March 21 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD), but Australia remains the only country in the world that would rather name it “Harmony Day”.
This isn’t just a “branding quirk”, it is strategic avoidance. By using euphemisms like “harmony” when we should be naming and targeting racism, we obscure the real problem. We shift focus from accountability to (at best) mere co-existence. Let’s start by naming the day accurately. This signals a different commitment, a commitment to targeting change at the systems that cause racialised harm and marginalisation in our workplaces.
21 March is a date chosen by the UN to honour the 69 people killed at a peaceful anti-apartheid protest in Sharpeville, South Africa in 1960. That is the reason it is known as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD). Yet since 1999, Australia has observed this day as “Harmony Day” instead.
So, want to end racism at work? Start by naming it. Start by commemorating IDERD on 21 March. Words matter.
Why naming racism matters
Our landmark Racism at Work report showed that nearly nine in ten workers identify racism as a problem in their workplace, yet fewer than a quarter believe their employer takes immediate action when it occurs. This data is a wake-up call. The gap between awareness and action in these findings reveals that many organisations are still “performing” inclusion. Despite racism being recognised as an issue, there is still a lack of systemic courage to actually do something about it.
When organisations avoid naming racism directly, they frame inequity as isolated misunderstandings rather than systemic failures. You cannot fix what you will not name.
Silence sustains inequity
Silence about racism is not an indication of equity and inclusion. Real inclusion requires us to target systems that allow racism to thrive unchecked in our organisations – even when that disruption feels like “discord”. Workplace policies can name inequity, but policy alone does not change culture – besides, culture is where racism lives. Even well-intentioned, “reformed” systems have not fully dismantled the structures that produced them.
The systemic change needed to eliminate racism in our workplaces isn’t going to happen through silence, or through language that avoids talking about racism in the first place. It happens through a series of active, daily organisational choices that target racism at its roots. It happens through paying attention to, and tracking the data that shows (for example) who is filtered out of recruitment under the guise of “culture fit”, who is fast-tracked as “high potential” for leadership, who is heard, who is promoted, and whose discomfort is prioritised.
Avoiding discussions about racism does not preserve harmony. It allows systemic barriers, biases, and exclusionary practices to go unchallenged. Recognising racism and discussing it openly is not a source of division – it is a necessary condition for genuine inclusion.
Discomfort is a signal, not a stop sign
Many people avoid conversations about racism out of fear of saying the wrong thing, causing offence, or being perceived negatively. But discomfort in these moments is often evidence of something working correctly: awareness, empathy, and a conscience confronting something that matters.
DCA describes ’racial illiteracy’ as the tendency to misread racism beyond its most obvious forms, missing the subtler, systemic expressions embedded in race-neutral policies and norms. Building racial literacy means moving through discomfort, not around it. Unease is not a signal to stop. It is evidence that learning is occurring.
From awareness to action
Awareness is where the work begins. It is not where it ends. Racial literacy isn’t a destination or a box to tick. It’s a tool in your anti-racism tool belt that allows you to unlock more effective interventions to eliminate racial discrimination, or a magnifying glass that allows you to identify the systemic and interpersonal ways that racism harms the people around us.
DCA’s research reports on Racism at Work, CARM Women in Leadership and Centring Marginalised Voices at Work set out a clear case for change and step out the actions needed to get there.
Initiatives like the RISE Project, a collaboration between DCA, Settlement Services International and Chief Executive Women represent the shift toward sustained structural change – in this case, by addressing the barriers that lock culturally and racially marginalised women out of senior leadership roles in Australian organisations. With only 1.5 per cent of ASX senior executives being culturally diverse women, and around 65 per cent of culturally and racially marginalised women reporting being overlooked for promotion, the need is urgent. Programs like RISE build racial literacy, reshape organisational norms, and equip leaders to act.
Inclusion requires courage
Normalising conversations about racism, including the discomfort they bring strengthens racial literacy, drives accountability, and moves organisations toward equity. Recognising IDERD is a reminder that inclusion demands more than harmony.
It requires courage: the courage to name injustice. Reflect on our own role within broader systems. Do the difficult but necessary work of building truly equitable workplaces – not just comfortable ones.
For more on anti-racism and racial literacy:
- Book a DCA Knowledge Program
- Anti-Racism Fundamentals
- Understanding Anti-Racism at Work