Last week, there was a national story in the spotlight that one could easily mistake for satire.
The NSW Minister for Police and Emergency Services, David Elliott, denounced a public school in Sydney for "acting racist themselves" by initiating a class discussion about the racial justice movement. You couldn't make this stuff up.
Students at Lindfield Learning Village on Sydney's Upper North Shore created posters featuring slogans such as "Black Lives Matter" and "Stop Killer Cops" as part of a class activity.
According to Elliott, "left wing teachers" are "indoctrinating them [students] at a time when they should be learning how to read and write". He continued to accuse teachers of "acting racist themselves by acting like white lives don't matter".
Elliott also expressed concern that teachers were using the Black Lives Matter movement in the US to fuel political discussion.
"What's going on in America at the moment, it's not our war. I'm very, very concerned that teachers are using what's happened in the United States to somehow muddy the waters here," he said.
In response, NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has vowed that "any teacher found to be politicising a classroom will face disciplinary action. Political activism has no place in a school".
If the police minister had any basic understanding of race relations, he would know that "racism against white people" does not exist.
While any racial group can experience prejudice, the term "racism" involves the additional element of socialised power structures at play, such as police brutality.
"Reverse racism" has thus been widely disproven by experts.
Elliott accompanies his claim of "racism against white people" with the suggestion that racism in the US has nothing to do with Australia. The result is a dangerous minimisation of the systemic racism that continues to pervade Australian society.
Those Black Lives Matter posters point to an unfortunate reality for many marginalised groups in Australia: that police cannot be relied upon as impartial allies. We only need to look at the horrifying rate of indigenous deaths in custody to reveal the extent of systemic racism on our own shores.
According to The Guardian, at least 474 Indigenous Australians have died in custody since 1991. None of these cases have resulted in a criminal conviction. Widespread evidence reveals that Indigenous Australians are racially profiled by police, targeted for minor offences and subjected to disproportionately rough treatment and tortuous conditions in detention.
What Elliott and Mitchell fail to acknowledge here is that the decision to refuse to educate children on social issues such as systemic racism and police brutality is political in itself.
This choice not only downplays the reality of racism in our country, it diminishes the importance of critical thinking skills, asking questions and developing a unique world view. Moreover, it neglects a valuable opportunity to equip children with crucial interpersonal skills such as empathy and self-awareness.
Considering Elliott's claim that a school's only role is to teach children to "read and write", you would think this type of education would include some form of social literacy. Surely the education system holds some responsibility in combating the prejudiced narratives that permeate the media, justice system and many micro-level structures.
After all, citizens should be equipped with the tools to understand the impact of this messaging and develop informed perspectives in response.
If police officers in Australia truly practised integrity, accountability and fairness as they purport to, they wouldn't have an issue with schools teaching children about the reality of racism and policing in Australia.
It is an important lesson in empathy to recognise that not everyone has the same interactions with social institutions. The ability to turn to police for support without fear of being disbelieved, discriminated against or subject to brutality is a privilege in itself.
The hasty response of publicly denouncing a school who dared to discuss the issue of race is indicative of a wider social problem. These posters represent the systemic racism that has been woven into the fabric of Australian society since colonisation. Any decision to censor this knowledge is intrinsically political and cannot be framed otherwise.
After all, obfuscation of race perpetuates racism.
If education is a key pillar in any democratic society, the content taught in schools should reflect the diverse experience and unique issues faced by citizens, including those who belong to marginalised groups.
Perhaps our police minister could further his education by reading the 339 recommendations put forward in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Report, or by taking the time to make a Black Lives Matter poster of his own.
- Genevieve Triemstra is a 23-year-old Masters of Research student and freelance writer. Her interests include social justice, media representation and education. She is working on a thesis examining victim blaming themes in news coverage of gendered violence
