Racist attitudes,out‐groups and the Australian experience

Australia today is a culturally diverse nation with people from over 190 different countries claiming 300 different ancestries. But despite an official commitment to diversity, contemporary Australian society continues to experience tensions between multicultural policies and a legacy of Anglo privilege and cultural dominance. To assess this, the Challenging Racism Project conducted a national survey, commissioned by the Special Broadcasting Service, to gauge the nature and extent of racist attitudes and experience of racism across Australia during July–August 2015 and November 2015. Results show that sociodemographic characteristics show little contemporary relationship to racist attitudes. Age, once associated with “old” racist attitudes, is no longer significant. On the other hand, Anglo privilege is empirically linked to racism through notions of social dominance. We conclude that it is to the media, and to public discourse generally, to which future research attention, using critical discourse analysis, should turn in efforts to make Australia a fairer, more tolerant, multicultural society.     

Place‐defending and the denial of racism

This paper introduces the concept of place‐defending and articulates its implications for locality‐based social policy. Place‐defending is the protection of one's local area from unfavourable assessments, in this case of being labelled or perceived as a racist space. Place attachment and identifications with place are drivers of place‐defending. Person‐place relationships and their implications for locality‐based social policies have not yet received sufficient consideration in the literature—a significant oversight considering the current policy focus in Australia and the United Kingdom on locality‐based social policy. In this study of local anti‐racism in the Australian context, place‐defending involved the denial of racism and performances of place that reproduced the discourse of tolerance. Print media coverage of the release of national data on racism was analysed alongside a series of interviews with individuals working on anti‐racism at both local and state/federal levels. Four tools of place‐defending are discussed: direct action to defend place; spatial deflections; use of minority group members to discredit claims of racism; and critiques of those who make claims about racism. The tools of place‐defending operated to construct localities as places of tolerance, potentially undermining the case for anti‐racism.     

Breeders for Australia: A National Identity for Women?

Most commentaries on Australian racism assume that men and women are affected equally by racist behaviour. Yet, the evidence points to a close interconnection between white racism and sexism. In the male rhetoric of race, the oppression of women is an associated element that requires investigation. This paper explores that association and its relation to some of our ‘national priorities’.     

Pseudo-racism among Chicano(a), Asian and African Americans: implications of the black/white dichotomy

The black/white dichotomy in America has dictated conventional concepts of racism. People of color are consistently portrayed as victim and the Euro mainstream as perpetrator. In fact, following years of Euro colonization and/or domination Chicano(a), Asian and African Americans act out racist behaviors. The result is pseudo-racism whereby those lighter-skinned assume the psychological demeanor of a dominant group. The reluctance of scholars to acknowledge its existence is reinforcing. Resolution will require that people of color confront and dialogue directly with one another about their role in the racist aftermath.     

Modern racism on campus: a survey of attitudes and perceptions

Contemporary society is beset with subtle racial tensions. Modern racism is a form of racism often found in modern, politically correct America. In this form of racism, racist beliefs are often expressed only indirectly. In the present paper, race differences in attitudes about and perceptions of racism were examined through the use of a survey. Results showed several differences in the way Blacks and Whites perceive race relations on a university campus. This information helps to gain insight into the causes of modern racial tensions. The results also suggest strategies to reduce racism on college campuses.     

Constructing Racism in Australia

There is a dearth of empirical evidence on the extent of racist attitudes, broadly defined, in Australia. A telephone survey of 5056 residents in Queensland and NSW examined attitudes to cultural difference, perceptions of the extent of racism, tolerance of specific groups, ideology of nation, perceptions of Anglo‐Celtic cultural privilege, and belief in racialism, racial separatism and racial hierarchy. The research was conducted within a social constructivist understanding of racisms. Racist attitudes are positively associated with age, non‐tertiary education, and to a slightly lesser extent with those who do not speak a language other than English, the Australia‐born, and with males. Anti‐Muslim sentiment is very strong, but there is also a persistence of some intolerance against Asian, Indigenous and Jewish Australians. Those who believe in racial hierarchy and separatism (old racisms) are a minority and are largely the same people who self‐identify as being prejudiced. The ‘new racisms’ of cultural intolerance, denial of Anglo‐privilege and narrow constructions of nation have a much stronger hold. Nonetheless, sociobiologically related understandings of race and nation remain linked to these new racisms. Narrow understandings of what constitutes a nation (and a community) are in tension with equally widely held liberal dispositions towards cultural diversity and dynamism. Encouragingly, most respondents recognise racism as a problem in Australian society and this is a solid basis for anti‐racism initiatives.     

