Racism in Australia: Past, Present,

Racism in Australia: Past, Present, And Future

According to the group Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, residents of Townsville, Australia are so filled with racism that they claim they would even be unable to give racist defendants a fair trial. The group states that a recent survey found residents of the area would allow their racist biases to affect their beliefs about Aborigines in the courtroom, even if a judge told them that this was not proper courtroom conduct (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, n.d., para. 4). This is just one story of many that shows the strength of racism still alive in Australia today. Many others show that, despite an increasingly diverse population, attitudes toward Aborigines and other non-whites are still overwhelmingly negative. It is hard to believe that attitudes such as these can be so pervasive in a modern, industrialized society, but they continue to persist as remnants lingering from a racist past. Through an examination of why racism in Australia is a problem, causes and examples of racism in Australia, and suggestions for solving this problem, a better understanding of the situation of racism in Australia can be achieved.

The many situations in which racism has been used against Aborigines and other non-whites paint a picture of why racism in Australia is a major problem. The recent attacks on Indian students, the political positions of white supremacists, and the treatment of Aborigines in many public circumstances points out the harmful consequences that racism may have. The Australians for Native Title Reconciliation (n.d.) group discuss a situation in which members of a leadership organization, who also happened to be Aborigines, were asked to leave a resort because high-paying tourists expressed their fear of the group (para. 2). In an other circumstance, the Australians for Native Title Reconciliation (n.d.) notes that racism was responsible for a woman's failure to receive help in a medical emergency, in addition to a man's failure to be admitted into an establishment. Thus, racism is a problem in Australia because it affects the lives of those who are simply attempting to use their basic human rights to live and thrive. Racism impacts not only the ability of certain Australians to thrive, but also their ability to have their basic needs met. Further, racism is a problem because it creates a society in which certain people are valued over others not because of their merit, but simply because of the color of their skin.

This was the system under which Australia operated for quite some time. Haigh (2009) argues that, "Since the time of white settlement racism has been part of the weft and weave of [Australia]" (para. 10). White settlers first perceived the aboriginal people as a threat to the society that they were trying to build. White settlers did not see Aborigines as people, but rather as other living things to which one might pay little regard, like plants (Haigh, 2009, para. 11). This attitude continued, and Australia operated under a system of Apartheid, in which many atrocities were committed. Indeed, from 1910 through 1971, a great deal of Aboriginal children -- as many as one in ten -- were removed from their homes and sent into institutions so that they might be "civilized" by their immersion in white society (McCarthy, 2000, para. 2). This group of children, called the Stolen Generation, were stolen as a result of eugenic theories that suggested that Aboriginal children that were partly white could be assimilated into the white society. The same Australian leaders that implemented these policies expected the black population to eventually die out (McCarthy, 2000, para. 3). It was not until 1975 that laws were passed implementing equality and forbidding racism (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, n.d., para. 6).

According to Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (n.d.), "The Racial Discrimination Act (1975) makes it illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of their race, colour, descent or ethnic or national origin. It is unlawful to discriminate against someone when it prevents them from enjoying their human rights, such as employment, land/housing/accommodation, education, access to public places and facilities, access to goods and services (e.g. doctors, lawyers, applying for credit, entry to pubs, etc.)" (para. 6). Despite this piece of progressive legislation, it is clear that Australia's racist past has affected their political and social construction today. According the Shah (2004), an Australian nationalist party in Queensland won a significant portion of the vote by campaigning on the platform that non-whites should not be allowed to immigrate to Australia because of unemployment rates. This suggests that the racist attitudes installed by the former government are still felt quite prominently in Australia, although perhaps not many Australians express these views publicly, as the Queensland nationalist party does. In fact, Knox (2003) states that Australia has "few proud racists," stating that racist groups such as the Klan and the National Front are not in existence in Australia (para. 8). Unlike in the United States and other areas where racism is generally considered wrong, but racist groups generally herald their racism as correct in the face of adversity, many Australians claim that the racism prominent in that country is quiet and ashamed. Indeed Haigh (2009) writes that racism in Australia "is practiced with some guilt and in polite company circumspection" (para. 3). Thus, racism is not a cause like it is in the United States and other industrialized countries; it is an attitude, a lingering attitude from a country that continued to practice eugenics until the 1970s.

And this quite attitude may make racism in Australia even more dangerous than racism in other areas where fringe groups remain decidedly committed to their racist causes. Because racism is an underlying attitude, it is much easier for racist actions to occur, as people will simply fail to recognize them or to call them out as wrong. In addition, this attitude may make it difficult to affect lasting change in Australia, as the attitude has become a part of the value system that Australians call their own. It is these attitudes that have allowed Aborigines to be treated the way they are with little concern. In modern Australia, Aborigines are expected to live about 20 years less than their white counterparts. Aborigines are unemployed more frequently, have a higher infant mortality rate, and spend time in jail more than other Australians (Kim, 2007). This is made possible because of an attitude that allows Australians to see Aborigines as less important than they are, the same attitude adopted by white settlers when they first came to the continent. Thus, the condition of Aborigines in Australia today is directly related to the racist past of Australia, a past that encouraged Australians to engage in a quite, shamed racism rather than a blatant, militant one.