The impact of racism upon the health and wellbeing of young Australians 2009

This report explores the attitudes of Australian youth in relation to key issues in contemporary race relations, such as cultural diversity, tolerance and privilege. Understanding the direct experiences of young people facing racism who are from Indigenous, migrant or refugee backgrounds is critically important as we re-imagine the roles and values placed upon all young people, in all communities across Australia. One of the clearest messages to come from this report is a reminder of the critical role that our schools play and the core responsibility that is bestowed upon school communities to instil values and behaviours that contribute more directly to building a diverse and dynamic nation.   The key objectives of the project were: to examine the experiences of racism for young people in Australia of mainstream (English-speaking background),  Indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds; to investigate how young people in Australia  report and  respond to racism; and to explore the attitudes of mainstream youth in relation to key issues in contemporary race relations, such as cultural diversity, tolerance and privilege.  Authors: Fethi Mansouri, Louise Jenkins, Les Morgan and Mona Taouk