Disability service providers and the need for multicultural competency

The intention of offensive behaviour itself is not what makes the conduct unlawful. In order to breach 18c the act prescribes that this illegal action must have been done to someone because they happen to have been born a certain way.

Racial vilification is more than just structured incitement to racial hatred. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "vilify" as "to lower or lessen in worth or value". There are two points that undermine the value of the members of an ethnic group: one is to lower their value in the opinion of others; and the other is to provoke them to feel as though they are useless and unwelcome.

These are the views of legal philosopher Jeremy Waldron as explained by Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz.

Waldron is a leading expert on hate speech. Hate speech is derogatory and it aims to make people feel ashamed of their race. It has both personal and community impacts. Such speech wants to make people suffer, defining them and others like them as less than full citizens, not deserving the rights to which others are entitled.

Can we have the empathy and the ability to imagine being a member of a racial minority and thinking through how difficult it must be to explain to one’s children why the family members are subjected to constant insults? Can we explain how hard it is for such parents when it happens only to them and not others? Such situations are nothing if not humiliating.

Of course, people with disabilities also need to show empathy. We need to believe ourselves and empathy is a common fact in respectful and respected people. People with disabilities also need to respect people of diverse backgrounds, to affirm multiculturalism, and in this way the culture that arises from among those who are helped along by the disability support workforce will also be respected.

Special thanks to Bruce Wearne, Cunxia Li and Amanda Gunawardena for all their help