'Go back to your dirty country': Stranger's shocking racist note to successful mum
A Sydney student has opened up about the pain her mother felt after being sent a shocking racist note which shook her belief in Australia as an egalitarian country.
In the wake of Katter Australian Party Senator Fraser Anning’s controversial maiden speech in parliament earlier this month – in which he called for a “final solution” to the “immigration problem” – Maneesha Gopalan, 20, went public with the note, in which her mother was referred to as a “dirty n*****” who should “go back to the f***king dirty country you came from”.
Maneesha says her mother, who migrated to Australia from India at the age of 19, received the note late last year at her solicitors’ office, accusing her of ruining the sender’s business and calling her a “whore”.
“We had family and friends telling us we should just ‘let it go’,” Maneesha told Yahoo7.
“But this is something that isn’t uncommon and all too often people are just ‘letting it go’.
“It’s high time that people realised this is still going on in 2018, that people are still resorting to this kind of language.”
The University of NSW law student wrote an impassioned opinion piece for Fairfax Media, stating her mother had begun to “question her right to practise law – and live – in this country as a woman of colour”.
The family had not been able to identify who sent the note and Maneesha said her mother was not working on any controversial cases at the time of receiving it.
“It just came completely out of the blue and there was no reason for anyone to send it,” Maneesha said.
“It was just such a surprise and it had such a profound effect on my mum, who was so distraught by it.”
Since going public with the racist note, Maneesha says her family has receiving an “outpouring” of love and support from friends, family and complete strangers.
“We recognise that whoever sent that letter in, those thoughts aren’t reflected by the majority of people in Australia,” she said.
“We weren’t surprised to get that support, but in saying that, there’s always a part of me now that thinks, well, there are still people out there that think in this way.”
Maneesha said she was subject to racist taunts at school because of her Indian heritage, but her little sister had not experienced it as much.
“On the surface it seems that things are getting better,” Maneesha said.
“But the way that racism comes across has changed, not gone away. It may be ‘casual’ racism, it may be posted online instead of said to your face, but it still exists.”
