Public Submission: National Anti-Racism Partnership and Strategy
By
Human Rights and Security Cluster,
Research & Innovation Cluster Initiative, Strategic Research Partnerships,
University of South Australia, Innovation House, MAWSON LAKES SA
Contributors:
Professor Nicholas Procter,
Co-Convenor,
Human Rights and Security Research and Innovation Cluster,
Chair: Mental Health Nursing,
School of Nursing and Midwifery,
University of South Australia.
Dr. Peter Gale,
Member,
Human Rights Cluster,
David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education and Research,
University of South Australia.
Dr. Raymond Choo,
Member,
Human Rights and Security Research and Innovation Cluster,
School of Computer and Information Science
University of South Australia.
Dr. Tejaswini Patil,
Member,
Human Rights and Security Research and Innovation Cluster,
Research & Innovation Cluster Initiative, Strategic Research Partnerships,
University of South Australia.
Contact Person:
Lynette Kelly,
Program Leader,
Research & Innovation Cluster Initiative, Strategic Research Partnerships,
University of South Australia.
E: mail: Lynette.Kelly@unisa.edu.au
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Background Summary
This submission highlights the shifting nature of racism and proposes concentre solutions in
shaping anti-racism strategies.
Contextualising Racism
Racism is a contested sociological and political concept. The notions of what is considered racism
have undergone changes in the last three decades in many western contexts. The discussion is no
longer about the active discrimination of people based on colour, religion, gender or ethnic group
but notions of who belongs and who is excluded from the national imaginary. In other words,
mainstreaming of values, appropriation of national symbols are deployed to create cultural
distances between the ‘majority’ and ‘minority communities. This process of constructing the
‘other’ depends on highlighting the superiority of the values the majority community espouses.
People who do not posses mainstream values are portrayed as not part of the national imaginaryi.
The construction of this kind of prejudice is called cultural racism.
Cultural racism as an analytical tool of analysis became prominent in the 1970s in Western
Europe. It highlighted the covert ways in which people expressed prejudice against minorities.
Though most expressions of prejudice did not directly refer to a person’s skin colour or religion,
they highlighted the need to maintain and sustain dominant way of lifeii. For instance during the
Cronulla riots many protesters referred to Muslims as a threat to ‘Australian way of life’. These
expressions of prejudice were not restricted to the Cronulla riots. Studies have shown that people
from minority backgrounds are more vulnerable and at risk in terms of securing employment and
housing. Studies have demonstrated that migrants and refugees have difficulties in transferring
their skills from a non-English speaking background to the Australian context. Further to that,
students with migrant background are subject to more subtle forms of discrimination such as
lower teacher expectations and attitudes, biased curricula and being socialised into lower social
and educational expectationsiii. Based on various research studies it could be concluded that
cultural racism, despite being hidden needs to be addressed by various government agencies and
other stakeholders
Objective 1: Create awareness of racism and how it affects individuals and the
broader community
1. What can we learn from how Australia has dealt with racism in the past? What
achievements should we build on? What mistakes should we learn from?
 The Australian government’s initiative in abolishing the White Australia policy and
passing the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 to end structural racism was instrumental in
opening up opportunities for minority groups. Further strengthening these laws through
statutory protections for people being discriminated based on their color or race is important.
 Statutory protections don’t necessarily deal with covert forms of discrimination such as,
abuse of groups in public spaces, acquiring jobs/employment and access to housingiv.
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 Dealing with cultural prejudices which are expressed under the guise of free speech and
the maintenance of the ‘Australian way of life’ needs to be addressed through statutory and
non-statutory meansv.
2. What information would be useful to include in a campaign to prevent and reduce racism?
 Clear guidelines on what discrimination is and the legal implications of discriminatory
behavior.
 Identify and label cultural stereotypes as fundamentally racist in character.
3. How could we better acknowledge the contributions to Australia of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples and culturally and linguistically diverse communities?
 Create innovative public art that celebrates ‘place’ and local cultures. Provide
contemporary response to cultural and historical contexts by engaging with minority
communitiesvi.
Objective 2: Identify, promote and build on good practice initiatives to prevent and
reduce racism
4. What are the priority areas in which we should be addressing racism (for example:
employment, education, sport, the media, cyber-racism?)
 Various studies have shown that people from minority groups are more at risk of
discrimination, in terms of finding suitable employment, housing and access to other
community services.
 Another area of priority should be school education which can act as a mechanism for
teaching and establishing diverse and deeper understandings of minority groups in
Australia.
5. What measures should governments at all levels take to address racism?
 Set up an independent Ombudsman Office that is skilled and trained in dealing with
racism with varied levels of quasi-judicial powers to deal with matters relating to ethnic
and minority discriminationvii.
