On March 21, 1960, police officers in a black township in South Africa opened fire on a group of people peacefully protesting oppressive ‘pass laws’, killing 69 and injuring hundreds more. Less than a decade after the Sharpeville massacre, the United Nations proclaimed March 21 the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to facilitate discussions about and take action against racism and racial discrimination.
I know that IDERD doesn’t get the same attention as other ‘International Days’, so rather than go big, I thought I’d go small and share some content that touches on the ‘little things’.
Little things others might not see, but you still feel, little things that accumulate over time, little things that, at their worst, can turn into very big things.
I appreciate that not everyone’s experience of discrimination is the same, and I mean, in purely objective terms, I’ve mostly had a charmed life. But even then, it would be remiss of me not to recognise that my position of relative privilege is built on the experiences of my Tamil parents and sisters fleeing the very, very real consequences of racism in Sri Lanka – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23402727
I also appreciate that we’re all on our own journey so in the spirit of ‘the more you know’ and all that, feel free to read, peruse, view, watch, ingest, and digest as much or as little of the content below as you wish…
What is IDERD, and what’s the problem with ‘Harmony Day’?
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/03/international-day-elimination-of-racism-explainer/
Racism at work
A tale of two Sydneys
https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/social-affairs/imaginary-line-exposing-real-sydney-divide
CALD me by your name…or maybe don’t…
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/would-we-be-better-off-without-the-acronym-cald/13572720
https://diversityatlas.io/heres-why-cald-has-had-its-day/
Casual racism – not casual, just racist
https://theconversation.com/everyday-racism-fuels-prejudice-and-hate-but-we-can-challenge-it-115118
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/comment-can-racism-ever-be-casual/tkwt637hi
Colourism – one of the less obvious hangovers of colonialism
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/08/racial-equality-skin-tone-bias-colourism/