Exactly! Thank you Australian Human Rights Commission for exposing the watering down of the International Day of the Elimination of Racism.
Needless to say racism operates at different levels.
There is interpersonal racism- between people- aka verbal and physical attacks on people based on their perceived race, religion, ethnicity, etc.
Institutional or systematic racism is when implicit and/or explicit rules, regulations and biases impact the equal opportunity of people of colour. For example, the Police perceive Aboriginal young people to be dangerous & difficult leading to excessive use of force, leading to high levels (epidemic really!) of death in custody and incarceration of First Nation people.
Another example of institutional racism is when Middle Eastern and Chinese-sounding names are 60% less likely to secure a job when compared to applicants with Anglo-sounding names with the exact same CV. (leave a comment if you want link to the Research)
Structural racism is when all these biased laws, policies, or practices that restrict people’s access to services, opportunities, and resources because of their race, leave a compounding effect on people’s families, employment, mental and physical health, interactions with the criminal justice system, and beyond.
The war on Gaza has exposed Muslim/ Arab communities in Australia to all the above three levels of racism.
At the interpersonal level, Islamophobia has skyrocketed!
At the institutional level, every level of the government has failed to provide equal opportunities and services to the Muslim and particularly the Palestinian communities impacted in the same way the government extended support to the Jewish/Israeli communities in Australia.
Read my article here for evidence that Australian Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens.
https://lnkd.in/gxiyQ3RX
The latest of this train of institutional racism, by the government against Australian Muslims and Palestinians, is that in comparison to the $25 million handed to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Inc in Octo 2023, five months into the war, of the $25 million promised by the federal government to Australien Muslim and Palestinian communities – only two smaller grants were given to newly established Islamic organisations. The rest was rolled out to non-Islamic nor Palestinian communities such as SBS ( $2 million), AAP ( $1 million) and the Human Rights Commission received ($2 million) to run extra anti-racism programs.
For six months, we have been running in circles, trying to find a way to access these much-needed funds in vain!!!
We ( Australian Palestinian Muslim communities ) were left with no support to our deteriorating mental health. No support to capture the skyrocketing Islamophobia and intimidation in workplaces. This is structural racism.
https://lnkd.in/g5zGM6q7
Racism sits deep in the fabric of our institutions.
Without a just moral, political, social and financial position from Gaza and the Palestinian communities in Australia, Anti-racism efforts are useless.