Message from the Headmaster

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”

Galatians 3:28

Dear Students, Parents and Carers

Xenophobia and Racism in Australian Society

One of the saddest of manifestations in Australia of the current Palestinian crisis is the way latent racism has become more explicit. Antisemitism has once again raised its ugly head in Australia.

If that were the only manifestation of racism, it would be serious enough. However, we are aware from our televisions of continued racist taunts against Indigenous footballers across multiple football codes. It is all too easy to sledge the opposition with a lazy but deeply offensive taunt.

Australia’s modern history is one of the Colonials’ White Australia policy. To the British, Australia was to be a cultural outpost of the British empire. This remained in force well into the 20th century. Unfortunately, it seems it does not take much to trigger this legacy remnant which sits below the surface of Australian society. 

Racism is completely at odds with Christian ethics. Jesus reached out to all classes and races equally. He dealt with the despised Samaritans and the Roman occupier class. He admitted the lower classes of society such as lepers and the poor, and slaves. Following Jesus, the Apostle Paul radically wrote, “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” – Galatians 3:28. This single verse collapses racial groups (Jew and non-Jew), both of whom saw themselves as superior to the other and treated each other with contempt. Paul collapsed gender divisions, thereby expunging the chauvinistic dismissal of women in a patriarchal society. He effectively emancipated slaves in terms of their status and access to Christian community. 

Why do people continue to hold racist views? Partly, I suggest it is fear of the other. I witnessed it visibly in my History classroom over 40 years ago with the top Year 10 class in that school. Vietnamese new arrivals, who initially struggled with English, became more fluent and in assessment tasks began to overhaul the local Anglo-Saxon students. This caused resentment of their presence, overlaid with the sense that they had no right to be there. The antidote I found was to build familiarity. As these students were given voice to describe how their fathers had been executed by the Vietcong and how they had escaped with their mothers in leaky boats (early Boat People, but not as early as our Anglo-Saxon forebears, many of whom arrived in leaky boats as convicts). Other than our First Nations people, all of us are immigrants or from immigrant stock.

Australia is now highly multicultural. This is our future but it is also our present. One of our callings at Shore is to help students to help to understand this reality and learn to live well with people different from themselves. Indeed, difference is part of the blessings of life that lifts us above the drab uniformity of monoculturalism. As the French say “Vive le difference”. Any of our students who cannot accept this reality will be quickly overtaken by the future.

To be explicit and abundantly clear, Shore opposes racism in all its manifestations and regards expression of racism as intolerable.

Dr John Collier
Headmaster