Let it not be a fight of the minority’ Priorities for young multicultural Victorians to reduce the harms of racism and the effect it has on their lives
| dc.contributor.author | Doery, Kate | |
| dc.contributor.author | Lee, Alexandra | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ravalji, Krushnadevsinh | |
| dc.contributor.author | Nguyen, Phuong | |
| dc.contributor.author | Olsen, Anna | |
| dc.contributor.author | Stonnill, Meg | |
| dc.contributor.author | Priest, Naomi | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-11-25T05:03:46Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-11-25T05:03:46Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-12-01 | |
| dc.description | Executive Summary The mental and physical health impacts of racism have been widely evidenced as pervasive and ongoing (Paradies, 2006b; Paradies et al., 2015), with impacts on young people carrying into adulthood (Fang et al., 2025; Priest et al., 2024). The effect of racism was highlighted by rising inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic, including in Australia where multicultural young people faced heightened racism and exclusion. However, multicultural youth continue to be marginalised from mental health and wellbeing services and research (Luu et al., 2024). This report seeks to address this by providing a platform for young people’s own voices and priorities for supporting their wellbeing in their everyday lives, in the context of ongoing systemic racism they face. The core harms of racism reported by young people in this study did not occur around specific racist ‘incidents’, but in their everyday experiences of systemic and ongoing racism. Characterised by the experience of unsafety, othering and unbelonging whenever ‘leaving the house’. To counter these harmful impacts, dominant modes of ‘action’ against racism, namely reporting processes, emerged as at best unhelpful and at worst damaging; failing to address the systemic nature of racism, often worsening the core harms of isolation, hypervigilance, and unbelonging that racism brings. Young people’s priorities for addressing racism in their lives centre the need for whole-of-society approaches to recognise and dismantle racism as a fundamentally systemic problem, alongside a more immediate need to support racialised people in countering the core harms of racism in their lives (isolation, hypervigilance, and unbelonging—or even dehumanisation). The recommendations contained in this report put forward a an approach centred on the interests and wellbeing of people who are racialised (who are subject to, or targets of racism), whereby young people are recognised as unconditionally worthy of recognition, support, and resources to ‘repair’ (Schoenebeck & Blackwell, 2020) or at least mitigate racism’s ongoing harms upon their lives. This isdistinct from widespread models of racism reporting which focus on addressing perpetration and/or perpetrators, often further burdening targets of racism {Peucker, 2025 #129}. This is articulated in young people’s recommendation for ‘safe spaces’, echoing existing recommendations for ‘healing environments’ in the mental health and wellbeing service sector (Coyne-Beasley et al., 2024), and recommendations for legal process focused on repairing harm rather than prosecution (Schoenebeck & Blackwell, 2020). Practical guidance for what this shift can look like, might be found in existing victim-survivor-centred models in approaches to ‘abuse’, including disclosures of sexual harassment and assault and workplace policies. As young people in this report recognised, racism represents a fundamentally systemic and structural issue that requires whole-of-society responses to eliminate and address. Racialised people have long carried the burden of addressing racism and educating others, and this burden must shift to get those in power to take on responsibility. Simultaneously, however, this report identifies a crucial imperative to support young people experiencing the harms of racism here and now; one which cannot and should not wait for racism to be eliminated, or for the whole-of-society to catch up. It suggests that attending to the harms of racism in young people’s everyday lives is just as legitimate, urgent, and ultimately central to the larger goals and priorities young people shared for dismantling racism itself. This report joins larger calls to shift antiracism ‘action’ from asking oppressed populations to ‘speak out’ louder, towards asking those in positions of privilege and power to listen and take on the weight of antiracist labour (Peucker, Vaughan, et al., 2025a)—and further, to begin prioritising and supporting initiatives led by the knowledge and needs of communities (Fleming et al., 2023). The recommendations in this report, collected from the young people that we spoke to—who found the generosity to their knowledge even while living through everyday racism and isolation in the middle of pandemic lockdowns in which they were disproportionately affected (ABS, 2022b; Doery et al., 2023)—provide a valuable first pathway for doing so. Their recommendations span different levels and timescales through which young people’s experiences of racism can be supported and addressed. This reflects the realities of racism as a present and ongoing issue and determinant of wellbeing in young people’s everyday lives, for which support is urgently needed here and now; as well as the future goal of eliminating racism through generational and institutional change. Key Findings and Recommendations 1. A clear vision of a world without racism remains important to young people. This ‘ideal world’ is important to resisting normalisation or acceptance of racism, fostering recognition and accountability around how young people should be treated (even while this is not yet a reality). 2. Embed dedicated space and time for critical education and discussion about racism in school and university curriculum. Include dedicated time to openly discuss/unpack key terms with skilled and knowledgeable facilitators (e.g. racism, intersectionality, systemic and institutional racism, privilege). 3. Remove the unjust burden upon People of Colour to educate others about racism, including in institutions. This constitutes a form of ongoing racism itself. 4. Foster responsibility-taking from the whole of society, particularly white people and privileged groups who do not experience racism, to end racism. There must be a focus on institutional and systemic racism. 5. Implement dedicated policies to address racism in media reporting and increase culturally and racially diverse leadership in Australian media. 6. Redevelop public racism reporting systems through centring the interests and agency of targets of racism: prioritising their confidentiality, support, and control over institutional processes, and ensuring independence from police and other established institutions. This can be modelled on current guidelines for responding to disclosures of sexual harassment or abuse. 7. Redevelop institutional approaches to racism through a victim-centred model (as above), focused on institutional racism rather than individual perpetrators. 8. Community-led development of ‘safe spaces’ for young people who have and continue to experience racism in their everyday lives, to support their wellbeing. This includes access to informal support through social and community connection with other people who have experienced racism and understand its impacts; and access mental health services. 9. Strengthen the capabilities of mental health practitioner workforce, for responding to the mental health impacts of racism. This includes policies to: a) Increase proportion of POC and CALD professionals in the mental health and wellbeing practitioner workforce. b) Improve and increase workforce training in culturally responsive practice. c) Support development of dedicated practitioner training on the impacts of racism in young people’s everyday lives. Relevant training has already been developed by grassroots initiatives led by people with lived experience of racism. These initiatives should be recognised and supported, and their expertise should guide efforts to increase the availability and profile of practitioner training in this area. | |
| dc.identifier.isbn | 978-0-6451893-3-9 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733794324 | |
| dc.publisher | The Australian National University | |
| dc.rights | © The Author(s) 2025 | |
| dc.title | Let it not be a fight of the minority’ Priorities for young multicultural Victorians to reduce the harms of racism and the effect it has on their lives | |
| dc.type | Book | |
| dcterms.accessRights | Open Access | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| local.contributor.affiliation | The Australian National University | |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Murdoch Children's Research Institute | |
| local.contributor.authoruid | u6320612 | |
| local.contributor.authoruid | u6054833 | |
| local.contributor.authoruid | u4017240 | |
| local.contributor.authoruid | u1010507 | |
| local.identifier.doi | 10.25911/8255-M657 | |
| local.mintdoi | mint | |
| local.type.status | Published Version |