How Big a Problem is Racism?

Here in Victoria the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner has come up with a scheme to enlist local councils in the hunt for racism. You see the Commissioner is concerned that people are not reporting racism, because they don't know how too.

Kristen Hilton, Equal Opportunity and Human Right Commissioner, said there’s been a 70 per cent rise in racism complaints made to the commission in the last two years.

Last year the commission received 188 complaints.

“Those complaints figures are actually pretty low when you compare them to the conversations we have with communities that are affected by racism,” Ms Hilton said.

188 complaints, not 188,000, not 18,800, not 1880, 188....and thats after a 70 per cent increase!

Not even one a day!

The Commission it seems is so starved for work that they are going out and looking for it. You see under Liberalism even good news is bad. You would think that the Commission would be thrilled at such a low number.

Ms Hilton said the initiative is not about targeting individuals, it’s about revealing broader problem areas for racism.

“It’s not about going after a particular perpetrator,” she said.

“If we collate evidence we can talk to organisations about something that might need to change.”

The hunt never ends.

However in the gender swap surge article I quoted from a few days ago there is this interesting bit that sheds some light on the topic:

Minister for Equality Martin Foley said the bill - reintroduced to state parliament in June - was a step forward for LGBTIQ Victorians. "The Andrews Labor Government believes in everybody's right to simply being who they are, and being supported in that," Mr. Foley said. "Since being elected in 2014, we have invested more than $60 million in initiatives that make our community fairer and more equal."

 That's a lot of money, but as we all know the supply of racists and bigots vastly outstrips demand these days.

“We’ve heard from African and Muslim communities that they would like to share their experiences with racism.

“In some cases they’d like to make a formal complaint, but they often don’t know where to go or they don’t know how to do it, so there’s a bit of a feeling of helplessness.”

$60 million and they can't even get them to fill in a form. It sounds like good money wasted, no matter which side your on.

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