A true story to give you heart. I was in Newcastle a few years ago visiting my eldest son, his lovely wife and their three cherubs. These little ones are descendants of the Mayan Indians - their mother is from Central America. A lovely family, also refugees who sought asylum here in the 1980’s. We are indeed blessed to have them here.

There was a similar revolting campaign like the one reported here. The good people of Newcastle weren’t going to have such racism in their midst. In less than 24 hours a rally was organized. My son said, ‘looks like the kids might attend their first rally’. On the Saturday morning off we went. The kids dressed in ‘rainbow type’ outfits they got while at a huge folk festival earlier that year - very colourful and beautiful. The community hall was packed to overflowing. There were people doing face painting etc. All three levels of Government had a representative there, including the Mayor. There was a standing ovation when representatives of the African people at the centre of the ugliness arrived. They weren’t going to appear, as they didn’t want to incite trouble. But the racists only had a handful of supporters, while we were part of the huge majority. The lovely people who’d had to put up with this ugliness were a joy to meet. One man had lost an eye, another had lost his hand, due to being tortured in their home country. Makes me teary just remembering those lovely people. My grand kids got a huge lesson in how to positively react to racism. I’ve not heard a negative word since! The good people in Melbourne need to do the same thing. The organizers of this hatred are probably from the same group?

The irony is, that the two girls have their mother’s colouring, and my grandson is like his dad - paler skin with blue eyes? All drop dead gorgeous! Under the system of racism and the stolen generations of this country, he’d have probably been removed from the family. Sobering thought isn’t it - his sisters have olive skin, but I often think of them and how horrific it would’ve been to lose this dear little boy? Makes you think doesn’t it? Some indigenous families in this country lost all their children, other families, maybe one or two out of four or more - depending how ‘pale’ they were? Sadly, a couple of members of my own family asked me what colour they were when they were born? Not, were they healthy and how’s their Mum?Racism? Insidious isn’t it? I was stunned at the time. Later on I wished I’d said ‘purple with green spots’ or ‘pink’??It’s often not until after that you realize that even your own extended family members can be racist? Very sad indeed!

I sometimes wonder if we will truly ever beat racism and fear of others, in this lucky country. So many of us seem to be utterly pre-occupied with our own busy lives, accumulating, consuming, maintaining, and being exhausted… to ever have any time to invest into getting to know and understand others. Especially others who are from different cultures and world-views. And without that, ignorance and fear seem to surface way too easily.

I live in Springvale and work in Dandenong. I love the multicultural flavor of the area I live in. It is an honor and a growing experience to live with people from so many nationalities and backgrounds and religions and cultural practices. And the people in these suburbs are wonderful and friendly and hard working. And Frankston or any place would do well to be “more like Dandenong”.

Time to get past xenophobia folks. The world is way too small these days to hold onto old school values like that.