One in four Australians experiences some form of racism. (“The People of Australia”, AMAC, April 2010).
83% of Australians agree that there is racial prejudice in Australia (“Challenging Racism, The anti-racism research project”, Prof Kevin Dunn et al, October 2008).
In his discussion of different kinds of racism, Prof. Kevin Dunn includes amongst them that which protects “privilege” usually as perceived by the White establishment. The “quality of life” arguments of the current political debates around population are dangerously close to the privilege arguments of racism. Words such as conformity to “Australian” ways of life are being aired bravely. As Dunn points out, assimilationist positions are inherently anti-multicultural.
The fact is that all of the above positions and tensions are part of a multicultural society. As long as we do not enshrine any of such positions as policy, we can engage with these in our journey towards arriving at plurality, which is at the heart of multiculturalism. The problem is that population, asylum seekers and climate change have become vehicles of creating “otherness”, the “out- groups” as Dunn calls them, the dichotomy between the “hosts” with their privileges and entitlements, and the unwelcome guests who will strip then of these.
Teun A. van Dijk (“Elite Discourse and Racism”, Approaches to Discourse Poetics and Psychiatry edited by Iris M Zavala et al) discussed the impact of public discourses, in particular the media, upon affirming and propagating racism in the Netherlands and in Europe. The discussion resonates in the current Australian election discourses. Ethnic minorities are rendered invisible and are being spoken about. They are rarely seen in the media and do not publicly respond to the many interpretations of them that are created on a daily basis by politicians and media commentators. The only way they can make themselves visible is to do something outrageous. This will only affirm the imagery of them as destructive and anti-social, thereby legitimising the public discourse of them as “out groups”.
Dunn draws our attention to the similarity of the “belonging” arguments to the ones used to “outgroup” Aboriginal Australians where they were stereotyped as alcoholics, welfare dependent and therefore failing to “assimilate”. He identifies most anti asylum seeker opinion as “anti- Muslim” sentiment. Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s article in The Age on Saturday 7 August did not even pretend to camouflage this association. She rationalised anti Muslim sentiment with a range of arguments including cultural suitability and host privilege.
Racist attitudes are influenced by a range of factors including education, experience of cross cultural interaction and socio economic status. It is thus more about perception than based on facts. A recent survey by Dr Katherine Betts found that residents of inner city areas were least against population growth compared to people who lived in regional Australia. Thus the desire for reducing the entry of foreigners is not based on the experience of congestion in which case one would expect that the inner city dwellers would be most opposed to a Big Australia. Such facts strike at the heart of the vacuity of the current scapegoating of foreigners.
We do need a bi-partisan approach to population growth. We do need to respond to the challenge of climate change. However racism is not the solution. What we most urgently need is a mature multicultural policy that will recognise the inevitable tensions of plurality and seek to find strategies by including these in strategies and interventions.
In my Foreword to the Population and Immigration issue of the Australian Mosaic, I pointed out that “in many instances immigrants are better prepared to demonstrate good environmental behaviour, having past experience in saving resources in harsh environmental or economic climates”. Perhaps the cultures that are arriving in Australia have something to teach us. They may offer us wisdom and knowledge to adapt our over consuming lifestyles to the new reality of the planet.
Like the planet’s new reality, there is a new racism as well. Scholars such as Dunn seem to describe new racism as a pseudo rational discourse that presents cultural differences as impossible to surmount, therefore giving permission for discussion about issues of conformity, suitability, conflict and negative effects on the existing privileges of the host populace. The insidious aspect of this discourse is that it can pit immigrant groups themselves against each other as if there were degrees of migrancy and belonging.
The accountability for lack of services, housing and infrastructure lies with the politicians and the government. It seems that since One Nation, racism has become mainstream in Australia and, as Rob White and Santina Perrone (“Racism, Ethnicity and Hate Crime”, Communal/Plural 2001) pointed out in their research on Melbourne youth gangs, it is now a taboo to call a racist a racist.
The continuum of the imperialist discourse from the engagement with our Indigenous Australians and now to the new migrants indicates that it is not the so called emerging new issues of resources, infrastructure and the like that is driving the debate. It is repackaged intolerance and racism wrapped in garish colours of environmental and humanistic concerns.
Human beings desperately throw their lives at the mercy of open seas to escape what must surely be worse than the dangers they face on their horrendous journeys. If indeed we are arguing about humanitarian and pro planet stands, about integrity of process and the like, it is baffling that our stance is “Stop the Boats” or “Protect our Quality of Life”, as if Australia has the capacity to decide its quality of life unrelated to the rest of the planet.
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Greece makes the final and Ireland gets in on a golden ticket. How awkward and embarrassing. Love it. #sbseurovision
The weird thing about #eurovision is you've got this massive collection of dorks in a room and no one is wearing Spock ears #sbseurovision
Europe has the large hadron collider which is light years ahead of its time and #eurovision, where the eighties never die
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
Mining money talks the loudest in Australian politics
When North Queensland Liberal MP George Christensen got the idea of launching a new political organisation…
Please enter your password
Help! I’ve succumbed to a crippling modern illness that can strike at any moment. Symptoms include:…
This concern for Thomson won’t change the script
Under pressure himself over his crusade against Craig Thomson, Tony Abbott has moved to present a softer…
Gentle jabs to the ribs
They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments
A private school girl’s family is sueing her elite, extremely expensive private school for not… Read more
Most commented