Australia claims that is it is not a racist country but is this really true? “Racism needs to stop now”, this might sound like, what every politician talks about in Australia. But coming from a person who deals with all kinds of news on a daily basis, this statement does hold some depth to it and me being a news reporter have seen all shades of this issue. I don’t want people to get another reason to point out at my country. Racism,certainly needs a punishment for many reasons, when someone experiences racism they feel powerless. If Australia is a free country then everyone has their rights and the judicial system needs to stay true to its name.
Firstly racism leads to powerlessness now this is proved in many ways in famous books and movies, for example the text No Sugar by Jack Davis expresses his opinion on how powerlessness can be felt due to racism. An example from the book is, when the Munday family was ordered to move to More River and were asked to leave.When the Munday’s opposed to this, the answer they got was “I will arrest you”. We also see this in our society these days, there are some people who are buying new homes, are looking for a “white only area” because the society has this pre-assumed notion for the coloured people, thinking that they might rob them or harm them in any ways. Why do we not have a punishment for these acts of racism.
Secondly, one should have equal rights, regardless of their colour and background. Once again the text No Sugar states this example very well, when Milly was at the police station to pick up the rations and was denied soap, saying that “No soap for you”. In the book the whites said that soap was considered a luxurious item, so putting in the effort to argue was pointless back then and even now in our country we still have such issues. The youtube video on the SBS Australia channel clearly shows, how a man is experiencing racism and shows how a women is telling him he can’t support the Australian team because of his background and he does not have the right to be an Australian. She also calls him the N-word. This is why we need a punishment for racism.
The Australian judicial system has never been known for its reputation and has always had its share of cons to it. The text No Sugar shows the injustice through racism. The scene where Frank is caught providing Jimmy with alcohol, but was given different sentences, even though Jimmy didn’t do anything but still got more of a sentence then Frank.”It is my duty to keep the native away from alcohol” this tells us that just because someone is a different skin colour they will be the reason why this has happened.The Australian society is still the same till now, a few days back my son’s teacher was telling me about how a white man had stabbed a coloured man in a club but the white man was never charged. Why do we call it justice when we know that it is all a lie. This is why we need to have a punishment for racism.
Though people say that the australian judicial system is not corrupt but, it is still the same, as we all know, it is the judicial system only that started dividing the coloured and the whites. Today, I regret saying that this is my Australia.
Why do we live in such a country that allows racism to happen and make someone feel like they don’t have equal rights in their own country. Australia has been considered to be a great country to live but i am not sure if it is worthy of that title. People say that Australia has changed from what it was but i can tell right now that Australia never changed there is still racism in our country and we need to have a punishment for this dreadful act.
YEAR 11 2E's CLASS BLOG 