Building bridges with Africans
More than 130 people from the Jewish and African communities heard each other's stories at the Jewish Community Council of Victoria's third annual Jewish African Friendship Dinner.
MORE than 130 people from the Jewish and African communities heard each other’s stories at the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV)’s third annual Jewish African Friendship Dinner.
A highlight of Sunday night’s gathering at St Kilda shule’s Adele Southwick Hall was a performance of traditional dance by a South Sudanese troupe, representing the Union of Greater Upper Nile States, an African immigrant support group.
Welcomed by JCCV president Jennifer Huppert, a diverse line-up of speakers addressed issues affecting African communities, such as learning about Australian cultural norms and handling discrimination.
Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Kristen Hilton spoke of racial bias in job recruitment and “soft bigotry” against African migrants in the workplace, based on skin colour and ethnic names.
She urged communities to listen to one another, “instead of the screeching and the tweeting and the stunt of wearing a burqa in the Senate”.
Dr Berhan Ahmed, an Eritrean-Australian social activist, and chairman of the African Think Tank, described the Jewish community as “a role model [for Africans] as it experienced the extremes of racial and religious discrimination”, yet managed to thrive.
Victoria Police deputy commissioner Andrew Crisp spoke about relations between police and community groups, relating joint efforts of the police and the Jewish community to maintain security as a model of what can be achieved.
Amelia Forson, chair of the Afro-Australian Students Organisation, said young African Australians face discrimination partly because some Australians are “afraid of Africans as they associate us with gangs”.
Recalling an incident at a Melbourne bowling alley, she was with young African students and professionals quietly enjoying a game of bowling, but were the only group asked by security to show ID.
“We became the focus of attention of other people at the bowl, and were made to feel uncomfortable.”
Forson said African students are building bridges to communities like the Jewish community and to corporations that organise career advice for them. “We want a seat at the table,” she said.
Representing Multicultural Affairs Minister Robin Scott, Footscray Labor MP Marsha Thomson, whose electorate includes many African Australians, said in an era of heightened “racism, anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment”, African arrivals are looking to the Jewish community for guidance.
Liberal Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs Inga Peulich reflected that in Victoria, “there’s little tolerance of left or right-wing extremism” because immigrants from places that practised extremism inherently understand the evil of it.
PETER KOHN
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