The racism experienced by Stan Grant is the norm, not the exception

With the spotlight on Indigenous people in sport and media dealing with an endless stream of racism, with many walking away from the spotlight altogether, it’s important to remember that mob with no profile go through the same and worse every day in every part of the country with little to no media interest. 

You simply cannot exist in Australia as an Indigenous person without encountering it. 

The racism that Stan Grant has had to endure is unacceptable, but it is also entirely unexceptional.

Racism against us is the norm, not the exception.  

A young Aboriginal journo messaged me after Stan made his announcement and asked me “Why is there so much institutional racism at the abc?”

Sadly, the only answer I could give is that it’s because it’s an Australian institution. There simply isn’t one that isn’t institutionally racist in some way. Education, health, justice, politics, sport, media, housing, you name it. It is the colonial bedrock on which they are built and  remains the fuel that drives their engines. 

As Uncle Jack Charles said, ‘Australia is… peculiarly racist against us. You have to know this. If you don’t know it, I don’t know how you don’t know it now.” 

There has never been a time when that has not been true, despite the past few decades of effort in pretending otherwise.

In schools all across the country, Indigenous students, parents, teachers, principals and community members see it every day. It’s in the classrooms, the playgrounds, the staff rooms, the curriculum and the education departments. 

It’s in our workplaces, in our essential services, on the streets, looking for a house, doing the shopping, going online, watching tv… It is relentless and all pervading.

There is a never ending stream of battles and burn outs that mob are trying to navigate. Young ones dreaming of careers in any and all industries who realise very quickly that there may be a day where they have to choose between their dreams and their desire to call out the racism they experience. Some of us end up giving up on our dreams to fight racism fulltime in the hopes that other mob won’t have to go through the same things we did – I just wanted to be a primary teacher, FFS. Instead I had to find a new purpose and was lucky enough to be at the right place and the right time for IndigenousX to have thrived for over a decade. But even we had to stop our signature rotating Twitter account due to the racism experienced by our hosts who for over a decade volunteered their time to share their lives, their dreams and their stories online. But still we persist, because what else is there to do? 

None of us asked for this. We didn’t choose this freely. We sure as hell don’t want it for our children.

We are not the problem. 

But all the same, so many of us still invariably find ourselves here. 

And it’s not just the ever growing wave of Nazis, the conservative commentators and politicians; it’s the well meaning white people telling us they’d support more if only we behaved better, that if we want to make change we need to wait, work hard, climb the ranks and do it from within. It is those who do not understand the difference between assimilation and empowerment, between justice and charity. 

Whenever an Indigenous person encounters racism in the colony, the default starting point is ‘obviously didn’t mean it’, as racism only ever happens by accident. It’s not racism, it’s unconscious bias, it’s a misunderstanding, it’s a joke, maybe we just misheard or took it out of context or even worse, maybe we are just playing the race card. 

So long as white Australia continues to give itself the benefit of the doubt regarding the racism it upholds and perpetuates, we will continue to be denied the benefit of the doubt of our experiences of it.

So long as we are denied the benefit of the doubt regarding racism and its impacts, Australia will continue to fail to address it in any meaningful way.

And so long as mob who achieved the greatest heights the colony has to offer still have to face this endless barrage of racism, we will continue sending a message to our children that there is no escaping the hatred, animosity and resentment this nation feels towards us. No matter how hard they work or how much they prove their worth through their strength of character or the quality of their work.

Oh, and by the way, happy Reconciliation Week for Friday – make sure you save me a cupcake or two.