OPINION: Casual Racism must be stamped out from Student Politics

Words by Kowther Qashou

This is an opinion piece and does not reflect the opinions of the USU or the Pulp editorial staff.

In an interview with Honi Soit, SRC Presidential hopeful Josie Jakovac (Boost) was questioned about past racist comments. This is concerning given the reintroduction of racism into student politics. As a student running for President of the Student Representative Council, Jakovac has a responsibility to uphold a code of ethics to be an example to the wider student body. 

A Facebook post from 2018 has surfaced about Jakovac’s past racism where she calls the French football team “FrAfrica” implying that the French team wasn’t French, but African.  Whilst Jakovac insists her 2018 post was a result of her being a “dumb kid” and “not knowing”, she has failed to take accountability for it and has not apologised. Instances of ‘casual racism’ often feed into much bigger racist narratives and fuel racist violence. 

The Council is quite influential and often paves the way for students to go into federal politics in the future. A famous example is former Prime Minister Tony Abbott who was SRC Presidential in 1979. On a much larger scale, we have seen various Liberal Party members peddle harmful rhetoric about migrants, such as Peter Dutton’s comments about Sudanese communities and ‘African gangs’ in Melbourne.

In a new expose, Honi recently revealed that members of the Young Liberals and Young Nationals on campus were closely linked in a network of Neo-Nazi activity. Discord threads were uncovered with racist and anti-Semitic messages. As she is representing a Liberal faction, Jakovac must fully commit to anti-racism within her own party first in order to implement her promise to stamp out racism across campus. 

It is absolutely essential to have an SRC President that will stand up to racism in all its forms, especially given that many students on campus are from diverse backgrounds. It is particularly important considering that it was only at the beginning of this semester that a Chinese international student was spat on and assaulted on campus.

As a member of the Autonomous Collective Against Racism (ACAR) on campus, I strongly believe that it is incredibly important to denounce and eradicate all forms of racism and make sure that USYD’s campus remains a safe place for students of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds.