Apparently Racism Isn’t A Problem In Australia Because There Are Asian People On ‘MasterChef’
Our Multiculturalism Minister used Masterchef's casting of Asian people to point out just how multicultural Australia is.
Australia’s Multiculturalism Minister has tried to downplay the existence of racism in our country by pointing out that there are Asian people on MasterChef.
Alan Tudge was on Sky News this morning when he used the show as an example of how multicultural we are, because it features both contestants and a judge with Asian backgrounds.
Apparently, having one reality show on our screens that isn’t predominantly filled with white people means that we don’t have a problem anymore.
And misses the point that a cooking show is literally the only reality show on Australian TV which adequately reflects the country's diversity. Where are the Asian Australians on Bachelor/MAFS/ the billion house reno shows?
There are even fewer faces in TV dramas, comedies etc. https://t.co/ORCer35TRN
— Frances Mao (@francesmao) June 9, 2020
The Minister for Multiculturalism reckons we should celebrate Asians on MasterChef. Could you imagine a cooking show in this country without Asians? What are you skips going to cook? Pasta and rissoles?
— Osman Faruqi (@oz_f) June 9, 2020
His comments come as China warns its citizens against travelling to Australia, due to an increase in racial attacks since the coronavirus outbreak.
“Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial discrimination and violence against Chinese and Asian people in Australia have seen a significant increase,” the ministry statement said.
Since then, our politicians have lined up to deny this is the case — including Tudge, who said any racist attacks are the actions of a “tiny minority of cowardly idiots”.
“The vast majority of Australians would be appalled and call it out. That’s not the Australian way… 99.999% are as disgusted as I am,” he said.
When the coronavirus pandemic first hit our shores Asian-Australians did report an increase in racist incidents. In February, the Australian Human Rights Commission reported its highest monthly number of racial discrimination complaints this financial year. A third of them were directly linked to COVID-19, as were almost a quarter of those reported in March.