Australia, we need to talk.

Having spent the majority of the years following my 18th birthday as a foreigner in one place or another, my identity has strongly been tied into my nationality.

Cries of ‘Oi, Aussie’ across a crowded living room, bar or dance floor are as commonplace to me as a being asked if we have kangaroos running rampant across the country.

During the entire time I’ve spent as a would-be vagabond, there’s always been a great pride factor for me in being able to puff my chest out and proclaim, ‘yeah mate, I’m from Australia.’

However, after today sitting – or more accurately, staring – at my laptop in awe, watching the now-viral video depicting a motley crew of pathetic public transport travellers abusing an unseen French woman on the same bus, I don’t think I could tell anyone I meet from hereon in that they have to add Australia to their list of future destinations.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Australia. Vegemite, Carlton Draught, Barbeque Shapes, Coopers Pale Ale and all that.

But, despite my great pride in being able to call Australia home, that doesn’t render me oblivious to some of the problems crippling the country.

The sort of racist behaviour displayed in the instance in question is indicative of the sort of issue that keeps Australia rooted in the past.

Let’s re-visit what happens in the video.

A group of would-be heroes take turns in confronting the French woman, with their uninformed gums flapping in the late-night Melbourne air, hurling abuse and even death threats at the woman. All because she had the unadulterated gall to sing a song in a foreign tongue.

Ok, obviously there are a few things we need to unpack here.

First point, if hearing someone sing in a foreign language drives us Aussies into such a frenzy, someone should immediately call Pitbull’s people and tell him to cancel his next Australian tour. The eternally sunglassed Florida native wouldn’t make it out of Rod Laver Arena alive.

But, all jokes aside, this sort of situation shouldn’t be allowed to stand in any way shape or form. Some quick thinking fellow patron happened to record the unfortunate series of events, meaning that thanks to the beauty of social networking and YouTube, it’s public record.

And, let’s face it, if they can pick out the face of some drunk Collingwood fan who clocks the equally intoxicated Essendon bloke next to the amongst 80,000 people at the ‘G, then they can sure figure out exactly who these dropkicks are.

Each person seen to make an overt threat to the safety of the group of melody-filled tourists on the bus that night should be charged with assault. Their actions are enough to make me long for the days we couldn’t thrown them stocks and we could make a public spectacle out of their bone-headed behaviour.

However it may be, an example needs to be made of these racial idiots.

But, here’s the thing: racism like this is not an isolated incident in Australia.

For a country that outwardly takes great pride in being an all-inclusive, diverse society, we sure are pretty segregated in some ways.

We all know the high-profile examples: race riots in Cronulla, Indian students being assaulted and our ‘f**k off, we’re full’ attitude to refugees. However, racist occurrences like the aforementioned are moving further away from becoming the exception that proves the rule, and frighteningly becoming the rule itself.

One of the eye opening off shoots of having a father who’s a teacher and counselor in Melbourne’s north-west – an area where African migrants have recently settled in – is hearing the horror stories that he has to handle on an all too regular basis.

In the aftermath of this most recent incident, many people will still attest to the fact that Australia does not have a problem with racism. But the time for naïve ignorance has long passed and as a society we need to join together and forcibly pull our own collective heads out of the sand.

As they say, the first step to overcoming a problem is admitting there is one in the first place.

We need to admit to our racial issues, and then maybe one day, people will be free to sing in French in public.

Unless of course it’s during a Wallabies game.

Liam Quinn is a second-year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University and is currently on exchange at Michigan State University.  Follow him on Twitter: @liamquinn23