Do Bi-racial and other 'different' kids still get prosecuted in Australian schools?

Question

My grandfather is worried for me because I am in an interracial relationship with someone I love very much (I'm white, he's asian) and he believes that any children we might have will be severly bullied at school. When he moved to Australia from England, he went through h**l because his accent was different.

Surely times have changed now? Today (or maybe 8 or 9 years from now) will 'different' children experience the same prosecution and bullying as they did years ago? Thanks.

Answer 1

sorry to say but yes it does still happen in australia. depends where u live though. the more rurial u go the worse it is. if your in sydney for example no one will give a sh*t cause its so multicultural.

Answer 2

Australia these days is heavily mulitcultural.   With many Australians claiming their heritage from many diverse cultures and groups around the world, times have changed for the better since the bad old days of the 60s and 70s.

Even so,  your typical school kid is pretty cruel to other school kids in all respects.   Though if the teachers find out about it they will get a very severe reprimand for it.  Australia has very strong laws against vilification and discrimination.

Certainly in everyday Australia is it increasing difficult to tell who belongs to which heritage, the mix is so varied now.  Quite frankly I don't think anyone here pretty much cares anyhow.

Answer 3

I think it's pretty rare these days, but it probably depends a bit on the school. The children in school seem to be so genuinely nice to each other now and bullying is not tolerated. I don't think there be a problem.

Answer 4

Noo

Answer 5

The correct word is "PERsecution", LOL.  Prosecution is a legal process undertaken by the police!

Well, Fruitsalad paints a very rosy picture about racial persecution, which may be true in some schools, not true in others.  But she's completely wrong about bullying, it is RIFE in Australian schools, in spite of school anti-bullying policies.

The degree of specifically racist bullying really depends on where the school is: middle and upper class areas tend to have a lot less, though it is not unknown all the same.  The kids tend to keep this as a hidden sub-culture which adults may be unaware of. It comes to the surface when mobile phone videos are aired on the internet, showing the ritualised humiliation of some poor kid. But the bullying is usually based on a perceived failure to fit in socially, rather than membership of an ethnic or racial group.

On the other hand, most city schools are very multicultural, with Anglo-Saxons making up less than half of some school populations.  This results in sub-groups forming, with Asians (Orientals) sticking together, Macedonians in another group, Italians in another, and so on.  This doesn't mean different ethnic groups don't mix, however - they do, and cross-cultural marriages are very common.

The only groups that tend to be rather exclusive socially are not racial but religious: both Jews and Muslims have their own schools and SOME members of these groups avoid mixing with the rest of society.

On the whole, multiculturalism is very successful in Australia, with amazingly little tension and lots of jovial interaction: Anglo Aussies relish the cuisines of their ethnic neighbours, exchange vegies from the backyard, and good-naturedly tease each other. Very few neighbourhoods are ethnically exclusive, and in one street you will find many ethnic groups living side by side, with no more neighbourhood disputes than in any other street around the world.

The biggest division in Australia is by social class (meaning money), rather than ethnicity or race, in spite of our aspirations to be a classless society, and the wealth divide is growing wider every day.

EDIT: In Australia, "Asian" means east Asian, ie Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc, whereas I gather that in Britain it means Indian or Pakistani.  However there are increasing numbers of Indians and Sri Lankans in Aus too....adjusting comfortably and doing well for themselves.  Thank goodness they brought their curries with them!!

Answer 6

Hi, I go to school in Australia and at my school their are a few Asians and kids of other races. Not much teasing goes on but some does it depends on personality. Like at my school their is this one Asian guy who gets teased all the time but then their is another one in the "popular" group so yeah I actually think your more likely to get teased because of something else.

Answer 7

I think you meant to say persecuted.

But anyhows, bullying in school will always occur and usually on the flimsiest of pretexts anyway. As for systematic disadvantage due to race, it is illegal, so all the same opportunities are legally available. They can not deny your kids from doing a course or a school outing based on race. Australia is a lot more tolerant than England. We don't have skin heads, but there are some ignorant yobbos about.

I saw more racism in Malaysia than I ever saw in Australia.

Answer 8

I'm pretty sure we're on par with the rest of the western world which isn't necessarily a good thing. If race is an issue, it's generally going to be one away from the cities where they don't see too many other nationalities.

I've never seen it or experienced it in Australia, I have in an Asian country though. I really doubt you'll have a problem as Australia has grown significantly in the last few decades.

Answer 9

Maybe your grandfather disapproves of your relationship with a person of a different race and is using the kids being bullied argument to try and discourage you rather than coming straight out and saying it?

Anyway like everyone else has said Australia is very multicultural now, your kids would be fine here.

Answer 10

Bullying happens regardless of what race a person is.A good multi cultural school should be OK.There are Aussies out there who are racist towards other cultures no matter what and there are also Aussies out there who are very understanding of other cultures.At the moment most racism stems from the fact that there are a lot of migrants out there who refuse to fit in with Australians.For example they do not learn English or rely heavily in living in migrant enclaves.I guess fitting in and adopting the Australian culture makes things a lot easier.

Answer 11

It would depend on where you live.

We lived in West End, Brisbane for over 20 years, with my wife employed at the West End State School. The school has approximately 48 nationalities amongst its kids, and racist bullying is very rare. Mixed European/Asians are common. "Normal' bullying however, occurs everywhere. Your grandfather was most likely a whinging pom who attracted taunts (and probably still does!)

Cheers.