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Stan Grant's speech on racism: Is this Australia's 'Martin Luther King moment'?

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Sarah Muller

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Stan Grant's extraordinary speech on racism

Watch the indigenous journalist's raw and powerful speech he made during the IQ2 Racism Debate.

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Indigenous journalist Stan Grant has declared racism is "killing the Australian dream", in an impassioned speech that has gone viral on social media. 

The powerful speech, delivered at the IQ2 Racism Debate in October, emerged online last week, with journalist Mike Carlton describing it as a "Martin Luther King moment" on Twitter. 

Stan Grant.

Stan Grant.

Declaring the Australian dream as "rooted in racism", Grant said the legacy of Australia's dark past continues today, citing the lower life expectancy and higher rates of incarceration still experienced by indigenous Australians. 

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"The Australian dream - we sing of it and we recite it in verse: 'Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free'," he said.

"But my people die young in this country - we die 10 years younger than average Australians - and we are far from free."

Grant said Australians need to acknowledge the two centuries of "dispossession, injustice and suffering" faced by his ancestors. 

"We are in so many respects the envy of the world," Grant said. "But I stand here with my ancestors and the view looks very different.

"Every time we are lured into the light, we are mugged by the darkness of this country's history," Grant said.

The speech was published online just a week before Australia Day, a day commonly mourned by indigenous Australians as the anniversary of the British invasion.   

The Sky News journalist said he had succeeded "not because of... but in spite of the Australian dream", pinning his success on his family's hard work in the face of ostracism and discrimination.

"My grandfather, who married a white woman... lived on the fringes of town until the police came, put a gun to his head, bulldozed his tin humpy, and ran over the graves of the three children he buried there. That's the Australian dream," Grant said. 

"And if the white blood in me was here tonight, my grandmother, she would tell you of how she was turned away from a hospital... because she was giving birth to the child of a black person."

Grant urged Australians to acknowledge Australia's dark past and be "better" than racism.

"Of course racism is killing the Australian dream; it is self-evident… But we are better than that," he said.

"One day I want to stand here and be able to say as proudly, and sing as loudly as anyone else in the room, 'Australians ALL let us rejoice'."

448 comments

  • Excellent Stan, you are indeed a voice of passionate reason amongst this week when we are reminded of our past (and present) shame in the treatment of our First People's.
    Yet many celebrate this "invigorated" day that was propelled by Howard.
    I won't be joining the "party".

    Commenter
    A country gal
    Date and time
    January 24, 2016, 12:43PM

    • I'll be flying the Australian flag and enjoying the freedom that our grandfathers sacrificed their lives to provide for us. Just appreciate how good you have it in this country.

      Commenter
      Bang Bang
      Date and time
      January 24, 2016, 1:38PM

    • Like the vast majority of Australians I WILL be joining the party and celebrating what is probably the most multicultural nation on earth.

      Commenter
      Kit Walker
      Location
      St Kilda
      Date and time
      January 24, 2016, 2:18PM

    • @Bang Bang - so you didn't read the article before posting?

      Commenter
      Jump
      Date and time
      January 24, 2016, 2:20PM

    • Bang Bang - unfortunately Aboriginal people do not have it good in our country, and that is Stan Grant's point. Even though some of them did fight for us in both World Wars, their treatment by successive governments and white Australians has ranged from mistreatment to gross atrocities and it still continues. Look up some real history, not the sanitised 'official' John Howard versions.

      Stan Grant is a great role model for his people, and I really hope that he can help make a difference to the lives of his people as well as change attitudes throughout Australia.

      Commenter
      lola
      Date and time
      January 24, 2016, 2:20PM

    • And as a gay man who is yet to be treated equal to my fellow Australians I'll give the 'celebrations' a miss. Great speech by Stan btw.

      Commenter
      Rupert
      Date and time
      January 24, 2016, 2:53PM

    • Bang Bang....George Orwell wrote "all men are equal. Only some men are more equal than others". We are a great nation and there is a lot to be proud of. But there is also an underlying truth.....that some are more equal than others.

      Commenter
      Read the Article
      Date and time
      January 24, 2016, 3:13PM

    • ACG. Good comment. The full speech is brilliant and should be a compulsory read/hear for all Australians and should also be in all schools.

      There are other reasons to celebrate Australia Day but our past treatment of the first Australians is not one of them.

      Commenter
      Pollyho
      Date and time
      January 24, 2016, 3:32PM

    • What is more important now is to not forget the past but what we do from here. The Reclaim Australia rubbish is NOT the way to go.

      Commenter
      Pollyho
      Date and time
      January 24, 2016, 3:37PM

    • I found Stan's comments to be deeply offensive to white Australians and historically false. It is wrong to exaggerate old historical flaws while ignoring the vast amount that white Australia has done for aboriginal Australians. For many decades, white Australia has worked tirelessly and spent vast sums to help aborigines. Aborigines could not have hoped to be conquered by a more benign people (eg ask Tibet).
      In my opinion, the Leftists who push this victimhood mentality onto aborigines are largely responsible for the problems faced by aborigines today.
      I've read the perspective pushed in Fairfax papers and I've read the multiple viewpoints expressed in the other papers - I find this blackwashing of history to be false and entirely counterproductive. We are all tired of everyone who is not a left wing ideologue being called racist - too often a sign that the speaker is unable to win the argument with facts and logic.

      Commenter
      Gatsby
      Date and time
      January 24, 2016, 3:41PM

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