Where are you from?

I don’t blame the individual: I blame the society which, led by politicians, enables passive racism to be acceptable. In a friendly conversation, let alone a political one, a person of colour whether they are born in Australia or not is obliged to automatically go through this process of questioning. It is demeaning and makes you feel that you don’t belong here.

Why? Australia has a way of segregating cultures, looking down on people, giving them labels, putting them in boxes. Day to day this manifests through questions and comments like "Where are you from?"

Not all white Australians fit into this category, of course. Those who are politically conscious or aware will say it is not acceptable. If I were to say that in Australia there is passive racism and uninformed racism everywhere, there would be mass rebuttals; confusion and questions would fly everywhere. One of those questions would inevitably be "If you hate Australia this much, why you are here?" I could easily say the same thing: "Why are you wasting your time here, oppressing people?" But of course I don’t, because I’m neither ignorant nor do I go about not accepting people based on their colour.

In Australia there is a pattern of racism and it pervades all aspects of society: the non-profit sector, the private sector, governments, hospitals, schools and elsewhere. A perfect example is the treatment of Indigenous peoples as second-class citizens; not to mention the locking up of asylum seekers and refugees who arrive to Australia by boat while there are thousands of backpackers in this country without valid visas. Some call it cold punishment and it is a dishonourable treatment of people.

One should not forget this land was stolen, and not in the past only; a modern day indigenous land grab is happening around the country so don’t tell me to stop living in the past.

"Where do you come from?" is a question that you should ask yourself first before you ask others.