Anti-racism ‘woke’ street signs in Sydney streets provoke backlash

Sydney’s latest woke hot spots can now be identified — thanks to a series of politically correct anti-racism street signs spreading across the inner west and eastern suburbs.

Sydney’s latest “woke” hot spots can now be identified — thanks to a series of politically correct anti-racism street signs spreading across the inner west and eastern suburbs.

The RacismNotWelcome signs — the brainchild of a network of multicultural inner-city activists — have been increasingly adopted by left-wing councils including Inner West and the City of Sydney.

But their push into Sydney suburbs has been met with stiff resistance by residents furious at being “stigmatised” with the “racism” tag amid fears of lowering house prices.

Former Cumberland Council Mayor Steve Christou managed to block the signs being erected in his suburbs — which include the highly multicultural Auburn, Fairfield and Merrylands — last year after residents told him they “would devalue our houses” and “stigmatise” them.

He’s now a councillor after Labor took power at the last election and their first item on the agenda last week was to try to bring the signs back in.

“The overwhelming feedback I have received from members of our community is that these signs are divisive and if put them up on street corners it will make the residents of the street feel stigmatised and targeted as there will be a perception that racism is occurring in the streets,” Mr Christou said.

“They are saying they don’t want it on their street — it will devalue our houses.”

It comes a three Woollahra councillors staged an attempt to get rid of the anti-racism street signs in the wealthy eastern suburbs at a council meeting last week, saying residents felt they “create a false impression that Woollahra locals are racist”.

Ainura Igamberdyyeva with her children Sophia and Aidan at Double Bay. Picture: John Feder/The Daily Telegraph.

A Racism Not Welcome sign in Paddington. Picture: John Feder/The Daily Telegraph.

But they narrowly lost the vote, so the 12 signs — located in ritzy streets in Bellevue Hill, Vaucluse, Double Bay and Rose Bay — will now remain.

The signs were created by the Inner West Multicultural Network, which joined forces with the Addison Road Community Organisation after an online survey found racism against Asian people early in the pandemic.

The Institute of Public Affairs’ Dr Bella d’Abrera said the signs were not only: “incredibly pointless, but they are also incredibly offensive, because the people who put them up are essentially calling local residents racist”.

There are now almost 50 signs erected on Sydney streets that say RacismNotWelcome, located in the inner west, inner city and eastern suburbs, with organisers wanting them to spread to every council in Australia.

The three Woollahra Councillors who tried to get the signs removed said they’d been inundated by residents complaining the signs “divided the community” and were “distressing”.

One of the controversial signs at Central Station in Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

Liberal councillor Mary-Lou Jarvis said the “race-based politics of the inner city” were being imported to the eastern suburbs”.

She said promoters of the signs claimed there was an “alarming rise in incidents of racism”, but a Scanlon Monash Index of social cohesion found discrimination significantly lower in 2020 than two years prior. Other residents described the politically correct signs as “graffiti to the eye”.

A map showing the distribution of Racism Not Welcome signs in Sydney

“Jewish people whose families suffered in the Holocaust have contacted me to say how concerned and opposed they are to the signs,” Ms Jarvis said.

“Where does it end? Shall we put up signs next that chauvinism is not welcome here?”

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said the signs were not an “accusation” against locals but a statement of ending prejudice.

“Unlike some people in the eastern suburbs, we do not find the signs offensive,” he said.

Residents and close friends Anne and Eva, who both chose to withhold their surnames, had noticed the signs popping up around their eastern suburbs neighbourhood a couple of weeks ago.

The pair said they were both “very anti-racism”, but they each had a different take on the signs and their value to the anti-racism campaign.

Cumberland Mayor Steve Christou. Picture: AAP

Liberal councillor Mary-Lou Jarvis.

Eva said she didn’t think the signs “can hurt anyone” while Anne said she believes having them up won’t make much of an impact.

Anne says she’d rather see more informative, educational methods to fight racism.

“I disagree with having the signs up. I don’t think it will make a difference. I think education will make a difference,” Anne said.

“I don’t think it’s a good gesture. I find it annoying, and I’d like to see education in schools, universities and through the media.”

Another resident Ainura Igamberdyyeva moved to Australia from Uzbekistan 13 years ago and said she didn’t have a problem with the signs as she felt it reflected the country’s stance on racism.

“It’s okay. It’s cool because (in Australia) we have a lot of different cultures.”