6. What role can business, the arts, sporting organisations, community groups, service
organisations and the media play in addressing racism?
 Businesses can use resources at their disposal to promote public campaigns and develop
multimedia platforms that promote and strengthen diversity. Strong, clearly targeted
advertised campaigns against anti-racism can be effectiveviii.
 Business can also work closely with key organisaitons and peak bodies to ensure overt and
subtle forms of racism are eliminated from the work place. Subtle forms of racist action can
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be expressed in a range of ways including
 Constant unjustified criticism or complaints;
 Threats to lose one’s job;
 Inconsistent and arbitrary enforcement of rules;
 Setting unreasonable expectations;
 Deliberately changing work arrangements in order to inconvenience and create
additional pressure to perform;
 Setting tasks that are unreasonable or impossible to control for; and
 Excessive scrutiny of work performance.
7. How can we involve young people in addressing racism?
 Provide funding for youth programs where members of ethnic and minority groups can
express themselves through music and art. This can further build into a multicultural club
that provides wider support for teenage or young people to participate in development and
educational programs. The anti-racism project for children and young people should involve
six stages of reducing racism. This involves challenging, understanding difference and forging
common grounds for shared valuesix.
8. What tools or resources do we have at the community level which could be better utilised in
the fight against racism?
 Acknowledging and addressing the problem new technologies such as blogs, facebook,
and other social media platforms pose to anti-racism. One of the strong recommendations
would be criminalising cyber-racism is the most effective way of addressing the tension
between free speech and democratic values of equality among citizensx.
9. How could these experiences be shared to help promote good practice? (For example: a best
practice website, clearing house, seeding funding for pilot programs, changing criteria for
Government grants programs?)
 Using various multimedia platforms such as websites, Facebook and twitter which
identify, label and educate people on racism.
 Providing funding for programmes that look at cultural attitudes or subtle forms of
racism. To promote a deeper understanding of the processes of cultural diversity, criteria for
government grants programs need to be revised.
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Objective 3: Empower communities and individuals to take action to prevent and
reduce racism and seek redress when it occurs
10. What strategies or approaches can be used to help individuals and communities who
experience racism to speak up or take action? If you have experienced racism, what would
have helped you to speak up or take action?
 Launching aggressive campaigns modelled on Violence against Women and Drink Driving
which challenges and confronts racist attitudes.
 Naming and labelling prejudices and stereotypes as forms of cultural racism.
 An independent Ombudsman or a commission that investigates cases surrounding racism.
11. What strategies or approaches can be used to help bystanders address racism where and
when it occurs?
Provide a hotline where people can report incidents of racism.
i
Goldberg, D 1990, Anatomy of racism, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Balibar, E 1991, Race, nation, class: ambiguous identities, eds. E Balibar & I Wallerstein, Verso,
London.
iii
Coll, G, Lamberty, G, Jenkins, R et al. 1996, ‘An integrative model for the study of developmental
competencies in minority children, Child Development, Vol. 67, pp.1891-1914.
iv
Sanson, A, Augoustinos, M, Gridley, H, Kyrios, M, Reser, J, Turner, C 1997 Racism and prejudice:
psychological perspectives, viewed May 01 2012, < http://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/RPracism.pdf>.
v
http://www.omi.wa.gov.au/resources/clearinghouse/Racism_and_fourth_estate_jonas.pdf
vi
Public Art Policy 2009, Public Art Policy, viewed on May 03, 2012,
<http://www.architecture.com.au/policy/media/Public_Art_Policy.pdf>.
vii
. Dunbar, Hadziomerovic, Henrard, Krisan, Olsen & Phillips 2004, Ombudsman institutions and
minority issues: a guide to good practice, European centre for minority issues: Bunddesministerium
des Innern, Berlin, <http://www.ecmi.de/uploads/tx_lfpubdb/Ombudsman_guide_English.pdf>.
viii
Pedersen, A, Walker, I, Rapley, M & Wise, A 2003, Anti-Racism-What works? An evaluation of
the effectiveness of anti-racism strategies, Centre for Social Change & Social equity, Murdoch
University, viewed on May 05 2012,
<http://www.multicultural.wa.gov.au/resources/clearinghouse/antiracism_what_works.pdf >.
ix
Lemos, G 2005, The Search for Tolerance, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, viewed on May 09
2012, < http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/1859352855.pdf>.
x
Jakubowicz, A 2012, ‘Free Speech, Democracy and New Media: Cyber racism’, viewed on May 09
2012, <http://andrewjakubowicz.com/publications/cyber-racism_freedom/>
ii
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