Racism in

Australia Today
Amanuel Elias · Fethi Mansouri · Yin Paradies
Racism in Australia Today
Amanuel Elias · Fethi Mansouri · Yin Paradies

Racism in Australia
Today
Amanuel Elias Fethi Mansouri
Alfred Deakin Institute Alfred Deakin Institute
Deakin University Deakin University
Burwood, VIC, Australia Burwood, VIC, Australia

Yin Paradies
Alfred Deakin Institute
Deakin University
Burwood, VIC, Australia

ISBN 978-981-16-2136-9 ISBN 978-981-16-2137-6 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6

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 Preface

The idea for Racism in Australia Today was conceived in late 2018. Then
as ever, racism was an enduring global social problem. Yet, during the
time that we were drafting much of the material for this book, racism
has received unprecedented attention due to an epoch-making event in
the US. When George Floyd was brutally murdered at the foot of a
white police officer in Minneapolis, it sent shockwaves across the world,
with white people in particular confronted with the ugly faces of racism
and White supremacy. Racism has become a prominent moral issue once
again, exposing the structural injustice in white-majority societies across
the world. Confront as it did the white world, the Minneapolis murder
also afforded people of colour across the globe the moral high ground to
summon humanity’s conscience to join in the fight against institutional
racism and white privilege. What happened in the US resonates with the
situation in Australia where similar historical as well as ongoing institu-
tional racism continues to traumatise generations of First Peoples. Non-
white migrants share common experiences of racism that have invariably
impacted their lives, across social, economic and cultural domains.
This book thus aims to uncover and analyse the glaring and insidious
manifestations of racism and its multi-faceted social impacts for individ-
uals and society. We are aware of the longstanding debates on race rela-
tions that have preoccupied historians, politicians, journalists and activists
around Australia. It is morally confronting that in the twenty-first century
there remains a significant level of denial that Australia was founded

v
vi PREFACE

and sustained by racially exclusionary doctrines and policies. Yet, many

Australians remain oblivious to these historical and contemporary traumas
of cultural oppression and racial injustice. First Peoples still live under
conditions that have been described as the fourth world within the first
world. Many Australians from non-white migrant backgrounds are treated
as if they do not belong, and are told to go back to where they came
from. Politicians flex the threat of deportation to non-white offenders, as
if Australia belongs only to people who do not commit crime, an irony
in a country founded as a penitentiary colony for convicts, and one that
proved human beings deserved second chance.
Recent research over the last decade shows that there is considerable
room for improvement in the Australian democratic space. Particularly in
racial justice, the task may seem intractable, looking at the First Peoples
incarceration rate, rise of far-right extremism, xenophobic nationalism,
Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and the recent coronavirus (COVID-19)
related racism. The significance of the current book therefore lies in the
contemporary relevance of racial politics in Australia and worldwide. It
draws readers’ attention to the pervasiveness of race as a social category,
exposing how racism remains an ongoing problem across social, economic
and cultural spaces, affecting the current generation, across age, gender,
ethnicity and other intersecting identities.
This book draws on almost fifteen years of research in which the
authors investigated racism within key institutions and social domains,
debating major theoretical traditions and empirically testing racism and
anti-racism theories in the contexts of education, health, governance and
the media. The book therefore combines theoretical discussions and argu-
ments with empirical findings based on our own and other scholarly
research. Each chapter is designed to provide a complete treatment of the
topic covered. A comprehensive introduction is provided at the begin-
ning of the book, with every chapter linked to the preceding chapter
via introductory and concluding sections. Tables and figures supple-
ment the empirical chapters, all of which are adapted from peer-reviewed
publications.
At the time of writing, important developments have taken place in
the world of racism, notably the Black Lives Matter movement and the
emergence of ethno-cultural racism related to COVID-19. Although we
have commented about this in relevant chapters, the emerging nature
of these developments does not allow us to provide definitive findings.
 PREFACE vii

Connected to this is the task of this book itself. Writing under the extraor-
dinary conditions of the COVID-19 crisis, as many would relate, has
been daunting in many ways. With psychological pressures of strict lock-
downs, particularly in Victoria where the authors are based, stress related
to job security in the higher education sector, and challenges of home-
schooling all connived to usurp much-needed energy for vitality and
coherent thinking. Despite this, opportunities for writing with time flexi-
bility and the absence of travel and commuting have afforded productive
time that facilitated the completion of the manuscript.
We hope this book will stimulate robust discussion on the question
of racism and race relations in the current socio-political climate, based
on historical, sociological and empirical evidence rather than populist and
unreflective ideological positions. To this effect, we have attempted to
present comprehensive reviews of the relevant literature and, as best we
could, presented varied perspectives on the nature, causes, and effects of
racism across societies to contribute to ongoing efforts to understand and
address racism in ethno-culturally diverse societies around the world.