Exposure to interpersonal racism and avoidance behaviours reported by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a disability

Using the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, this paper examines exposure to interpersonal racism and avoidance reported by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities. We find that in 2014–2015, 32 per cent of people aged 15–64 without a disability experienced racism compared with 42 per cent of those with a disability. Half of those living with an intellectual or psychological disability reported racism, and about 20 per cent of those with any disability avoided settings such as healthcare, education or the general public due to past instances of racism, relative to 11 per cent of those without a disability. After adjusting for confounding factors and complex survey design, presence of a disability was associated with a 1.6–1.8 odds increase in exposure to racism, more frequent racist exposure and avoidance. Disability was further associated with an approximate doubling of the odds of reporting multi-context avoidance and the likelihood of reporting both racism and avoidance in tandem. Severity of disability, higher numbers of disabling conditions and specific disability types were associated with increased odds of racism and avoidance. Independent of these effects, removal from one's natural family and identifying with homelands was strongly associated with racism and avoidance.     

Racism, Sexism, and Candidate Evaluations in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

In an attempt to understand the extent to which racism and sexism influenced affect toward Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, we analyze data from a national survey conducted in October 2008. Situating our investigation in previous examinations of modern racism and modern sexism, we test competing hypotheses about the role of these attitudes in the 2008 presidential election. Our results suggest that racism had a significant impact on candidate evaluations while sexism did not. We find that respondents who hold racist attitudes expressed negative attitudes toward Obama and positive attitudes toward Palin. When interacted with party identification, racism continued to exert a strong effect, indicating findings that are robust across partisan affiliations. Sexism, on the other hand, did not significantly influence evaluations of either Palin or Obama .     

The Advantages of Multilevel Approaches

Editors' introduction: Thomas F. Pettigrew was born and raised in tightlysegregated Richmond, Virginia in 1931. But his Scottish-immigrant family did not subscribe to the South's racist norms, and he identified with and had early positive contact with African Americans. As an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, he discovered that there was a discipline that studied and resisted racism. These formative experiences forged his career path in social psychology to study intergroup relations. As a student of Allport's, Pettigrew is widely recognized as having expanded personality-oriented perspectives on prejudice to include a more social, contextualized orientation ( Kimmel, 1986 ). In that same vein, he focuses his commentary on incorporating multiple levels of analysis as we integrate theory, research and practice on intergroup relations. He emphasizes the importance of macro-level—institutional and societal—contextualization of social psychological work. Pettigrew thoughtfully considers each article in the issue and contends that multiple level analyses, and incorporating the macro-level, are critical for theoretical and empirical progress as well as maximizing effectiveness of interventions .     

The differential gender effect of internalized racism on abdominal obesity in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

This research examined the effect of a psychosocial variable, internalized racism, on abdominal obesity, as measured by waist circumference. Results show that the effect of internalized racism on waist circumference persists net of other controls among women, but not among men. Also, among women who had high levels of internalized racism and high educational levels, a positive relationship to abdominal obesity is evident despite the tendency of education to be protective of abdominal obesity. This study supports other research findings that internalized racism is related to waist circumference among adult women but not among men in Western Hemisphere blacks. It also supports past research findings of a gendered reaction to psychosocial stress. It also illustrates that this relationship occurs on the continent of Africa, an area where research on this phenomenon is scarce.     

