View my thought on this topic. See link below. I welcome your comments
]]>I was able to complete a bachelor’s degree majoring in public health nutrition. After working in refugee camps across the globe, I migrated to Australia in 1997. When I arrived, I could hardly speak a single English word. After six months learning English, I was able to undertake my master of public health at Melbourne University. Within five years I had not only a master’s degree, but a PhD. Isn’t this integration?
The Howard Government’s decision to cut back on African refugees is appalling. It is unspeakable that the Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews, has used anecdotal reports of problems with Sudanese refugees as justification for refusing African refugees.
It is not fair for Mr Andrews to put all African migrants in one basket. There are at least 210,464 African migrants in Australia from 43 countries, census figures show. This includes 104,128 South Africans, who are mainly white. Only 19,049 African migrants are Sudanese. Using drink-driving or rape-related crimes committed by individuals and generalising the pattern across the African migrant population is unacceptable.
Closing the door on African refugees illustrates the Federal Government’s failure to achieve its goal of integrating African migrants. Unless services are available to these migrants to help their transition into the culture, then the Government should face its failures with contrite apology and a resolution to try harder, rather than a decision to put African migrants in the “too hard” basket.
Over the past five years I have been researching the health of African migrants in Australia. In my latest book, which will be published in New York, I report that of all African migrants in Australia, 38 per cent integrate, 12.8 per cent assimilate, 15.1 per cent remain traditional and 34.1 per cent become marginalised. The health consequences of these cultural orientations differ, but maintaining traditional values was shown to have a protective effect against bad health.
The attack on African migrants mirrors the attacks directed at Vietnamese migrants more than 20 years ago, when they were profiled as drug dealers and out-of-control. Greeks and Italians were referred to as wogs who found it difficult to assimilate. Today, Greek, Italian and Vietnamese migrants have successfully integrated and are among the proudest Australian citizens. They have become parents to lawyers, doctors and scientists that have made significant contributions to Australian life. African migrants will be equally successful, given time. What they need is support, not punitive and derogatory remarks.
The media coverage of African migrants’ social isues has been characterised by vilification and dehumanisation under the pretence that these refugees are unable to integrate in the wider Australian society. It is neither acceptable to reduce African migrants to alienated delinquents, nor to reinforce cultural imperialism by discussing their social issues without involving Afro-Australian migrant intellectuals.
The contribution of African migrants and refugees to Australian multiculturalism has ranged from music and art to social work, entrepreneurship and science. This is evidenced by the growing number of African migrant intellectuals working in the public and private sectors. But our contribution goes unacknowledged.
Dr Andre Renzaho is a senior research fellow within the School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University.
1. You are expected to speak for and on behalf of people of color everywhere. You are sometimes expected to be the barometer of racism. If there is a conscience in the workplace, you are it. You carry the burden of calling out discrimination when you see/experience it with the risk of retaliation which can be anything from being overlooked for a promotion, to losing your job altogether for creating a “hostile” environment. If/when you don’t call out racism, you emotional turmoil and guilt, feeling like a sell out for not standing up for yourself or others.
2. You are routinely accused of being hostile, aggressive, difficult and/or angry. You are told that your colleagues/students/co-workers/customers are intimidated by you and are afraid to approach you. You are encouraged in evaluations to “smile more,” and “be more friendly.” You practice a fake ass smile in the mirror on your way out the door and practice all the way to work. You fear that your resting face pose makes people think you are mean.
3. You are required to be the diversity on committees and in meetings because black is the only diversity that matters. Your blackness makes it easy to “see” that a diversity quota has been met.
4. You feel unappreciated, undercompensated and overworked. You are afraid to ask for compensation, a promotion, praise or affirmation. You have been socialized to be satisfied that you have a job. You feel guilty for not feeling grateful.
5. You are regularly nominated for or assigned extra tasks and responsibilities for things no one else wants to do (especially things involving other POC). You are encouraged to work with other people of color, join people of color groups, attend people of color activities, etc.
6. Your absence (at work, at meetings, at parties) stands out with no regard to how exhausting it is to be the only black person in the room. You are encouraged to not think of yourself as black when you are the only black person in the room.
7. You are often vilified and/or criticized for doing your work (too early or on time, well or not good enough). You are labeled as either an overachiever or a slacker, as too ambitious or lazy. You struggle to find the balance between these things.
8. You feel that no matter what you do or how hard you work, you need to do more (or sometimes less). Nothing is ever (good) enough.
9. You feel the need to constantly prove yourself worthy of your job or opportunity. You know that some people assume you got your job, promotion, award, or special recognition, not because you worked your ass off or deserve it, but because you are black (there goes that damn black privilege again, cause you know affirmative action causes folk to get jobs they are unqualified for and shit
10. You feel isolated, misunderstood, misrecognized, misrepresented, and missing in action. You wonder how you can feel invisible and hypervisible at the same time.
Okay, fam, what are some other racial micro or macroaggressions you have experienced in the workplace?
I may add an 11th point. A person of colour may create opportunities. When it comes to celebrate the achievement they are excludded or somone else who carries the white privilege may argue on their behalf not to be ignored
Have you ever experienced passive racism in the workplace? What has been your experience?
]]>1. Corruption: The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley has said that U.N. peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are aiding a government that is “corrupt and preys on its citizens”.
2. Never-ending mission: The U.N. Debacle in Eastern Congo, Monusco’s Incompetence and fiasco in Goma and Butembo are well documented
3. UN sexual misconduct: a United Nations Response Team tasked with investigating sexual abuse allegations committed by UN peacekeepers in DRC found peacekeepers’ systematic sex with minors along with paternity claims.
4. UN peacekeepers Trafficking Minerals: trading arms with rebels in exchange for minerals
5. Slavery: by trafficking minerals, UN peaceKeepers in Congo prop up slavery of rape victims and children in gold and mineral mines
6. Failing to protect civilians: When Congolese protest against Kabila, they get shot and killed in the presence of the completely and utterly impotent and incompetent UN peacekeepers. They fail their primary objective of protecting the civilians
7. Raising the cost of living: In a recent Aljazeera’s investigation, they noted: « One NGO mission chief, who asked not to be named, confessed: “I don’t know what we’re doing here. Our presence raises the price of food and rent, we stop people from moving on, from taking their own decisions and demanding their government take responsibility. We should have left Congo years ago.”
DRC will be better off without the UN peacekeepers