including age and maturity around you and kind of interaction with the society at large.Racism problems are only encountered when we are actually in quite a number and in some way threat to jobs and way of life perception.