Who’s next door?

It's not all one-way traffic. About 30 year ago a man crashed his car into the side of my car. While he was changing lanes to avoid running into the rear of a truck in his lane. While we were discussing to matter he asked me if I was an Australian. I said I was and said "Aren't you?" He replied that he was Lebanese and that I should be over on the north side of Sydney and not in Lebanese territory. After he failed to produce a drivers license I called the police. He then went on to threaten me with violence saying "I know where you live", because I had already shown him my license. I informed the attending police officer but he just shrugged his shoulders. Due to my fear of this person I quickly relocated myself to another address. And of course I had to pay the excess on the insurance. So friends, not all "white Australians" are racist and I'm sure many have had BAD experiences similar to mine. I do not have any ill feelings for people of Lebanese background, just that one person.

Discrimination is alive and well even now. I still cop it but I don't stay quiet. I have learnt to give it back as good as I get. Read this article from February 08 2013 http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/television/abc-journalist-cops-racist-rant-on-sydney-bus/story-e6frfmyi-1226573416717

After viewing this video it really shows you racism and discrimination that is going on in Australia, I find that this generation is to blind to recognize that discrimination is going on all around us in this day and age, mainly because the of how extreme discrimination was in Australia and also that this generation isn’t as educated on the effects of discrimination and its impact. It does get to me that ‘rob’ is being such a bigot and that no one does anything or intervene and that’s what should change, people should start intervening. It is understandable being a bystander but shouldn’t be acceptable anymore, so that discrimination in this form can be stopped or at least decreased.

After viewing the video it shows that our society is so morally wrong and unjust, it has allowed being a bystander to discrimination seem as though its not a big deal but it is and its gone on for to long and shouldn't be taken as calmly or lightly as shown. It should be dealt with and changed so this type of thing is a thing of the past and that being discriminated against isnt something that is just swept under the rug.

After watching this video, i felt very sympethetic for the guy the victim of this discrimination. He was being a good person and making room for the other guy who didnt have seat. For the guy to disrespect that kind individual is so wrong and shouldnt happen to anyone. In Australia there is many different cultures everywhere. All over the world there contains many different people and cultures. We are all unique and no one should be treated that way because of their skin colour. There was more than just him speaking other people were making noise so i dont understand after that guy gave a seat up for him he would throw it in his face and tell him to be quiet? I dont see how the white guy is more superior than the other guy. People shouldnt be discriminated against for anything their hair, eye skin colour. their religion beliefs we are all different and deserve to betreated fairly and with respect. No one else moved for the guy so instead of approaching him in a negative way with a nasty attitude he should of thanked him and appreciated that someone did move and for him to just look at him in disgust is so wrong. This annoys me because were all human its not like someone with a different eye colour or skin colour comes from a different planet.

After watching the video, it really opens your eyes to racial discrimination that occurs in Australia, amoung general society. I find that our generation has become oblivious to discrimination occuring in this day and age, partially to do with the fact discriminatio is not quite extreme as it has been in the past. However it fustrates me that it only takes one person just like Rob, the man standing in the train, to give the rest of us a 'bad name'. It is easy to understand to understand most of the peoples' individual point of views. I understand and sympathise for Ibrahim, i would not want to be in his position. I would not want to live my life being discriminated against for a decision that i have no control over. It is not just and in no means right. However i can aklso understand and in some ways relate to sues' point of view. It is easy to say to yourself that you need to say something, but sometimes it is harder to act appon it. There have been quite a few times when i have felt the urge to speak up and say something to someone who is doing something morally wrong, but find yourself afraid of the outcome. We can't deny that discrimination is in Australia and that it isn't a problem. But can we really pin it down to a particular type or group of people, to be the problem or solution?

Watching that video I felt angry, angry and annoyed. I’m sick and tired of the naïve individuals that pity and feel sympathetic to people like me, those that believe just because they don’t express the same racial arrogance as others their not just as ignorant. It isn’t people like Rob that annoy me; people like him are just something to feel sorry for. His small-mindedness and ignorance is something he has been taught. At least he doesn’t hide behind a fake smile and courteously. Pathetic as his behaviour was I would rather that then for him to sit next to me constantly staring at me letting me know how disgusted he is of me with every glance, but giving me a smile anyway. People like Sue are the individuals that frustrate and completely anger me. She thinks by say feeling ‘shocked’ and ‘appalled’ by Rob actions it makes her a better person. It doesn’t make her any better than him. The fact that she was ignorant enough to quickly assume that Ibraham was ‘new to the country’ completely angers me. She may not realise it but pitting him, feeling sorry for him, feeling as if he is some pathetic non-English speaking immigrants makes her just as bad as Rob. Regardless of her ‘good’ intentions she still held the same stereotypical views that will always make her separate herself from people that are ‘different’. Although her behaviour was different from Robs she still carries the same underlying attitudes that will quickly be pasted on to her son.

