Australia's migrants deserve more than white sympathy
By an anonymous contributor*
An anonymous contributor on navigating race, identity and belonging in the face of rising white nationalism, and why migrants must demand more than the Prime Minister’s ‘good people on both sides’ placations.
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“As the hidden heir to the colonial orgasm… I became a refugee in the mythical country of the mixed race, la race mélangée, the no man’s land of the mongrel race…”
Félix de Rooy, 1995
I was twenty years old and walking through Amsterdam’s Stedelijik Museum when I saw myself naked and ripped open on the wall of an exhibit:
I should probably give you more context. I exist somewhere inside the blur between white and Black. Only one generation stands between me and my maternal grandparents, who emigrated from Mauritius in the late 1960s off the back of the White Australia policy. Subsequently, I identify as a Mauritian woman - as does my mother, my grandmother, and her mother before her.
On my father’s side I’m Irish, and it’s his side of the family who becomes a nice pink hue after just 5 minutes in the sun (they’re white). This also means, as some people would put it, I’m racially ambiguous. Mixed-race. A mongrel.
Before that day in Amsterdam, I had never seen myself in something as much as I did in de Rooy’s words. Growing up in the inner-southern suburbs of Melbourne I became accustomed to being the darkest person in the room, and constantly being asked “where are you from?”
My mixed identity and my coloured skin meant I couldn’t possibly be from here. My very being invites a nationalistic rejection. The need to defend my blackness is always followed by a searing headache and thoughts like; do I fit into what being Black looks like? Am I Black enough? Whiteness flows through me just the same as my Mauritian-ness, so how does that impact my identity when there’s racial tension screaming out into the zeitgeist?
‘The invisible race of creolité… Beneath the skin and between the sheets against the tide of racial exclusion and nationalistic rejection…’
Félix de Rooy, 1995
The abhorrent ‘March for Australia’ protests were racist. They are a direct symptom of the rise of the far-right and Trump-style politics, propelled by white nationalists who are all too happy to embrace the genocidal violence on which this colony was built. These people want to interrogate anyone who doesn’t look like them about why they have the right to be here.
In Victoria, we watched them proudly promote white supremacy, hold up banners with racial slurs, and violently assault people in acts of domestic terrorism, all under the guide of being “anti-immigration”. Riddled with hypocrisy, they have no problem with immigration when it’s their white ancestors violently stealing land from First Nations communities. They forget that with the exception of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander friends, we are all settlers on stolen and unceded land.
The reality is that Australia’s Net Overseas Migration levels have been decreasing since their peak in 2022-2023. Even so, immigration has significantly shaped Australia’s population growth, boosted GDP and enhanced cultural diversity. It is precisely this diversity which makes Australia so robust. Yet, pressing social issues like cost of living, lack of job vacancies and rising house prices are being solely attributed to ‘out of control’ immigration levels. It exposes how people of colour and ethnic communities are increasingly, and have always been, a scapegoat for societal grievances.
Such protests are a wicked manifestation of racial undercurrents which fuel the movement. Appearances from neo-Nazi groups - and people like Pauline Hanson, of the “piss off back to Pakistan” variety - make it abundantly clear that Caucasian or ‘white’ immigrants are not the issue. Anti-Indian and anti-Muslim sentiment is rife. Calling for Australia’s survival from “ginormous empires of the third world” is condemning the presence of non-white communities. It is blatant engagement with a process called othering, establishing extreme polarity between what is known as ‘us’ and ‘them.’ We’re acceptable, you’re not.
‘I am conscious of my vulnerability, my mixed identity, my hybrid bloodline stained by alien cultures. The tyranny of hypocrisy … reject my mutated genealogy.’
Félix de Rooy, 1995
I owe everything to my grandparents. They walked head on into adversity and worked tirelessly against it. My gratitude for them sits in grave contrast with latest tirade from Independent MP Bob Katter.
In framing remarks about his Lebanese lineage as being an attack on his Australianness, Katter condemns honouring one’s multicultural heritage as un-Australian. Worse still, he stands firm with disgraceful fringe groups who love drilling rhetoric like “send them back” and “go back to where you came from.” Such views are painfully familiar for every single person of colour who has ever had to explain where they come from, or the colour of their skin.
As a black woman who would not exist without immigration - in a country that would not exist without immigration - these protests put a target on my head and anyone else in the same position.
‘Freed from mutilating shame I take to the sky on wings of coloured diversity.’
Félix de Rooy, 1995
As Senator Faruqi eloquently conveyed in parliament, “you’ve never seen us, people of colour, migrants of colour, as equals.” We cannot rely on a ‘centrist’ government to bring about actual change. Certainly not a Federal government who just quietly signed a disgusting $400m deal to ‘resettle’ refugees in Nauru, and handed themselves the sweeping powers to make it possible.
In a recent Labor caucus, Prime Minister Albanese defended protest-goers that have apparent ‘legitimate’ concerns about immigration, stating “not everyone there was associated with the neo-Nazis”. Prime Minister, the protests were rampant with racism; making a neutral stance and playing the ‘good people on both sides’ argument is not what multicultural communities who are being persecuted want to hear. If you value a diverse Australia as much as you say you do, stand up for the people who make it so.
Sanmati Verma, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, proclaims ‘the movement of refugees has been built on the compassion of white people, rather than the rights and demands of the refugee itself’. It is crucial for the security of second, third and future generational immigrants that we make our own demands, loudly.
Our strength as people of colour is born from centuries of being told we are inferior, from having violence beaten into our bloodline. We rise from our anger. So if you’ve been asked where you come from, or been told to go back, or if you can also relate to the words of Mr de Rooy, you belong. It is your right to define and defend your identity. And as far as I’m concerned, the march for so-called Australia can kiss my Black ass.
* The author of this piece has requested this article to be made anonymous to protect her identity ahead of an exchange in the US.
About the author
Anonymous contributor*
The writer is a student, writer and bookseller based in Naarm (Melbourne). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and History and is currently pursuing a Juris Doctor at Melbourne Law School. Grounded in literature and the humanities, her academic and professional focus lies at the intersection of law and identity. With particular interests in intersectional feminism and critical race theory, she is especially engaged in examining how different identities navigate diverse social and institutional spaces.
Yea! Kiss her black ass! 👏👏👏👏👏🔥💕
Great and important piece.
All power to you Jaime!! 👏