Bullying in secondary schools: through a discursive lens

Abstract

This paper analyses students’ constructions of bullying from a social constructionist perspective. Interviews were conducted with 24 students at a small semi-rural secondary school in New Zealand. These were taped, transcribed and a discourse analysis, informed by the work of Foucault, was carried out. It was found that students made sense of bullying by drawing on constructions that included bullying as a consequence of differences and as a form of discipline. These constructions had the effect of legitimizing the school's institutional power imbalance. This was supported by students and teachers who both played an active role in simultaneously enforcing, and being subjected to, the disciplinary technologies of normalization characterized by bullying. The goal of this research is to provide a critical focus to the political nature, power relations and ideological effects of these prevailing discourses that function to both create and support bullying behaviour in our schools.     

Splitting Difference: Psychoanalysis, Hatred and Exclusion

In this paper I will argue that the inclusion of certain aspects of psychoanalytic theory into sociological analysis can be particularly enlightening in specific areas of social research where traditional theory and practice have failed to explain phenomena satisfactorily. This is arguably the case in the explanation of hatred and exclusion, where powerful affective forces fuel racist discourse and support structures of discimination. This is not presented as an antithesis or critique of contemporary sociological methodologies, rather as an addition, a tool through which another dimension of exploration is added to give a greater understanding of conflict arising in social life. This paper seeks to reveal the affective forces that shape motivation in everyday life, influencing social structure and leading to the maltreatment of people because of their 'otherness'.     

Comparative Gerontolinguistics: Characterizing Discourses in Caring Institutions in South Africa and the United Kingdom

This article compares and contrasts the interactions between caregivers and care–recipients in two nursing homes in the United Kingdom and South Africa. It is argued that the discourse of caring in the two settings is similar in terms of how residents and nurses use interactional strategies to negotiate role relationships. It is also argued that it is the context of the "total" institution that gives rise to these strategies. Differences in the two settings are most noticeable in compliance–gaining situations. The "power struggle" between nurses and residents is much more overt in the South African data where it is reflected and constructed in racist discourse.     

实证、诠释与话语：以现代化研究为例

实证主义的“现代化”分析模式将“现代化”过程视为一种纯粹给定的、独立于社会成员个人主观意识之外的“客观性现实”,诠释学（或现象学）的“现代化”分析模式则将“现代化”过程视为一种由社会成员个人的主观意识建构出来的“主观性现实”;与它们都不同,多元话语分析学者则将“现代化”视为一种由社会成员在特定话语系统的约束和引导之下、借助于一些特定的话语策略而建构出来的“话语性现实”。与此相应,实证主义“现代化”分析模式的支持者们在对“现代化”过程进行研究时总是致力于探究支配着“现代化”过程形成和变化的“客观规律”,诠释学（或现象学）分析模式的支持者们则总是致力于考察导致“现代化”过程的那些个体行动及其行动者在从事这些行动时赋予其行动之上的那些主观意识,而多元话语分析学者们则主张致力于探讨人们将我们现在称为“现代化”的那种社会变迁过程建构为“现代化”过程的那些话语策略及其背后的话语系统（话语构成规则）。     

Conceptualizing and Theorizing About the Idea of a “Post‐Racial” Era

I critically examine the eliminativist theories of race or racism, and the behavioral theory of racism, which provide the theoretical foundation, respectively, for the nominalist and substantive conceptualizations of the idea of a post‐racial era. The eliminativist theories seek to eliminate the concepts of “race” or “racism” from our discourse. Such elimination indicates a nominalist sense of the idea of a post‐racial era. The behavioral theory of racism argues that racism must be manifested in obviously harmful actions. And because such harmful actions are not prevalent today, this implies that we are in a post‐racial era in a substantive sense. I conceptualize some subtle forms of racism that are prevalent today, which cannot be captured by the behavioral theory, but can best be captured by doxastic theories of racism. I conceptualize a substantive idea of a post‐racial era, and then argue based on such conceptualization, that we are not in a post‐racial era because subtle forms of racism are still prevalent today.     