This video is a great way of expressing the day to day discrimination happening even in today’s world. We all consider ourselves as being belonging to the 21st century but the things like discrimination is still present within us whether we are the victim or are the ones who discriminate others. People still get discriminated whether it is in the form of color, race or religion, people always find one or other way of discriminating others. The reason why the white guy discriminated the Ibrahim was just because of his skin color and this is evident in the video when the white guy enters the tram and starts to make faces towards him. If it was not for the discrimination based on the color than why the white guy did not make faces towards the other people sitting on the tram and he takes the matter even further by telling the Ibrahim to slow down his voice. If the voice was really giving him a trouble than why did not he choose to sit on other place of the tram? We all do not like to be discriminated whether it is in the form of color, race or religion, we live in a free society and we all have full rights to be treated equally as a citizen of Australia. Your skin color does not define your real identity and just because you are white does not mean you have superiority against other race. We as a human should never forget that there is only one race that exists in this world and that is “human race” so I don’t think there is any place for discrimination in this world. People who choose to discriminate others should position themselves first to feel how it feels to be discriminated before discriminating others.

From watching the video I see how the coloured people and white people are against each other. The white guy shows so much disrespect for the coloured guy in this clip. he chose to not sit next to the coloured guy which is fine but for him to then tell the guy to be quiet because he was on the phone was just rude. And it was obviously because he was coloured. There were another few seats on the tram so why didn’t he go and sit down on one? Because he wanted to intimidate the coloured guy. We are all human and deserve to be treated that way, skin colour shouldn’t matter anymore. From the coloured guy we did see that when he was on the phone he had fluent English which shocked me and shows me that he has been in Australia for a pretty long time so we shouldn’t assume otherwise. What makes the white guy so special?! Everyone deserves to be treated equally it doesn’t matter about their skin colour. In today’s society this doesn’t happen anymore, we see it once in a while but it would never be as obvious, you would never make a coloured person feel uncomfortable and vice versa.

if he didn't want to sit next to him that desperately he should've gone down the tram a little bit more and sat in the spare seat that the fellow with the headphones was occuping. intimidating him was mean to the extreme.

For anyone interested in an extreme example of racist behavour in England, have a look at this article from the Huffington Post which includes a link to the YouTube video of a woman hurling racial abuse at passengers on a London tram: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/nabeela-zahir/my-tram-experience-race_b_1119605.html?ref=mostpopular

My husband is Aboriginal and this kind of stuff still happens all the time. I'm pretty vocal, but when I'm with him, he'd rather I keep my mouth shut, I guess for fear of causing a scene and drawing attention to him/the situation, and perhaps reinforcing negative stereotypes (as Ibrahim in the video said). The other day I stood up for a shop assistant who was being verbally abused and bullied by a customer, in turn I was abused by him too, everyone else just stood around watching :(

The sentiments from Lara express what i believe the majority of white privileged Australians feel when witnessing the 'every day' acts of racism. What is to be said? How is it to be said? do we have a right to say it?I think that last point is irrelevant. Despite feeling we possess the right or otherwise to speak, if the feeling is there that an injustice has been committed against another fellow we ultimately have a moral obligation to speak up. imagine if everyone began to speak up. To condemn such behaviour. Human rights matter, not just when it is another privilged white person whose rights are being infringed. Innocent or not.. everyone regardless of skin colour, mother tongue, country of birth has the right to exist in this world free from such blatant subjugation. I would like to think that next time i see something i will have the moral fiber and fortitude to speak up!

The captions do not work on any of the videos even when the CC says on. This is vital for deaf and hearing impaired people. Is there any chance of fixing this?

Until the colour of your eyes are no more importance than the colour of your skin, everywhere is ignorance.

We're all citizens of the world, we need to start looking past the colour of a person's skin. Last I checked we all bleed the same colour.