Six years ago, Mohamed Semra was among six Maribyrnong High School students evicted from the Highpoint Apple store after being racially profiled as thieves based on the colour of their skin.
The Sudan-born Maidstone resident, 22, has received Liberty Victoria’s Young Voltaire Human Rights Award for what he did after that.
The 2015 incident made international headlines after the encounter was filmed and made public.
“Me and my friends wanted to go and look at the new iPhone because it just got released,“ Mr Semra said.
“As soon as we were there, we were getting intimidated by the security. She thought that we were there to steal stuff and we were doing nothing wrong.
“They refused us entry and that’s when the manager came and we thought that the manager was going to be on our side.
“But without understanding the situation, without hearing anyone’s side of the story, that’s when he said what he said.“
An Apple staff member can be heard saying on film: “These guys [security guards] are just a bit worried about your presence in our store. They’re just worried you might steal something.“
Mr Semra said after the video went public, Apple chief executive Tim Cook apologised and ordered Apple staff around the world to be retrained, “which was pretty awesome“.
In 2019, Mr Semra founded a social enterprise called Endeavour Youth Australia, which has supported hundreds of young people to learn active citizenship and leadership skills.
“For the past few years after I graduated year 12 I have been involved in activism and with young people and running for council,“ he said.
“I’ve been big on trying to set a precedent for younger people, in particular in my community.
“I decided to stand for council because I wanted younger people from CALD [culturally and linguistically diverse] backgrounds to see someone in that position that looks like them, and them then believing that, OK, maybe this is something I can do as well.
“Through Endeavour Youth Australia, I wanted to identify and invest in the talent in our multicultural nation.
“I believe that through the creation of mentoring, opportunity, anyone can achieve great things. But the opportunity has to be there.“
Liberty Victoria president Julia Kretzenbacher said Mr Semra was an outstanding example of a young person actively working to further human rights.
“Mohamed’s work will ensure that we have future decision-makers that represent and reflect the people that they are serving,” she said.
