A slew of Australian athletes, artists, and actors have teamed up to challenge racism in our society. It comes after the death of Black man George Floyd, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck, led to global protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and opened up a wider discussion about how society treats people who aren’t White.
The DoMore project is led by a number of influential and culturally diverse Aussies including NBA star Ben Simmons, Olympian and former senator Nova Peris, and actors Miranda Tapsell and Margot Robbie.
At its very core, DoMore is a call to action for all Aussies to be better allies to First Nations people and people of colour, which means making the commitment to becoming more informed, educated, and engaged.
It’s also about acknowledging and understanding the current discussions about the issue and the decades of work already done to challenge racism in Australia in all its many forms.
So, DoMore is encouraging all Australians to, first and foremost, listen. We need to listen and challenge our existing beliefs on racism. We need to learn from the experiences of non-White folk, and then we need to act.
To help, the team behind the project has put together a number of resources on becoming better allies. For example, you can find readings on addressing and acknowledging unconscious bias, which – like it or not – everybody has.
DoMore has also put together a very helpful reading on how to challenge casual racism in Australia.
To mark the launch of the project, DoMore released a video featuring all their ambassadors speaking about the importance of anti-racism.
“There’s so much we can do, because it’s not enough to be not racist, we must be anti-racist,” Robbie says.
“[Anti-racist is] not a label, that’s a mindset that we need to practise every day. And every day is an opportunity to do more, every day is an opportunity to put your hand up and be present and hold yourself accountable.”
You can watch the full video below.
Learn more about the DoMore project right here.
