Racism

In the U.S. racism is considered something we as a country are "moving past" and have been moving away from since the 1960s. Occasionally, the mass media picks up on cases of excessive force or on going discrimination in certain parts of the country. It is usually passed off as some horrible isolated incident.
It is also usually portrayed as more prominent against African Americans: I think this is a social modern myth and that it is equally harmful against the Latino, Middle Eastern, Native American, and other ethnic communities that do not visually fit couched in the 1950s image of United States Citizen.
While racism may have become more subtle in the States it is still prevalent if you look for it.

Australia's geography, history, and current economics have lead to a mixing pot of people. However despite public events or policies like National "Sorry Day" or the apology to the Lost Generations different types of racism is still apparent. And it isn't just the comments and generalizations about Indigenous Australians that are made in jokes or in seriousness. It is also in actions.
There is also, in some places, a very anti-immigration sentiment targeted at those who look ethnically Asian.
My flatmate is Canadian and has Chinese heritage. She was in Cairns walking from a bus stop to pick up a car. It was about ten in the morning on a weekday and she encountered two young men coming out of a building. They began looking at her over their shoulder and speaking louder then was necessary to complain about "all the dirty Asians" immigrating to Australia and taking all the jobs. She said something to them to the effect of to stop and they were being very rude. One of the guys then proceeded to yell at her and to call her a "whore" and sling other gender and ethnically orientated insults at her. She walked away as quickly as possible and was obviously upset when she got the car dealership. The agent waiting to give her the keys to the car ect. asked her if she was ok and what had happened. She related her story and the first thing he said was "Were they Aboriginal?" as if that would excuse the behavior. The answer was "No, they were white."

Australia has a population just over 22 million people. And according to Australia.gov.au one out of four of Australians were born outside of Australia and many more are first or second generation citizens. So it seems odd that racism is so flagrant in Northern Queensland.

But, like in the States, attitudes take longer to change then policy.