Video Transcription

Racism – Mohamed’s Story

My name is Mohammad Semra. I am 21 years old. I was born in Sudan and I migrated to Australia at a young age. I grew up in Maidstone, and this is my story. Growing up in Sudan, my family didn’t have much. Frankly, we never needed more than what we had. However, in the eyes of our neighbours and government officials who could afford the finer things that Sudan had to offer, we were considered inferior. I never really understood what made us different. Because we looked the same, believed in the same religion,

yet we were discriminated against for the things we did not possess. I remember coming to Australia and starting my primary education. I was so excited. I went to the same school as the kid across the road, even though his dad drove a BMW. I played and laughed with kids of different colour and different religion to me. I started to see that we were all equal. However, as the years progressed, I began to realise how different we actually were. Like, we might have lived in the same area and gone to the same school, but

I began to realise who I was as a person, and that was an African Australian in a country dominated by whites. When I was in primary school, being of such a young age, I could automatically realise racism for what it was. I might not be good at many things, but one thing I took pride in was my reading. What was, I think, shocking for me is that every single year, I had to prove myself to the teacher. The presumption was that I couldn’t read. So every year I would work hard, and by the end of the year, I would be at the highest

level of reading in terms of groups. Then the following year, without my teacher seeing my results of the previous year, I was placed at the lowest level. And it was something that happened every year. It just took so long and so much energy for me to prove myself that I think it was easier just to give up, and I saw a lot of my other friends just give up. I think sometimes teachers don’t know they’re being racist.

So there was one time, it was in high school. I came in one to two minutes late, and then, so, I was with my African mates, but they still had not arrived yet. I came in, and the teacher was like, “Oh, where’s your little African gang?” or statements and stuff that they think is funny. They think that I might find funny. I just took it as blatant racism. There was one incident where I began to see the entire environment of my school beginning to shift, in terms of how they approached racism or complaints about racism, and that was the Apple incident, where me and five of my friends, all were African, were rejected entry to the Apple store.

Security: “I’m just a bit worried about your presence in our store.”

“What’s the reason?”

“They’re just worried you might steal something.”

“Why would we steal something?”

We were just going to see the new iPhone, and the security guard wouldn’t let us in because he was afraid that we might steal something. It was clear to us that we were rejected because of the colour of our skin, and we were just lucky enough to get it on camera. We ended up posting it, and it got a lot of attention from the public and, also more importantly, from the school. The next day, when we came into school, the principal came and sat us down.

I think that was the beginning where they started opening discussions because they realised what we were facing and how out in the open racism was, that maybe it might be in the school environment as well. So then they started putting things in place, basically to help us succeed. When I was in Year 10, my English teacher identified that, okay, I was very good at English. I was a very good reader, so she told me to enter debating. I was like, “I can’t do debating because it’s obvious that I can’t even speak properly.” So what she did was, she went and

sought a program for me to learn how to speak from the very beginning. I went for two weeks, I got a lot better, and I ended up going to debating. When I entered, I was the only black guy, and then after our first term, the entire debating team was African. By Year 12, we went undefeated. I remember when I wanted to join the leadership team, I went and I spoke to the leadership teacher, and her first response was, “Are you sure you’re ready for it?” And I’m like, “What do you mean?”

“You can’t fight, you have to be good.” She was only saying this because she thinks, just because I’m black, I fight. Just because I’m black, I can’t be good. I had no interaction with this teacher. In assembly, everyone’s name got read out loud for them to come accept their badges to join the leadership team, except mine, where my name was the first one that was jotted down. I think that was the school’s hint of telling me, like, “You’re not ready to join the leadership team.” Then, when I proved myself that I was a very good speaker and very good at English,

that’s when I ended up becoming school captain. We went from having no black people in the leadership team to having over 25. Every single time I experienced an act of racism or situation, it just reminds me of how hard it is to succeed, how hard it is to do well. And that’s in school, that’s in your career, and I think teachers don’t understand that because they’ve never experienced it themselves. No one is inherently racist. My teacher would not have, let’s just say, said the things that they said to me,

if the school had put stuff in place for them to be more culturally aware, for them to be educated about my background. Personally, the teachers that were respected the most were the ones that were straight up with me, and there were teachers that I saw as uncles or like an extension of my family. It was the ones that I knew were culturally aware. I think cultural awareness is, I think, the biggest skill that teachers need to have. I think schools can only address racism if they start the discussion.

Like, teachers can’t be afraid to speak about it. So I think what my school did well was, after seeing what the Apple incident had done, they started putting stuff in place for us to succeed. They got a homework club, African mentors at the school, to build a relationship with us so we felt more inclined to come and communicate our problems to them. I believe our schools should be more inclusive. There should be mechanisms and support systems that identify and invest in the potential of multicultural youth,

that teachers should be more culturally aware, that schools should take it upon themselves to ensure that their teachers are culturally aware. Kids have the right to go to school and not carry that excess luggage that their community does. I think that can only happen if the narrative is changed. Being afraid of the unknown will only lead us into isolation. In accepting one another, can we move forward? In Sudan, it was fear that segregated me. Here in Australia, it is sometimes ignorance, combined with fear, that continues to do so.

After all, it is a human urge to categorise and pre-judge, but in the end, we need to make a choice to move beyond this. For ignorance breeds fear, and fear breeds hate. It is only with love, respect, and kindness that the cycle of discrimination can finally end.