I was part of an intensive 4 day project. On the final day, I showed slides of my own work, explaining that it's informed by my background as an immigrant and as a Jew.
Afterwards a student came up to me and asked was there a lot of racism in Australia. I guess when I talk about racism from a Jewish perspective, people imagine a Nazi-like regime and this doesn't square with images of Australia.
I'm not talking about that kind of racism either. I'm talking about the kind of racism that frequently occurs in liberal countries and is maintained by liberal authorities.
I answered that it was the kind of racism that is part of culture. Where culture is Shakespear's Merchant of Venice and Dickens' Oliver Twist. Where a type of behavious is 'raced', is seen as particular to one ethnicity.
I also added that the Jewish school I went to in Melbourne, Australia wasa surrounded by barbed wire.