Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

The panellists, all light skinned, plus most audience members who spoke, talked about feeling left out of race discussions because they're 'White passing.' Hamad claimed race is not about skin colour, using example of Aboriginal people who present as White due to colonialism...

Lots of problems here, ESPECIALLY since the event & book are promoted as a way to stimulate race discussions. 1st, Aboriginal people are not examples for non-Indigenous people to validate 'passing as White.' Race categories have been used to deny First Nations citizenship& rights

2nd, Aboriginal scholars, communities & activists have extensive & complex discussions about Aboriginality & race. These discussions are for Aboriginal people only. Non-Indigenous people have no say in these and should never use these to validate non-Indigenous experiences.

3rd, race is absolutely about skin colour & other physical markers. But more to the point, it is a social construction used to classify people based on biology, in away that reinforces White superiority at the top, & at various times, Others, purely to maintain stratification

Societies sometimes elevate status to non-Black/Indigenous people to reinforce discrimination. E.g. under White Australia policy, Southern Europeans were not classified as White. Now they are. Their skin colour hasn't changed. Social definitions of race have (social construction)

Discussion centred multiple people's 'White passing' experiences. At no time was a *critical race* perspective provided on this phenomena. E.g. Aboriginal people being FORCED to 'pass' under violence & law is not the same as 3rd gen White person wanting to be seen as 'not White'

Why do White people from mixed heritage want to be seen as 'not White,' in these types of forums, which are advertised as being about race? People seen as 'not White' don't have this option of wanting to be recognised as 'not White' for a night. Discrimination isn't optional

Australians don't understand the difference between race & ethnicity (former is imposed, latter is subjective). Critical race scholarship exists. Anti-racism practice exists. None of these definitions and ideas were discussed during the extended 2hr 45min event

Instead, the panel told the majority White audience that #POC 'could be kind' & allow White people 'to make mistakes.' Final comment of the night from Hamad was that the first place to start undoing racism is to start conversations like the she hosted. All of this is a problem

This conclusion ignores decades of scholarship & practice by Aboriginal people & other #POC. Last night was not the best informed discussion on race. Conversation was interesting in many places, as I documented, but also reproduced hierarchies of race, myths & issues about racism

There were only a handful of #WOC in the room, in gentrified Newtown, which has been a site of Aboriginal organising & services- amplifying their exclusion from the discussion in 1st place The scholarship of Black women was being misrepresented yet none of these women were named

The #WOC I was with - all visibly and unambiguously categorised as 'not White' - were uncomfortable with the panel & Q&A. One Black woman was accosted after the panel by a White man in reaction to another self-described 'White passing' man who was allowed to rant during Q&A

Many of these types of events end up catering to Whiteness, putting #POC in the position of educators, absolving White guilt. White people hear panellists say 'what this person did was racist, but they're not racist, they don't know better' (repated TWICE during the panel).