# data[].attributes.body
Barnard, Anne. 2016. "Death Toll From War In Syria Now 470,000, Group Finds". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/world/middleeast/death-toll-from-war-in-syria-now-470000-group-finds.html?_r=0.

"Black Lives Matter". 2015. http://www.bpfna.org/about-us/news/2015/06/10/black-lives-matter.1543482.

Black Lives Matter,. 2012. Black Lives Matter. http://blacklivesmatter.com/.

Daly, Nadia. 2016. "Aboriginal Deaths In Custody: It's Getting Worse Not Better, Says Brother Of Man Who Died At Darwin Watch House". ABC. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-15/worse-not-better-says-kwementyaye-langdon-brother-rex-granites/7328486.

Daly, Nadia. 2016. "Aboriginal Deaths In Custody: It's Getting Worse Not Better, Says Brother Of Man Who Died At Darwin Watch House". ABC. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-15/worse-not-better-says-kwementyaye-langdon-brother-rex-granites/7328486.

Korff, Jens. 2016. "Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody". Creative Spirits. https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/law/royal-commission-into-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody.

Naqvi-Mohamed, Fariha. 2013. "I Took My Family To The Movies And Got Called A "F-Ing Terrorist"". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/fariha-naqvimohamed/racism-muslims-canada_b_4214494.html.

Olding, Rachel. 2015. "Cronulla Rioters 10 Years Later Speak Of Pride, Regret, Death: 'I'm Not Ashamed'". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cronulla-rioters-10-years-later-speak-of-pride-regret-death-im-not-ashamed-20151127-gl9mrh.html.

"The 1965 Freedom Ride". 2015. Australian Institute Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Studies. http://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/1965-freedom-ride.

# data[].attributes.body
The freedom rides in Australia occurred between 12-26 of February in 1965. Students from the University of Sydney wanted to bring to the attention of Australia the poor living conditions for Aboriginals and racism that was present in NSW country towns ("The 1965 Freedom Ride" 2015). The students managed to bring national and international attention to these issues after following the concept of "The Freedom Riders" in America.

# data[].attributes.body
The Black Lives Matter campaign began in 2012 following the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer. The movement aims at campaigning against violence and racism towards black people. They are able to get their messages across through social media and have gained many followers including the President of America as well as big name celebrities such as Beyonce. The movement regularly organises protests around the deaths of black people at the hands of law enforcement which has been occurring frequently within the U.S. Additionally, they aim to prevent racial profiling, police brutality and inequality within the U.S Criminal Justice System (Black Lives Matter 2012). The awareness of this type of racism is something that the whole world should know about, and because of this movement, the whole world does. In time, hopefully it will help in ending the brutality that is shown to African Americans.

# data[].attributes.body
This article by Rachel Olding (2015) addresses the Cronulla riots that occurred in 2005 in Australia. Olding (2015) speaks with a few people that were involved with the riot to understand what was going through their minds at that point. The Cronulla riots were a series of violent attacks on the Lebanese youth as tension between Lebanese and White youth began to stem. One man that was involved in the attack who was interviewed stated that he regretted being violent in that situation but that he didn't regret what had happened. He believed that the riots needed to happen to establish who was in charge. The same man claims that he is not a racist.
This is the problem. People who are involved in these sorts of situations don't believe that they have been racist or done anything wrong. Everything about the Cronulla riots was wrong.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"I was a drunk moron who attacked someone with a beer bottle. I'm 100 per cent ashamed of what I did but I'm not ashamed of the stance I took," said Geoffrey Atkinson, now 28, a father-of-two who runs his own trucking business near Camden.

"I'm not ashamed of being there and if I could have just been one of the people standing on the fence, waving my little Australian flag, holding my can of VB, I would have been 100 per cent proud to talk about the Cronulla riots and tell my kids about it," he said.

In recounting his memories for the first time Mr Atkinson, who was convicted for his role in the mob attack on Safi Merhi, said he believed the real story behind the events of that day were quickly lost to the enduring narrative of violence, racism and ugly patriotism.

