It doesn’t matter how progressive you think you are — chances are if you’re a white Australian you’ve never been a victim of racism, especially not in this country.

You’ll never understand how hurtful it is when someone tells you to “love it or leave it”.

You’ll never experience the slap in the face that are those repulsive “F--- off we’re full” bumper stickers.

You’ve never grown up feeling like you couldn’t speak out, lest someone accuses you of playing “the race card”.

And you’ll never be a victim of the white privilege that has — whether you like it or not — given you an immediate benefit over others because you had the good fortune to be born caucasian.

That’s why it’s important to listen to conversations surrounding racism when minorities and people of colour discuss it.

For starters, don’t butt experiences of how tolerant and accepting you think Australia is.

That may be your experience from the perspective of a person with privilege but it doesn’t reflect wider viewpoints and opinions.

Especially, don’t dismiss these genuine feelings of hurt and disappointment, like the person who said I hadn’t experienced “real racism” because I wasn’t a white man living in Japan. He appeared to be under the impression that he had to outdo the experiences of thousands of people by pitting his against theirs.

Of course, his experience counts — but this is not a matter of bragging rights.

If you were born with privilege it’s not for you to decide if minority experiences of being treated harshly are false.

There’s nothing more insulting than opening up on genuine concerns and struggles, only to have labels such as “wrong”, “sooking” or “PC gone mad” flippantly tossed around.

Proud Wiradjuri woman and acclaimed author Dr Anita Heiss summed it up when she tweeted: “White people telling us what’s not racist is like men telling women what’s not sexist.”

It’s true that this sort of response is a defensive reflex by many Australians who simply can’t deal when confronted with the country’s racism.

media_camera AFL player Adam Goodes is at the centre of ongoing debate surrounding racism in Australia. (Pic: SBS)

Whenever a person of colour, be it Adam Goodes or Tim Soutphommasane, speaks out about the discrimination rife in this country, it triggers defensive hysteria.

media_camera Race Discrimination Commissioner Dr Tim Soutphommasane. (Pic: News Corp)

People fall over themselves to declare that a particular incident or comment isn’t racist, dismissing the complaint with definitive proclamations that political correctness has taken over.

Or they derail the conversation by shifting the focus to themselves without discussing the real issue.

Because they’re the real victims of discrimination, see?

“But not all Australians,” they cry. “You can’t tar everyone with the same brush. I’m not like that.”

It’s a perpetual rebuttal that constantly gets in the way of a legitimate discussion about race and privilege.

So here’s my disclaimer right now: no one is inferring that every single Australian holds bigoted views, but you’d have to be pretty sheltered if you can’t admit that racism exists, bubbling away in the nation’s underbelly.

Australia is a multiracial, multicultural society whether we like it or not — that’s never going to change.

But what Australians can change are their attitudes to everyday racism.

If you don’t like being labelled a nation of racists, acknowledge racism and call it out.

Educate your mates on why that off-colour joke is discriminatory.

Shush the footy yobbo booing Adam Goodes.

And for god’s sake, stop trying to tell us what we shouldn’t be offended by.

These sorts of conversations aren’t comfortable but ignoring racism won’t make it disappear.

Eliza Sum is social media editor at the Geelong Advertiser.

Twitter: @ElizaSum