The ACT’s Children and Young People Commissioner has called for community resources to be developed to enable adults to talk to children and young people about racism.
The Commissioner, Jodie Griffiths-Cook said her report, It really stabs me: From resignation to resilience – children and young people’s experiences of racism in the ACT, found that more than 80 per cent of the ACT’s children and young people had witnessed racism and 44 per cent had experienced racism.
Ms Griffiths-Cook said the report presented findings from in-depth group discussions with more than 140 children and young people, and a survey of children and young people which received 312 responses.
“ACT children and young people are experiencing racism everywhere they go,” Ms Griffiths-Cook said, “at school, on public transport, playing sport, at the local shops, pool or skatepark, at work and on the street.”
“Some children and young people told us they’re scared to walk alone because of racist taunts, that they get racially abused when playing sport, and that some schools do not take racism seriously.”
She said her consultation also found that when children and young people reported racism to adults, adults dismissed it, told the child or young person to ignore it, or promised to follow up “but from the child or young person’s perspective, seem to do nothing.”
“Many children and young people have a sophisticated understanding of racism,” the Commissioner said.
“They want to talk to the adults in their lives about it, rather than being shut down,” she said.
“What we heard from children and young people can help combat racism in the ACT.”
Ms Griffiths-Cook called for ACT schools and sporting bodies to be required to develop comprehensive and age-appropriate anti-racism policies and procedures.
She said it was important that school staff, coaches, referees, and volunteers knew how to identify racism and what steps to take when it occurred.
The Commissioner’s 67-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
