“Let it not be a fight of the minority” Priorities of young multicultural Victorians to reduce the harms of racism and its impact on their lives

Abstract

This report amplifies the voices and priorities of multicultural young people with respect to racism and its impacts. Drawing on qualitative focus group data collected in Victoria, Australia in 2021, the report documents both the contemporary manifestations of racism as experienced by young people of migrant backgrounds and their perspectives on pathways toward meaningful change. Participants' priorities reflect a dual imperative: first, the need for whole-of-society approaches that recognise and dismantle racism as a fundamentally systemic phenomenon; and second, the urgent need to address the immediate harms of racism in the everyday lives of racialised young people — including social isolation, subtle othering, hypervigilance, and experiences of unsafety and unbelonging. Critically, participants emphasised that support for those experiencing racism must not be deferred pending long-term structural transformation; the needs of racialised young people require immediate action. The report's recommendations call upon those in positions of power and privilege to meaningfully engage with — and act upon — the knowledge and priorities of young people who experience racism. Specific recommendations include dedicated education on racism and its harms, resourcing of community-led safe spaces, and reform of institutional policies and reporting mechanisms to centre the needs of those targeted by racism and to strengthen institutional accountability. The report is explicitly not oriented toward the prosecution of individual perpetrators, but toward systemic and institutional change. Situated within a broader scholarly and policy discourse, these findings challenge the enduring expectation that racialised communities bear the primary burden of anti-racism labour. In alignment with emerging literature (Fleming et al., 2023; Peucker, Vaughan, et al., 2025a), anti-racism efforts should be reoriented— from calling on marginalised populations to speak out, toward calling on those with structural privilege and institutional power to listen, act, and assume meaningful responsibility for anti-racist change.