My letter to the Editor The West Australian. They missed the start of the first line in the copy so here it is in full:
"2/10/2024
Racism is not as simple as ABC?
I read the report regarding the racism that employees at the Australian Broadcasting Commission experienced over some considerable time. The essence of the finding was that the review authors found "racism exists within the ABC workplace" and "ABC staff are subjected to racism from external individuals and organisations in connection with their work".
Having been in this country for just on fifty years and having spent a considerable amount of that time dealing with the systemic racism that exists in this country I will say that the position of the ABC is no different to just about EVERY employment workplace in Australia. This is a nation that sees “unconscious bias and racism” as being inherently “normal”.
Various of our Anti-Discrimination Commissioners have called this out over many years. However, it is an inordinately vexed issue that is not easily resolved.
I do not condone, in any fashion, the racist behaviour that the ABC employees have been subjected to. But I caution that the ABC culture is not dissimilar to that that exists in many other workplaces. We have considerable work to do at a societal level to eliminate this behaviour.
Suresh Rajan"
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