At the Annual General Meeting of Religions for Peace Australia (18 June 2023), Professor Nicole Asquith of the University of Tasmania gave one talk on the importance of allyship in responding to targeted violence and discrimination. This talk gave an overview about targeted violence in Australia, and then focus on the importance of allyship in responding to hate, prejudice and violence.
The Guest Speaker at the Annual General Meeting Sunday 18 June was Prof Nicole Asquith of UTAS, Professor of Policing and Emergency Management, who is the Convenor of the Australian Hate Crime Network. Prof. Asquith spoke about her extensive work supporting vulnerable people who face hate speech and targeted violence in our society.
Nicole L. Asquith is the Professor of Policing and Emergency Management in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania, She is also the Co-Director of the Vulnerability, Resilience & Policing Research Consortium, and Convenor of the Australian Hate Crime Network. Nicole has published widely on policing encounters with vulnerable people, and victim experiences of interpersonal violence, including studies on antisemitic, racist, Islamophobic, heterosexist, cissexist, and ableist violence.
Prof. Asquith has made submissions to the Tasmanian Government on the importance of regulating verbal, textual and/or symbolic hostility such as the hakenkreuz (Nazi swastika), “88” (code for Heil Hitler), the Parteiadler, the SS lightning bolts, the simplified Celtic cross and Iron cross, the Hammer and Sword, and the death’s head insignia.
Prof. Asquith’s talk gave an overview about targeted violence in Australia, and then focused on the importance of allyship in responding to hate, prejudice and violence. Prof. Asquith told, “As we are all too aware, allyship and bystander intervention is so critical, but also so fraught.”
What is a Hate Incident?
A lot of hate incidents happen through words or speech. For example:
- bullying a transgender student at school by repeatedly insulting trans people
- shouting abuse at a homeless person sleeping on the street
- posting a blog that makes fun of children with physical disability
Hate incidents are sometimes said to be less serious than hate crime. This does not mean that we do not need to take them seriously. The impact of hate incidents over time can be devastating.
What is Discrimination?
Discrimination can happen in any part of your life but only some forms of discrimination are against the law. They can be reported to a human rights agency. The agency may be able to take action. You may also be able to report the discrimination to a community organisation.
Examples of discrimination that may be against the law include:
- a real estate agent who refuses to rent a house to a person because they are Aboriginal
- a university teacher who sexually harasses a woman in his class by sending her texts with sexually suggestive comments and jokes
- an employer who refuses to hire a person because they are African Australian and instead hires a non-African person who is less qualified for the job
What do hate crime, hate incidents and discrimination have in common?
Hate crime, hate incidents, vilification and discrimination are different experiences and the law treats them differently. However, they also have a lot in common.
These experiences of hate often feel similar:
- they can hurt
- they can leave you feeling disrespected, rejected or unsafe
- you can make you feel anxious, angry, powerless or hopeless
Experiences of hate range from murder to physical assault, to graffiti, to verbal insults. For example:
- In 2019, 51 Muslim people attending mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand were murdered by an Australian man
- In 2020, ‘COVID-19 China DIE’ graffiti was painted on the garage doors of the home of a Chinese Australian family in Melbourne
- In 2017, leaflets were distributed in Sydney letterboxes claiming that homosexuality was a ‘curse of death’ and a ‘tragedy of a family’
These experiences of hate all occur because of disrespect or hostility towards groups of people who are mistakenly assumed to be inferior, threatening or unwelcome because they are ‘different’. Hate crime, hate incidents, vilification and discrimination are always wrong. You do not have to accept them, and you can seek support and take action.
