People are dying from racism

An attack that has highlighted the grim, everyday reality for First Nations people and that has focused the spotlight on the racism that has been part of our country since colonisation.

Cassius Turvey was with his mates on his way home from school when a man allegedly attacked him with a metal bar, an attack that ultimately led to his death 10 days later.

Cassius was a Year 9 student, a much-loved member of his family and community.

Cassius was also Aboriginal, a Noongar young man.

This should not matter, but in Australia, time and time again, we find it does.

The response of the Western Australia Police Commissioner Col Blanch when he said: “It may be a case of mistaken identity. It may be a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We are not operating on any principles of racism or motivation at this point”, has resulted in a flood of comments rejecting his assessment.

In responding, Noongar traditional custodian Jim Morrison said: “He was coming home from school. How on earth could he be at the wrong place at the wrong time?”

Writing in an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald last week, Gamilaroi woman, journalist and media commentator Brooke Boney added her voice to the outrage: “If a black child can’t walk home from school without fear then this isn’t a civil society. This is lawlessness. This is barbaric. This is shameful.”

Noongar human rights lawyer Dr Hannah McGlade, in her response said: “They have told Aboriginal people to be quiet, not to jump to conclusions, that this was some accidental killing. And yet, we all know this would never have happened if he was white,” she said.

And there it is.

“… we all know this would never have happened if he was white.”

This is the reality.

The reality Dr McGlade referred to when she said: “Racism kills. It’s not about just words and sticks and stones – there are people dying from racism.”

The reality that both the Police Commissioner and Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan could not acknowledge. The reality that was ignored.

When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responding to reporters’ questions stated: "this attack that clearly is racially motivated”, it resonated. It affirmed what so many already knew.

Mechelle Turvey, the mother of Cassius acknowledged these comments saying they were “the words the whole country has been waiting for. They’re just words but they mean so much to us”.

“We feel that he has acknowledged, truthfully, the reality,” she said.

So why is it so difficult for us to talk about racism and its role in so many facets of Australian life?

About where it comes from and how it is perpetuated?

Actor, playwright and artist Meyne Wyatt took to Instagram to talk about the genesis of this racism.

“Crimes like this just don’t come from nowhere. They stem from all those jokes and jibes. The micro-aggressions. The belittling and condescension. The gaslighting, the mockery, the accusations.”

“The preconceived ideas you may have in your head that are reinforced over and over. The myths and lies you’re fed and the assumptions you make from them.”

Consider the message Hawthorn Football Club president Jeff Kennett’s golliwog doll, Buddy, sends.

What about the calling of Australian athletes ‘monkeys’ or the racist jokes about some players ‘going walkabout’?

There are names linked to racist words and actions throughout our history.

Lieutenant George Arthur’s war against the ‘blacks’ of Tasmania; Alfred Deakin’s comments about securing a ‘white Australia’; mining magnate Lang Hancock’s comment: “Dope the water up so that they were sterile and they’d breed themselves out in the future”.

It’s not hard to understand why there was opposition by the Australian netball team to wearing the logo of the company Hancock founded.

All these words and actions feed into stereotypes and assumptions we carry in our heads.

As Wyatt points out, little things can lead to bigger things.

And what about the news reports of Zachary Rolfe’s racist jokes and comments about Aboriginal people.

Racist comments can lead to injury and death.

When Dr McGlade said that too often racism was swept under the rug by Australians, she was exactly right.

So think about it when you overhear a comment, a joke, a stereotyping of a person based on race?

Did you think ‘not really racist’? Did you turn away?

Or did you call it out?

The dignity and bravery of Cassius’ grieving mother, Mechelle, when she said: “if we don’t talk about it, nothing changes”, were echoed in Wyatt’s call for us all individually to question our thinking.

“Until you challenge what you think you know or believe, not just for yourself but the people around you, nothing is going to change.”

So how are you going to respond?

An important question for each of us individually, but also for us as a nation.