Was it rare during the apartheid in Australia ? Why should such a statement be retracted ? Racism in freemasonry has been well known about for a long time. If the country you reside in has no racial issues concerning freemasonry Great, but I dont believe it can be said for the rest of the world.
Not suggesting a retraction, just a qualification.. I always found it interesting because the traditional version of Prince Hall's initiation occurred in a lodge of traveling white guys.... segregation in Freemasonry in the states would not have occurred if the attitude of the white men who initiated Prince Hall was reflected in the larger American society or even American Freemasonry..
I dont think we can say apartheid was in Australia, being a South African system... but I understand where you are coming from. There were certainly places in Australia where segregation was practiced, but you just don't see large organisations like the Klan in Australia. I've actually tried to do a bit of work trying to find Australian Indigenous people in the Craft pre 1900. The task is difficult because they tended to be given fully westernised names. I cannot find any 19th Century First Australians as Freemasons.. but I am still looking. By far, the highest profile Australian Indigenous Freemason I am aware of is Sir Douglas Nicholls KCVO, OBE (1906-1988). He was Initiated Lodge Antoc in 1954 and a leader of National significance. 1954 was long before "multiculturalism" and a very conservative time in Australia (but conservatism is different from xenophobic, we've been through xenophobic times, probably most notably at several points between 1850-1900.. and WW1 & WW2),
Australia has a very mixed record on "race". We have the "stolen generation" where kids were removed from parents and placed into institutions and fostered by white parents. It's typical of westernised white people and institutions seeing people of other skin colours as inferior. We also had the "White Australia Policy" which made it hard for non-Brits to move here.. it used a language test.. We had anti-chinese race riots on the Gold Fields and also anti Chinese laws and special entry taxes for them. Chinese Freemasons are easier to track because they often kept their Chinese names. Mei Quong Tart (Mei Guangda) (1850–1903) was initiated in Lodge of Tranquility in 1885. He is one of several who were initiated prior to 1900, but even then "William Robert George Lee" who was initiated on 18 August 1890 was actually a Chinese man who had westernised his name.
I would say Freemasonry in Australia was a place where races did mix, but neither could I say it was a Utopia of racial harmony... but I would say the strongest and most wide spread prejudice in Australia was around Irish Catholicism, but even there, our first Privy Councillor, William Bede Dalley QC (1831-1888) was born to Irish Convicts and a Catholic (Initiated Lodge of Australia 1858). Class and race and colour just dont work in Australia of the 1800's exactly the same as in other parts of the world.. but while the most wide spread, it is without doubt our indigenous peoples who suffered the most due to racism, followed by the Chinese, but they also were the largest single immigrant non-british group in a place like Tasmania.
Its interesting stuff, but racisim in Freemasonry is generally a lot more subtle in the 1800's in other places and a lot more blatant in America. Indeed, several historians has suggested the British Empire often used Freemasonry as a link between occupied (India esp) local leaders and Empire by initiating locals of high standing.
India is a place where the Raj often had a sense of racial superiority, but some of the Q&As there are very interesting...
http://www.masonindia.in/index.php/faqs-on-indian-freemasonry/
It would make a great book.. one day I might write it...