Chinanews.com, May 24. In order to more effectively provide services to people experiencing racial discrimination, Australia's first local anti-racial discrimination network system was launched. In this regard, Australia.com commented that network tools alone are not enough to compensate for anti-racial discrimination. To protect the loopholes in the net, all walks of life should pay more attention to the issue of racial discrimination and act together to stop the growth of racism.
The University of Victoria in Australia and the Wyndham Community and Education Centre in Victoria have joined forces to launch Australia's first local anti-racial discrimination network system.
The functions of the network include upgrading the skills of local community organizations, making them the front line of protection for those experiencing racial discrimination, helping more people to speak up, obtain services, and record cases.
In order to more effectively provide services to people who have encountered racial discrimination, the network function is set according to different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and uses a design that is more in line with users' psychology and habits.
Australia is an immigrant society, and cultural diversity is an important feature of Australian society. The government has also been committed to protecting and developing cultural diversity.
Although anti-discrimination has long been written into the Australian Constitution, the problem of racial discrimination still exists.
After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, the problem of racial discrimination against Asian Asians in Australia has become increasingly serious.
According to a report released by the Australian National University in November 2020, from January to October of that year, 84.5% of Asians in Australia experienced at least one incident of racial discrimination, and some of them also suffered violence.
In April 2020, two Melbourne students were beaten by white men on the street.
The Indian epidemic peaked in April. The Australian government announced that it would prohibit entry of people who have been to India within 14 days, including nationals. This prohibition was accused of racial discrimination, because during the peak of the epidemic in Europe and the United States, Australia did not treat people who passed through these countries. Similar policies are implemented for immigrants.
What's more serious is that this policy also triggered another wave of racial discrimination. Indians, who accounted for about 2.6% of the Australian population, became victims. They felt like criminals or "second-class citizens."
Racial discrimination has long existed in Australia. An important reason is that many people who encounter racial discrimination cannot effectively protect themselves because they are not familiar with anti-discrimination laws and policies.
At the same time, they were unable to report the incidents of discrimination they encountered in a timely manner, and the perpetrators of discrimination escaped legal sanctions.
In order for anti-racial discrimination laws to be effectively implemented, and to improve the legal protection system for minorities, in addition to helping minorities better understand the Australian law and judicial system, it is also necessary to provide them with more applicable voice tools.
The new anti-racial discrimination network is designed with the cultural background of ethnic minorities in mind. It can help them report discrimination incidents in a timely manner, as well as help the government and communities collect relevant information, thereby providing more targeted protection for ethnic minorities.
However, network tools alone are not enough to fill the loopholes in the anti-racism protection network.
Many people fail to report in time after encountering racial discrimination, not because they are not familiar with Australian laws, but because they have psychological barriers. They are afraid of retaliation and therefore dare not report.
After the outbreak, the society’s hostility and rejection of Asians intensified. Some Australian politicians also followed suit and made anti-Asian remarks such as "Australia has been overwhelmed by Asian immigrants." Asians are under greater psychological pressure than before. Concerns increased when reporting incidents of discrimination.
To solve the psychological problems of ethnic minorities, especially Asians, when reporting discrimination incidents, the government and the community should take active actions to provide them with psychological counseling and enforce anti-discrimination laws more strictly.
All walks of life in Australia also need to pay more attention to the issue of racial discrimination and act together to stop the growth of racism in Australia.
(Zhang Pu, special commentator of this website)