HERE'S THE REAL JOKE, MATE!

This anthology of short anti-racism films for TikTok pitched at 12- 15-year-olds funded by Multicultural Victoria’s Local Anti-Racism Initiatives Program.

The phrase “It’s just a joke, mate!” is often used to excuse racist behaviour. This series of ten short clips turns the ‘joke’ on its head by exposing the toxic underpinnings of racism and demonstrates strategies for non-confrontational responses.

From an engaging primer on the history of how racism has become entrenched in our social constructs to ways that racism plays out in our day-to-day lives, the clips are intended to ‘word up’ people at a formative stage in their young lives to identify the nuances of racist behaviour in our society today. Dr. Sarah Tartakover, the education consultant from Victoria University, notes, “This project engages young people in discourse around racism. The discussions it provokes are critical to achieving a more equitable and just society.”

A key element of the approach to this series is to recognise the insidious ways in which racism of the colonial imperative has been embedded in all our social systems and has made us all complicitous. Accordingly, we take the view that dealing with racism is a collective responsibility.