Racism is inherent in Australia: Aboriginal leader
By ANIFriday, January 15, 2010
MELBOURNE - Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma has said that there is “inherent racism” in Australia and that this attitude must change.
Calma said on Friday that recent attacks on Indian students in Australia could be racially motivated. “I think some of them may be.”
Indian student Nitin Garg, 21, was stabbed to death in Melbourne earlier this month, while Jaspreet Singh, 29, received burns to 15 per cent of his body after allegedly being set alight.
The incidents have sparked outrage in India, where attacks against Indian students in Australia over the past year have remained a sore point, The Herald Sun reports.
Calma said there was “inherent racism” in Australia and policies such as the Northern Territory intervention and welfare quarantining were to blame.
“There is an indirect racism, if not direct racism, and it affects those people who are the indigenous people or the ethnic minorities,” he told ABC radio.
Calma said Australian attitudes needed to change. “We shouldn’t tolerate it as people suggest we might have to, we should nip it in the bud.” (ANI)
