The apartment of a Black man in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn has been targeted with racist, white-supremacist graffiti, according to a post on Reddit.
Photos of the alleged incident were posted to the /r/Melbourne subreddit on Monday morning, showing racist phrases and hate symbols scribbled all over the building.
Crude swastikas were graffitied on the main entrance as well as on the front door of the man’s apartment. Meanwhile, the phrases “fuck Black lives” and “white power” were written around the stairwell.
The Reddit user who first posted the photos told PEDESTRIAN.TV that he lives in the same building as the man whose flat was graffitied. He asked to remain anonymous.
“At first I was shocked to see this since Hawthorn seems to be a very multicultural and safe suburb,” he said.
“This was surely targeted at a resident who is the only Black person living near that entrance. His door was also vandalised with a Nazi symbol, no other flat door was vandalised.”
He said he spotted the graffiti late on Sunday night, but noted it wasn’t there earlier in the afternoon.
Hawthorn apartment building vandalised with disgusting anti-black sentiments, white power with a nazi symbol written down at the entrance of the building. This was targeted at a tenant/flat owner who is the only Black person living in that building including his door being vandalised.
by in melbourne
“This shows how bad the problem actually is and how important movements [like Black Lives Matter] are in trying to balance the scale for such racial injustice,” he added.
“Australia needs to know that we have this problem and we need to be dealing with it sooner or later so people feel safe.
“Knowing this could happen in the most multicultural part of the city sickens me.”
P.TV has been unable to reach the resident of the targeted apartment for comment.
A spokesperson for Victoria Police was also unable to confirm whether a report matching the incident had been filed.
It comes during a time when Melbourne’s Black and multicultural communities have repeatedly been the target of racist scapegoating during the coronavirus pandemic.
Conservative news outlets have falsely linked the second wave to both the Black Lives Matter protests and Melbourne’s South Sudanese community. In case it needs to be repeated: neither of these groups are responsible for the second wave, according to health authorities.
Meanwhile, housing commission towers in North Melbourne and Flemington, which are home to many people from migrant backgrounds, were locked down by police with almost no warning.
When the rest of Melbourne went into lockdown days later, the wider public were given advance notice and were still allowed to leave their homes for essentials.
Sadly, racism is nothing new. However, the kind rhetoric going around at the moment may well be encouraging racists to be more brazen in their attacks.
It’s long overdue for Australia to do better.
