State of denial: racist abuse in Australia

Recent videos capturing racist abuse on public transport have caused a stir across the Australian media. Dr Yin Paradies, Associate Professor at Deakin University, is interviewed by Waleed Aly on whether this media frenzy is a symptom of denial rather than legitimate moral outrage.

The interview was made for ABCRadioNational and you can read the full transcript of the interview here.

The fact that at least 4 incidences of racial abuse have been recorded by citizens on their smartphones and received big exposure in the mainstream media during the last 6 months doesn’t mean that there is more racial incident happening on Australian public transport.

All those videos have become viral yet the Australian public or the media remains unaware of the multiple form of racism that happens in our society.

The real question to ask is not “Is Australia racist?’ or “How could this happen in our country?” but rather, “Why racism is so widespread? Why people have to put up with this in their buses? What can we do to educate people, to stop people?”

Please, share your thoughts and comments below.

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