Not Racist, But …: Racism, Identity and Labels
Who is ‘black’ in Australia today? Who is Asian-Australian? Who is ‘white’? And where do race and religion overlap when it comes to identity? And is it really possible, or desirable, to be colour-blind?
In this session – the third in a series of four talks curated by Santilla Chingaipe – Yassir Morsi, Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Luke Pearson and Chingaipe unpack the complexities of racial identities and ask if race is skin deep.
Who?
Santilla Chingaipe
Santilla Chingaipe is a journalist and filmmaker whose work explores migration, cultural identities and politics. She is a regular contributor to the Saturday Paper, and serves as a member of the Federal Government’s Advisory Group on Australia-Africa Relations (AGAAR).
Chingaipe wrote and directed the documentary series Third Culture Kids for the ABC. Other credits include the short documentary Black As Me.
Her first book of non-fiction detailing the stories of convicts of African descent transported to the Australian penal colonies, is forthcoming with Picador in 2021.
The recipient of several awards, Chingaipe was recognised at the United Nations as one of the most influential people of African descent in the world in 2019.
Luke Pearson
Luke Pearson is the founder of Indigenous media organisation IndigenousX. He is an editor, writer, consultant and public speaker.
Mridula Nath Chakraborty
Mridula Nath Chakraborty is the Deputy Director of the Monash Asia Institute.
Her projects include Australia-India Literatures International Forum (Finalist at the Federal Government’s Australian Arts in Asia Awards 2013) and Literary Commons!: Writing Australia-India in the Asian century with Dalit, Indigenous and Multilingual Tongues (2014–2016). In 2016, she co-edited, with Kent McCarter, a special issue of the Cordite Poetry Review on Dalit/Indigenous poetry.
Yassir Morsi
Yassir Morsi is a researcher at the International Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia.
