Reflecting on #BlackLivesMatter and #IndigenousLivesMatter, it's easy to focus on violence in the US. It's easy to focus on statues or protesters. And it's easy to explain away racism as outdated minority views.
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What's difficult is to maintain momentum. To consider how global structures are set up to reinforce racism, from schools, workplaces, and government services.
I'm sure you can imagine (or know) a racist person. But racism isn't just people, it's all around us. Hold in your mind there is over an eight year life expectancy gap in Australia between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Now picture yourself in Old Bar driving to Taree, on my former bus route to Taree High...
On the way through is Purfleet - the former mission where Aboriginal people were forced to live until relatively recently. We'd then drive further into town, across the river. People on the bus would see Aboriginal people hitchhiking into town and say things like "why don't they get a car", "why are they bludging off people?" and "why don't they have a job". Aboriginal kids would hop on the school bus at Purfleet (age 4+), and they'd have to cross one of the busiest roads in the Manning. To this day there's no zebra crossing.
Perhaps, like me, you've realised something sitting on the bus:
The young people on the bus were repeating things they'd heard at home - racist messages passed down from their parents. Ingrained into the cultural fabric of the (white) community.
The distance between Purfleet and the jobs in Taree is as wide culturally as it is physically. The cultural gap is reinforced by the historic physical segregation. It wasn't an accident the Mission was built away from town. And that physical gap reinforces a cultural and economic gap. It is harder to get to work if you live there than if you live in Taree.
The parents of the young people, and other people in town, held the power. How can Aboriginal people "get a job", if nobody will give them a fair hearing (see above!).
Instead of a crossing, at some point a sign went up saying "Watch out, kids about". It announces, but doesn't address the risk, or make any effort to solve the structurally racist act of literally putting young children in harm's way.
Racism runs deeper than just racial slurs from kids on a bus - it's structural. The problems are founded in Australia's colonised history. Just because it's taught at school (or not taught), doesn't mean it's okay. Just because a politician or a teacher or doctor or nurse or someone you love said something (or didn't) which reinforced white privilege, doesn't mean it is okay. Listen to the experts on the topic, consider the arguments being made at the #BlackLivesMatter and #IndigenousLivesMatter protests.
I believe equitable change in Australia will come from within our Indigenous communities.
As Australians, we now believe in equality for Indigenous Australians, unlike in the 1700s. But structures need to change too. Read over the issues from the bus - they all sit with the colonial white supremacist structures the town was built on.
Irrespective of whether you are racist, non-Indigenous people in Taree continue to benefit from that privilege. The faults run deep, physically, emotionally, socio-culturally, economically. They play out in quality of life. They play out in life expectancy.
I want to end on a call to action: How can we educate ourselves? How can we undo the colonial history of our town? How can we challenge (invisible) racist structures? How can you do better?