Grassroots Anti-Racism Campaign, Fronted By Craig Foster, Gathers Steam

Grassroots Anti-Racism Campaign, Fronted By Craig Foster, Gathers Steam
Christian Fleetwood
By Christian Fleetwood
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The City of Sydney could become the latest NSW council to support an anti-racism campaign fronted by former Socceroo Craig Foster AM, as street signs across Sydney’s inner west bearing its inclusive message began appearing over the last month.

The #RacismNotWelcome movement was created last year by the Inner West Multicultural Council and is fronted by Foster, a Member of the Order of Australia and human rights campaigner, and former The World Game commentator at SBS.

Foster explained that the campaign, which he agreed to front last year, was started “to normalise discussion about the racism too many of our First Peoples, our CALD and minority communities experience every day, and to encourage learning about institutional racism, historic barriers and lived experiences”.

A large part of this campaign is street signs that bear the message, #RacismNotWelcome, which Foster said were for “every local council across Australia”.

“Racism is not part of my daily existence and we all have a responsibility to understand how it manifests and be better able to support those who are discriminated against, or racially vilified,” Foster said in a LinkedIn post.

With the Inner West Council, and more recently the Waverley Council, backing the campaign by displaying signs across their municipalities, the anti-racism movement is gaining momentum.

Yesterday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported the City of Sydney may become the next NSW council to support the #RacismNotWelcome movement, with Councillor Linda Scott to today put forward a motion on endorsing it.

Cr. Scott, who is also president of the Australian Local Government Association, told The Herald the she was proud to stand beside Foster and “our city’s multicultural communities to launch the #RacismNotWelcome campaign”.

“I’m confident local governments across the nation, as the closest level of government to our communities, will continue the good work we do to ensure all people feel a sense of belonging and are equal,” she said.

“Together, we can stand up, call out racism and create places where decision making is shared, and diversity is valued and celebrated.”

It is unclear whether Australia’s out of home media display companies will become involved in the campaign. However, the door remains open for the country’s largest players in this space to become involved.

A QMS Media spokesperson told B&T that while the OOH company does not have signage with the Inner West and Waverley councils, “we would welcome supporting the initiative with any of our council partners should they choose to do so”.

An Ooh!media spokesperson said the company was also open to working with the #RacismNotWelcome campaign.

“oOh!media supports many community initiatives by using our network of Out of Home signs to communicate important messages,” the spokesperson told B&T.

“We have not been contacted by Craig Foster’s #RacismNotWelcome campaign, but would be open to discussing the campaign if approached.”

In addition, it is understood that while JCDecaux is not involved in the initiative to date, members of the company’s Australian team are contacting Foster in order to offer support.

Note: This article has been updated since first publishing, to reflect information from oOh!media and regarding JCDecaux. 

Featured image source: LinkedIn/Craig Foster AM

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