Melbourne, Australia Amanuel Elias

October 2020 Fethi Mansouri
Yin Paradies
 Acknowledgments

We benefited from several years of support and collaboration from our

colleagues without which this book would have not been a reality. First,
we would like to acknowledge the excellent and thought-provoking
discussions we had with many of our colleagues at the Alfred Deakin
Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation. Years of collaborative work
with several colleagues as well as numerous seminars and conferences held
in the Institute have stimulated us to critically examine our thinking and
understanding of racism.
We are grateful to our publisher Vishal Daryanomel who encouraged
us to take up the challenge for this work. We are also grateful to staff
at Palgrave Macmillan for continued support throughout the publication
process. This book draws on our previous research published in several
peer-reviewed journals. We are grateful for the permissions provided to
reuse our publications. Chapter 5 on contemporary racism in Australia
is partly based on a previous paper published in Social Science Research
(Habtegiorgis [Elias] et al., 2014). Chapter 7 on social and economic
impacts of racism is partly based on a paper published in BMC Public
Health (Elias & Paradies, 2016). Chapter 8 on racism and young people
is partly based on a report published in Education and Society (Mansouri
et al., 2009), and Chapter 10 on anti-racism is partly based on Yin
Paradies’ co-authored chapter, Ben et al. (2020).
Finally, we would like to mention and thank specific individuals whose
support has been critical in the preparation of this book. Leanne Kelly

ix
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

has proofread the entire manuscript and provided valuable comments.

Scheherazade Bloul has provided valuable research assistance, particu-
larly in the writing of the chapter on media and racism, and Jenny Lucy
has copyedited the introductory chapter. We are grateful to anonymous
reviewers for critical comments that helped improve earlier manuscripts of
this book. Amanuel would like to extend warm thanks to Ermias Zerazion
for support in creating a graph illustration, and to Jehonathan Ben and
Beyene Semere for years of stimulating intellectual discussions. Indeed,
this book could not have been written without the selfless sacrifice of
my wife Natsinet Ghebretinsae and my three children Senay, Lwam and
Simret, during the long hours of my research and writing.
 Contents

1 Introduction 1
2 Race Relations in Australia: A Brief History 33
3 Institutional Racism and Its Social Costs 95
4 The Causes of Racism 123
5 Contemporary Racism in Australia 169
6 Media, Public Discourse and Racism 211
7 Social and Economic Impacts of Racism 241
8 Racism and Young People 275
9 Travelling Racism: Global Forces and Their Impact
on Racism 299
10 Countering Racism: Challenges and Progress
in Anti-racism Efforts 319
11 Conclusion 353

Index 371

xi
 Acronyms

ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation

ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics
AFL Australian Football League
AIHW Australian Institute of Human Welfare
AIMA Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs
ATN All Together Now
BLM Black Lives Matter
BoD Burden of Disease
CALD Culturally and Linguistically Diverse
CI Confidence Intervals
CMY Centre for Multicultural Youth
COVID-19 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)
CRP Challenging Racism Project
DALYs Disability Adjusted Life Years
DDPA Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
DFO Dual Frame Omnibus
EDS Everyday Discrimination Scale
EOD Experiences of Discrimination
ERD Experiences of Racial Discrimination
FECCA Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia
GBD Global Burden of Disease
GDP Gross Domestic Product
HREOC Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
ICERD International Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
ICT Information and Communications Technology
IOM International Organization for Migration

xiii
xiv ACRONYMS

IQ Intelligence Quotient
LEAD Localities Embracing and Accepting Diversity
LGA Local Government Area
MIRE Measure of Indigenous Racism Experiences
MSC Mapping Social Cohesion
NAP National Action Plan
OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
OMA Office of Multicultural Affairs
OR Odds Ratio
PEDQ Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire
PFA Population Attributable Fraction
PRS Perceived Racism Scale
PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
RACES Racism, Acceptance, and Cultural-Ethnocentrism Scale
RaLES Racism and Life Experience Scales
RCIADC Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
RR Risk Ratio
SBS Special Broadcasting Service
SDH Social Determinants of Health
SOAR Speak Out Against Racism
SRE Schedule of Racist Events
UN United Nations
UPF United Patriots Front
VSL Value of Statistical Life
WHO World Health Organisation
WTO World Trade Organisation
YLD Years Lived with Disability
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Publications on racism since 1900 5

Fig. 1.2 Racism as a self-sustaining system 10
Fig. 3.1 A temporal model of how institutional racism operates 100
Fig. 4.1 A multidimensional model of racism 125
Fig. 5.1 Prevalence of racial discrimination in Australia by age
and gender 182
Fig. 5.2 A two-stage estimation strategy for the association
between racist attitudes and self-reported ERD 200
Fig. 8.1 Participants, according to background, who have
experienced racism 286
Fig. 8.2 Examination of variables that significantly affect
health/wellbeing 290

