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i spoke at a hearing for this same inquiry two weeks ago with @MYANAustralia to raise my concerns about racism and its impacts on young people, particularly from my perspective as a young chinese-australian. i called for a new, coordinated anti-racism strategy https://twitter.com/redrabbleroz/status/1316204299895021568
senator abetz responded to this by, in essence, asking me what to do about 'problematic' chinese people. he pushed me for a response to various issues he framed as caused by the CCP / people acting under CCP influence. i was uncomfortable, but i had expected these questions
looking through the hansard transcript for today's hearing - @ayrestim, you noted "why young people from the chinese community would be reluctant to stick their heads up". so i just want you to know that i'm a young person who nearly didn't appear at the hearing i was invited to
after finding out who was on the committee. i was scared i might be pushed to make comments about china that could be misconstrued and backfire. i was scared i'd have to (and fail to) prove myself to be 'loyal australian' enough for my concerns about racism to be taken seriously
after what i experienced, and esp given what i'm reading in hansard now ... my fears were pretty well-founded. what happened in today's hearing perfectly demonstrates an issue i was trying to raise - that chinese people in australia are unfairly being forced to bear suspicion
this is the paradigm i've grown up in, and it's affected my sense of belonging, identity and mental health as a young person. as i said in my hearing ... people have a right to live free from racism, and that should not depend on their political views. anti-racism strategy, now
