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29
Mar 2012

A Morning of Racism

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At my workplace I attended a two part racism workshop. Just recently I went to the second and final workshop and heard a lot of stories. We talked about racism specifically to Indigenous people of this country and due to my workplace being very multicultural we talked about racism that crossed oceans into other countries.

I heard so many stories of workplace racism, home life racism, racist friends, cousins, uncles and strangers. We all have experienced racism in one form or another and I bet we have all at one time felt like an ‘other’. An ‘other’ being the minority in a group or situation, a time when you felt out of place because of the people

Image by raphaelstrada

around you.

People shared their experiences, the good and the bad and it brought me back to the thought that racism starts with assumptions. Assumptions that because of someone’s appearance you automatically know everything about them.

I have blonde hair and blue eyes. Immediately I’m either German or born and bred Australian, when in fact my heritage includes, Aboriginal, Italian and English. However because of my looks you can assume I’ve had a stock standard upbringing. In some ways I have and in some ways I haven’t.

Thanks to my upbringing I have an understanding of all aspects of my cultural background, my parents enforced the importance of a good education and that because of my genitals, I am not a baby making factory.

Some of the racism I’ve had to deal with has been from friends, the workplace and complete strangers. One thing in particular is defending the fact I’m Aboriginal, that my pale skin and blue eyes only means that in the genetic lottery the English genes won. The fact that I’m close to my community, work for my community and am accepted by my community is not a consideration.

The most recent experience of racism was in my workplace. A photo of me and two others was taken to be used for an internal Indigenous related document. It was presented to the Indigenous network for comment (which I participate on) and the photographer and designer made the comment ‘but can you tell these people are Indigenous’?

There was a complete silence and no one spoke up. I had to look at the ground, if I had looked anyone in the eye I probably would have burst into tears or flung something. Not long before that Andrew Bolt had been taken to caught for his blog posts relating to several influential Indigenous people and in my own workplace my heritage was being questioned at face value.

I didn’t speak up that day, I felt very intimidated by the situation. However now I think I’d be able to address something similar with a cool head.

 

Have you experienced racism?

About Blondie

has written 324 posts in this blog.

Blondie is the creator of BlondeInk and over shares relationship ups and downs, reviews places in Canberra and delves into beauty and fashion.

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Categories: Indigenous
  • Amanda

    Having previously managed an Indigenous communications team for several years, I’ve been in the “but can you tell they’re Indigenous?” situation a number of times…people don’t seem to get that Indigenous Australians don’t need to “look” a certain way and that, indeed, Indigenous people who don’t fit the ‘stereotype’ are discriminated against on several different levels. Gah! So frustrating! 

  • Ben

    As much as I am offended by racism too, I am not sure the example you provide is necessarily racist. The photographer and designer had to provide an image that spoke to the audience. Obviously they wanted the audience to see indigenous people in the photo. If the photo did not clearly show that, then they might as well have put any three people in the photo. They were insensitive to say it, absolutely. But racist? I don’t think so. 

  • http://twitter.com/BlondeInkAUS Blonde Ink

    There were Indigenous people in the photo and suggesting that I’m not because I don’t fit the traditional look, is racist.

  • http://twitter.com/BlondeInkAUS Blonde Ink

    It certainly seems to be the common theme in workplaces these days about the ‘look’ of an Indigenous person. All we can do is keep educating!

  • Anon

    I agree with Ben.  I get that people need to understand that indigenous people don’t always look dark-skinned, but that wasn’t the comment that you quoted the designer and photographer as making.  You said that they said “but can you tell the people in this photo are indigenous?”.  The obvious and reasonable answer to that question is “No – BUT it’s important for people in the workplace to understand that just because someone doesn’t LOOK indigenous doesn’t mean that they aren’t.”  Their comment doesn’t say to me that the people you are quoting were racist, merely that they were questioning whether it was important to show recognizably indigenous faces alongside light-skinned ones. (And arguably it might be important to include a  representative RANGE of faces). Being reactive doesn’t help us move forward and it breeds a culture where conversations about indigenous issues are pushed aside as “too hard” or “too sensitive” and as such they are treated with a cursory political correctness instead of being explored to reach deeper understanding.  

  • http://twitter.com/BlondeInkAUS Blonde Ink

    I agree perhaps they weren’t obviously being racist and had no intent to come across that way, however I’ve had to battle all my life proving my Aboriginality to people and for another non-Indigenous person to raise the question, in front of my peers and a lot of people I respect can be too much.

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