A WELL-KNOWN indigenous Australian was sent an envelope, and scrawled on the front was her name followed by the words “dirty black abbo”.

The story of Nova Peris, an Australian athlete and former politician, is one of many horrific tales that have emerged on Harmony Day under the social media hashtag #FreedomOfSpeech.

The trending hashtag was started by Australian author and journalist Benjamin Law, who asked Australians to share their stories in the wake of a significant freedom of speech ruling.

To coincide with Harmony Day, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his government watered down race-hate laws contained in Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Under the changes, approved at a joint partyroom meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, the words “offend, insult and humiliate” will be changed to “harass and intimidate”, making race-hate claims harder to prove.

“Freedom of speech is everything,” Assistant minister to the Prime Minister, James McGrath, posted to Facebook.

The government’s plan is to allow freedom of speech while also protecting people from racial vilification.

But people who have experienced hate and racism took to Twitter to show exactly what they experience when people say attack them based on the colour of their skin.

At the age of 10, I was at the local pool as a group of white boys held my head underwater, laughing at me for being Asian. #FreedomOfSpeech — Benjamin Law (@mrbenjaminlaw) March 21, 2017

Stories of racism started flooding Twitter after Law posted: “To celebrate the Coalition tampering with the RDA (Racial Discrimination Act) on #HarmonyDay, let’s share stories of racism with hashtag #FreedomOfSpeech. I’ll start.”

He then went on to tell a personal story of when he was racially attacked growing up.

“At the age of 10, I was at the local pool as a group of white boys held my head underwater, laughing at me for being Asian,” he wrote.

A woman then said she was told by cinema staff on Father’s Day “he’s not your dad, he’s black and you’re white”.

One man of Asian descent said he was tired of “being confused for the other Asian guy at work.

Another claimed a person said to him just this year that he smelt surprisingly good for someone of his background.

When I was 10 a boy told me his favourite colour was white, because it's the opposite of black. And he hated blacks. #FreedomOfSpeech https://t.co/LyK4OpB5Yr — Rachael Hocking (@Hocking_Rachael) March 21, 2017

Being told "he's not your dad, he's black and you're white" at the cinema by cinema staff on Father's Day 😔#FreedomOfSpeech @mrbenjaminlaw pic.twitter.com/seoexYAeSJ — ᔕOYᒪᗩTTE (@miss_soylatte) March 21, 2017

Australians from all different backgrounds have experienced some sort of verbal racial attack in their lifetime, including many who are well known.

Former MasterChef Australia winner, cook, writer and television presenter Adam Liaw shared a story about racism he experienced just today.

“I was in at my mobile phone provider’s store today for over an hour. All the staff there are Asian (I live in a very Asian area),” he wrote on Twitter.

“There were maybe 10 other customer groups in that hour. 7 Asian, 3 white. I could overhear all their conversations. It’s a small store. All 3 groups of white customers berated the Asian staff. For speaking to them rudely (they weren’t), for being incompetent (they weren’t), for outsourcing customer care to the Philippines (not really their call). All stressed they "weren't being racist”. I believe that 100 per cent.

“I accept dealing with a customer service is stressful. I also accept they wouldn’t have spoken like that to white staff too. I don’t know. But I can guarantee you it’s much, much easier to be rude to someone you don’t think is your equal.

“Not one racial epithet was said, and nobody was being “racist”. But this is racism. Racism isn’t just for “racists”.

“Our politicians will argue a lot today about who has the right to say racist things, and whether it should be criminal. I’ve had my accent (do I have one?) mocked thousands of times. I’ve been told to go back to where I came from thousands of times. I’ve been called a ‘gook’, ‘nip’, ‘ching-chong’ or any number of racist names thousands of times.

“My beautiful, adorable kids will be called those names. I know that because it’s happened to every single Asian person I know in Australia.”

Liaw said he didn’t care if section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act was changed or not.

But he did not want people to pretend it solved the problems that face the country when it comes to race.

“The racism I worry about isn’t getting abused on a bus while someone films it on their phone. Or running into ‘a racist’ in a dark alley. Most Australians aren’t racists. Neither are the kids who will one day tease my kids for their race. The racism I worry about is systemic. It’s under-representation media, boardrooms, or the slightest inkling that kids with brown skin are less Australian than if they were white,” he said.

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam slammed the Turnbull Government’s decision to change the Act. He said there were far more important priorities.

“Antarctic ice sheets are melting rapidly. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow. Young people are being locked out of the housing market and locked in to a future where their every dissenting move is monitored by the state in their warming world. But this government is steadfastly committed to ensuring we’ll all be able to say the N word, whatever happens,” he wrote in a scathing Facebook post.