Week 5 WHAT IS RACISM
Week 5 WHAT IS RACISM
Submission Date: 4/9/2023
Student Name: Eunice Barlee
Student ID TCA2310957
Cultural identities refer to the individual identity of a group of people in sub-cultural or cultural categories. The cultural identities include religion, social class, gender, and sexuality. Australian culture is highly dominated by Western culture and is composed of Torres Strait Islanders, Aboriginals, and other Australian citizens (Gatwiri, 2021). The country has also witnessed the migration of several people having different cultural backgrounds.
I have heard that political leaders of Australia often express their views on the cultural diversity and multicultural credentials of the country. However, people have witnessed many negative attitudes toward people having different races and ethnic backgrounds. The country has several ethnic groups and people. The presence of discrimination in Australian culture with respect to culture and ethnic background is best reflected in their legal actions, practices, and laws (Elias, Mansouri & Paradies, 2021). The history of Australia bears many incidents of discrimination against ethnic and racial groups. The acts of racism in Australia have taken place since the time of British Colonization. At the time of colonization, white Christians shifted to other societies because they thought they were culturally and ethnically superior so they could take charge of culture, resources, and over the people. I have witnessed the sense of racial superiority has not gone fully from Australian culture (Carangio et al., 2021). A national survey has revealed that 11% of the respondents strongly agreed with the presence of racism in Australian culture whereas 26% neither agreed nor agreed.
The indigenous people of Australia have also faced several issues in terms of political freedom, availing social facilities, and freedom of economic activities. The history of Australia reveals that there is a strong presence of white racism in the culture of Australia that has committed many force removals, racial discrimination, and massacres (Gatwiri & Anderson, 2021). The main victims of white racism in Australia are the non-English people and the Aboriginals. Middle Eastern, Pacific Islanders and Hispanics have also witnessed racial discrimination. Many were forcibly removed from their land. Many indentured child laborers have been found from those races. Many incidents regarding child abuse have taken place among the Aboriginal people. I have found several incidents when I searched for the Aboriginal issues in Australia, where the Aboriginal people were unable to avail the facilities and resources available in the society, the children of the Aboriginal people were often removed from their schools and bullied by the teachers and their classmates.
Even now several incidents of racism are taking place in society and the media (Plater et al., 2020). The Aboriginal peoples face serious issues regarding their social rights, the removal of Aboriginal children from their mothers, and the rate of imprisonment. The condition of the young generation and the children of the aboriginal peoples are very pathetic in Australian society, They have suffered from verbal abuse where derogatory terms are often used for them and the females often suffer from physical abuse (Lentin, 2020). However, I have noticed some improvements. Australian federal government has amended its laws and democratically placed aboriginal people in the parliament to voice their demands.
References
Carangio, V., Farquharson, K., Bertone, S., & Rajendran, D. (2021). Racism and White privilege: highly skilled immigrant women workers in Australia. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(1), 77-96. Retrieved from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01419870.2020.1722195Elias, A., Mansouri, F., & Paradies, Y. (2021). Racism in Australia today. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Qamar-Jafri/publication/361113315_Racism_in_Australia_Today/links/63bb7eeb03aad5368e765978/Racism-in-Australia-Today.pdfGatwiri, K. (2021). Racial microaggressions at work: Reflections from Black African professionals in Australia. The British Journal of Social Work, 51(2), 655-672. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa145Gatwiri, K., & Anderson, L. (2021). Parenting Black children in White spaces: Skilled African migrants reflect on their parenting experiences in Australia. Child & Family Social Work, 26(1), 153-162. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12799Lentin, A. (2020). Looking as white: anti-racism apps, appearance and racialized embodiment. In Whiteness and Nationalism (pp. 114-130). Routledge. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2019.1590026Plater, S., Mooney-Somers, J., Barclay, L., & Boulton, J. (2020). Hitting the white ceiling: Structural racism and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university graduates. Journal of Sociology, 56(3), 487-504. Retrieved from: https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/20723/Pre_Print%20JOS859656.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y