After a morning surf at Cronulla, Mr Atkinson and his mates watched "waves and waves of cars" roll in, ready to "take back the beach".

They bought 15 slabs of beer, filled the back of his ute with ice and were content playing football with the police and singing Waltzing Matilda until the alcohol set in and the crowd fired up.

"How do you not get caught up in it? I'm not blaming the drink but maybe if I was sober that day, maybe if I didn't have 50 mates down there, it could have been different."

Mr Atkinson said he was not racist. He was arrested on January 11, 2006 at his workplace, Habib Brothers Truck and Smash Repairs, and his Lebanese boss stood by him during his court case.

He had best friends who were Muslim, his then-girlfriend was Maltese, he grew up in Kemps Creek and went to school in Cecil Hills with students representing a virtual league of nations.

But, he said, problems with young Lebanese men at Cronulla, where he would surf every week, had been building for months. He said some of the men had claimed parts of South Cronulla rock pools as their own; others would talk rudely or spit at surfers as they passed.

Two weeks before a lifeguard was bashed by a group of young Middle Eastern men, Mr Atkinson and a friend were also bashed as they returned to their car from a morning surf.

When he received a text message about coming to "defend" Cronulla on December 11, 2005 he didn't hesitate to forward the message on.

"There was no respect. They had a chip on their shoulder and they needed to be brought back down to reality," he said.

"And for 5500 people to turn up, with no social media back then and no planning, this had brewed and brewed to the point where people were sick of it. They were like, 'This has gotta stop'."

He said the violence ended up becoming the story, rather than the grievances shared by 5500 people who, he recalls, came from across the state and from all backgrounds.

Mr Atkinson pleaded guilty straight away, keen to get his life back. He spent 29 days in a protective cell in jail, with a further eight months on parole. He had friends disown him, a $30,000 legal bill and a premier, Morris Iemma, who wanted to see him and other rioters rot in jail.

Today, he believes racial tensions are just as high, but he prefers to keep his head down.

"I don't want to say I wish it didn't happen because it needed to happen, I just wish I didn't take the actions that I did," he said.

Fairfax Media tracked down another 40 men who were arrested after the riot and subsequent reprisal attacks. Most were too ashamed to talk, having moved on and established businesses, families and steady lives.

One man, convicted of attacking three people when rioters stormed a train at Cronulla station, is now engaged to a Lebanese woman.

"I don't need past skeletons destroying my own family's future," said another, now a fly-in fly-out miner.

For well-known Cronulla surfer Troy Dennehy, the shame was too much. He suicided two years after the riots, in which he was pictured jumping on a police car, an act for which he was given 350 hours of community service.

Dennehy, 35, had battled depression and could be unpredictable, especially when drinking, his friends said.

Despite publicly apologising to the Lebanese community for his role, he never got over the shame and the attention that his actions attracted, his friend Cameron Johnson told the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader in 2007.

He became bogged down in debt from legal fees and fines and his marriage to his Japanese wife fell apart.

Brent Lohman, captured in widely-run images of the train incident, still shares the photos on his Facebook page, alongside news from Reclaim Australia and groups such as "deport all illegal boat people" and "extremely pissed off Aussie infidels".

When a protest against an anti-Muslim film turned violent in Hyde Park in 2011, he posted on his public page: "line em up and shoot em all... a beer per kill and a snitty at the barr [sic]".

He told Fairfax Media he would only talk for a large sum of money because "what I have to say will upset a lot of people".

Now living in Queensland, he claimed the train incident was set up by the media, although he still blamed it on "the wogs".

"Ten years on and we've got a better chance of being blown to bits now than if people listened back then," he said.

Of the 53 people arrested during reprisal attacks, at least one is in prison again. Mahmoud Eid, a 29-year-old Punchbowl plumber, spent 15 months behind bars for an unprovoked attack a day after the Cronulla riots.

He was again jailed in 2013 for kicking a police dog and punching a policewoman to the ground during the 2011 Hyde Park protest. He was a man who clearly struggled to "control his emotions [and] express his feeling passively", his lawyer told a court at the time.

