AUSTRALIA RACISM
Sydney (Australia), Apr 14 (EFE) .- The Australian actress of Indian origin Sharon Johal has denounced that she was the subject of racist comments and attitudes in the popular series Neighbors, a week after two Aboriginal actors denounced similar episodes.
In a statement posted on her Instagram account on Tuesday, Johal said she has suffered racist comments from actors she cited by name and did not feel protected by the Neighbors production company, an Australian television icon who is has been broadcast since 1985.
“As a qualified lawyer, I see this as a clear human rights issue, a problem that is not unique to this workplace, but is endemic in our society,” said the actress and lawyer, adding that she hopes her testimony will promote a shift towards tolerance in the television industry.
Johal said that like the other actors who denounced their marginalization in the series, Meyne Wyatt and Shareena Clanton, she has also suffered “direct, indirect and disguised racism.”
In addition to suffering from racist generalizations about Indians, the actress called it “distressing” when a former colleague on the series compared her to a big-headed doll and began to speak with the accent of the character of Apu from The Simpsons while shaking her head in imitation of a Indian person.
Johal, who worked four years on the series until last March, said she received words of “understanding” from the producer, but criticized that they never took action against people who denigrated her because of her skin color.
Fremantle Media, the producer of the series, said in a statement that they defend a “respectful and inclusive” workplace and that they take any matter about racism or other discrimination “very seriously”.
ABORIGINAL ACTORS
On April 5, actress Shareena Clanton claims that during her work this year at Neighbors, she heard executives and colleagues use disparaging labels or racist jokes against women or people of color.
“Retaliation for reporting misbehavior and racism left me isolated and increased my marginalization,” Clanton Instagram commented, without mentioning names to avoid lawsuits and noting that he will “never again” work for the series.
For his part, fellow actor Meyne Wyatt, who last year was the first indigenous person to win the prestigious Archibald artistic award, denounced on Twitter that he himself suffered from racism and homophobia when he worked at Neighbors between 2014 and 2016.
“This creates an unsafe environment for anyone in the LGBT + community and this crap needs to be expelled,” he said, calling for a change in the series and in the Australian film and television industry.
The comments of the aboriginal artists unleashed a controversy on social networks, where several users charged against the actors.
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