Centre for Policy Development
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Are We a Racist Country? Let's Ask a Better Question
There was something about former Telstra CEO, Sol Trujillo that many Australians never warmed to: maybe it was his brash style or the fact his vision for Telstra was so far removed from what many of us thought it should be, that any goodwill quickly disappeared. His recent interview confirms he never quite clicked with Australia, and his view that Australia is a racist country confirms he never quite “got” us, or our humour. Or does it?
Let’s begin with considering what racism is: it is the conflation of social characteristics with biology that confirms and serves to perpetuate a hierarchy of privilege.
We’d like to think that Australians could criticize Trujillo’s poor management and rancid politics without resorting to his ethnicity or hanging off stereotypes – did it never occur to the cartoonists that depicting a person with a Latino name and background wearing a huge sombrero, riding a mule, might be as offensive as drawing a Jew with a huge nose and a pile of coins? But let’s face it - Sol Trujillo never suffered in his enjoyment of his fundamental human rights or freedoms while in Australia.
The ‘adios’ quip by the Prime Minister, confirms that stereotyping continues, and even when it is as harmless as Rudd’s ‘adios’, it shows a lack of leadership, and perhaps even interest, in the issue of racism – especially coming from our leaders.
Such issues of racial stereotyping - and the superficial debate it has sparked - distract us from addressing institutionalised racism and the privilege it entrenches in our society.
So are we a racist country? The answer is that race and race politics have always played a strong role in Australia: from the white Australia Policy, to Pauline Hanson, our treatment of asylum seekers to the continuing NT Intervention. Racism takes on a more sinister aspect when we consider the poor media coverage of recent events: the police response to the many attacks on International students from India and Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe further stereotyping of the students as vulnerable to attack because they were by nature quiet and passive people, the targetted violence simply reduced to "opportunistic activity"; and the fear and hatred of 'the other' that has fuelled arguments used by Camden residents to oppose an Islamic school in their town.
We need to reflect on how much does saying "adios" to a powerful CEO who has departed the country with millions really mean, when we continue to perpetuate the systemic disadvantage that affects International students, entire migrant communities that have lived here for years or many generations, and the communities who have been here for 100,000 years? Perhaps some better question to ask ourselves: How do we, as a society, continue combat the racism that exists? And what direction are we really heading in?
Comments
Children are born into this
Listen to animated cartoons, consider which characters get which accents. On ABC cartoons there are no Aboriginal accents or characters.
There are very few Aboriginals (and not enough women, either) in influential positions in our society.
"They bring it on themselves", as stupendous and ambiguous as it is, is all too commonly heard. Even my community nurse said it to me when I took my part Aboriginal son in for a check up. My new extended family (I have been "adopted" in typical Aboriginal style) accept as routine having to wait while white people are being served even though they were there first. They dont even talk about it unless I bring it up. Too many of the things I have heard said against Aboriginals are not worthy of repeating.
There does seem to be a common misconception that Aboriginals get more welfare benefits, and much jealously results.
I suspect that prejudism gives insecure people some feeling of superiority and belief in thier own worthiness to privelige.
It is a tradgedy that Aboriginal children are born a marginalised minority in thier own country. It is devastating that children are born with widespread hatred against them.
I am proud to be the mother of an Aboriginal, because it shows that I do not have the ignorant and disgraceful views held by so many in this nation founded on "Terra Nullis", and because I am proud of my son.
We do need to ask a better
We do need to ask a better question; to say that a country is racist, is predjudiced. Not everyone conforms. Sadly, I have found there is a lot of racism in Australia. I do not understand why the topic gets so many of the white majority so upset, perhaps it is guilt. Thus, guilt makes them lash out and make matters worse. Many seem to enjoy having someone to put down as if it somehow made them better. My baby is part Aboriginal, his Aboriginal Grandmother, an utterly wonderful woman, gets followed by security guards when she goes shopping. I live in the same town but this has never happened to me. My new Aboriginal family are wonderful, loving, honest and supportive people and they have welcomed me into thier family (although I was a stranger even to my babys father), my baby and I are very lucky to have them. I wont go into all the racist comments I have heard from white people since I became pregnant, but it is heartbreaking to know that my boy will have to grow up with all of this bad attitude against him before he even opens his mouth. I hope that things will continue to change.
Another relation of my son was working as a security guard in one of this countrys "detention centres", he quit because he was so appalled by the way these desperate people were treated. This is the "Lucky Country" financially, moreso than ever. Australia came in at number 5 out of 179 countries in the Human Development Reports by the UNDP 2008. The same report states, "With 15% of the world's population, rich countries account for almost half of annual global emmissions of CO2". Tuvalu, our neighbour in the Pacific, is being washed away by the rising ocean, but they were turned away. Australia has released only a fraction of the climate change aid promised. Most refugees are young families and Australia has an aging population problem. If we get beyond racism, does this not add up to a logical solution?
Are We a Racist Country? Let's Ask a Better Question
So many presumptions. So little comprehension of the international cross-cultural interface. And no understanding of essential human rights.
