‘You’re not full blood, are you? Half? Quarter?’: Dr Kris Rallah-Baker’s fight against the racists
Australia's first Indigenous ophthalmologist has called out discriminatory attitudes to help clear the path for those coming behind him.
At various points in his life, Associate Professor Kris Rallah-Baker has faced and confronted racism, but it was an incident after qualifying as Australia’s first Indigenous ophthalmologist that shocked him.
He was at his practice in Noosa in Queensland back in July 2022 when an email arrived out of the blue from a GP he had never met.
The email read: “You are not full blood, are you? Half? Quarter? One [eighth]? Like a watered-down bottle of Grange. Not the real thing.
“I have attached two photos of what real Aboriginals look like just to remind you,” it continued. In the email, the doctor then started ranting about Closing the Gap policies.
