I come here today with my Bunjilung brothers and sisters to address a prejudice society that lead my own grandfather to be forcibly removed from his own sporting field. A man who wasn’t welcomed in his own clubhouse. A man who was benched. A man who was told he wasn’t Australian.
Now, I can’t lie about the immense occurrence of Australian racism because racism is real. We all know this, because “Nothing’s Changed”.
Now my grandfather is not alone. The violent interaction between black men, women, children and the police force plays out in cities and towns across Australia, often with much more devastating results. According to the most recent statistics, 1 in 6 black people go to prison.
Now the question is, how do we solve this problem? …show more content…
Having a better understanding of the root causes of the current place where we are will help provide us with the tools that we need to move us forward. The current crisis surrounding race suffers from a lack of attention to the root causes. So why does incarceration rates continue to increase? In my opinion, this issue continues to happen as we have the wrong diagnosis and the wrong cure. Part of the reason so many Indigenous Australians continue to be put away at an alarming rate is because we haven’t properly addressed our long history of racial terror in this country which has treated blackness as a proxy for criminality, a substitute for criminality.
Now, according to the most recent statistics, twenty- seven percent of aboriginals were prisoners in 2016, but it’s not just our legal system that pops up this myth of black dangers. This myth gets reinforced and takes on a truth like quality through everyday interaction. We see it every day when a women takes a small step to the side, the subtle death grip of her belongings when a black man passes by and you think you’re protecting yourself, but, in reality, you’re actually provoking it. This is the reality of what people see, hear, and think about …show more content…
But I am not convinced that just because someone who didn’t have access to stable accommodation, education, and healthcare, means their chances in life are limited than those who were more privileged. This does not stereotype aboriginals as bad and as an alternative send them to imprisonment. Because being black should not be an enormous disadvantage. We, as people of colour, should not have to fear?
Now it’s not just the police force its all of us who in big ways through our actions and in small ways by our silences support this lie, that black folk are more dangerous and suspicious than the rest of us. In Caucasian society, black should not symbolise bad luck and white for peace.
Now we keep offering education as a way to help people understand racism. But education is not a cure for all the racial sins and yet education is still how most of us understand the responsibility of racism. But the problem surrounding Aboriginal incarceration is not a problem that education can fix by offering greater educational opportunities to blacks. A book is not going to stop a 15-year-old from 10 years imprisonment from stealing a car and longer classroom times are not going to save someone from being illegally stopped and manhandled by police. Do you really think this is a level playing field? Because I don’t believe waking up to the knock of police will fully justify their
Now, I can’t lie about the immense occurrence of Australian racism because racism is real. We all know this, because “Nothing’s Changed”.
Now my grandfather is not alone. The violent interaction between black men, women, children and the police force plays out in cities and towns across Australia, often with much more devastating results. According to the most recent statistics, 1 in 6 black people go to prison.
Now the question is, how do we solve this problem? …show more content…
Having a better understanding of the root causes of the current place where we are will help provide us with the tools that we need to move us forward. The current crisis surrounding race suffers from a lack of attention to the root causes. So why does incarceration rates continue to increase? In my opinion, this issue continues to happen as we have the wrong diagnosis and the wrong cure. Part of the reason so many Indigenous Australians continue to be put away at an alarming rate is because we haven’t properly addressed our long history of racial terror in this country which has treated blackness as a proxy for criminality, a substitute for criminality.
Now, according to the most recent statistics, twenty- seven percent of aboriginals were prisoners in 2016, but it’s not just our legal system that pops up this myth of black dangers. This myth gets reinforced and takes on a truth like quality through everyday interaction. We see it every day when a women takes a small step to the side, the subtle death grip of her belongings when a black man passes by and you think you’re protecting yourself, but, in reality, you’re actually provoking it. This is the reality of what people see, hear, and think about …show more content…
But I am not convinced that just because someone who didn’t have access to stable accommodation, education, and healthcare, means their chances in life are limited than those who were more privileged. This does not stereotype aboriginals as bad and as an alternative send them to imprisonment. Because being black should not be an enormous disadvantage. We, as people of colour, should not have to fear?
Now it’s not just the police force its all of us who in big ways through our actions and in small ways by our silences support this lie, that black folk are more dangerous and suspicious than the rest of us. In Caucasian society, black should not symbolise bad luck and white for peace.
Now we keep offering education as a way to help people understand racism. But education is not a cure for all the racial sins and yet education is still how most of us understand the responsibility of racism. But the problem surrounding Aboriginal incarceration is not a problem that education can fix by offering greater educational opportunities to blacks. A book is not going to stop a 15-year-old from 10 years imprisonment from stealing a car and longer classroom times are not going to save someone from being illegally stopped and manhandled by police. Do you really think this is a level playing field? Because I don’t believe waking up to the knock of police will fully justify their