Is Australia a Racist Country? Here is my answer

Responding to the recent criticism and debate surrounding comments made by high-profile political journalist Laura Tingle, that Australia is a racist country, prompted editors of The Conversation to ask me, along with four other experts: Is Australia fundamentally a racist country?

Here’s what I had to say:

We do have a serious racism problem in Australia, inducing systemic, institutional racism. To characterise the whole country as racist, however, is problematic on a number of other fronts.

First, this characterisation does not reflect the subtle and nuanced ways in which racism actually manifests in everyday experiences.

Second, if you apply this generalised statement, you are assuming the whole system of governance, all the institutions, all the interpersonal practices, the educational system, the judiciary – everything is explicitly and deliberately motivated by discrimination. And I don’t think you can say that about Australia.

For example, most universities have a charter on diversity and inclusion. So, system-wise, in terms of mission statements and values, they tick all the boxes. The problem in Australia is we just stop at ticking the boxes and we don’t follow up with the capacity to measure the impact of certain policies or interventions. We don’t take the reviewing or evaluation of policies seriously.

This is why there’s still a big problem with racism in every area, from health care to education to sports.

What frustrates me is there’s a lack of nuance on this subject. Racism is very subtle, it’s very difficult to prosecute at times, but it is there. And this is because we haven’t gone deep enough in terms of reforms or addressing the historical legacies of racism.

We just recently published a comprehensive report where we surveyed 32 studies that look at racism in Australia. We looked at all the evidence and there is no doubt that racism hasn’t gone away. In fact, it’s actually becoming more entrenched and difficult to dislodge from society.

In addition, we aren’t able to have a very mature conversation on racism – the controversy around Laura Tingle’s comments is a good example. But more importantly, we have consistently lacked national leadership to take responsibility of tackling racism in key institutions.

Only briefly, under the Gillard government did we talk about a national policy around social inclusion and anti-racism. And we didn’t see it implemented. We also don’t have the data telling us the prevalence of racism, nor do we have a strong reporting mechanisms where people can go when they experience racism.

We are failing because we are not empowering key agencies and institutions to deal with racism when it happens. So, people stop reporting it and it becomes an accepted part of our lives.

This excerpt is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the full article.