xv
 List of Tables

Table 2.1 Timeline in Australian race relations 35

Table 2.2 Australian population since the arrival of the First Fleet,
1788–2019 48
Table 5.1 Attitudes towards other racial/ethnic groups
among Australians 179
Table 5.2 Self-reported experiences of discrimination
among Australians 180
Table 5.3 Odds ratio from ordered logistic regression models:
association between self-reported ERD and racist
attitudes in the 2001–2008 CRP datasets 186
Table 5.4 Odds ratio from logistic regression models: association
between outgroup nomination and expressions of racist
attitudes in the 2001–2008 CRP datasets 189
Table 5.5 Odds ratio from ordered logistic regression models:
self-reported ERD by targets nominated as outgroups
in the 2001–2008 CRP data 194
Table 5.6 Odds ratio from ordered logistic regression models:
self-reported ERD by targets nominated as outgroups
in the 2001–2008 CRP data 195
Table 7.1 List of Association between ERD and health outcomes
categorised by major illnesses 252
Table 7.2 Population Attributable Fractions: The prevalence
of illness attributable to ERD by age and gender 256
Table 7.3 Health cost of racial discrimination by gender and causes
in Australia 258

xvii
xviii LIST OF TABLES

Table 7.4 Sensitivity analysis: Health cost of racial discrimination

in Australia 259
Table 8.1 Number of participants who witnessed or were involved
in racist incidents 284
Table 8.2 Racist experiences in Australian schools, 2009 285
Table 8.3 Correlation between health, experience of racism
and various demographic variables 288
Table 8.4 Hierarchical multiple regression with health/wellbeing
as dependent variable 290
Table 8.5 Trends of experiences of racism/discrimination
among young Australians 2001–2020 292
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Racism—a belief in racial hierarchy, and the enactment of such belief—is

ubiquitous in historical and contemporary discourse, permeating public
and academic debates. While some groups are its perpetrators, others
experience it as a lived experience that they encounter in everyday activ-
ities, practices, conversations, across workplaces, schools, media, political
ideologies, justice systems and even within academic settings. As a
concept, whether in ordinary conversation, media or in politics, it is
used mostly in attribution to people, incidents or institutions, and is
usually employed to ascertain whether some person, action, organisa-
tional decision or government policy is racist or not. Yet, individuals,
organisations and governments usually downplay and in many cases deny
the very existence of racism, even when they themselves are involved in
deliberately carrying out racist actions and agendas. Such acts of denial,
however, do not make racism any less real or significant as it continues
to profoundly affect people’s lives and relationships with one another.
Thus, while racism has been a subject of ongoing public debates, for
more than a century it has also attracted substantial academic attention.
Particularly, in the last five decades, scholarly interest in racism has flour-
ished across disciplines as a result of the growing significance of racial
politics in many multiracial countries (Bulmer & Solomos, 2004). This
has led to the emergence of fields of research concerned with developing
robust methods of measuring the prevalence of racism, accounting for

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_1
2 A. ELIAS ET AL.

the bias surrounding its reporting. This book seeks to contribute to this
field of research through an interdisciplinary synthesis of current research
evidence.
The central argument of this book is that racism as an enduring
socially constructed ideology represents a mix of beliefs in racial cate-
gory/hierarchy and exclusionary power relations that have corrosive
and pervasive implications in any society across multiple levels and
domains. While racism can manifest as a deeply embedded psycholog-
ical phenomenon, its cultural, political and economic roots result in
enduring structural inequalities that are difficult to eradicate. As such,
racism has persisted across history and geographies, continuously evolving
and adapting to global social and political situations.

Defining and Conceptualising Racism

Race and the racialisation of human relationships have long been used
as the raison d’etre for the enduring ideology of racism.1 Based on an
assumption of race as a naturally given trait that distinguishes one’s own
group from other groups, on the grounds of ancestry, skin colour, facial
features, etc., racism historically existed as an idea and praxis (Goldberg,
1992; Winant, 2006).2 Prior to the Atlantic slave trade, practices and
laws, which enabled the subjugation and enslavement of groups of
people, did not explicitly depend on the classification of race as a hered-
itary trait (Hirschman, 2004; Painter, 2010). Thus, until the seventeenth
century, race was not considered a social category. The introduction of
race in common legal usage coincided with the slave trade and colonial
expansion, and was largely used to distinguish Europeans from those
groups considered as socio-culturally inferior others. The study of race

1 Racialisation has been defined as ‘the extension of racial meaning to a previously

racially unclassified social relationship, social practice or group’ (Omi & Winant, 2014,
p. 111).
2 In her classic book first published in 1942, the anthropologist Ruth Benedict offers
one of the earliest definitions of racism as “the dogma that one ethnic group is condemned
by nature to congenital inferiority and another group is destined to congenital superiority”
(Benedict, 1983, p. 97). Compare this with a more comprehensive definition by Gee et al.
(2019, p. S43): “Racism is an organized and dynamic system in which the dominant racial
group, based on a hierarchical ideology, develops and sustains structures and behaviors
that privilege the dominant group, while simultaneously disempowering and removing
resources from racial groups deemed inferior.”
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

