Racism aboard a 397 bus in Sydney on Sunday night

Wednesday, 17 April 2013 17:19

Passenger Bernd Fichtner explains why he wrote to the Herald to report an incident of racism aboard a 397 bus in Sydney on Sunday night.

When a group of young teenage girls began racially abusing Kate* on a public bus in Sydney, she decided she had to stand up for herself.

If it had been teenage boys, Kate says, she probably would have sat back and copped the abuse, however unjust. But what harm could a 13-year-old girl do?

I couldn't believe that, at such a young age, they were capable of doing this, stealing other people's property and physically attacking me. 

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Confronting Cyber racism: new report blasts Facebook

Thursday, 18 October 2012 11:46

Click here for Report

The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI), an organisation dedicated to combatting online hate, released a major report today into Aboriginal Memes and Online Hate. The report documents an unprecedented online attack against Indigenous Australians and how racist content went viral through the use of social media and in particular Facebook. Also documented are the responses from Facebook, Government, and Civil Society to this outpouring of hate and OHPI’s recommendations.  The report documents serious incidents of hate speech, and highlights the unwillingness of Facebook to recognise it as such. Facebook has blocked access to most of the Aboriginal Memes content for Australian users, but adamantly refused to recognise it as hate speech and remove it completely. The report also documents a similar attitude by Facebook to Holocaust denial and antisemitic content. This response stands in contrast to hate speech against individuals, where Facebook takes much more effective action. The difference is suggestive of a clash of cultures between Facebook and Australia.

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DCA Diversity Debate coming soon

Thursday, 18 October 2012 11:35

New Board for Institute

Friday, 14 September 2012 00:31

The Institute has appointed a new Board to lead it for the next two years. Melbourne writer and consultant Hanifa Deen has taken on the role of Chair, while Sydney youth policy leader Reynato Reodica becomes Secretary and public officer. The other new member is David Vadiveloo, a Melbourne film maker and Indigenous affairs activist from communityprophets.com.au. They join serving members  Nareen Young (CEO of the Diversity Council of Australia), African women's movement activist Juliana Nkrumah, Melbourne diversity consultant Maria Dimopoulos and UTS academic Prof Andrew Jakubowicz. Ms Deen has thanked retiring Board members Renata Kaldor, Prof Larissa Behrendt and foundation Board Chair the Hon. Bruce Baird, for their servcie, commitment and support. The Board also thanked Prof Jakubowicz for his roles as foundation Secretary and Board Chair over the past two years. The Institute is gearing up for key challenges including work on media issues flagged by the National Anti-Racism Strategy launched recently, and in the expansion of social media both as an arena for the celebration of cultural diversity, and a space of danger and harassment on grounds of race and religion.  As a small organsiation the Institute is also watching with interest the new Commonwealth legislation on Not-for-Profit (NFP) charities, and the appointment of the NFP Regulator.

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