What I See with Peter Fiorenza: Why a 12-year-old’s racism speech made me stop and seriously think

I am not a sociologist. Or maybe I am, and perhaps we are all sociologists in part.

Why do I say that?

In academia, sociology refers to the study of society through human social behaviours and patterns of social interaction, including culture.

While we are not all experts in this field, I think we all in some way, at times, focus on human behaviour and how we tick.

What I’m trying to say, is that because we are human, we have a degree of personal insight.

And this brings me to the subject of this week’s column — prejudice in our local community.

Often in my classroom, I have students who are coming to terms with political correctness.

They might suggest a person is being racist when they make a point about the colour of someone’s hair or the fact someone is short, or they have braces on their teeth.

There have been times when I have referred to certain students as being Asian or African and hearing “Mr Fiorenza, that’s racist!” coming back at me.

It’s also happened when I’ve asked a young Aboriginal person whether they have a Yamatji or Noongar background.

“You can’t say that Mr Fiorenza.”

Even though these kids have misunderstood, it would seem the message of being politically correct is having an impact.

Again, I am certainly no expert, and would go as far as to suggest that my understanding is a work-in-progress.

However, I will say that growing up in Geraldton, I believe I have some — what could be referred to as — coalface understanding of Indigenous people.

I have played sport, gone to school with and have worked with a number of people with Indigenous backgrounds.

But it wasn’t until relatively recently that I have started to appreciate what a privilege this has been.

In the 2021 Census only 812,000 people identified as being Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander — a mere 3.2 per cent of Australia’s population.

So, it could be said that we, here in Geraldton and the Mid West, have a unique relationship with Indigenous people.

It was with some sadness that that I listened to a recent radio interview. It was a 12-year-old local primary school student, who had been invited to speak at the Yamatji On-Country meeting, where community members met with Dr Tony Buti, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

The well-spoken young man told the interviewer of his intentions to let people know that he, like many others, continually suffer abuse of a racial nature on a daily basis, and people needed to understand the hurt this caused.

It really made me stop and think.

I’m suspecting many have been cheeky, throwaway lines that were more often than not used in jest.

And I reckon, at times, in the past I have been prone to behaving like this with my friends, not thinking anything of it.

It, however, may have had a far deeper effect.

What can you take from this? Perhaps we all need to listen to each other, especially, when it comes “out of the mouth of babes”.

Peter Fiorenza hosts Fiorenza on Sunday between 10am and noon on Radio MAMA.