Around the world, the legal profession has historically been the domain of white, privileged males. Some conservative nations, such as Saudi Arabia, didn’t even allow women to practice law until recently. And in 2015, the Washington Post declared law to be the least diverse profession in the U.S., as a full 88% of the nation’s…
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Rohingya. When you hear this word, does it spark any thought in your mind? Does it spark any segment on the news you’ve seen recently? Anything you learned in class? Does it sound familiar… at all? When I asked some of my friends if they’ve heard the word “Rohingya”, the answer was “no”. And this…
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Walking into the playground, early on in primary school, two of my friends got into fight. There was hair pulling, slapping and screaming. A crowd gathered, cheering them on. “You fucking bitch,” yelled one, using the colourful language we were just starting to learn. “You’re a monkey,” said the other. Watching on, I had never…
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Blackface. Can I still talk about it, or is it dead and buried in yesterday’s news? I hope I haven’t missed the window of opportunity of that “time of year” when a social issue affects a celebrity and we all decide now’s the time for political conversations on Mexican immigration, racism in sport and men…
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When politicians make fools of themselves on social media, it’s fair to say that it’s an almost pleasurable experience to survey the ensuing wrath from the comfort of our smartphones. It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for our Aussie pollies. We are able to look back in a kind of awe at the…
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Amy Schumer has responded to an open letter outlining the link between shootings and gendered violence, asking to Schumer to ‘be a voice for your generation and for women’. The letter follows the shooting at a screening of Schumer’s film Trainwreck in a Louisiana cinema that left two women dead. Schumer responded in a tweet:…
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American politician Donald Trump has lost a TV contact for Miss Universe and Miss USA after posting a series of racist comments on Twitter which targeted Mexicans. Univision, an American-Spanish TV network, has refused to air the pageants which are partly owned by Trump, in response to the presidential candidate’s comments that the Mexican…
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Last year, Eric Garner, an African-American man, was killed by police. Law enforcement officials had him in a chokehold, despite the NYPD prohibiting their use. This event caused a wave of protests, and the phrase Black Lives Matter. Syreeta McFadden wrote for the Guardian US: ‘We declared in 2014 that Black Lives Matter because we…
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This week I had a striking encounter with a guy who was up in arms about the media outpouring over Robin William’s death. His feelings were made apparent in the context of a lack of media coverage over unarmed members of the African American community being killed by police in the U.S, which has received…
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Blood is thicker than water, but for some ethnicity is the deciding factor. That’s a bold claim but as a target of family racism, it’s something that I am forced to think about. I’m what could be considered ‘biracial’, that is, my mother is Anglo-Australian and my father is Italian. All racism is bad and…
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Coachella fashions in the past years have stirred raucous debate, with the terms ‘cultural appropriation’ and ‘racist’ thrown about over Twitter. The feathered headdresses of the Native American people and the bindis and henna of the South Asian cultures have been embellishing the bodies of people who do not understand the significance of these…
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Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne has released a music video for her newest single Hello Kitty, which involves the singer being shadowed by a group of robotic Japanese girls while eating sushi and wearing a lolita cupcake skirt. The song itself, co-written by Lavigne’s husband and Nickelback front-man Chad Kreuger, boasts playful lyrics such as…
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Attorney-General George Brandis has caused quite a stir in Australian politics this week with his proposal to amend section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Clause 18C was added in 1995 and states that it is ‘unlawful for someone to publicly offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a person or group of people’. The proposal Brandis…
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One of the creative innovations Google has created is the ‘Google Doodle.’ These ‘doodles’ are pictorial spin offs of the Google logo in accordance to a historical day, event, or period in the world at any given time. Ever remember Googling something on Christmas and seeing maybe a wreath around the Google logo? It’s something to…
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