Jonahs_mummy

My sister in law works as a newscaster on SBS Radio for the Malay News, & she is Malaysian. She has had to relocate from the Gold Coast to Melbourne for the job, and to be frank I am shocked at the way she has been treated there.

She came over to Australia as a Uni Student from KL, & has lived on the Gold Coast for years where everyone has been so nice, but since she has been in Melb she has been spat at, told to "go back to where she came from" and informed that "these days plastic surgeons can lighten your skin to make you look white"!!!!!

Frankly, I know you cannot blame a city like Melb on stupid people like this but I was always under the impression that it was supposed to be the most multi-cultural city in Australia....... what went wrong?

I daresay that there are people all over Australia, nay the world, with the same nasty attitude as was shown to her in Melbourne, but it amazes me that this actually happenned.......this was not one incident either... this was 3 seperate incidents, surprisingly all on public transport when she was on her way home from work.

She will probably kill me if she knew I had puit this post up here but I just needed to share.


I am not wanting to open a can of worms here, but I felt I needed to share this with everyone as it has deeply shocked & saddened me to hear this from her.....

For all those of you that know me, and have met me, you know I am not the sort of person to over exaggerate anything like this... but I am so upset over it. She is now talking about giving up her "Dream Job" to move to ACT to live with my brother as he starts his new job with the Government in January, just so that she can feel protected........

Grayling

I am surprised that you are surprised.

G

hevs

I'm a bit surprised. I have been here in Melbourne for over a year and havn't heard anyone pass rude comments to asian people. "The wogs" ( ) however, now theres a whole different story

tonyk38

I heard plenty of anti-Asian sentiments in Queensland when I was there. I'm just glad it was a minority, as it would otherwise have put me off Aus for good......

ABCDiamond

My wife is Asian, and in the 14 years we have been together (8 in NSW, 4 in UK and 2 in QLD) she has had a few incidents in a similar vein to that. Fortunately they have been few and far between, and you can "normally" tell the "type" of people that do it. And those people don't really count in life

igual

when i was here 5 years ago, I also saw alot of this in Sydney, I was also a little shocked at just how much!

fair_dinkum

Im also surprised that your surprised ....... racism happens all over the world and is not something that only happens in Oz, if you thought for a moment that you would not come across this behaviour in Oz then its time to take your head out of the sand.

jessybrissy

I am an Asian living in Brisbane. Luckily I have never encountered racism, not even once, all the people I met here are just incredibly nice and thoughtful. In my life of living in places where my race is a minority, I did come across a few events like this. Don't let it get to you, they just don't know better, and they don't matter.

brissie bound

Hi Ya

I thought this thread was really sad. Nastiness is a form of bullying which needs to be stood up to.

I hope your sister in law toughs it out.

Jonahs_mummy

Thanks for that - she is a really nice person & it upsets me when stuff like this happens.

To make something clear to others on here that have responded..... I DO NOT have sand in my head.... I understand that stuff like this happens all over the world - I guess I am just shocked that there are people out there that are this nasty.

G'Day

I can understand your shock. I just went in to discuss with a manager the other day a workmate who was behaving highly unprofessional and he told me that she complained I was "abrupt" to her. According to him any ozzie who hears my accent immediately assumes that I am an ill bred pig and through this perception misinterpret everything that I say?!?! Turns out he had a manager he didn't like, same nationality as me and now I am a pig. He didn't even reprimand this woman for her highly unethical and unprofessional conduct, nope, it was all due to me being who I was.

I felt like quiting my job!! This man has to evaluate my performance, decide on my promotion, sign off on my payrise. YE GODS. But then I sat down and I thought about it.... I have been here two years, in all of this time he and this woman are the very first people I have come accross who reacted to me like this. In her case I suspect it's just a way of shifting the blame, he's truly a bigoted bastard, but the only one I've met thus far.

Tell your sister-in-law not to let people like this ruin her life. They are few and far between and I will not give them the pleasure of seeing me cry or run away. They're just pathetic.

tonyk38

I'm so sorry to hear about your experiences.

Our family were subject to racist abuse from our English neighbours in the 70s whilst growing up in London. This was the height of the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland and Irish people everywhere were labelled as terrorists. Thank God most of our neighbours were foreign otherwise I'm sure it would have been unbearable.

I moved to Kent in 1988 and even though I love my village and have many good friends here, English and otherwise, there is no question in my mind that racism here is extremely prevalent, albeit amongst a minority. Because I have an English accent, many English people assume that I'm English born and bred, so they say racist things to me and assume I will agree. Those same people are fpr the main part, as nice as pie to foreigners to their faces. This hypocrisy is for me, the worse aspect of it all, because you just don't know where you stand with these people.


At least with most Aussies, you know where you stand. Not all, but most. That openness and directness is very refreshing, even if it means that sometimes racist viewpoints may therefore seem more prevalent in Aus. I'm not convinced they are, just more openly expressed that's all. Even so, I don't believe the majority of Aussies are racist, and I choose my friends carefully anyway, so the ones that are, are not relevant to my life.

Jimbo9

So what are you saying?

tonyk38

Have I not made it obvious? I'm saying that racism is widespread here and everywhere else!!! So what's your *****ing point!!

Jimbo9

I got the wrong impression. I personally find racist views vary a lot from country to country and the UK is one of the more tolerant.

No need to swear BTW- not everyone finds that kind of frankness refreshing