The decision by the Adelaide Festival Board to exclude Palestinian Australian author and academic Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide Writers’ Week on the grounds of “cultural sensitivity” is based on a dangerously broad and vague criterion for suppressing free speech. The board appears to have overruled Writer’s Week director Louise […]
discrimination
The fallout from the TikTok Awards has intensified, with a leading human rights lawyer warning that the treatment of Black creators at last week’s event may amount to racial discrimination under Australian law. The new legal analysis comes as more creators, including a nominated model, step forward with fresh claims […]
TikTok has issued an apology and launched an investigation after Black Australian creators alleged they were excluded and denied photography opportunities at the TikTok Awards held on Wednesday night in Sydney. Creators say they were stopped from accessing the red carpet, told their photos “were not needed,” and watched as […]
Australia’s streets turned into battlegrounds on Sunday as far-right agitators, fringe conspiracy theorists and self-styled “patriots” rallied under the banner of March for Australia. In Melbourne, the city’s heart was choked by a sea of Australian flags and anti-immigration placards, the rally led by extremists including a neo-Nazi who proudly […]
Earlier this month, the Federal Court found controversial Muslim cleric Wissam Haddad breached the Racial Discrimination Act. Justice Angus Stewart ruled a series of speeches Haddad posted online were “fundamentally racist and antisemitic [and] profoundly offensive” towards Jewish people in Australia. However, the court also ruled criticism of Israel, Zionism and the Israel Defense […]
The way racism manifests itself may have changed over time, but it remains a persistent problem in Australia. The 2024 Reconciliation Barometer found a significant increase in racism against First Nations people. Antisemitism and Islamophobia have also been on the rise. Many other migrant communities and their Australian-born descendants continue to face racial discrimination, abuse and […]
When anti-racism specialist Gloria Tabi removed her wig for the first time in 25 years, she wasn’t simply changing her look—she was dismantling decades of social conditioning. “It was liberating,” she told The Back Cover podcast. “But also terrifying. I remember sitting in my car crying before walking into the […]
A bold new initiative is creating pathways for the next generation of diverse media talent — and it’s completely free. The Back Cover Youth Creatives Training Hub, supported by the Victorian Government, is offering a series of hands-on workshops in journalism, podcasting, videography and digital content creation. The program is […]
A racist banner displayed by members of the neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network (NSN), at Northland Shopping Centre in Melbourne has been condemned as “cowardly” by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan. The group, reportedly gathered in the early hours of June 1, unfurled the offensive banner beneath the shopping centre’s […]
In 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump implemented a policy to fast-track asylum for white South African farmers, citing alleged “land seizures” and persecution — despite no credible evidence that these farmers met the internationally recognised definition of a refugee. Critics pointed out the hypocrisy: while the U.S. sought to bar […]