How out of touch with reality can one be than to suggest that wealthy foreigners have the right to the Australian education system, paid for by Australian taxpayers, to the disadvantage of Australian students? These high-floating streams of logic need hauling back to earth.
First, there is this presumption that Australians inspired and then embraced the Policy of Multiculturalism.
Australians were never consulted. There was no referendum. There was no electoral mandate. This was imposed by an undemocratic and unaccountable United Nations, and the then, for whatever reason, politicians went along with it.
We Australians did not particularly want more migrants, and if some were required to cover urgent skills deficits (which no one in the suburbs believed existed), then they should be of cultures that are compatible with Australian culture. This is not racist... it is anthropologically sound and straight out common sense. As Shakespeare said 'when in Rome...'
Secondly, who says you have to like every race or culture? Who has the right to say how we should think or speak? Who should make the rules?
There is a simple answer: the people of Australia. This is our country and we will decide what is right and what is wrong. This is what democracy means, and we will have to reinstate electoral consensus to return debate to the people where it belongs.
And as for the multiculturalists, I was required to host the first multicultural committee when it came to Darwin to advise Territorians on how to deal with cultures; which was a joke considering we then shared our town with 76 different cultures, with no tensions whatsoever, and our visitors were monolingual urbanites who were utterly uncomprehending of what the word culture meant.
Quite rightly, we sent them home with a flea in their ear. I would like to do the same to migrants who tell us how to live in our own country.
What is running through the minds of many Australians right now is the question, will we soon be required to actually fight to reinstall democracy?
Electing a preselected, preowned politician to do our thinking for us is an abrogation of self-determination; but imposing informed electoral consensus on government is democracy.
The old racist thing
James and Antoinette
Thank you for your thought piece. I don't think the cases you hold out as examples of potential racism are served by being muddled together. You are asking whether we are a racist country right? Well Australians were surveyed on many of these case items you present.
Our Prime minister was elected by more than half of Australia - but that doesn't mean we agree with his "adios" to sol Trujillo, I am guessing here, but I think most people would say 'good riddance' at his departure though.
Secondly Pauline Hanson supporters were always a minority, check the election results.
Thirdly the White Australia policy, however shameful, is from a time when rather more irksome policies existed in the majority of 'civilised' nations. The fact is it was changed, like the detentions centres.
The majority of Australians stated in a number of surveys they didn't agree with mandatory detention, moreover our current government was elected by Australians wanting an end to this and the intervention. It seems that it is harder to end the intervention than the majority of Australians thought; I reckon we thought if you said 'sorry' meant we were going to be "doing sorry" too.
With relation to the Indian students, we don't have any hard data but maybe the better question should be directed to the Indian press is,
"ARE MY CRIMINALS ARE BETTER THAN YOURS?" Remember the supposed racism that is occurring is being brought about by criminals that do not care for the law, policy or whether all of Australia will be affected by their actions. They are selfish, opportunistic, and dangerous individuals that do not, as far as we know, report to any organisation. As far as we know they are not hired by law enforcement nor are there are any policies of turning a blind eye to any particular crime targets.
So for this case maybe we need to ask, "are Australia’s violent thieving thugs racist?" It would make a good survey, though I think it may be confounded by “socially desirable responding bias”, which would be where the hard crims would think it is cool to be rascist and maybe not answer the questions truthfully. Even if we get good data are we wouldn't we then need to compare our results with other countries to have any idea what the data meant?
So given that is the case, maybe the question should be, "why are we over-reacting to the racist tag being applied to us?" My guess is it because we are damaged by our colonial history where immensely violent racial acts occurred when early immigrants thought they were taming the savage land called Australia in the name of King and country. We know we didn’t do it personally, but we also know we have not really done enough in our lifetime for indigenous people that have continued to suffer from those earlier and continuing ignorant acts.
So maybe a better question would be to ask "how do we deal with it?"
The answer with regard to the indian student thing, is don’t get drawn into it - the rancorous students and press are NOT calling us all 'violent thieving thugs', which is what is actually occurring, the unfortunate students are being beaten, stabbed and robbed, by to call us all criminals would be too easy to knock down as flawed logic - 'transferring the evidence of the particular onto the whole'. But call us racist, well… then we are getting those old guilt-buttons pushed. We have to let it go.
After all, to answer a racist slur we would have to say something as silly as "Australia's thieving thugs aren't racist, they'll do anyone in" and have the research to back it up.
With regard to long term however, lets make a better effort for indigenous Australians so those buttons are so easily prodded.
Adios a kindness
I found Trujillo's comments a sad confirmation of the shallowness of his vision. This is a man who managed to oppose unsuccessfully two democratically elected governments, lost billions of dollars of Australian shareholder's money and restricted development of Australia's communication network. I think that the "adios" was a kindness in preference to the "good riddance" that Rudd was probably thinking.
Overall, I do not believe that our society is racist. Many of our residents are - but the society, no.