Racism, Australia and the Media

I always feel blessed that I was brought up in Hong Kong. I was lucky to have received an education that emphasised on open mindedness from a great school. I still judge like other people for judging is a hobby of the human race. But then I was taught to think critically before we judge. I was bestowed with the ability to appreciate differences, which I think was quite unusual for someone who grew up in a more or less mono-cultural society.

I have always been fascinated by things from different cultures – I grew up watching Japanese anime, American shows and movies (not so much British shows though, which is weird considering Hong Kong was a British colony), understanding European cinemas because of my French studies, celebrating two new years every year and the list goes on. Looking back it was a blessed nurturing I received.

Fast forward to the present, I am now living in one of the greatest cities on the planet – Sydney. Sydney is great as beaches are so much more accessible (and so much less polluted as compared to Hong Kong), great weather but minus most of the natural disasters, huge variety of cuisines on offer and a seemingly multicultural society. I am very proud to be a modern Australian and a modern Sydneysider at the same time.

However, recent events on the news about racial abuse on public transport did alarm me quite a bit. There is no denying that racial issues exist in Australia and in Sydney. I personally had been yelled at before at a bus stop. But then does that mean racism is serious in Sydney? Personally I think racism is caused by the lack of understanding of other cultures. We do not understand them and thus we judge them and put them on trial without jury. For me Australia is not particularly racist, as I believe that all races are racist and every one of us, to a certain extent is racist. I still remember how shocked I was when a Hong Kong Indian friend told me how Hong Kong Chinese treated her when she was living in Hong Kong. I never knew that racism exists in Hong Kong but voila there it is – a live victim standing right before my eyes.

The unfortunate thing about racism in Australia is that it had some really bad press in the past. Also, as with most things, the racist minorities are usually the most vocal. So when these people rose up from hell and breathe fire over the issue, the media immediately picked that up and have a full-blown coverage about it.  I am not saying the media should not be covering such issues as I do think that it is the media’s responsibility to expose anti-social behaviours and racism is one of them; but what I am questioning is how the media, not just the Australian media, but the media industry as a whole handled racial issues in Australia. For me I am lucky to be able to read in a few different languages so I got to read reports on racial issues in Australia from different countries’ perspectives when things happened. What I feel sometimes is that the media crave for racism stories in Australia and when they did happen they became cold drinks on a hot and dry summer day for them. However, if they are responsible media, did they actually further investigate what happened? Did they attempt to find out what were the underlying causes? Have they discussed or raised questions about what could be done to avoid or reduce that in the future? Those are my questions. Reporting for the sake of rating and readership does not help the society to improve as a whole. Further I would like to challenge the international media that condemned Australia as a racist country to look carefully at them, are they not from a racist country themselves? If not, are they qualified to cast the first stone?

Of course I personally think that the Australian Government and Australian media should play a huge part to improve the situation. I still could not get over the fact that John Howard, the ex-Prime Minister, who came from a well off and socially advantaged Anglo-Saxon family once said that there is no racism in Australia.  This outright denial would not help anyone. I have been promoting diversity casting on Australian screen and stage for a while and one of the main reasons is not just to provide more job opportunities for non-Anglo actors, but also to show the general audience that the modern Australian society is indeed a multi-cultural society. Through a correct portrayal of ethnicity on stage and on screen, we can gradually improve people’s understanding of the society they are living in. And by this of course, I am not talking about Chinese actors continue to be kitchen hands, Japanese actors continue to be Bondi Beach tourists, Indian actors continue to be convenient store keepers, Lebanese actors continue to be terrorists, and so forth so on. As for the governing bodies in Australia, tackling racial issues has no space for lip services. Certainly a Chinese New Year parade might let people know it is Chinese New Year, but then at the same time, what do people learn further about Chinese New Year or the Chinese culture as a whole? A shallow scraping of cultural planktons does not help us understand the cultural ocean itself. Further, overly zealous positive discrimination against your own cultural traditions to accommodate other cultures’ “feelings” and “views” about your culture is anything but helpful.

Things are improving in Australia everyday that is something I am sure of. This is particularly true with the new generation who grew up in a multicultural environment. However, I do not believe that racism is something that could be completely eradicated. It stems from a lack of understanding and this factor will always be in play. Nonetheless, I do believe we could improve the situation by continuously informing people the objective truth of our society through our media instead of just treading the shallow waters and feel like we know all about the ocean.