Bellerive business owner Jarnail Singh has been targeted in persistent racist attacks
For months, well liked business owner Jarnail Singh has been the target of persistent racist attacks. After several police reports, nothing has been done and the harassment has only gotten worse.
Tasmania
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■ Anyone who has experienced racism and requires support can contact the Phoenix Centre (Run by the Migrant Resource Centre) on 6221 0999.
■ Racial discrimination, abuse or harassment can be reported to Equal Opportunity Tasmania.
Indian-born Jarnail Singh has lived in Tasmania for ten years, and for the most part, he’s felt accepted by his community
By day, he is a teacher and by night he and his wife run their Bellerive restaurant, Dawat “The Invitation”.
The chef is known by many for his generosity; In 2020, during the peak of the pandemic, Mr Singh provided free meals to health workers, and those who were struggling financially.
But for the last few months he has been the victim of persistent racist abuse and harassment.
It started with an incident Mr Singh initially shrugged off as a prank by kids.
“A couple of months ago when I was about to leave for my job in the morning, I found dog poo on my driver’s side handle and my driver’s side window mirror,” Mr Singh told the Mercury.
“I thought it must be kids or something, I washed the car and went to work.
“I came to the restaurant in the evening, when we were finished, it was on the driver’s side and passenger side as well.”
He went home and washed his car, but the next morning he’d been hit once again.
“Continuously it happened for three, four days,” Mr Singh said.
“We had to call the police, they came they looked, they took pictures for evidence.”
It became clear why Mr Singh was being targeted, when the perpetrators graffitied Mr Singh’s home.
“Go home indian” was sprayed in black paint on his driveway.
As incidents continued, Mr Singh reported them to police.
“I said if something happened, who’s going to be responsible?” Mr Singh said.
“They couldn’t do anything, they said ‘we don’t have any cameras so we don’t know who the person is doing this?’”
When his landlord installed cameras at his home, the vandalism stopped there, but continued at his workplace.
“Someone scratched my car, this happened outside my restaurant,” Mr Singh said.
Next came letters in the mail to his home.
“F*** off back to India,” the first letter said.
“This is our home, not yours!”
This week Mr Singh received a second letter, this time an open threat.
In the letter, the perpetrator calls Mr Singh a “show-off” and warns they will damage his new car.
“I am going to smash scratch and damage your new mustang one night at your house or the restaurant I am going to F*** it up,” the second letter reads.
Mr Singh said the most recent letter was an escalation.
“It is a bit more dangerous, it's an open threat to me, like they’re going to smash my car,” Mr Singh said.
“Police said ‘it’s a postal letter, we can’t do anything about it’,”
He said the persistent racism had been stressful.
“I’ve been in Tasmania for tens years now and this has never happened to me before,” he said.
“Everybody knows me very well, I don’t know what these people want.
“We work hard to get these things, we’re not stealing from anybody’s pocket, we both have day jobs and in the evening we work at our business.
“From the morning nine o’clock until ten o’clock in the evening, we don’t have a social life.
we just work work work, that’s what we do.”
Response from Tasmania Police
Tasmania Police was asked what action had been taken to assist Mr Singh. In response a spokesperson said advice had been provided.
“The reporting person has been advised to contact police immediately if such events occur, and to ensure any evidence is preserved for forensic examination,” they said.
They said current legislation allowed for courts to consider a motivation of “racial hatred” or prejudice as an aggravating factor in sentencing.
“There is no excuse for any form of verbal or physical harassment in our community,” the spokesperson said.
“People are encouraged to come forward to police immediately to report matters where they believe they have been the victim of a prejudice-related incident.
“All reports of crimes are taken seriously, and people are encouraged to contact police in a timely manner so matters can be fully investigated.”
How prevalent is racism in Tasmania?
According to Equal Opportunity Tasmania, there were 33 complaints of racially offensive conduct in the 2022–23 period, compared to 30 the previous year, along with 33 racial discrimination complaints, compared to 24 in the 2021-22 period.
Multicultural Council of Tasmania chair Aimen Jafri said incidents of racism were common, according to a statewide survey the organisation had recently run.
“Racial slurs, I think that’s the most common form of racism right now,” she said.
“It could be at school, workplaces or marketplaces.
“It’s become common lately with the Palestine/Israel conflict … We heard from someone recently, a woman stopped her in the middle of the road and said ‘all terrorist should go back to their countries’. ”
Ms Jafri said there were many people who weren’t reporting incidents.
“A lot are going under the radar, people do not trust that their reports will get addressed, people fear their visas will be impacted,” Ms Jafri said.
“They do not want to go through the trauma of questioning … there’s an element of shame attached to it as well.
“They don’t trust police or they know nothing will happen, they don’t want to go through it.
“For those reporting it takes a long while, people want to see action but that does not happen, it’s takes time.”
Ms Jafri said more education was needed to create a more harmonious society.
“Punishing is not the solution, we need to educate people as much as we can … ignorance and not being aware, that’s the main cause of these incidents,” Ms Jafri said.
“It’s heartbreaking, but this change has to start from somewhere, it has to start from dinner tables, offices spaces, schools.”
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