as a biological category that emerged during the Enlightenment period

opened the door to the phenomenon of scientific racism. Consequently,
beginning in eighteenth-century Europe, the idea of categorising and
ranking human beings into superior and inferior races profoundly influ-
enced Western thinking, and spread through colonial expansion justifying
the discriminatory treatment of Indigenous Peoples (Graham, 1990).3
Until the 1920s, pseudo-scientific racial theories had influenced a range
of disciplines including biology, psychology and anthropology, to name
but a few. Such racialised ideas and theories also informed social policies,
both within Western countries and in the newly established colonial
settlements. With the defeat of the Nazis in World War II and the social
and political events that followed, culture rather than biology came to
be seen as the basis of racial classification (Lentin, 2005). Today, the
biological basis has considerably lost legitimacy although debate remains
regarding the biological constructions of race and ethnicity both in
academic/scientific and popular discourse (e.g. Blakey, 1999; Caspari,
2010; Tibayrenc, 2017). Racism remains a salient reality across the globe,
finding expression in ways that are both overt and subtle, and affecting
society through practices that drive and authenticate structural inequities.
This poses a serious challenge to contemporary societies, particularly at
a time when globalisation has led to a world characterised by growing
international migration, super-diversity and increased social interactions
(Doane, 2006; Vertovec, 2007). While growing levels of diversity and
human mobility have engendered unprecedented space for intercultural
interactions, the rise of racism in the form of xenophobia, anti-immigrant
attitudes and Islamophobia, among others, is threatening progress that
has been made in multicultural societies since the Civil Rights era.
This has adverse human and social effects, with implications for social
cohesion, human rights and democracy.
In addition to its significance in the daily life of racialised minorities,
racism is a subject of heated academic debate across many disciplines,

3 Our use of the term Indigenous Peoples encompasses Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait
Islander Peoples. We are aware that there are a range of words and phrases used in
various literatures to refer to Indigenous Peoples, among which are Aboriginal people,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, First Peoples, First Nations, and Indigenous. Given
de-colonial misgivings about both the word ‘nations’ and ‘first’, we have instead used
the phrase Indigenous Peoples throughout. The word Aborigines has been applied with an
italics when referring to historical usage while words or phrases used in the original have
been maintained with quotations.
4 A. ELIAS ET AL.

though the discourse of racism is not new. There is an argument that

holds that racism is as old as the concept of race itself, although usage of
the word racism itself is relatively recent (Arendt, 1944; Benedict, 1983;
Sweet, 1997). According to an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary
(2008 edition), the earliest recorded use of the word was in 1902, when
Richard Henry Pratt was the first to coin the word in a critique of segrega-
tion (Barrows, 1902; Demby, 2014). Academic inquiry into the historical
root of race and racism, as well as their significance in shaping commu-
nity attitudes and public policy, has gained momentum only recently. An
online search of the word using Google n-gram viewer indicates that it
was not commonly used in publications until the late 1930s and more
notably in mid-1940s. Its usage surged in the mid-1960s and again in the
1990s until it became ubiquitous in both online and print publications.
Across the social sciences, research on racism has increased considerably,
particularly over the past decade. A database search using the keyword
racism shows that 56% of publications on racism were produced in the last
nine years (Fig. 1.1). Over the 2008–2018 period, 16,296 peer-reviewed
publications on racism were produced, accounting for 64.5% of those
published since 1904.4
Furthermore, research shows that racism has undergone substantial
transformation in the way it manifests and its degree of influence on social
policies (Goldberg, 1992; Mullings, 2005). The emergence of national
and international organisations and the rise of anti-racism movements
were instrumental in challenging overt racism. Yet, racism did not end
with this, and contemporary research has shown that it has continued
in both overt and more subtle forms. Whether overt or subtle, racism
ultimately remains inherent to an ethos of inequity, which disproportion-
ately affects minority groups (Jones et al., 2016). A substantial body of
research has documented that racism occurring in the physical and virtual
world adversely affects individuals and groups from ethnic-minority back-
grounds, and is associated with mental and physical harm (Jakubowicz
et al., 2017; Paradies et al., 2015).
Although a global phenomenon, racism in the West derives from a
unique sociocultural history that mixes ideology, political power and

4 Generally, 82% of all peer-reviewed publication on racism (N = 25,256) were

produced since 2000. This data is based on a search of unique studies on six major
databases: Scopus, PsycINFO, ERIC, Political Science Complete, Historical Abstracts,
and MEDLINE undertaken on July 30, 2018.
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

Pre 1970 (1970-1979)

