Do You Think Racism Persists in Australia?

Do you think racism persists in Australia?

Race is a group of people of common ancestry with distinguished physical features. According to Arvantitakis (2009, p.86) ''racism is a form of discrimination that is based on someone's biological characteristics. Racism can be viewed in two ways. Overtly, which is open and vocal, to easily speak and condemn somebody by the way they look, or covertly, to subconsciously judge a person and protect yourself or your belongings just because they look a certain way. Another way of explaining covert racism is the assumption of knowing what a person is going to be like just because of their appearance. This is known as the Myth of race, for example, a person who looks oriental, will have difficulty being understood, and then to hear that person speak perfect English. Another example is people with middle eastern appearance are looked at as being terrorists. "Racial" - groups are not consequences of their biological inheritance but products of historical and contemporary social, economic, educated and political circumstances."

Racism is prevalent and does exist in Australia. We are all led to believe we are a multicultural society, yet this country and the population do still categorise people of their skin colour or how they look. There are a lot of issues that have produced racist claims in Australia and around the world. Racism is linked with the Indian bashings / killings that have occurred in Victoria which places a strain on Indian and Australian relations. Racism in Australia stems back to early settlement, it is widespread in today's society as the ANU reports of racism in the workforce and also a senior academic unleashes his views on migration today.

Tim Soutphommasane's article "India confronts Australia over racism" addresses the issues and concerns regarding the Indian community fear and anger of becoming another statistic of violence which is racially motivated. The Indian community in Australia and the media in India are clearly furious. The claims of Indian students are being singled out by "racist Australian thugs". Indians claim Australians are in deep denial about the racist assaults. Both Indian and Australian authorities do believe these attacks are racially motivated but are also opportunistic bashings as Indians are regarded as 'soft targets'. So this poses a question, is it the Indian students fault that they work these night shifts in service stations so they can earn money for a better life whilst studying? It is a terrible consequence for them that local authorities are asking these students to not travel alone at night as a precautionary method of being a victim to assault!

Violent attacks on Indian students have also occurred in Sydney. As recent as June 2009, close to 200 men of Indian heritage rallied in Harris Park protesting against "this pattern of violent attacks on students and migrants". An Indian student was assaulted by a group of men of middle eastern appearance, petrol bombs have been thrown through window of an Indian post graduates home, and there have also been incidents of violent home invasions. These Indian students are claiming that these assaults are also racists attacks, yet local authorities still insist that they are opportunistic as to racially motivated. We have racism within our multi - cultural society. It is not just a generalisation of white Australians being disrespectful to other cultures, it is now other cultural backgrounds waring with other different cultural backgrounds and also undermining Australian laws and authoritarians.

The Australian bureau of Statistics 2009

* 900 000 assaults were recorded in Australia between 2004 and 2009.

* In the past six years (2004 inclusive) there were 133 assaults on Indians. That constitutes approx 0.015% of all assaults.

* Approximately 1600 people were victims of homicide in Australia between 2004 and 2009.

* In those six years (2004 inclusive) 33 Indians were killed in attacks, constituting 2% of all deaths due to homicide. As a side - note, 96% of all homicides originate from assault, defined under Australian Law.

* According to the ABS in 2009, 1.6% of all Australians are of Indian decent. This includes workers, students and all migrants as a whole.

Australian and Indian relations

Australia has national interest in the rise of India's global power, both politically and economically. Predictions are made that India will take over china as the country with the world's largest population and some forecast India will be the world's third largest economy by 2025. The Australian Government have moved towards India in becoming a priority in Australia's foreign relations.

Over the past ten years, Indian students studying overseas have made Australia the major destination for them. This earns Australia $15.5 billion per year for educating students from overseas. Indians represent the second largest source of students. The Honourable Stephen Smith MP, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs states " Enrolments of Indian students in Australia have increased at an average annual rate of over 40% since 2002. There were over 120 000 Indian student enrolments in Australia in 2009. Of the 96 000 visas issued last year to Indian students, 47 000 were students studying in Victoria. The Australian Government have acknowledged and apologised for the assaults against these Indian students and have assured the Indian Prime Minister Singh and Indian Minister for External Affairs SM Krishna that every police resource has increased to ensure the safety of all international students studying in Australia.

Racism has existed in Australia for the last 200 years. From the European