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Wednesday May 23, 2012

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Sudanese racially profiled?

Posted by: Peter Maher | 4 May, 2011 - 5:27 PM
Sudan

Scroll down and listen to Peter's editorial below his written editorial

Victoria Police are under the pump again today for racially profiling members of Melbourne’s growing East African or Sudanese community.

The Sudanese community has been in the media spotlight over the past couple of weeks for all the wrong reasons following violence that erupted at a couple of beauty pageants.

Melbourne has the largest population of Sudanese immigrants and more than a third of those who immigrate here do so on their own and not as part of a family unit. The reasons for this are more than likely connected to the amount of conflict resulting in two million deaths and more than four million displaced people in Sudan. Throw in a severe does of drought and famine and you have a recipe for a most unsettled life and a fervent desire for a change of lifestyle.

The stigma that comes from stereotyping different communities and nationalities can take years to disappear. Just ask those post war immigrants from last century and also our first lot of Asian immigrants. At one stage in this country if you were Asian, in particular Vietnamese, you were automatically considered someone connected with illegal drugs.

Indigenous Australians have also had to carry the burden of racial profiling brought about by government and community stereotyping.

The blame cannot be laid completely at the feet of the Police here if this profiling is occurring. It is an educational program that needs to be implemented top break down the barriers of ignorance that surround any new arrivals to this country.

This has to be driven by community members of the new arrivals and also those responsible for inviting them to live here which is of course our Government, the Australian government.

 

PLAY AUDIO: Peter's editorial and interview with Luke Cornelius, Assistant commissioner of Victoria Police and Andrew Leul Makuei, Vice President of the Australian Sudanese Association

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Blog comments Your Say

  • It's a fact of life - I don't have a problem with black people, like the majority of other Australian's BUT I have a problem when they can't live in our society with its democratic freedoms without abusing our Police and authority along with our laws and the safety and rights of the General Public. It's the Sudanese and other black African's as that clown from the "African Think Tank"? that screamed there is a problem with racism in Australia - they obviously don't realise they are looking in a mirror!! If they can't determine the difference between having a problem with crime vs having a problem with the colour of someone's skin, then maybe they should feel free to leave Australia - I for one, am sick of not hearing the Police being able to describe a suspect as fitting a Sudanese profile.

    JM Thursday 5 May, 2011 - 11:22 PM

  • Is it racial profiling or a fact of life? Practical versus armchair!
    Perhaps the armchair boys and girls can travel the suburbs with the Police or live in neighbourhoods where the immigrants live and then comment. Any one can flap their games without having any credibility.
    By the way Police are charged with the responsibility to protect society are they not?

    Rob Wednesday 4 May, 2011 - 7:56 PM

  • THE Sudanese need to obey and respect our laws and our police,the same as every one else...

    Steve Wednesday 4 May, 2011 - 7:06 PM

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