1% 2% (1980-1989)
4%

(1990-1999)
11%

(2010-2018)
56%
(2000-2009)
26%

Fig. 1.1 Publications on racism since 1900

economic privilege to produce race-based structural inequalities. Australia

exhibits such orientations in its unique history of race relations, in partic-
ular vis-a-vis Aboriginal communities, that involved social policies ranging
from social exclusion to structural injustice (Jupp, 2007). After more
than two centuries of Indigenous social exclusion, cultural oppression and
white privilege (Yarwood & Knowling, 1982), Australia has occasionally
been hailed as a successful multicultural society with explicit policies and
practices that promote cultural diversity.5 Yet, racism remains one of the
enduring challenges, often resurfacing as an explicit issue across social and
political platforms. Paradoxically, racism in Australia today exists within
the context of broader community support for cultural diversity and
multiculturalism (Kamp et al., 2017). It includes a strong denial and
ambivalence towards the prevalence of racism, mixed with overt rejec-
tion and intolerance of certain ethno-religious groups, and strong support

5 It is worth noting that this claim is not universally shared by all Australians, certainly
not by many Indigenous Peoples (Habibis et al., 2020).
6 A. ELIAS ET AL.

for assimilation (Dunn & Nelson, 2011; Kamp et al., 2017). Contempo-
rary racism and the denial of its pervasiveness are conceptually different
but can be equally entrenched in a system of exclusion that harms racial
minorities (Augoustinos & Every, 2010; Van Dijk, 1992). In this book,
we explore the conflicting lived experiences of racism within Australian
society—a society characterised at once by support for cultural diversity,
and pervasive expressions of racism—by focusing on race-relations as they
manifest across history, contemporary discourse and everyday life.

Theoretical Framework
What is race? And what is racism? These apparently simple questions
have been the subject of intellectual contestation across the humanities
and social sciences for more than a century, and will remain so for the
foreseeable future. Indeed, it is difficult to provide a precise definition
of either race or racism, as they continue to evolve as concepts, adding
dimensions with emerging new forms of intergroup and intercultural
relationships (Garner, 2017; Goldberg, 1992; Tibayrenc, 2017). In soci-
ological research, race has long been conceptualised as a social construct
(Better, 2008; Garner, 2017), while in anthropology it has been viewed as
a “cultural category of difference” (Silverstein, 2005, p. 364). Rooted in
the interplay of various and complex socioeconomic and cultural factors
throughout history, race has come to be a categorisation applied in the
mundane affairs of citizens across different societies. Yet, racism, as a
system of power and oppression, has always existed side by side with the
idea of race. Recently, the conceptualisation of race as a categorical and
fixed characteristic has been replaced by a dynamic, relational and multi
dimensional conceptualisation embodying the intersectionality of multiple
integral features ranging across individual, psychosocial, ecological and
structural components (see Garcia, 2017 for detail on this).
Racism has its etymological root in the concept of race. Yet, its
meaning goes beyond what is embodied in race as a constructed concep-
tion of identity. It does not stop in the supposedly intrinsic notion of race
as a social or biological construct per se. Instead, racism is construed as a
belief, an ideological assumption, which hierarchically categorises socially
constructed groups based on race, ethnicity, skin colour, phenotype, and
cultural background. It is increasingly analysed in connection to power
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

relations, socio-political hegemony and imperial projects.6 Historically,

race was conceived as a biological category of humankind, before this
was widely critiqued as not having scientific objectivity (Tibayrenc, 2017).
However, considerable debate remains as to whether the biological basis
of race has validity, with one side equating race to a “biological myth”
while the other maintains that the concept of race is “meaningful and
informative” (Tibayrenc, 2017, p. 636). Despite the contested terrain of
race as a concept, the ideology of racism still holds to the notion that
race is a biological category (Hirschman, 2004; Winant, 2006). As such,
race is not a sin qua non factor; but a theory of race—however flawed the
concept of race might be—is essential for racism (Balibar, 2007).
The wide debunking of the biological basis of race and the discred-
ited notion of innate natural differences among racial groups did not
stop it from informing various groups across societies today (Villarosa,
2019). Goldberg (1992) argues that race and racialised discourse set the
social conditions necessary for the manifestation of racist expressions.
Thus, according to this view, racism “began to emerge with the appear-
ance of the concept of race, that is, with the set of interests the concept
expressed at the time of its emergence” (Goldberg, 1992, pp. 543–544).
Even in otherwise secular Western states, that are organised based on
egalitarian ethos—where individuals are conferred the rights of citizen-
ship—race has long served as a criterion for the exclusion of certain
racial groups such as Indigenous Peoples (Dumont, 1966/1980; Morris,
1997). In fact, Dumont (1966/1980) has argued that there is a close
association between egalitarianism and racism, with the history of racial
discrimination and segregation in the United States being the prime
example.
More recent scholarship has focused on the notion of race as a social
construct representing an essentialised concept of innate differences in
relation to skin colour, ethnic ancestry, cultural heritage and religion, all
of which serve as markers of identity in a social system advancing domi-
nation, oppression and privilege (Garner, 2017; Paradies, 2006; Smedley,
& Smedley, 2005). Racism conceived as such maintains an ideological
feature that is strictly based on the existence of unequal human races.
Moreover, the practical conceptualisation of racism introduces economic
and political dimensions to the ideology of racial hierarchy, as articulated

