This was published 4 years ago!
Shortly before Stan Grant is due on stage in Brisbane, the writer Anita Heiss breezes up to say hello. They are friends but haven’t seen each other for a while. “Why are you so brown?” Heiss asks. “Have you been holidaying?”
Grant smiles and says: “No. Do you know what happens? You get darker as you get older.”
Angrier, too, as it turns out. In the course of his successful career in TV journalism, Grant has reported from war zones and hell-holes around the globe. Now, at 52, he has confronting news from the home front: “The Australian Dream is rooted in racism. It is the very foundation of the dream.” Those words come from a blistering, off-the-cuff speech Grant gave during a debate at the Ethics Centre in Sydney earlier this year. The speech drew a connection between the soldiers and settlers who slaughtered Indigenous Australians in colonial days and the AFL fans who booed Aboriginal footballer Adam Goodes last winter. Since it went online in January, it has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. . . . .
Stan Grant’s extraordinary speech on racism
Watch the indigenous journalist’s raw and powerful speech he made during the IQ2 Racism Debate.
Angrier, too, as it turns out. In the course of his successful career in TV journalism, Grant has reported from war zones and hell-holes around the globe. Now, at 52, he has confronting news from the home front: “The Australian Dream is rooted in racism. It is the very foundation of the dream.” Those words come from a blistering, off-the-cuff speech Grant gave during a debate at the Ethics Centre in Sydney earlier this year. The speech drew a connection between the soldiers and settlers who slaughtered Indigenous Australians in colonial days and the AFL fans who booed Aboriginal footballer Adam Goodes last winter. Since it went online in January, it has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. . . . .
Stan Grant's Speech on Racism in Australia
Is Australia really a multicultural safe haven of equal opportunity? Or is racism more prevalent than ever before? Stan Grant took to the stage for the last IQ2 debate of 2015. His speech is widely acknowledged to be one of the most powerful ever heard at IQ2. Watch the full debate http://youtube.com/watch?v=JNHjYwPSd3w Transcript of Stan Grant’s speech http://www.ethics.org.au/on-ethics/bl… Find out more about The Ethics Centre: http://www.ethics.org.au Experience our events: http://www.ethics.org.au/events Join our newsletter: http://ethicscentre.force.com/EthicsN… Be part of our community: Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ethicscentre See us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ethics_centre Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/ethics_centre
“Is Australia really a multicultural safe haven of equal opportunity? Is racism prevalent or declining? Stan Grant urges all Australians to think deeply about how we can be better. His Sydney Writers’ Festival talk is a powerful meditation on race, Indigenous heritage and national identity that is both heartbreaking and inspiring.”
AuntyUta 