Last Saturday
What ambitions... I recall on the blog I wrote on Saturday that I thought I'd just simply end up drinking too much and falling asleep... If only that were.
"Fucking Japs" was the first thing I heard as I got out of the car. Peering at door number seven, I saw a short white male looking at us in disgust. At first we didn't react other than to stare back. That's when the stream of abuse started...
For the sake of not repeating myself, I'll just paste what I wrote on the subject the next day here:
Executives of Peak Student Representative Body Subject to Racist Attack
Five top-level executives for the National Liaison Committee for International Students Inc. (NLC) became victims of a racial attack upon returning to their hotel after a conference followed by a dinner, when a fellow hotel guest confronted them with explicitly racial insults as they were returning to their respective rooms.
The NLC does not believe in racial violence and the representatives therefore responded by immediately alerting the New South Wales police, who arrived an hour later. They were advised of their right to file a racial vilification complaint, but were told that as this would require legal representation, it would be better to leave the issue unaddressed. Also, it was clearly stated that the police were not empowered to take any action, as this responsibility belongs to the Australian Board of Discrimination (ADB). After the departure of the NSW-police, the offender and his companion continued to harass the NLC executives, knocking on their windows and warning them until around 5 a.m. the next morning to “be careful”.
The five members of the national executive, Aditya Tater, National Convenor (QLD), Pankaj Pathak, National General Secretary (WA), Akshay Saraf, NSW Convenor, Sankalp Khanna, QLD Convenor and Valisa Krairiksh, VIC Convenor, hail from six countries: Nepal, India, Botswana, Zambia, Thailand and Finland. As well as representing international students nationwide, they also represent their Universities: Griffith University, University of Queensland, University of Notre Dame Australia, University of Technology in Sydney, and Monash University.
The NLC executives, who were attending the annual conference at of the New South Wales branch of the NLC at the University of Newcastle, had also ironically been discussing racism as a central issue following the atrocious physical attacks that took place a month prior, where the victim was a Kenyan student studying at the University of Newcastle.
The NLC-NSW branch conference opened the following day with discussions on racism and tactics that could be adopted as counter-measures. Among the proposals put forth, was that made by Ingrid Tufvesson, International Student Officer for the Postgraduate Board of the University of New South Wales, encouraging international students in Australia to approach the U.N. Currently, NLC is researching the possibilities of an international campaign for acknowledgement of international students as a specifically disenfranchised minority, which, due to its status, demands representation cognoscente of the new factors put into play as education is increasingly internationalised.
The NLC will, after seeking medial recognition for these issues in Australia, be formulating similar press releases to be publicised internationally. The organisation will not tolerate unjust bias faced by international students in Australia, whether this is structural - as in the denial of public transport concessions; political - as in the lack of effective representation and legal rights, or those stemming from a core issue of discrimination and racial abuse by individuals and or groups in Australia.
****
It's a very powerless feeling you get when you are confronted with something like that. You know they hate you, but you don't really know why. You never talked to them in your life. All they do is see you and they decide you are bad person. And you know it's not even due to a low level of education, although that's the reason it takes on such an ugly, straighforward form. They hate us because we are not white, but we don't hate them. It's difficult to be anything but hurt.
Whatever form of racism it is, how it must eat away at the person who holds such views. If it's the uneducated, openly discriminating kind, then they are angry that we are here. If it's the educated kind that tries to deny racism exists, then the person can't help staring, they can't help feeling uncomfortable when they see a 'black' person, and they can't deal with the knowledge that deep down, they really are racist, no matter how they try to mask it.
Or maybe people just don't think enough.
"Fucking Japs" was the first thing I heard as I got out of the car. Peering at door number seven, I saw a short white male looking at us in disgust. At first we didn't react other than to stare back. That's when the stream of abuse started...
For the sake of not repeating myself, I'll just paste what I wrote on the subject the next day here:
Executives of Peak Student Representative Body Subject to Racist Attack
Five top-level executives for the National Liaison Committee for International Students Inc. (NLC) became victims of a racial attack upon returning to their hotel after a conference followed by a dinner, when a fellow hotel guest confronted them with explicitly racial insults as they were returning to their respective rooms.
The NLC does not believe in racial violence and the representatives therefore responded by immediately alerting the New South Wales police, who arrived an hour later. They were advised of their right to file a racial vilification complaint, but were told that as this would require legal representation, it would be better to leave the issue unaddressed. Also, it was clearly stated that the police were not empowered to take any action, as this responsibility belongs to the Australian Board of Discrimination (ADB). After the departure of the NSW-police, the offender and his companion continued to harass the NLC executives, knocking on their windows and warning them until around 5 a.m. the next morning to “be careful”.
The five members of the national executive, Aditya Tater, National Convenor (QLD), Pankaj Pathak, National General Secretary (WA), Akshay Saraf, NSW Convenor, Sankalp Khanna, QLD Convenor and Valisa Krairiksh, VIC Convenor, hail from six countries: Nepal, India, Botswana, Zambia, Thailand and Finland. As well as representing international students nationwide, they also represent their Universities: Griffith University, University of Queensland, University of Notre Dame Australia, University of Technology in Sydney, and Monash University.
The NLC executives, who were attending the annual conference at of the New South Wales branch of the NLC at the University of Newcastle, had also ironically been discussing racism as a central issue following the atrocious physical attacks that took place a month prior, where the victim was a Kenyan student studying at the University of Newcastle.
The NLC-NSW branch conference opened the following day with discussions on racism and tactics that could be adopted as counter-measures. Among the proposals put forth, was that made by Ingrid Tufvesson, International Student Officer for the Postgraduate Board of the University of New South Wales, encouraging international students in Australia to approach the U.N. Currently, NLC is researching the possibilities of an international campaign for acknowledgement of international students as a specifically disenfranchised minority, which, due to its status, demands representation cognoscente of the new factors put into play as education is increasingly internationalised.
The NLC will, after seeking medial recognition for these issues in Australia, be formulating similar press releases to be publicised internationally. The organisation will not tolerate unjust bias faced by international students in Australia, whether this is structural - as in the denial of public transport concessions; political - as in the lack of effective representation and legal rights, or those stemming from a core issue of discrimination and racial abuse by individuals and or groups in Australia.
****
It's a very powerless feeling you get when you are confronted with something like that. You know they hate you, but you don't really know why. You never talked to them in your life. All they do is see you and they decide you are bad person. And you know it's not even due to a low level of education, although that's the reason it takes on such an ugly, straighforward form. They hate us because we are not white, but we don't hate them. It's difficult to be anything but hurt.
Whatever form of racism it is, how it must eat away at the person who holds such views. If it's the uneducated, openly discriminating kind, then they are angry that we are here. If it's the educated kind that tries to deny racism exists, then the person can't help staring, they can't help feeling uncomfortable when they see a 'black' person, and they can't deal with the knowledge that deep down, they really are racist, no matter how they try to mask it.
Or maybe people just don't think enough.