6 According to Hirschman (2004), the three main factors for the emergence of racism
were: (1) the enslavement of millions of Africans, (2) the expansion of European
colonialism and (3) the rise of Social Darwinism.
8 A. ELIAS ET AL.

six decades ago by Hamilton and Ture (1967/2011). After examining

various definitions provided in the literature, Garner (2017, p. 21)
proposed that an accurate definition of racism must contain these three
elements: (i) a racialised historical power relationship, (ii) an ideology
and (iii) forms of discriminatory practices. These three elements approach
racism as a belief system and practice that manifests in the perpetration
of unfair inequalities within the context of hierarchically defined soci-
eties (Berman & Paradies, 2010). Yet, even with such a clearly articulated
conceptualisation, practical attributions of racism in everyday life are far
from straightforward.
At many levels, racism also remains a contested concept in social
and political discourse (Doane, 2006). Whether certain acts, events or
policies constitute acts of racism has been the subject of increasing
contestation even within supposedly socially progressive societies that
have adopted international conventions banning all forms of discrimina-
tion (see Schwelb, 1966; Nakata, 2001). While there seems to be near
consensus that certain beliefs and behaviours, such as White supremacy,
antisemitism and Apartheid policies, are racist and universally condemned,
debates persist as to whether or not anti-immigration attitudes, xeno-
phobia, Islamophobia, anti-Affirmative policies or hate speeches directed
against minority groups constitute new forms of racism (Tafira, 2011).
Some researchers have conceptualised certain exclusionary attitudes,
behaviours and policies that do not rely on group attributes such as
colour, ethnicity, nationality or religion, as a new racism. These forms of
racism do not rely on heredity—hence, racism without race or racists —but
invariably target groups that have been historically the targets of biolog-
ical racism (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). As Balibar (2007, p. 84) points out, such
racism replaces biology with culture as a contour of difference:

It is a racism whose dominant theme is not biological heredity but the

insurmountability of cultural differences, a racism which, at first sight, does
not postulate the superiority of certain groups or peoples in relation to
others but ‘only’ the harmfulness of abolishing frontiers, the incompati-
bility of life-styles and traditions; in short, it is what P. A. Taguieff has
rightly called a differentialist racism.

Against this changing intellectual and socio-political context, this book

seeks to contribute to the debate in racism research, providing a nuanced
review of its evolution in history and contemporary application, within
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

the Australian context. Building on Jones’ (2000) theoretical framing that

conceives racism at three different levels—institutional, personal and inter-
nalised—we conceptualise racism as a self-sustaining and complex system
involving ideology, behaviour, social structures and institutions creating
and sustaining unfair inequalities based on race, ethnicity, skin colour,
religion and ancestry. This aligns with Balibar’s (2007) conceptualisation
that frames racism as an entirely social phenomenon engraved in practices,
discourses and representations to provide the basis for the perpetration of
exclusion and segregation of groups considered the other based on race,
ethnicity, skin colour, religion, etc. In both formulations of racism, a racial
hierarchy of racial communities is formed based on relative social distance
and concretised through the stereotyping and stigmatisation of otherness.
Like other forms of structural inequalities (based on gender, social class,
etc.), a system of racism benefits certain groups that belong (with social,
political and economic privileges) while adversely impacting the wellbeing
of racial minorities or groups considered other (Gee et al., 2019).
Figure 1.2 provides a framework for understanding racism, and the
way the three levels interplay to create socioeconomic, political and health
inequalities. Racism embodies beliefs and ideologies of racial categorisa-
tion, usually mediated interpersonally in terms of relationships, actions,
attitudes and behaviours. According to Critical Race Theory, it also
exists embedded in society, manifesting “in material conditions and in
access to power” (Jones, 2000, p. 1212). While often existing as inher-
ited disadvantage, it is reinforced institutionally through codified laws,
societal structures, norms and privileges (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017;
Lopez, 2000; Paradies & Cunningham, 2009). Minority groups inter-
nalise racism when they reflexively experience it as targets in terms of
rumination, self-sabotage, resentment, self-devaluation and other coping
strategies (Jones, 2000; Speight, 2007).7 The concentric framing depicts
a feedback loop, whereby racism permeating institutions in society can
create conditions for its manifestation in everyday relationships, and can
be perceived or experienced by the target groups. Our theoretical
approach thus distinguishes between racism expressed by perpetrators
(interpersonal and institutional) and experiences of racism among targets

7 Jones (2000, p. 1213) defines internalised racism as “as acceptance by members of

the stigmatized races of negative messages about their own abilities and intrinsic worth.”
10 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Racism
Belief/ideology in racial categories + Enactment

Institutional

Laws Privileges

Inter-personal
Reflections

Relationship Attitudes Rumination

Institutions Internalised Practices
Self-sabotage
Resentment
Behaviours Condoning
Coping
Self-devaluation
Policies Actions Omissions
Norms

