For this piece, I was all geared up to write about issues of representation and who was allowed to be seen as Australian in the wake of the Australia Day billboard saga. The huge response to the #putthembackup campaign is still exceeding each amount they set and the initiative is now aiming to raise $200K.
Alongside the swell of support against the Islamophobia of the far-right in this instance was a backlash against the entire exercise because the action was read as forcing Muslim Australians to be complicit in the oppression and erasure of Indigenous peoples.
New groups sprang up (including Muslims against Australia Day on Facebook). Among others, Sarah Saleh questioned the politics of perpetuating the colonialist enterprise, Eugenia Flynn emphasised the necessity of working in solidarity, and Fatima Measham addressed fragmentation in activist endeavours.
I read various commentaries, followed social media conversations, and felt challenged and uneasy in turn.
The challenge is good. Complacency is never a constructive thing when you're wanting to participate in political and social change. So, feeling the push to view things differently and listen to alternative perspectives is confronting and valuable. That's not to say I like it, but I recognise how necessary it is.
The uneasiness I felt, however, is what I want to talk about here. The uneasiness did not stem from being challenged. It did not come from seeing debates among Indigenous groups and non-Indigenous communities of colour. These debates can be confronting and difficult, but are necessary and ongoing. There were many good conversations had around the billboard issue.
My unease came from a different direction. It came from seeing intra-community tension manifest as vehement dismissal and denigration of those who were considered not 'woke' enough to the politics and embedded racism surrounding Invasion Day and invocations of Australian identity.
Many took the opportunity to target their own cultural communities with aggressive and condescending commentary. Some lamented that members of their own community didn't know what was good for them; others attacked those who might participate in, or value any aspect of, Australia Day as malicious dupes; and one person even sneered at migrants' 'desperation' to belong to their new communities.
"There are many things I'd like to say to those who would attack their own communities in these ways. I will limit myself here to one: Consider your critical privilege before condemning others for not being as 'right on'."
In the face of this intra-community conflict and the desire for critical capacity-building, Saleh flagged the necessity of building 'awareness and resilience in our communities' for anti-racist work. Nakkiah Lui posted a plea to her readers not to put down members of their own community for their views, emphasising that political action can take different forms. Measham states that building momentum for social justice work 'can't happen unless people feel safe about being wrong; that helps them to be willing to learn'.
There are many things I'd like to say to those who would attack their own communities in the ways I've mentioned. I will limit myself here to one: Consider your critical privilege before condemning others for not being as 'right on' in their politics.
No-one springs forth fully formed in their activist beliefs and armed with transformative strategies for action. The process is long, often painful, and almost never straightforward. How did you find your way into the kinds of social justice and anti-racist work that you do? What informed your activist outlook? How has your participation in social justice events and projects been enabled in terms of available time and resources? What forms of education have you had around these issues?
If some from your own community have not had access or opportunity to know and act on various issues, I'd suggest it's more helpful to find ways to address this than to assume anyone who's not with you is an establishment drone. There are great resources out there to support discussions and actions around this (this post on building solidarity across difference from openDemocracy, for example).
Denying agency to those who don't line up next to you is a poor way to establish a broader and more effective activist community.
Tseen Khoo is a lecturer at La Trobe University and founder/convenor of the Asian Australian Studies Research Network (AASRN), a network for academics, community researchers, and cultural workers who are interested in the area of Asian Australian Studies. She tweets as @tseenster.