One of his co-accused, Mahmoud Omar, was embroiled in drama again when his brother, Mohammed "Tiger" Omar, was fatally stabbed in front of him during a fight on the dance floor at Homebush's Beirut By Night restaurant in 2010.

Ali Ammar, who served seven months in jail as a 16-year-old for stealing an Australian flag from the Brighton-Le-Sands RSL and burning it, publicly apologised when he was released. He walked the Kokoda Track as a form of rehabilitation. .

Yahya Jamal Serhan, who served nine months in jail for being an accessory to a stabbing outside Woolooware Golf Club in the days after the riot, told Four Corners in 2008 that it was like "guerilla warfare" after years of "us versus them".

"Like every time you go somewhere, you know, you think people are looking at you or think, you know, someone is going to spit in your food," he told the program.

He declined to speak when contacted by Fairfax, except to say there should be limits to freedom of speech and "freedom to attack".

Mr Atkinson said he believed the riot started to settle racial tensions in Cronulla.

One of the men swept up in revenge attacks in Maroubra agreed, although only because 200 Middle Eastern men fought back.

"They wanted the reply from us, they were goading it. Plus, if we didn't reply, it would have been, like, a step down against our community," he said. "We don't take insults and we made that clear. That's why I reckon it hasn't happened again." ​
Lifeline: 13 11 14

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cronulla rioters 10 years later speak of pride, regret, death: 'I'm not ashamed'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"I was a drunk moron who attacked someone with a beer bottle. I'm 100 per cent ashamed of what I did but I'm not ashamed of the stance I took," said Geoffrey Atkinson, now 28, a father-of-two who runs his own trucking business near Camden.

# data[].attributes.headline
Indigenous deaths in custody: no change?

# data[].attributes.subject
Indigenous deaths in custody: no change?

# data[].attributes.body
Indigenous deaths in custody became a substantial problem in the late 1980s when large numbers of indigenous people were dying in custody or in prison without any good explanation as to why it was happening. As a result, the Government launched a Royal Commission into the issue in 1989. The Commission ended up investigating 99 deaths within a 10 year period and found that indigenous people weren't dying more than non-indigenous people, but they were severely over-represented (Korff 2016). As a result of the investigation, the Commission made 339 recommendations to reduce the amount that indigenous people were represented within the legal system. Some of these recommendations included only arresting a person if there was no other way of dealing with them and imprisonment as a last resort. It is clear that none of this has been taken on board as indigenous people are still highly over-represented in the legal system. Correspondingly, indigenous people are 15 times more likely to be imprisoned than the non-indigenous. This has risen from 8 times more likely when the Royal Commission was launched (Korff 2016).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Posted April 15, 2016 09:59:37

Twenty-five years on from the Aboriginal deaths in custody inquiry, and a year on from a man's death in the Darwin watch house, questions are being asked as to whether the situation is getting better.

But the NT Police commissioner says his force is working hard to keep people safe.

It's got worse and worse. Locking them up. More and more people are being locked up. Every and each day

Rex Granites, cultural brother of Kwementyaye Langdon, who died in police custody

Three hours after he was arrested under the Northern Territory's "paperless arrest" laws for drinking alcohol in a park in Darwin's CBD, 59-year-old Kwementyaye Langdon was found dead in the Darwin watch house.

He had received an "on the spot" fine for his public drinking and was placed in a police cell under protective custody.

In CCTV footage of the health assessment undertaken at the watch house, which was played during the inquest into his death, Mr Langdon said to police: "Where's my doctor?"

In his findings, NT coroner Greg Cavanagh said Mr Langdon should not have been there and savaged the paperless arrest laws.

"This sick, middle aged Aboriginal man was treated like a criminal, incarcerated like a criminal, and died in a police cell built for criminals," he said.

Mr Cavanagh's recommendations that the paperless arrest laws be scrapped were rejected by NT Attorney-General John Elferink.

A 2015 challenge to the laws failed in the High Court.

Mr Langdon's relative, Rex Granites, said he believed the law targeted Aboriginal Australians.