‘Genuine’ refugees or illegitimate ‘boat people‘: Political constructions of asylum seekers and refugees in the Malaysia Deal debate

Immigration to Australia has long been the focus of negative political interest. In recent times, the proposal of exclusionary policies such as the Malaysia Deal in 2011 has fuelled further debate. In these debates, Federal politicians often describe asylum seekers and refugees as ‘illegal’, ‘queue jumpers’, and ‘boat people’. This article examines the political construction of asylum seekers and refugees during debates surrounding the Malaysia Deal in the Federal Parliament of Australia. Hansard parliamentary debates were analysed to identify the underlying themes and constructions that permeate political discourse about asylum seekers and refugees. We argue that asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat were constructed as threatening to Australia's national identity and border security, and were labelled as ‘illegitimate’. A dichotomous characterisation of legitimacy pervades the discourse about asylum seekers, with this group constructed either as legitimate humanitarian refugees or as illegitimate ‘boat arrivals’. Parliamentarians apply the label of legitimacy based on implicit criteria concerning the mode of arrival of asylum seekers, their respect for the so‐called ‘queue’, and their ability to pay to travel to Australia. These constructions result in the misrepresentation of asylum seekers as illegitimate, undermining their right to protection under Australia's laws and international obligations.     

The normalisation of income management in Australia: analysis of the parliamentary debates of 2007 and 2009–10

Initially introduced as part of Australia's Northern Territory Intervention in 2007, Income Management (IM) explicitly targeted inhabitants of remote NT Indigenous communities. IM is a form of welfare conditionality that involves compulsorily ‘quarantining’ at least half of individuals' social security income. It has been heavily criticised for being racist, discriminatory, and a violation of individual rights. The introduction of New Income Management (NIM) in 2010 extended IM beyond Indigenous communities and introduced a new set of eligibility criteria that shifted the focus of IM from Indigenous people to working age recipients of social security income. This in depth study of the early parliamentary debates on the compulsory IM programs traces the patterns of political discourse that led to IM coming to be seen by many policy makers as a normal and legitimate technique within Australian social policy. Situating the IM programs within neoliberal concerns about welfare dependency and active citizenship, this article argues that the introduction of NIM heralded a shift from a conception of IM as part of a focused social experiment targeted at remote Indigenous communities to a potentially mainstream social policy option.     

Hate Online: A Content Analysis of Extremist Internet Sites

Extremists, such as hate groups espousing racial supremacy or separation, have established an online presence. A content analysis of 157 extremist web sites selected through purposive sampling was conducted using two raters per site. The sample represented a variety of extremist groups and included both organized groups and sites maintained by apparently unaffiliated individuals. Among the findings were that the majority of sites contained external links to other extremist sites (including international sites), that roughly half the sites included multimedia content, and that half contained racist symbols. A third of the sites disavowed racism or hatred, yet one third contained material from supremacist literature. A small percentage of sites specifically urged violence. These and other findings suggest that the Internet may be an especially powerful tool for extremists as a means of reaching an international audience, recruiting members, linking diverse extremist groups, and allowing maximum image control.     

Grounding Constructions of Carers: Exploring the Experiences of Carers through a Grounded Approach

Social and political constructions of carers have been criticizedfor undervaluing the complexities of the experiences of carers.However, relatively little research has attempted to generatemore meaningful constructions of carers by drawing these considerationstogether. The purpose of this article is to begin addressingthis need. To accomplish this, the article is presented in twosections. First, an overview is provided on the current constructionsof carers and suggested considerations for research. Second,with this overview as its context, a study, taken from the author’sacademic dissertation, is presented. The study sets out to generatemore meaningful constructions of the caring experience througha grounded approach. The findings are based on a focus groupand interviews with fourteen carers in total. A diverse rangeof participants were involved, in order to generate categoriesthat would hold more relevance across caring experiences. Fourcommon categories for carers emerged, along with propertiesthat explained differences in experiences. The categories ofwhen carers start to care, circumstances change over time, justifyingthe use of support and using support are subsequently discussedin relation to current constructions, practice and policy.     

The South Australian Prohibition of Discrimination Act and Racism

The effectiveness of the South Australian Prohibition of Discrimination Act is examined with respect to its effect on individual and institutional racism. It is concluded that the act only deals with individual racism and not the less overt aspects of institutional racism; for example the latter still exists in poor standards of health, housing, and education. For a significant improvement in race relations in Australia there needs to be a wider guarantee against discrimination to cover both individual and institutional racism. It is suggested that the Australian government's Bill of Rights and Racial Discrimination Bill be examined in this light.