@timsout @nswpolice #auspol #ausnews
Dear Tim Soutphommasane, Race Discrimination Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission,
It was truly excellent to see you denouncing the racist buffoon Sue Wilkins Karen Bailey for her racist and child-abusive rant on a Sydney to Newcastle train last week. I mean, that’s pretty much what the majority of your job is, right? It’s up to you to hold a light to racism in our society when and where you see it and speak to the public about why it is unacceptable. Maybe change a few minds, educate a few dopes? It was also inspiring to see the NSW Police act so quickly to find the woman and have her charged. They even prepared statements to address media outlets.
So why the continued silence regarding online discrimination?
From Nazis and white supremacists to homophobes and sexists, from rape enthusiasts and disability abusers to anti-immigration nut jobs, the Internet is rife with discrimination produced in Australia by Australians who are happy to give their name, location, employment status and photo to their comments. We’ve been immortalising the comments on our website for years. Yet it takes a 50 year old dunce on a train to say the word ‘gook’ and everyone just loses their shit.
So where are you? Where are the State and Federal Police? Nowhere to be seen. It’s depressing to say the very least. Our Race Discrimination Commissioner is absent and our authorities lack interest and power.
So the old biddy has said her apologies under the pseudonym of Sue Wilkins and everybody is breathing a sigh of relief. Thank goodness we got through that, right?
Wrong.
These opinions exist in our society. It’s a fucking plague. These opinions are validated by oxygen thieves like Scott Morrison, Cory Bernardi, Tony Abbott and their bumbling supporter MPs sidekicks and accompanying Murdoch led media circus. These hate-filled discriminatory opinions bubble to the surface on public trains and buses regularly but even more regularly online and nobody appears to give two shits either way.
How can people expect to feel as though they are safe in this country if their sexual orientation, physical ability, country of origin or religion are the focus and target of so much anger and hatred? Who is there to help people who read this shit online? Who is there to help the people who are the victims or onlookers to vile discrimination? I’ve interviewed anonymous police officers several times and have been told regularly that police will not bother charging a person unless they’ve physically abused someone. The Telecommunications Act lacks teeth and it lacks officers who are willing to go after these people.
Here are some screenshots that were taken today. They are from a Facebook group set up to oppose a mosque being built in Kalgoorlie. I’m sure if you ask them on Today Tonight they’ll tell you that their opposition exists because of ‘parking and traffic concerns’ or some other bullshit. But it’s what’s simmering underneath and boiling to the surface of social media that is the all too common truth. Australia is a fucking racist country. End of story.
Do something about it Tim.
you said it... 
How much can he do with the current government that thinks that bigotry (almost typed bogotry!) is a right.
+1 @ “bogotry” 😉
Dr Tim probably can do very little with this current crew. There are those in the Coalition who abhor racism and bigotry but no doubt they will not be allowed to comment.
Social media really needs to be pulled into line about what is acceptable under our laws. Facebook is probably the worst offender because it is contemptuous of its users. At least Twitter and YouTube actually seem to have humans operating them.
Constant refusal to remove hateful sites (ask the people at OHPI about how long it has taken to get Holocaust denial, anti-Indigenous and anti-Semitic sites pulled), a total lack of transparency, an opaque “reporting” process and an infantile disregard for the safety and security of its users make it a very unsafe environment.
We hope Dr Tim’s high public profile will finally make Facebook wake up.
I think that these people are obscene – but at least they are exposed for who they are and can be ignored
It really doesn’t surprise me anymore. Do those facebook warriors realise that Muslim camel drivers had a massive influence in building Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie?
Kalgoorlie is a very racist town.Large population of poorly educated people
I’d prefer it said that there is racism in Australia, not that Australia is a racist country. We need to do something about the infection of ignorance and hatred, but branding the whole country and all the communities in it as racist is disappointing, especially from someone speaking out against vilification. It is not a racist country. It’s an amazing, accepting, culturally diverse population that suffers from a cancerous growth in a small, ignorant, and generally impoverished group of bigots and haters, an ugly group that tarnishes many nations recently built on immigration, not just Australia. When I immigrated here and had to learn English i found acceptance, love and respect. There is racism in Australia, and that’s disappointing to say the least, and there are pockets of bigots and hatred, but Australia as a whole is not a racist country.