Structures

Social Economic Political Health

Segregation Educational gap Marginalisation Access to healthcare
Outcomes

Crime, violence Income inequality Exclusion Physical illness

Profiling Unemployment Domination Mental illness

Sentencing Access to housing Disempowerment Mortality

Incarceration Disenfranchisement

Fig. 1.2 Racism as a self-sustaining system

(actual, perceived and internalised) (Habtegiorgis et al., 2014; Paradies

et al., 2015). A large body of interdisciplinary research has produced theo-
retical and empirical evidence of perpetrator racism (Bobo & Smith, 1998;
Bonilla-Silva, 2006; Sears & Henry, 2003; Van Dijk, 1987). Another
body of work in social psychology, social epidemiology, economics and
education has documented racism perceived and experienced by target
 1 INTRODUCTION 11

groups (Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004; Codjoe, 2001; Kessler et al.,

1999; Krieger, 2014; Paradies et al., 2015; Williams & Mohammed,
2009). As we show in the framework outlined above, research also indi-
cates the importance of examining systemic forms of racism (Henricks,
2016; Henry et al., 2004; Sidanius & Pratto, 2001).

Focus of the Book

This book examines the politics of race and race relations in contempo-
rary Australian society, by way of critically synthesising current empirical
and theoretical research. While the prevalence of racism in Australia
has been well-documented historically, particularly in relation to the
1901 Immigration Restriction Act —better known as the White Australia
Policy—research on racism, and the legislations designed to address it, are
relatively more contemporary (Jayasuriya, 2002). Until the mid-1990s,
little had been done in Australian research in terms of the theorisation,
understanding, reporting and measurement of racism (Jayasuriya, 2002).
A more thorough analysis of this historical comparison will follow in
the next chapter. Suffice to note though, that racism has persisted to
this modern age and racial discrimination has not become obsolete as
previously predicted (Balibar, 2007; Becker, 1957/1971).
Today, racism in Australia affects Indigenous Peoples, ethnic minori-
ties, migrants and refugees among others (Elias, 2015). A wide body of
research indicates the pervasiveness of racism in modern society with the
prevalence extending across a range of sectors and socioeconomic dimen-
sions, both in Australia and internationally (Bertrand & Mullainathan,
2004; Bhopal, 2007; Darity & Mason, 1998; Dunn & Nelson, 2011;
Markus, 2017). However, research also indicates that most contemporary
forms of racism are less overt and expressed more ambiguously from the
historically violent and more aggressive behaviours of the early twentieth
century (Hage 2014; McConahay, 1983).8 For example, Ghassan Hage
(2014, p. 233) argues that racism in Australia has qualitatively evolved
from what he calls “existential racism” of the post-War era—based on “a
sentiment of disgust from the very proximity of someone experienced to
be ‘from another race’”—to the contemporary “numerological racism”

8 Although a minority view, there are those (e.g. Leach, 2005) who disagree with the
view that racism has shifted from overt to covert form, but argue that old-fashioned/overt
racism still remains, including in Australia specifically (Seet & Paradies, 2018).
12 A. ELIAS ET AL.

based on claims of “too many” immigrants from a particular geographic

origin. This approach to racism reflects the more contemporary racialisa-
tion of certain ethno-religious groups who are discursively and affectively
excluded from the possibility of cultural recognition, national belonging
and economic justice (Honneth, 1996).
Research in social psychology and behavioural studies on implicit prej-
udice particularly indicate that racism does not necessarily require animus
and hatred towards racial minorities as a prerequisite, as is the case with
explicit prejudice. It can unwittingly and uncontrollably occur as a result
of implicit racial bias (Bertrand et al., 2005; Harding & Banaji, 2013).
For example, in the labour market, employers who do not express overt
animus towards racial outgroups may still make racially discriminatory
labour market decisions. Research also indicates that these unwitting and
uncontrollable but racially prejudiced practices and outcomes are perva-
sive in interpersonal life and in public policy (Harding & Banaji, 2013).
Further empirical research supports this argument and contends that the
impact of everyday and subtle racism affects the lives of millions around
the world, despite overt racism substantially declining in the last few
decades (Bobo & Charles, 2009; Codjoe, 2001; Habtegiorgis et al.,
2014; Kessler et al., 1999). With this shift towards subtler discrimina-
tory attitudes and behaviours, racism research has also shifted its focus.
Whereas early research focused mainly on blatant racism, like the forms
institutionally sanctioned by Nazi Germany, Jim Crow America, White
Australia and Apartheid South Africa, or overtly expressed by preju-
diced members of society (Fredrickson, 2002; McConahay et al., 1981),
modern research mainly addresses the subtler forms of racism as the rela-
tive prevalence of old-fashioned racism began to decline (McConahay,
1986).
In the context of the growing influence of progressive social move-
ments such as anti-racism, feminism and other human rights activism,
racism has evolved to manifest differently across spatial and temporal
settings. As mentioned earlier, it has persisted with culture, religion and
migration rather than heredity serving as the contours of difference.
Research has so far developed several theoretical constructs to explain
how racism is framed within these contours of difference in contempo-
rary societies. Some of the most widely used and adapted constructs in
the literature are discussed in Chapters 5 and 7 of this book.
 1 INTRODUCTION 13

