Racism an ‘everyday’ experience for most Aborigines: report

Indigenous Australians are more likely to experience “everyday” racism including being called names and treated with disrespect than migrants, a survey shows.

The findings were based on a study of 6000 people between July and November 2015 that was commissioned by SBS for the documentary Is Australia Racist?, which aired on Sunday night.

While a significant proportion of all respondents had experienced discrimination, about two thirds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders reported being called names and being treated with a lack of trust and respect.

About half of the respondents who were born overseas endured the same kind of “everyday” racism, the survey by the Western Sydney University found.

More than half of indigenous Australians and those who spoke a language other than English experienced racism in the workplace as well as school and university, shops and restaurants.

Nearly 60 per cent of both those groups also endured racism on public transport.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experiences of everyday racisms were approximately 25 percentage points higher than for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants,” a report based on the survey’s findings said.

Overall, 17 per cent of the survey’s respondents experienced racism in the past year.

A third reported racism at work and within an educational facility, while a quarter experienced racism in relation to healthcare, police and housing.

Among those born overseas, people who hailed from north-east Asian countries such as China and South Korea were the most likely to be discriminated against.

In terms of religious groups, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims ex- perienced the highest rates of prejudice.

Three quarters of Buddhists and 70 per cent of Muslims had been targeted on public transport or on the street. Muslim women were more likely than Muslim men to experience racism on public transport and in educational institutions.

Nearly two thirds of all respondents felt some sort of intolerance or discomfort towards Muslims, with one in four saying they would be “extremely or very concerned” if a relative was to marry a Muslim.

One in two also believed that people from racial, ethnic, cultural and religious minorities should be- have like “mainstream Australians”.

However, three quarters said they would take action if they witnessed someone being discriminated against because of their culture, ethnicity or race.

Western Sydney University professor Kevin Dunn, who heads the Challenging Racism Project, said despite the findings, Australia had a good track record of anti-racism, particularly since the introduction of multiculturalism in the 1970s.

“Racism in Australia is a national calamity, but the good news is there’s a vast amount of ground and it can be made up quite quickly,” he said.