May 2012
Submission to the National Anti-Racism Partnership
& Strategy Discussion Paper
Challenging Racism: The Anti-Racism Research Project
Professor Kevin Dunn (University of Western Sydney)
Professor Hurriyet Babacan (Victoria University)
A/Professor Jim Forrest (Macquarie University)
A/Professor Yin Paradies (Deakin University)
A/Professor Anne Pedersen (Murdoch University)
Ms Jacqueline Nelson (University of Western Sydney)
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?
Better Leveraging from Strengths
Research by the Challenging Racism project reveals Australians hold many positive
attitudes about cultural diversity. For example, 87 per cent of Australians agree ‘It is a good
thing for society to be made up of people from different cultures’. Further, 84 per cent
dispute the idea of a racial hierarchy.1 The anti-racism strategy should seek to build on these
positive attitudes, and use them as part of campaigns to point out incongruencies between
these positive attitudes and racist behaviour.
Public Acknowledgment of Racism
Having said this, public acknowledgment that racism exists in Australia is a necessary first
step to addressing racism and must be part of an effective anti-racism strategy. Public
acknowledgement that racism exists in Australia is high: 84 per cent of Australian
respondents to the Challenging Racism survey acknowledged the existence of racism in
Australia.2 Acknowledgment of racism at a political level should be equally high; it shores up
the case for remedial anti-racism action at both a national and a local level.
2. What information would be useful to include in a campaign to prevent and reduce
racism?
Diversity among Groups
The need to examine diversity within groups relates strongly to an ‘everywhere different’
approach to framing effective anti-racism initiatives. The issue here is that ‘ethnic’ areas in
Australian cities in particular are not homogeneous. They represent a wide mix of different
ethnic groups, some of which are culturally distinct from the host (commonly seen as AngloCeltic) society, and others much less so. Nor are they static. Anti-racism campaigns should
1
2
http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/173635/NationalLevelFindingsV1.pdf
http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/173635/NationalLevelFindingsV1.pdf
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May 2012
depict the heterogeneity of Indigenous Australians and culturally and linguistically diverse
Australians.
Locally Appropriate Anti-Racism Campaigns
Research by the Challenging Racism Project has demonstrated the ‘everywhere different’
nature of racism.3 This literature contends that racism varies by place. If this is the case,
anti-racism programmes will be most effective when tailored to this local variation.
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?)
Institutional Anti-Racism
Addressing racism in key settings including institutions/organisations such as workplaces,
educational institutions and sporting organisations should be a priority. Action in these
settings should be undertaken with not only the goal of organisational change, but with the
goal of changing broader social norms.4
Cyber Racism
A good deal of commerce and culture has moved onto the internet, and so has racism,
including both organised racism and everyday racist discourse. The numbers of complaints
regarding internet based racism and racist vilification have been expanding in recent years,
and constitute a growing proportion of all such complaints. There are concerns that youth
are particularly exposed to racism within social media spaces and through Short Message
Services (SMS). There has been very little research on racism and anti-racism in internet,5
and too little policy consideration of anti-racism in this space. We do not know enough about
how racism is dealt with by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), how many complaints are
made, nor how anti-racism organisations and activists operate. ISPs (such as YouTube,
facebook and MySpace, etc) must be mandated to report on their current operating
procedures for handling complaints / reports. How are complaints triaged, and what
benchmarks are used to determine responses? There is a stated industry preference was
self-regulation of these matters, for non-reporting, and for adhoc tolerance-building
initiatives. These self-regulatory regimes are self-serving, non-transparent and ineffective.
There is an urgent need for proper reporting to the relevant government agencies (e.g.
3
Forrest, J. & Dunn, K. (2006). Racism and intolerance in Eastern Australia: A geographic
perspective. Australian Geographer, 37, 167-186.
Forrest, J., & Dunn, K. (2007). Constructing racism in Sydney, Australia’s largest EthniCity. Urban
Studies, 44, 699-721.
4 See Paradies, Y, Chandrakumar, L, Klocker, N, Frere, M, Webster, K, Burrell, M & McLean, P
(2009). Building on our strengths: a framework to reduce race-based discrimination and support
diversity in Victoria. Full report, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation.
Trenerry B, Franklin H, Paradies Y. 2011. Preventing race-based discrimination and supporting
cultural diversity, Creating Healthy Workplaces evidence review series. Victorian Health
Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), Carlton, Australia.