"Paperless arrests is especially for our people," Mr Granites said. "He wasn't doing no harm to anybody. He was drunk."

Mr Granites said there was little evidence of the 339 recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in the lives of the people he knows.

"I've not seen no change in our people being in custody," he said.

We are working to improve, NT Police chief says

Northern Territory Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said "the less time the better" Aboriginal people spend in custody.

He said many Aboriginal people taken in were seriously unwell.

It's something we're really focusing on to make sure we have the right systems and processes in place to look after them.

NT Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw

"I think over 85 per cent of them have some sort of major health risk," he said.

Commissioner Kershaw told the ABC police were careful to assess the health of those arrested and taken into custody to determine risk levels.

"When they come in we have a new, very comprehensive health assessment form which our police officers process and then we sit down with the nurse and we make a decision whether or not that person is fit for custody.

"But as you would imagine, a lot of these people are not well, and are chronic alcoholics and have all kinds of diseases and ill health."

Commissioner Kershaw said on occasions, police would take people to the hospital "but it does also depend on their demeanour at the time".

"If you're violent and aggressive you're probably not fit to be sent to the hospital unless there's a real medical emergency," he said.

"So we do rely on those health professionals to give us that advice.

He said "the less time that they spend in our custody the better, but often that's not available so we do weigh up those options".

"It's something we're really focusing on to make sure we have the right systems and processes in place to look after them," Commissioner Kershaw said.

'Culture of mass incarceration'

Jonathon Hunyor, principal legal officer at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), said the country has not come very far in addressing the problem in 25 years.

"The fundamental lesson from the royal commission was that Aboriginal people die in custody too often simply because they're in custody too often," Mr Hunyor said.

The Darwin-based lawyer said there appears to be little will to change.

"In the Northern Territory we have a culture of mass incarceration where we seem to think that locking more and more people up is the way to try to solve difficult social problems. History tells us that it doesn't work."

Professor Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner from 2004 to 2010, said he was "alarmed" by the increase in Aboriginal incarceration rates.

"Particularly when you start to analyse why people are put into prison and too often it's for crimes that are really misdemeanours in many ways - the non-payment of fines, the non-processing of community service orders, traffic offences, alcohol offences," Professor Calma said.

"They're issues that need to be addressed but is the prison system the way to address them?

"We risk losing generations and generations of our people who get normalised into thinking that prison is a place that's where they belong."

'A shame, a disgrace, a cancer on society'

Darwin barrister John Lawrence said the royal commission was an important chapter in Australia's history.

"They called upon every expert that was relevant to look at the big picture, which was: why on earth were there so many Aboriginal people in jail?

"They were able to make 339 recommendations to try and address what was considered a shame, a disgrace, a cancer on Australian society," he said.

"Twenty-five years later we commemorate it ... and what we discover in this chapter is that we haven't improved one iota."

Mr Granites said despite all the talk, the situation for his people had not improved.

"It's got worse and worse. Locking them up. More and more people are being locked up. Every and each day."

Topics: black-deaths-in-custody, royal-commissions, nt

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
royal commission into aboriginal deaths in custody

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'I've not seen any change': Questions remain over Aboriginal deaths in custody

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Posted April 15, 2016 09:59:37 Twenty-five years on from the Aboriginal deaths in custody inquiry, and a year on from a man's death in the Darwin watch house, questions are being asked as to whether the situation is getting better. But the NT Police commissioner says his force is working hard to keep people safe.

# data[].attributes.body
Islamophobia is the dislike or prejudice against Islam or Muslims. Racism towards Muslims has been around for a long time. However, with ISIS being a prevalent threat to the world, fear and hatred of Muslims and Islam has risen dramatically. My stance on this matter is that I understand fear, especially with the horrific acts of terrorism that ISIS is involved with. Fear is rational. What isn't rational, is saying that the whole Muslim community are terrorists and that they shouldn't be allowed into our country. A majority of the time when these violent attacks occur, other Muslims are the victims. Since the Syrian war started, 470 000 Syrians have died (Barnard 2016. Attacks on innocent countries are occurring frequently these days, but racism towards the Muslim community won't prevent this from happening. If anything, it just might make things worse.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
My husband and I recently took our daughter and a dozen of her friends to the movies. It was a children's movie matinée. Our group took up an entire row in the theatre and so I sat right in front of them. A few minutes before the show began, a visible minority family walked in and sat next to me, one seat down. The lights dimmed and the previews started. We were off to a great start. The kids sat behind us munching on their popcorn, slurping their drinks, eager to see the movie start.

