Online hate is not always easy to spot. Sometimes it hides behind slang or words that sound harmless but are deeply hurtful to the people they target. This briefing looks at a pattern of racism aimed at African Australians using terms like “licorice stick” in comments on social media.

You often see these words under news stories about crimes. Instead of focusing on what happened, some people use the chance to villainise all African Australians. They do not use obvious slurs. Instead, they use nicknames, jokes, or dogwhistles that mock people because of their skin colour. The meaning of these words may not be immediately obvious to everyone, but the damage they can cause is very real.

Even more worrying, social media platforms often miss these comments. Because the words are not on their flagged lists, or because the insults are subtle, the comments often stay online and avoid being taken down. Meanwhile, the African Australians who see them feel targeted and unwelcome in places that should be safe for everyone. Additionally, Australians of all walks of life are denied the chance to live in an inclusive society. 

This report shares real examples, explains why this kind of racism matters, and offers practical ideas for platforms, governments, and communities to respond. It is a reminder that hate can be hidden, but it still causes real harm, and we all have a part to play in speaking up.

Examples: 

Online hate speech changes over time. When people know certain words will get taken down, they start using sneaky or coded language instead. This makes it harder for automated tools and moderators to spot hateful messages, and allows users to remain on the platform without being banned.

The phrase “licorice stick” is one of these sneaky terms. It is used mainly in comments on crime stories involving African Australians, particularly South Sudanese Australians. It is a racial slur that targets a group based on their skin colour.

People use “licorice stick” not to describe individuals but to blame whole communities. They identify people based on shared characteristics like skin colour, and thereby link all African Australians with crime. This kind of talk demonises the African Australian community and makes it harder for everyone to feel safe and respected.

Social media platforms often do not catch these comments because they rely on lists of well-known slurs or exact matches. “Licorice stick” is too new, or context dependent, to trigger those systems. That leaves the comments up, where lots of people can see them.

Here are some real examples of how “licorice stick” is used in online comments about crime in Melbourne and nearby areas. Many users use the term to imply that there is an ongoing and persistent problem with crime amongst African Australians. Under news stories about crimes on Facebook, the following two users write “Another licorice stick” and “Licorice sticks again?”. These comments react to a story about individuals by implying there is a problem about a group as a whole, thereby villainising the African Australian community. 

Some Facebook commenters use the slur on posts that have no obvious relation to the African Australian community. For example, the following comment is in response to a crime story that gives no indication about the race or ethnic background of the perpetrators. Despite this, a user writes “Licorice sticks for sure”. This demonstrates that those who use this slur buy into negative stereotypes about an entire community, which is then applied indiscriminately to news stories about crime.

The following highly rated comment is taken from a news story about white supremacists occupying a shopping centre in Australia, which the news platform describes as “sickening”. The first user diverts attention away from this story, asking about when “licorice sticks with their machetes descended on shopping centre a few days ago”. This is an attempt to villainise the African Australian community on a post that is completely unrelated to them. 

The following series of comments are all taken from the same recent comment section of a news channel’s Facebook post about a crime in Australia. At first, we can see the use of the “Locorice stick” slur, as well as a user who writes “Usual Allsorts????”. This latter comment is in reference to Licorice Allsorts, and demonstrates how quickly racist language can evolve, posing a challenge for automated moderating systems to keep up. 

Other users in the comment section employ different slurs and dogwhistles to express hate without being banned. One user asks “Tall & skinny again?”, to which another replies “you can say black c-nts again”. Another writes “Sudos again of course”, with “Sudos” being short for Sundanese. 

Finally, in these last comments we see a shift from the casual use of racist language to incitement to violence. One user writes that the crime is “Nothing a bullet to the head or death in custody couldn’t fix”. Another one writes that “we need vigilantes to hunt them down n Say Goodbye”. In response, another user agrees but argues that “you’ll have to take out their whole family”, because the family is likely to defend their son’s behaviour. In the last user’s comment, we see the potential impact of using generalised racial slurs when attacking the perpetrators of crime. The suggestion of violence towards the individual perpetrator is not deemed sufficient, and is replaced with a recommendation that an entire family be targeted because of stereotypical views about how members of that group behaves. 

Conclusion: 

These comments show how people use coded language to spread racist ideas. They blame all African Australians for crimes committed by individuals. Despite some being reported, these comments mostly stay online.

Social media platforms like Facebook use automated tools and user reports to find and remove hateful content. These tools can work well for clear, known insults but struggle with new slang like “licorice stick.” Often, when users report these comments, the platform says they do not break the rules. This leaves the harmful messages visible, which can hurt people and encourage others to say similar things.

The internet is a public place in which we all spend an increasing amount of our daily lives. African Australians are exposed to these comments which vilify their entire community.

The people exposed to and targeted by these kinds of comments aren’t just the ones in the news stories. They’re not the ones accused of crimes. They are regular people — African Australians going about their daily lives. Parents doing the school run. Teenagers catching the train to TAFE. Nurses finishing night shifts. Grandparents walking to the shops. The use of the phrase “licorice stick” in response to crime stories paints all these people with the same brush. It sends the message: “You’re all the same. You’re all to blame.” It implies that African Australians are a danger to, and are not welcome in, Australian society.

These comments do not stay locked behind screens. They strip away people’s dignity and dehumanises them. And once someone is seen as less than human, it becomes easier for others to accept cruelty or even justify violence. Off-hand racist jokes can soften the ground for more genuinely extremist ideas, which can spill into real-world danger. This is how prejudice spreads. It starts with a joke or a nickname. It turns into a pattern. And before long, it’s normalised — until someone speaks up, or until something terrible happens.

To tackle this, we suggest:

• Platforms update their rules to include hidden slurs like “licorice stick” as hate speech
• Platforms employ better moderation practices that are sensitive to the constantly evolving nature of hate-speech. 
• Platforms be more open about how often these comments are removed and why.
• News organisations train their social media account moderators to spot the meaning behind words, not just the words themselves.
• Governments making clearer rules about coded hate speech online.
• Governments run public campaigns to explain why coded racism hurts and how to call it out.
• Platforms and governments work with community groups to keep track of new slang and trends.