5 For an exception see, Douglas, K.M., McGarty, D., Bluic, A-M, Lala, G. (2005) “Understanding
Cyberhate: Social Competition and Social Creativity in Online White Supremacist Groups”, Social
Science Computer Review, 23(1), 68-76.
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May 2012
AHRC) of the number, nature and outcomes of all reports and complaints of racism within
these internet spaces. In this way the Australian Government can better meets international
reporting and recording responsibilities.
5. What measures should governments at all levels take to address racism?
State and Federal Level Leadership
Locality based anti-racism is a current policy focus in Australia, yet must be accompanied by
leadership and support. At this point in time Victoria and Queensland have state-based
locally oriented programmes in place: the Localities Embracing and Accepting Diversity
(LEAD) in Victoria, and the Local Area Multicultural Partnerships (LAMP) programme in
Queensland. This type of formalised state support for local anti-racism would be beneficial
across all states and territories as a means of providing support, leadership and resourcing
for local anti-racism projects.
Improved Measures and Reporting
 Access and Equity benchmarks to test for substantive equality
 Formal recording and reporting of racism as per ICERD requirements
6. What role can business, the arts, sporting organisations, community groups,
service organisations and the media play in addressing racism?
‘Micropublic’ is a term used to refer to local places of everyday interaction where
negotiations of difference commonly take place. Key micropublics include schools,
workplaces and sporting clubs. These spaces are politically important as they are sites
where intercultural interaction is most often worked out. We need to acknowledge that the
types of organisations listed here are important spaces of anti-racism. Organisations can
play a role by ensuring they have appropriate policies around recruitment and retention of
staff, staff training and accessible avenues for reporting and redress of racism that occurs in
the workplace.
7. How can we involve young people in addressing racism?
Research by the Challenging Racism Project suggests that two important venues for
involving young people in anti-racism should be:
 Cyber (and social media) anti-racism
 Schools, potentially including work on bystander anti-racism6
8. Can you give examples of strategies that you have seen used or been part of that
have been successful in preventing or reducing racism? Why were they effective?
We would like to highlight the importance of rigorous evaluation of anti-racism strategies and
suggest this should be considered a key component of the national anti-racism strategy.
Successful strategies are best identified via rigorous evaluations.7 When dealing with inter6
See: Greco T, Priest N, & Paradies Y (2010): Review of strategies and resources to address racebased discrimination and support diversity in schools. Victorian Heath Promotion Foundation
(VicHealth), Carlton, Australia.
7 See: Paradies, Y, Chandrakumar, L, Klocker, N, Frere, M, Webster, K, Burrell, M & McLean, P
(2009). Building on our strengths: a framework to reduce race-based discrimination and support
diversity in Victoria. Full report, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation.
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May 2012
personal anti-racism strategies, it is best to use past research as a guide otherwise the
intervention may backfire.8 Although very little research has been done using a “before and
after” evaluation, research finds that racist attitudes can be changed for the better with both
students9 and with older Australians in the community.10
A review looking at way to prevent race-based discrimination in the workplace was
commissioned by VicHealth. This review describes a range of possible interventions that are
used in the workplace and reviews evidence of the effectiveness of cultural diversity training
and measures to encourage cross-cultural contact in the workplace.11
10. 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?)
A Clearing House of resources around racism and anti-racism would be useful. An excellent
example of one that is run by A/Professor Anne Pedersen at Murdoch University is the
Prejudice Mob: http://www.psychology.murdoch.edu.au/prejudice.html
Objective 3: Empower communities and individuals to take action to prevent and
reduce racism and seek redress when it occurs
Virtues of speaking up and out
Given the everyday nature of much racism, action by ordinary people, especially those who
witness racism, could play an important role in anti-racism. Everyday action by ordinary
people has the potential to unsettle normalised, but potentially problematic, occurrences.
Everyday action may benefit not only those targeted by racism, but also perpetrators and
bystanders themselves.12 Assertive responding to racism, or speaking up and out, has been
shown to stop racist behaviour at the moment of confrontation, and also over the longer
term.13 Everyday action has the potential to impact on social norms. Public condemnation of
Pedersen A, Walker I, Paradies Y, Guerin B. (2011). How to cook rice: Ingredients for teaching antiprejudice. Australian Psychologist 46: 55-63
Trenerry B, Franklin H, Paradies Y. 2011. Preventing race-based discrimination and supporting
cultural diversity, Creating Healthy Workplaces evidence review series. Victorian Health
Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), Carlton, Australia.
