Alienating youngsters on the margins of society

Racism is alive and well in Australia and politicians don't seem to care.

AUSTRALIA is arguably the most multicultural country in the world and should act as a beacon in the fight against racism. Instead, we live in a society in which a teenager is assaulted with a baseball bat for being a Jew, a Muslim girl's hijab is discreetly "airbrushed" by her high school in a class photo and an Australian Idol judge ridicules an aspiring performer about the difficulty of pronouncing his name. Racial tensions are continuously manipulated for political mileage.

The Federal Government has failed to provide leadership.
Racism has always been a touchy subject for Australians. Unlike the United States, where there is robust discussion in all sectors of society, here it has become a subject best covered within the safe confines of conferences and academic text.

Few young people are interested in such discussions. To them racism is visceral and is fast becoming a part of everyday life.
This was highlighted to me last year in a youth public speaking course run by the Victorian Arabic Social Services. The program concluded with students presenting their five-minute speeches to an audience of emergency services officers. A Muslim girl, 13, confidently stepped out to the lectern and delivered a passionate speech she simply titled: "Why I am not a terrorist."

Such explanations should be unnecessary but even children have learned otherwise. Immediately after 9/11, the atmosphere of Maysaa Abouzeid's high school in Preston changed. Maysaa is legally blind and was 16 at the time of the attacks. She recalls her classroom being split into two camps, with the "Anglos, Italians and Greeks" on one side and the "Arabs" on the other. As an Australian with Italian and Egyptian heritage, Maysaa chose to make a stand by sitting alone in the middle.

Unfortunately, such courage has not been shown by our political leaders who remain in denial. Prime Minister John Howard still sees the Cronulla riots of 2005 as merely a law and order issue and a recently publicised photograph of Australian soldiers dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan was brushed off as a "a bit of larrikin irreverence" by Defence Minister Brendan Nelson.

With such an absence of effective leadership, it is up to grassroots organisations and local communities to take up the fight on their own. Despite their lack of resources, many are achieving impressive results through a combination of innovative and cost-effective programs.

The Victorian Arabic Social Services initiated the Anti-Racism Action Band, a musical collective that tackles issues of racism and youth alienation in Melbourne's northern suburbs. Such was the need that ARAB grew to include more than 200 marginalised youngsters from 30 different cultural backgrounds. They have performed to a total audience of more than 30,000 locally and nationally.

The Northern Migrant Resource Centre has also entered a delegation of youth from ethnically diverse backgrounds into the Victorian Youth Parliament, with the aim of passing a motion tackling racial discrimination in media reports.

In the housing commission flats in Flemington, the Somali and Eritrean communities are working with local police to break down cultural barriers and racist stereotypes through a steady series of community events, sport competitions and youth consultations.
These initiatives begin to address what is needed to build a more understanding and tolerant society for our youth. But racism can only be fought from the top down — without government support little will be achieved.

Unfortunately, with the election looming it seems that the Government is still hedging its bets on whether to play the race card again. What is even more disappointing is the Opposition Leader's deafening silence on this issue. Kevin Rudd is yet to present young Australians with a fresh vision on how to overcome this challenge.

Last month, in a special report conducted by South Australian newspaper The Sunday Mail, a significant number of Adelaide high school students expressed the view that racism mars Australian society. But our leadership is choosing to neglect these concerns of Australia's future generation appealing instead to their hip pockets.

John Howard's claim that we "never had it so good" and Kevin Rudd's ambivalence are coming at the price of marginalised Australian youth, many of whom feel the only connection they have with their country's leaders is through a colourful MySpace page.