First brush with racism sadly won't be the last - Sydney Morning Herald

HECKLER

LET me start by setting the scene. It's a sunny, midweek day in suburban Sydney and I've taken my daughters to the local park. My youngest, six months old, is strapped to me in her baby carrier while we watch her 2½-year-old sister play on top of the water feature.

She's surrounded by a group of slightly older boys who are watching their toys follow the water course from the top to the bottom of the hill.

Let me continue by providing some background information: I'm Caucasian and my husband is Chinese, which makes our daughters what would be described as mixed race.

Now for the incident. My daughter approaches the boys and asks, 'What's your name?'

In recent weeks this has become her usual question of strangers so I stand back, not overly interested in the answer. But then one of the boys responds, ''We don't like Chinese''. Imagine my surprise. I immediately turn around. Did anyone else hear his comment? And then, with my mind in a spin, I wonder, is he referring to a type of food? Then he says it again and his mother yells his name, at the same time avoiding eye contact with me.

I'm in shock and still haven't responded. She's the only non-Caucasian child in the immediate vicinity but are they really talking about my daughter? Yes, she has dark hair and dark eyes but from where I'm standing she looks no more Chinese than they do. We leave the water and head over to the swings.

Did I expect racism to be an issue for my mixed-race daughters in this day and age? No. But perhaps what's more telling is that my husband, their father, who grew up in Australia from the time he was a toddler has experienced varying degrees of racism throughout his life.

When he came home from work and I relayed the event his immediate response was, ''I'm not surprised''.

''But it's 2013,'' I said. My naivety was on display. Where I saw an independent and vivacious toddler, the boys in the park saw a Chinese girl.

The park we were at is in the inner west, a suburb famous for its pork rolls and Vietnamese grocers where, according to their community profile, nearly 25 per cent of the population were born outside Australia. Come to think of it, maybe it was their olive skin, but those boys didn't look entirely Caucasian either.

If my husband's experience is anything to go by, this was the first of potentially many incidences of racism my daughter can expect to encounter. So next time I owe it to her to say something.

Emma Kirkman