Racism And Tolerance In Today's Society

A respect for other’s rights, needs and viewpoints is essential in today’s society. Tolerance is an important concept that helps people to live together peacefully, it also means that others should not put their opinions above those of others, even when they are sure that they are right. Being tolerant to another individuals background and race is essential in a society like todays. Australia is a diverse country as it is a very multicultural country as it is home to the world’s oldest continuous cultures, as well as Australians who identify with more than 270 ancestries. All though Australia is very multicultural place it does not mean that mean it is diverse, it does that mean the country is tolerant of these different multiculturalism across the country so how does that impact socialisation in todays society. Australia faces many different social issues racism being one of them. Racism occurs in young children’s lives at school, race discrimination occurs when applying for a job or a house and racism occurs in the workplace.

Racism occurring in schools and children’s lives is nothing new and happens a lot more that people think, this occurs in some children’s everyday lives. Every day one in five students experience racism and seven in ten students in schools across Australia experience racism during their childhood. Researchers from the Australian National University and Western Sydney University had surveyed 4,600 primary and secondary students at government schools in New South Wales and Victoria on each individuals experience of racial discrimination in schools. From that survey it was found that 40% of students from years five to nine from a non-Anglo or European background have experienced racial discrimination by their peers, and close to 20% of students that were surveyed that come from and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background have said that they have experiences of racial discrimination not just from their fellow peers but also their teachers. The main form of racism in schools is student’s manipulation other students into thinking they do not belong by telling them things such as them not belonging here, name calling, being left out of group activities some even experience physical abuse. Each one of these forms of bullying someone due to their race can lead to much bigger problems then a student crying it can lead to much bigger things such as being diagnosed with a mental illness. A range of health problems including high blood pressure, heart disease, depression and anxiety are just a few of many illnesses that can be caused due to racism.

The stolen generation impacts on todays society. Racism has been occurring so far back since the 1900’s. From the 1900’s up until around 1972 was one of the worst and horrific periods of racism. The stolen generation refers to back in the 1900’s Aboriginal children were removed from their families by the Australian Government and church missions. This has many impacts on the survivors of those times, survivors being the children taken away and the families they were taken from. To this day there are many surviving children that still do not know their families they belong to or the land they are from, many aboriginal people in rural and urban areas cannot go further than two generations into their family tree. So many young indigenous people grew up without knowing who their real family/community is and some may never find out. Some of these people are still searching for parents where as others never succeeded as parents themselves and others turned to substance abuse. Some survivors said they are ‘living a life surrounded by ghosts- people they don’t know but they should’.