Tag: Are You Racist ANU? Pullout

• What Does It Mean Going to University on Stolen Land?

  August 31, 2020 10:49 am Comments Off on What Does It Mean Going to University on Stolen Land?

  This piece is the first of many in the Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni series in association with the ANU BIPOC Department. Want to write for the series? Email anuethnoculturaldept@gmail.com with a pitch or draft.

   
   
  How aware are you?
   
  The ANU operates on the stolen lands of the Nngunnawal and Ngambri people. Have you ever thought about the fact that you live, study and work on stolen land? A land where sovereignty has never been ceded?
   
  When you go to class and learn through a predominately white Settler gaze, how aware are you that you do so where First Nations complex social and political systems were in place for thousands of years on land beneath your feet?
   
  What are you going to do about it?
   
  As you progress through your degree at the ANU, are you also educating yourself in ways you may be complicit in the oppression of First Nations people today? As you learn to critically analyse and speak up, are you also amplifying the voices of Indigenous people? You are and will always be living on stolen land. 
   
  What are you going to do about it? Here’s a great place to start.
   
  Read and listen to Indigenous authors. 
   
  Ambelin Kwaymullina is an Aboriginal writer and illustrator from the Palyku people of the Pilbara region. She has written a book, Living on Stolen Land, which is an exploration on how Settlers can respect the Indigenous sovereignties around them and take meaningful action.
   
  This is a short extract from one of Kwaymullina’s poems:

  “Settler-colonialism
  is a serial violator
  of indigenous boundaries
  Of lands bodies
  hearts
  minds….
  Listening means learning to hear
  the noise of settler-colonialism
  inside your head
  and all around you
  so you can hear past it
  to understand our voices
  on our own terms”
   
   
   

  Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.

  Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni

  Anushri Goswami

• What Does a Decolonised University Look Like?

  10:43 am Comments Off on What Does a Decolonised University Look Like?

  This piece is the first of many in the Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni series in association with the ANU BIPOC Department. Want to write for the series? Email anuethnoculturaldept@gmail.com with a pitch or draft.

   
  What does a decolonised university look like? No one truly knows…
   
  No one knows what a decolonised university looks like because we have never had the opportunity to witness a decolonised world. When the university as an institution is a result of the colonial project and imagination, how decolonised is decolonised enough?
   
  In this context, decolonisation never fully arrives. It is in a constant state of becoming, no matter how ‘progressive’ or ‘radical’ the change seems.
   
  Let’s imagine…
   
  The systemic nature of racism is designed to crush the power of imagination in BIPOC communities through distraction. The distraction of constantly having to prove yourself and that you can’t ask for me. And, in a world prone to pessimism, we often forget how beautiful it is to create through imagining the future. So, let’s imagine what an anti-racist, decolonised universiry would look like. Here are some ideas:
   
  A university that better supports its BIPOC students
   
  A university that actively employs BIPOC counsellors and psychologists to make mental health assistance more accessible and inclusive for its BIPOC students.
   
  A university that listens to its BIPOC students’ concerns without citing lack of resources as a concern.
   
  A university that employs and encourages more BIPOC representation in academia

  A university that encourages more BIPOC academics but also goes beyond that to give voice to the lived experience in its research methodologies and output.
   
  A university that stops making pledges for more diversity and inclusion and actually does something about it.
   
  A university that responds to workplace racism and disciplines its staff and leadership when
  they make the ‘casual racist comment’.
   
  A university which critically re-evaluates the whiteness of its learning curriculum.
   
  A university that looks beyond the conventional approach to education and curriculum and appreciates that true decolonisation means education will never begin and end in its academy.
   
   
  Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.

  Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni

  Niroshnee Ranjan

• Don’t Look Away

  10:34 am Comments Off on Don’t Look Away

  This piece is the first of many in the Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni series in association with the ANU BIPOC Department. Want to write for the series? Email anuethnoculturaldept@gmail.com with a pitch or draft.

