Mr. Denis Naphine
Premier of Victoria
Dear Premier,
Can you do something about it
or is it too tough?
Looking forward for your
comment, please.
Yours respectfully,
Eddie
Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
http://unitywaorg.blogspot.com.au
(published)
http://twitter.com/unitypartywa (published)
Phone/Fax: 61893681884
Environmental
friendly - save the trees - use email.
UPWA is
the only political party that calls a spade a spade.
Racism on the job an
ugly problem, report discovers
Date - May 27, 2013 - Vince
Chadwick
People are
often subject to unthinking behaviour which is inherently racist.
Despite a spate of racist rants caught on commuters' phones,
racism is twice as likely to occur at work as on public transport, a report has
found.
Santino Deng ... 'The rest of the people I
was working with laughed.' Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui
Reporting Racism, released on Monday
by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, seeks to gauge
the frequency of racism and help victims and bystanders respond.
A survey of more than 200 people found
one in three had witnessed or experienced racism at work. Fifteen per cent had
encountered it on public transport, and 31 per cent had seen it on the street.
Racism may include verbal and physical abuse, offensive graffiti, and gestures
where a person is treated unfavourably due to their race.
''People are often subject to unthinking behaviour which is
inherently racist,'' said acting commissioner Karen Toohey. ''To hear their own
community being spoken about in derogatory terms has a profound impact.''
Respondents who had experienced or witnessed
racism in Victoria.
Funeral leave in the Aboriginal community, also known as sorry
business, is one example that Ms Toohey gave of an event that was commonly
misunderstood and derided by co-workers.
Santino Deng, from South Sudan, spent 12 years in a refugee camp
in Kenya before arriving in Australia in 2005. To support himself through his
arts degree at Victoria University he worked as a labourer in factories, where
he said racism
was commonplace.
Potential employers lost interest upon hearing his foreign name
and background. Once he did find work, he was assigned the toughest tasks, some colleagues refused
to speak to him, and there were often jokes about his race.
''Someone told me, 'you're so dark I don't see you around'. The
rest of the people I was working with laughed,'' Mr Deng said. ''So I told him,
'OK, let me put the light on - maybe you have a problem with your eyes.''
Currently unable to work due to a workplace injury to his hand,
the 32-year-old is seeking a less physically demanding job to allow him to
sponsor his wife and young son to come to Australia. But Mr Deng is not sure
what kind of society he would be welcoming them to. ''If we see the situation
is not improving, then we must speak out,'' he said. ''If not for our
generation, then for generations to come.''
The report also found 55 per cent of racist incidents went
unreported. Ms Toohey attributed this to concern that nothing would be done,
and the frequency of abuse.
In an effort to combat this, anyone who witnesses racism may now
fill out a report on the commission's anti-hate website. The reports will be
passed on to police.
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