Is_Australia_a_Racist_Country_

Many people believe that Australia is a racist country, but when asked to explain what racism is, they struggle. So, what is racism' I have looked at various resources including dictionaries and websites and have found that the most common, most agreed upon definition of ‘racism’ is the prejudice or discrimination directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief. Racism to the vast majority is a touchy subject and even though Australia as a whole has elements of racism, I believe that an entire country shouldn’t be labelled or categorised as ‘racist’ just because there is a minority of its citizens who are. I will be exploring some aspects on how Australia isn’t racist including how our future shouldn’t be affected by our past, the reasons behind why we have policies for immigrants (including refugees) and how Australia in fact supports foreign culture, including the Aboriginal culture of Australia. Unfortunately racism has occurred in the history of our country, there is no denying this. The ‘White Australia Policy’ and the ‘Stolen Generation’ policies are examples of this and examples that most, if not all Australian's would be ashamed of and embarrassed about now. 1909 to 1969 was the era of the Stolen Generation, the children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were forcefully removed from their homes because of the Australian government, our government. Not only did this end more than forty years ago, but Kevin Rudd (the Prime Minister of Australia at the time), made the long-awaited apology to the generations affected on the 13th February 2008. Our actions in the past shouldn’t label us as who we are today. The Australian society today, the Australia I have grown up with and loved is a evidently a very multicultural country with more than twenty-five percent of our population born overseas. Do we still call the USA racist for enslaving the blacks and do we still call the Deutsch Nazis' No. Although history will always remember these sad events, they occurred a long time ago; times have changed and so have people. These events do not reflect Australia today. Yes Australia is a very multicultural country, but we do have an immigration detention centre policy that is mandatory in which all refugees are to go when they arrive in Australia. Some people believe that this is racist, but I believe that we have these policies and laws for a reason; we can’t just let anyone into our country. Australia is seen to be one of the most livable places on the planet and one of the most fair countries when it comes to freedom and rights, the government makes these laws to help keep Australia like this. We do need to keep in mind though that Australia is one of only ten countries that resettle refugees and people in need and even though we aren’t a very big country, we have helped a lot of refugees and that’s something that we should all be proud of. Australia is renowned for helping. We have taken part in helping lots of other countries through natural disasters, wars and poverty. Our country now embraces Aboriginal culture as well and we have come a long way since the early settlers. We have learnt to respect the people of this land and most of us have recognised the truly horrible things that we did in the past but now, the majority of Australians treat everyone as equals. As a country, we have a focus on closing the gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous populations of Australia in areas such as health, education and employment outcomes. We do our best to make ourselves not only better people, but a better country by uniting as one peacefully and helping each other. I do not believe that Australia is a racist country. The current generations are vastly different to the previous ones. Most importantly, we have a better understanding of equality as we have grown up with all kinds of cultures and nationalities around us. I do believe that it’s unfair to discriminate against someone because of their skin color, religious beliefs, culture or any factor that could supposedly reveal the nature of that person, but Australia cannot and should not be labelled as a racist country because of our history.