Racial profiling for many is part of their daily life, say Australians of African background, particularly for young men.
A trend of media reports highlighting young offenders of African appearance has impacted many young peoples' ability to be in public spaces with the ease that most Australians would not think to question.
Joseph Wan, 25, was born to an Ethiopian mother and Sudanese father in a Kenyan refugee camp and moved with his family to Melbourne in 2004.
He is about to graduate with a nursing degree and has been offered graduate nursing jobs.
Mr Wan is also pursuing a career in acting has appeared in TV shows such as Neighbours and Mad As Hell.
Despite these successes, it's the daily activities of shopping or taking public transport that make him unsure about his prospects in this country.
'I avoid going to the shops a lot because of the general aspect of being profiled,' he tells AAP.
Joseph Wan, 25, was born to an Ethiopian mother and Sudanese father in a Kenyan refugee camp and moved with his family to Melbourne in 2004
Security guards single him out.
'When I go (to the shops) now, it's just in and out. It's limiting. Being somewhere like that makes me feel uncomfortable.'
He feels it on the train when people clutch their bags if he sits next to them, or if he enters an elevator.
'You'll have people yelling names while you're walking through public. You know it's targeted towards you but you'll just ignore it,' Mr Wan says.
'That has had a lot of impact on me just being able to travel and get around.'
It also influences what Mr Wan believes he can accomplish professionally.
'For someone like me trying go as high as I can, I'll be limited because of my background as I'm African in Australia,' he says.
'It doesn't work for people like me here, if you know what I mean. I'm not saying that's the case, I'm just saying that's what I feel is the case.'
He attributes the way many see him to the criminal behaviour of a small number of young people with a similar ethnic background.
'It's what the other youths are doing on the news that is making us look bad. We get profiled but we're not all like that,' Mr Wan says.
Since 2018, Mr Wan notices people are uncomfortable around him just because he is black
Back in 2018, as media reports in Melbourne about 'African gang crime' reached fever pitch, South Sudanese community leaders fronted news cameras alongside Victorian police to directly ask the public for calm and understanding.
Racial profiling of 'law abiding, innocent people' was mentioned at the time by Kot Monoah from the South Sudanese Community Association.
'We have a number of young people... racially profiled in the shopping centres, in the parks,' he says.