A couple of our boys started slurping their drinks a little louder (which is what is likely to happen with a bunch of eight and nine year olds). I looked back a couple of times and asked them to keep it down as we didn't want to disturb anyone else. The woman sitting beside me however thought it alright to turn around and tell my group of kids: "YOU ARE SO ANNOYING." While this was rude and uncalled for (there were kinder ways to ask kids to quiet down), I did not say anything to her, but rather smiled at the boys and asked them to keep it down.

This woman then proceeded to use her cellphone for the following 20 minutes. When I leaned over and asked her to please put it away as it was very bright, she started yelling and swearing at me. She called me an F'ing racist and that my kids needed to learn their manners. Which, if nothing else, was ironic (I'm guessing she didn't get a good look at me because it was dark). When she continued using profanity at me and my group I went and got a theatre manager. When I returned she continued to use profanity for "ratting her out." After an exchange with theatre management her husband (who had been relatively quiet until this point) started yelling that his wife did nothing wrong and this *itch (me) was causing the trouble.

The managers stepped in and asked the couple (with their roughly three-year-old daughter) to leave the theatre. I moved to the side but not before she AND her husband yelled at me in the crowded theatre and called me an F'ing TERRORIST repeatedly. I slumped down in my seat when they left the room and I felt my body shake. I looked back at the kids who were staring ahead at the screen. None of them made eye contact with me. I wasn't sure how much they had heard or if they were just trying to be polite and not comment on what had just happened. While I maintained my calm for the sake of my daughter and her friends, I cannot get the incident out of my mind.

I had thought to keep this to myself. I had thought to just let it go but the fact is, I live in the province and country where I was born and I am proud. This is my home. I speak up for those who have experienced racism and hatred. I speak up now because I stayed silent for my daughter. I stayed silent out of respect for her friends who only wanted to enjoy an afternoon of fun. But right now, I write. I write because it is NEVER alright to call someone a F'ing terrorist unless they have just killed or terrorized people. The same way we would never dare to use the N word or attack people of the Jewish faith.

I write because I am tired of walking on eggshells. I get it. There's a lot of politics out there. There are some genuinely bad Muslims. The same way there are genuinely bad Christians, Atheists, and the list goes on. To throw an entire race or religion under one hateful umbrella of a word is unacceptable. Some of my closest friends are Mormon, Jewish and Atheists. Their faith plays little part in our friendship. If anything it encourages us to get to know one another, to share baked goods on our holidays and teach our kids what it means to live in a pluralistic society. To teach our kids that a persons faith or the colour of their skin does not make them any better or worse than anyone else. That it is their character and how they are with others that makes them a good person.

Does the colour of my skin or the fact that I wear a piece of cloth on my head make it alright to lambaste me in public in front of my child and her friends?

While I am cognizant that this woman and her husband do not represent an entire race, I write this because this happens all too often. Religious and visible minorities experience racism, hatred and vile comments such as this more often than you might care to think. I write this because the next time someone of a different faith, culture or skin colour than you ticks you off, choose another adjective to express yourself. It is NEVER alright to call someone an F'ing Terrorist.

Also on HuffPost:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
I Took My Family to the Movies and Got Called a "F-ing Terrorist"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
My husband and I recently took our daughter and a dozen of her friends to the movies. It was a children's movie matinée. Our group took up an entire row in the theatre and so I sat right in front of t...

# data[].attributes.body
This padlet will focus on the ways that racism is inflicted throughout the world. Many people who are not caucasian are usually the ones on the receiving end of the abuse. However, 'white' people are also subject to the same ridicule. I will be reviewing a number of different sources in order to show a small representation on how extensive racism really is.