What adults can do

Individuals can help to reduce racism and prejudice in many ways:

• Examine your own prejudices, biases, and values
• Discuss your own experiences of being hurt by prejudice
• Learn about your own culture in relation to others
• Make friends with someone from another culture or background
• Educate yourselves about the psychological impact of oppression
• If you are a member of a cultural group which is not subject to racial abuse or oppression, consider ways in which you might have benefited from discrimination against others
• Be aware that it is easy to dismiss the difficulties that others face if you do not face them yourself
• Make a rule that comments or jokes that belittle or insult the racial or cultural ancestry of any person or group are unacceptable
• Support people who have been victims of discrimination
• Become an advocate for people in minority groups
• Become active ingroups that encourage tolerance and tackle prejudice and racism
• Examine your organisational or educational settings for institutionalised racism, and advocate for changes to racist policies and practices
• Ask your local member of parliament what she/he is doing to combat racism and prejudice
• Talk with others about racism and prejudice, and point out examples when you see them
• The APS information sheet Communicating about violence, peace and justice has tips on talking with others about these issues
• Think of the world as a global community, not just individual nations or peoples
• Take part in international and interfaith special events and festivals
• Work cooperatively with people from other groups, or from other cultures or backgrounds
• Learn interest-based conflict resolution and practice using it in your everyday life
• Write to newspapers or online publications expressing concern about the promotion of stereotypes of certain groups. Suggest ways the media could betterrepresentethnic groups, ethnic differences, and conflict between ethnic groups. This could involve:
  • highlighting diversity within and similarities across groups
  • and reporting on successful non-violent resolution of ethnic conflicts
• Remember: different cultures, points of view and values are not necessarily better or worse, but are just different. They make the world a more interesting and richer place and allow for new ideas and advances that benefit all Australians.