  Don’t look, just walk on.
  This is an attitude I was taught. When visiting my Mum’s country, you will be struck by the amount of beggars on the street. And not just the amount, but the severity. Men without legs, women without faces, blind, the elderly and children. All very calm, begging, selling or just watching as you pass by.
  The advice I was given?
  “Don’t look at them, just keep walking”.
  A strange puzzle for a child. When you see someone hurt, someone suffering, you feel as if you have to help them. But here, in the dense and packed nation of India, there’s just too many. Too many people to try and help. For a single person, it’s hilariously impossible. But the lesson, I think, was wrong. To look past someone felt utterly unjust to me. It coloured such a large amount of who I am, that it became impossible to think. Enjoying food, TV, good clothes or company almost became a crime for me. How could you enjoy anything, knowing that just outside the door people had less?
   
  How could you admire heroes, the Gandhis or Lincolns that you only knew as a fairy tale, when a cruel reality was lurking around you?And the fact that this same fate, reduced to poverty, could so easily happen to you? Hell, you clung on tighter to any kind of safety.

  And then, back to Australia. 
  Suddenly back to a place that was almost grossly, infinitely richer. I wondered why there were so few beggars, so many clean cars and so much food. I tried to forget the words I had learned in India. To just walk past my problems.
   
  And soon, that became utterly impossible. You have to face people when speaking to them. You can’t ignore family members when they ask for help. And problems don’t just disappear if you stop thinking about them.
   
  The lessons given in India helped me, and the people there, to go about their lives. When you need to work for food, education and housing, it’s unnecessary torture to focus at the beggars lining the street.  And my lesson was to learn that while people may not look at the poor, they are still working to help. 
   
  There are dozens of charities in India, with thousands moving above the poverty line yearly. People work like devils to improve things, the most common line in India is “I want to afford a good education for my children”. People want to create a better future. Everyone does, even Lincoln and Gandhi managed between civil war and independence to try and reform conditions in their countries.
   
  The point was not to turn away. While we can’t torture ourselves with guilt, being aware of the conditions we live in, have lived in and those we could potentially live through are important so that we can face problems down the track. The lesson I learnt in India changed from “don’t face your problems” to “don’t dwell on what you can’t help”. 
  And in Australia, I learnt that ultimately, we cannot look away from a crisis. 

  Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni

  Anonymous

• Things We’ve Learned About Being a Better Ally

  10:19 am Comments Off on Things We’ve Learned About Being a Better Ally

  This piece is the first of many in the Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni series in association with the ANU BIPOC Department. Want to write for the series? Email anuethnoculturaldept@gmail.com with a pitch or draft.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  The award for “perfect ally” goes to…absolutely no one.
   
  You will never reach a point in your life when you become the “perfect ally”. Being an ally is ever-evolving. It’s a process of change and development. The term ‘ally’ is a verb and so it actually requires you to do something.
   
  You’re going to make mistakes….
   
  As an ally, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes and incorrect assumptions. This is the case even if you’re fighting the good fight to end racism in your community. Learn to say sorry when you do make those mistakes and be prepared to get called out.
   
  You can’t be BFFS with everyone’s oppression.
   
  Everyone’s experience with racism is different and you can’t use your own experience with racism to understand the oppression of others.
   
  I’m guilty of this, in doing so we forget the complexities of systemic racism and how it affects different minority groups. Human empathy does not rely on relatedness. Start listening. Stop relating.
   
  The most radical thing you do is admitting that you don’t know it all.
   
  Often BIPOC are called upon to be the highest authority on all topics related to race but sometimes we don’t know it all. Acknowledging that you don’t know it all makes space for others who can better articulate their thoughts on the topic.
   
  I’m (not) sorry you feel guilty. 
   
  Feeling guilty about your complicit stance on racism does not automatically mean you are being  a better ally. Guilt is the first step in a very long process of self reflection and development. The process of deconstructing your inner self and contextualising it against the world you live in. The question is, are you ready to do that?
   
