When I did start, and encountered many of the same issues I was warned about, there were a handful of older, experienced colleagues from non-white backgrounds who did their best to help the rest of us out. One of those was Stan Grant.

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Grant had a reputation for going out of his way to acknowledge those of us who felt deeply out of place at the ABC. Sometimes the support was just a simple gesture – a nod or a wink whenever he encountered one of us in the halls or in the lobby. It was his way of saying: “I see you, I know what you’re dealing with, but don’t worry we’ll get through it.”

That’s not the reason why Grant’s decision to quit Q&A and withdraw from journalism is so heartbreaking, but it does add another dimension. If someone like Grant can’t do it, what hope do the rest of us have?

He is a Wiradjuri man who has experienced racism at a personal, societal and structural level since the day he was born. I can’t claim to have the same experiences as Grant, or any other Indigenous person. But parts of his statement explaining why he decided to step back felt uncomfortably familiar to me, and I know others in the media industry felt the same.

The racist abuse people like Grant regularly receive for doing their jobs is both appalling and unrelenting. It isn’t just on social media, it comes to us via emails, letters, in other media outlets and in person. It has driven many to be less vocal and less visible. It also hasn’t been taken seriously enough by those in charge, particularly at the ABC – which was the most damning part of Grant’s statement.

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He described what has happened to him, and the organisation’s inability to adequately support him, as an “institutional failure”, saying: “I am writing this because no one at the ABC ... has uttered one word of public support. Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me.”

It might not be obvious to the average audience member, but there is a stark difference in how the ABC publicly defends some of its journalists compared to others, and this difference regularly cleaves on racial lines. The ABC benefits from having journalists with Grant’s background to offer their perspective on issues like the monarchy, a topic that has driven the recent wave of hate he has received. The bare minimum someone like Grant should receive in return is a full-throated defence. Too often the ABC seems reluctant to do so, especially in the face of attacks from conservative politicians and the media.

But the issue Grant has so clinically and brutally identified is bigger than the ABC – every media organisation in Australia faces the same problems when it comes to race. It's also bigger than the media. There is a toxicity around race that resides deep within this country, infecting all of our institutions – the media, sport, arts, business and politics.

It’s why one of the greatest athletes the country has ever seen was forced to walk away from the game he loved. It’s why a promising young writer exiled herself from the country. And it’s why a Wiradjuri man is giving up the job he loves, all because a nation dominated by racial hate and resentment can’t handle his truths on the legacy of the crown and colonialism.

Grant’s piercing words should be a wake-up call, but then again Australia has had so many and still seems content to slumber.

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