8 Pedersen, A., Walker, I., Paradies, Y., & Guerin, B. (2011). How to cook rice: Ingredients for
teaching anti-prejudice. The Australian Psychologist, 46, 55-63.
9
Pedersen, A., Paradies, Y., Hartley, L. & Dunn (2011). Bystander anti-prejudice: Cross-cultural
education, links with positivity towards cultural “outgroups” and preparedness to speak out.
Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, 5, 19-30.
10
Hartley, L.K., Pedersen, A., & Dandy, J. (2012). Attitudes towards asylum seekers: An evaluation
of a mature-aged community education programme.
11 VicHealth 2012, Preventing race-based discrimination and supporting cultural diversity in the
workplace (An evidence review: summary report), Victorian Health Promotion Foundation,
Melbourne, Australia.
12 Nelson, J. K., Dunn, K. M., & Paradies, Y. (2011). Bystander anti-racism: A review of the literature.
Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 11(1), 263-284.
Hyers, L. (2007). Resisting prejudice every day: Exploring women’s assertive responses to anti-Black
racism, Anti-Semitism, heterosexism, and sexism. Sex Roles, 56(1), 1-12.
13 Czopp, A. M., & Monteith, M. J. (2003). Confronting prejudice (literally): Reactions to confrontations
of racial and gender bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(4), 532-544.
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May 2012
racism by ordinary individuals can overcome what social psychologists call ‘false consensus
effects’, which result from individuals overestimating general community support for their
racist views.14
Bystander / pro-social action: Enablers, barriers, tips for action
Bystander anti-racism can be thought of as action taken by ‘ordinary’ people in response to
interpersonal or systemic racism. Developing individuals capacity to engage in this form of
anti-racism has been largely absent from government policy in Australia, yet bystander antiracism has the potential to stop racism at the time it occurs; prevent the physical,
psychological and social harms that are associated with racism; and, importantly, build social
norms that are intolerant of racism. Research suggests that bystander anti-racism behaviour
can be successfully taught.15 Bystander anti-racism is politically significant in developing
effective approaches that shift the burden of anti-racism away from targets.
Research has identified a number of factors that either facilitate or constrain bystander antiracism. A full list is provided in Table 1 overleaf. Obstacles to bystander anti-racism include
a lack of identification between a bystander and the person targeted by racism; and
perceptions of risk, both to personal safety and social status. Enablers include factors such
as an awareness of the harm caused by racism; empathy for the target; and a sense of
personal responsibility for acting.
Hyers, L. (2010). Alternatives to silence in face-to-face encounters with everyday heterosexism:
Activism on the interpersonal front. Journal of Homosexuality, 57, 539-565
14 Pedersen, A., Walker, I., Paradies, Y., & Guerin, B. (2011). How to cook rice: A review of
ingredients for teaching anti-prejudice. Australian Psychologist, 46(1), 55-63.
Watt, S. E., & Larkin, C. (2010). Prejudiced people perceive more community support for their views:
The role of own, media, and peer attitudes in perceived consensus. Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 40(3), 710-731.
15 Pedersen, A., Paradies, Y., Hartley, L. & Dunn (2011). Bystander anti-prejudice: Cross-cultural
education, links with positivity towards cultural “outgroups” and preparedness to speak out.
Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, 5, 19-30.
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May 2012
Table 1: Potential Enablers and Obstacles to Bystander Action16
Enablers of bystander action
Knowledge of what constitutes racism
Awareness of harm caused by racism
Perception of responsibility to intervene
Perceived ability to intervene – skills (optimism, self/collective efficacy)
Desire to educate perpetrator
Affective responses to racism: empathy, expressing anger, disapproval etc.
Anti-racist social norms
Obstacles to bystander action
Exclusive group identity
Fear of violence or vilification, being targeted by perpetrator
Perception that action would be ineffective
Lack of knowledge about how to intervene
Gender role prescriptions for women
Impression management, preserving interpersonal relations
Desire to avoid conflict
Freedom of speech/anti-political correctness
Social norms that are tolerant of racism
16
Taken from: Nelson, J. K., Dunn, K. M., & Paradies, Y. (2011). Bystander anti-racism: A review of
the literature. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 11(1), 263-284.
6