  Performative allyship? It ain’t it chief.
   
  Sharing posts on social media and engaging with anti-racist resources is all great but you need to show up when you are needed the most. You need to put yourself on the front lines and weaponise your white privilege or otherwise to help those who can’t afford to do so. You need to be ready to call racism out when you see it.
   
  Your POC, Black or Indigenous friends and student leaders are not your moral yardsticks and encyclopedias for racism. If you have a question, google it. The answer is definitely out there. If you can’t find it? Look harder. 
   
  The emotional labour of having to talk about race again and again is exhausting. Don’t fall prey to the dangerous in between. You can read all the critical race theory in the world or watch all the TV shows featuring Black people ever to be made but that doesn’t give you the authority to speak over other people whose lived experience is racism. I’m so glad you’re finally on your personal journey to dismantling white supremacy but it doesn’t just stop there. What are you going to do about it? 
   
   
  Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.

  Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni

  Niroshnee Ranjan

• What is ‘Are You Racist ANU’ About?

  9:57 am Comments Off on What is ‘Are You Racist ANU’ About?

  This piece is the first of many in the Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni series in association with the ANU BIPOC Department. Want to write for the series? Email anuethnoculturaldept@gmail.com with a pitch or draft.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  It’s about weaponising the power of storytelling to dismantle white supremacy at the ANU.
   
  White supremacy manifests in more than one form. Just because we don’t see outright racism doesn’t mean we can deny the historical and cultural influences our university is built around.
   
  From a lack of BIPOC representation in academia to non-critical representations of historical figures, there are constant reminders that the university space hasn’t dismantled the white supremacy it’s rooted in.
   
  We must empower the BIPOC community at ANU to speak their truth. The experiences of racism, struggles with identity, stories within the BIPIC community are vastly diverse and personal to each person and their history. It is important we speak our truth to dismantle the whiteness that minority and ethnic communities are socialised to ignore.
   
  What does racism look like?
   
  Racism takes many forms and can happen in many places. Often when we think about racism, we think about individual incidents of abuse, brutality or harassment that were motivated by racist behaviours. A white, patriarchal capitalist world wants to you believe racism is an isolated incident.
   
  But that’s not how racism works! Racism can be broken down into types such as these:
   
  1. Systemic Racism
   
  Systemic racism is also known as institutional racism or structural racism. It assumes white superiority individually, ideologically and institutionally. Under systemic racism, systems of education, government and the media celebrate and reward whiteness. This assumption of superiority can pervade thinking consciously and unconsciously.
   
  2. Internalised Racism
   
  As BIPOC are victimised by racism, we internalise it. That is, we develop ideas, beliefs, actions and behaviours that support or collude with racism. This internalised racism has its own systemic reality and its own negative consequences in the lives and communities of people of colour. More than just a consequence of racism, then, internalised racism is a systemic oppression in reaction to racism that has a life of its own.
   
  Because race is a social and political construct grounded in a history/experience of oppressor/oppressed relationships based on physical characteristics, by definition it offers people of colour a very limited sense of self. With internalised racism, this limited sense of self can undermine people of colour’s belief in our full humanity and disrupt our understanding of our inner life.
   
  3. Interpersonal Racism
   
  Interpersonal racism occurs between individuals. Once private beliefs come into interaction with others, racism is now in the interpersonal realm. Examples include public expressions of racial prejudice, hate, bias, and bigotry between individuals.
   
  Understanding your racism and what you can do about it:
   

  Just because you don’t commit hate crimes doesn’t mean you aren’t racist. 
  Just because you don’t intend to be racist doesn’t mean you’re not racist. 
  Just because you’re not white doesn’t mean you’re not racist.

   
  Racism is ingrained in a society that benefits YOU, so you are racist. The question is, what can you do about it?
   
   
  Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.

  Are You Racist ANU? x Woroni

  ANU BIPOC Department