Most people will be appalled by it, but the catalogue of complaints by leaders of Canberra's ethnic minority groups indicates racial abuse does occur. Some, though very far from most, resort to a racial slur or worse.

Racial insults are often fleeting, usually only heard by the target.

But the effect on the victim can be devastating. It changes the way they think about the world around them. They remember. Where they thought they were welcome, they now feel unwelcome.

The leaders who range across communities with backgrounds in China and east Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Africa say the pandemic has increased the number of incidents of abuse people face.

The police say they prosecute complaints with vigour. The difficulty is often that proof which is substantial enough to convince a jury can be difficult to obtain. A racial slur growled at a bus stop is easy to deny later.

The ACT's Human Rights Commission also says it takes complaints very seriously and does its utmost to reach out to communities and act on their behalf.

But the communities don't feel as though enough is being done. They feel as though they are forgotten, and that a problem they face is not being given enough weight.

But the task is not just one for organisations like the police or the commission. It is one for all of us. Racism only thrives when it is acceptable, so it is for all of us to indicate racism has no place in Canberra. Or anywhere else.

Canberra likes to think of itself as a tolerant society without deep divisions - and it is.

But small incidents do much damage. When a person of Chinese or Indian or Somali heritage is screamed at, the hurt to the victim lingers long after the the perpetrator has walked down the street.

We do not want sections of our community to feel they are second-class citizens.

According to the 2016 census, 32 per cent of the population of Canberra were born overseas, many of them in countries other than those in Europe. These are the people who are vulnerable to racism.

It would be a tragedy if these groups came to feel they were not wanted because others didn't speak up, for example, when incidents occur.

It is not a time for silence.

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