– Call for people to Stand Up against increases in racism and discrimination –
– 60 percent of Australians believed that racism is a big problem –
– 500 reports of racist incidents against Asian-Australians –
Multicultural Commissioner Vivienne Nguyen will meet with discrimination survivors and Upstanders against the practice at a Community Upstander Program today (Thursday) to hear ‘first-hand’ accounts of their stories.
Courage to Care Vic has called on Australians of all ages to ‘stand up’ against the alarming increase in racism and discrimination.
Courage to Care CEO Mike Zervos said the ‘call’ was a critical step forward in changing the ‘discrimination tag’ that is hanging over the nation where 88 percent of Australians recognised the need to address racism and intolerance in the community.
He called for everyone to be “Upstanders” and not “Bystanders” against discrimination.
Today’s Community Upstander Program at The Ark Centre, 7 Cato Street, Hawthorn East will run from 12pm to 3pm with the Commissioner visiting from 1.30pm to 2.30pm.
Courage to Care is celebrating its 30th anniversary this week with a series of educating and empowering communities and students’ events across Victoria to promote the “Stand-up” initiative.
Mr. Zervos said the charity was seeking to create a generation of ‘Upstanders’ rather than ‘Bystanders’ by working with school students across Victoria in understanding discrimination and racism, the history behind the issues and the actions that can be done that can change lives and communities.
“This action should not be confined to young people, but expanded throughout the whole of the community and taken up by people of all ages,” he added.
Research by the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute – which monitors changes in social attitudes in Australia – reported that by the end of last year more than 60 percent of Australians believed that racism in Australia was either a ‘very big or fairly big problem’; rising from 40 percent in 2020.
The Asian Australian Alliance has reported that they had received more than 500 reports of racist incidents against Asian Australians in the past year and the Community Security Groups across Australia have highlighted that 490 antisemitic incidents in Australia took place in 2021, a 38 per cent increase over 2020 and the highest on record.
Gandel Foundation’s first national survey of Holocaust knowledge also reported almost a quarter (24%) of adult Australians had ‘little to no knowledge’ of the Holocaust, and that the number had risen to 30% among Millennials.
Courage to Care this week honoured a former World War 2 Japanese diplomat for being an Upstander in saving the lives of thousands of Jews fleeing Nazism in Europe.
Descendants of two of the survivors – Susan Hearst and Lisa Lewis – spoke in honour of the former Japan diplomat Chiune Sugihara for his actions. As Acting Counsel to Lithuanian in the early days of WW2, he defied his government’s refusal to provide transit visas to the fleeing Jews from Poland to Lithuania to escape the Nazis. He ended up personally writing thousands of visas for about a month until the last minute of his departure from Lithuania in 1940, just before Japan entered the War.
Susan Hearst’s mother Maria Kamm was one of Sugihara’s visa recipients, as was Lisa’s grandmother Guta Raskin.
Today’s community event at The Ark Centre includes educational and empowering guided tours of the Courage to Care Exhibition showcasing Upstanders throughout history, as well as community education programs for community leaders. The event is open to anyone who wants to learn to be Upstanders against racism and discrimination in their communities.
