Is Australia Racist? More importantly, are you a racist?

A survey commissioned by SBS has found that 80 per cent of Australians feel that 'Australia is racist'.

Ray Martin, Yassm Abdel-Magied, Santilla Chingaipe on SBS's FU2Racism week Source: SBS

SBS surveyed 6000 respondents and asked them various questions about migration, racism and living in Australia.

Whilst 40% of the respondents said that they had faced some form of racism in their daily lives, and 80 percent felt that racism exists in Australia, around 63 per cent people didn't believe that they themselves were racist.

The survey found that 32 per cent of the respondents accepted that they had negative feelings towards Muslims and 22 per cent of people accepted having negative feelings towards people of Middle Eastern origin. On the other hand over 60 per cent of the respondents had postitive feelings towards white Caucasian Australians.

 Another interesting, and almost contradictory, finding from the survey was - whilst 80 per cent of Australians feel that arrival of people from different countries makes Australia a better place, at least 55 per cent of the repsondents felt that migrants should  not "stick to their old ways", because that will "weaken Australia." 

Also, 36 per cent of the respondents felt that Australia's migration level is too high.

#FU2Racism |  Face Up to Racism Week starts 26 February on SBS. Watch the first show, Is Australia Racist? at SBS OnDemand and below: 

So is Australia racist? Do share your views and opinions on SBS Punjabi Facebook page.

Face Up To Racism #FU2Racism with a season of stories and programs challenging preconceptions around race and prejudice. Tune in to watch Is Australia Racist? (airs on Sunday 26 February at 8.30pm), Date My Race (airs Monday 27 February at 8.30pm) and The Truth About Racism (airs Wednesday 1 March at 8.30pm). Watch all the documentaries online after they air onSBS On Demand.