Racism in Australia
In Australia, racism continues to generate deep forms of social polarisation
and contention in public discourse and policy. At the root of the racism
debate is a pervasive discourse on the notion of Australia as a body politic
founded on colonial settlement. The encounter between Indigenous
Peoples and British colonists in January 1788 is the basis for the ensuing
race relations in the country. Yet, race relations, particularly racism, have
also evolved within other interrelated contexts such as immigration and
cultural diversity. As in other settler colonial societies, preconceived ideas
and assumptions about the Indigenous Peoples were crucial in solidifying
racist attitudes. According to Yarwood and Knowling (1982, p. 9), the
“debate over slavery, reactions to the Indian Mutiny, the vogue of Social
Darwinism, and the racial tensions of post-Civil War America formed
part of the context in which white Australians developed attitudes to and
policies on racial questions”. Thus, preconceptions of European superi-
ority and settler capitalism provided the basis for racism as a theoretical
and ideological construct for the problematic race relations in Australian
history (Cope, 1987). As Rigney (1999, p. 11) puts it, “the rapid growth
of imperialism including the search for wealth and profits in the 17th
and 18th centuries; the spiritual drive to promote the visions of God;
and the quest for power, mastery, and collective glory”, represented ideo-
logical and imperialist projects that led to production and justification
of racism they were invoked to justify. Claims that Indigenous Peoples
lacked “recognizable societies, law, property rights or sovereignty” served
as the basis for the colonisation of Indigenous lands while the notion
of Australia as terra nullius —a phrase invented in the late nineteenth
century—was later used to legitimise the European colonial project in
the subcontinent (Buchan & Heath, 2006, p. 5; Fitzmaurice, 2007).9
This historical construction of the Australian national identity also became
part of Australia’s legal tradition that informed the country’s social poli-
cies, and in many ways has continued to do so more recently (Buchan
& Heath, 2006).10 For example, issues surrounding Indigenous rights,
the recognition of Indigenous dispossession, and frontier violence against

9 The notion of terra nullius in the Australian context is discussed in more detail in
Chapter 2.
10 In the landmark case Mabo v. Queensland (2) (1992) the Australian High Court
rejected the legal basis for terra nullius .
14 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Indigenous Peoples of Australia remain contentious topics in the media

and public debates. While debates on Indigenous issues constitute part of
the broader race relations within Australian society, racism in particular
frequently surfaces around such debates.
The study of racism has undergone major theoretical and empirical
transformations worldwide. Early theorisations of racism, which focused
mainly on blatant and unsophisticated racism, were inadequate to explain
the more subtle, unwitting and less overt manifestations of racism in
Australia and elsewhere. Recognising this theoretical shift, researchers
in Australia have attempted to measure both overt and subtle forms
of racism within Australian society. Studies that integrate old and new
forms of racism indicate that racism is very prevalent in modern multi-
cultural Australia (Dunn & Nelson, 2011; Hage, 2014). Racism in
Australia is constructed through both denial of and ambivalence towards
the historical violence and enduring discrimination against Indigenous
Peoples, as well as in the more contemporary discrimination against
migrants of non-white descent. Today, persistent inequalities reflected
in the unfair distribution of social, economic and political power, which
have marginalised Indigenous Peoples, are key issues that bring racism to
the fore. In addition, emerging research indicates that the prevalence of
racism in Australia, as in many Western societies, is increasingly becoming
subtle and insidious, although overt racism is still prevalent (Dunn &
Nelson, 2011; Habtegiorgis et al., 2014; Mellor, 2003). Denial is one
example of subtle racism, with research based on national surveys showing
its widespread prevalence involving a common denial of Anglo-Celtic
privilege and Indigenous disadvantage (Dunn et al., 2004; Johnson,
2002).11 Thus, the nature of contemporary racism and the spectrum of
its manifestations require further research, as emerging fields show that
racism operates across diverse platforms, through contact in the phys-
ical space and the Internet, and across settings including public space,
schools, entertainment, law enforcement, workplaces and so on (Bertrand
& Mullainathan, 2004; Jakubowicz et al., 2017).
This book examines critically the nature of racism in Australia and aims
to explore how racism affects Indigenous Peoples, as well as minority
ethnic, racial and migrant groups. It will examine how different factors

11 The phrase Anglo-Celtic Australians as used in this book refers to white Australians
who are the descendants of people from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland (Forrest
& Dunn, 2006; Johnson, 2002).
 1 INTRODUCTION 15

contribute to its prevalence and effects, and explore possible complex anti-
racism interventions. Beginning with an historical exploration of racism
in Australia, the book examines the embeddedness of race and racial
discourse in the society’s national identity. In addition to the historical
discussion, the book also examines the contemporary state of racism and
its multifaceted impacts across diverse domains. Through synthesis of the
literature and analysis of current data, it seeks to answer key research ques-
tions related to the significance of race and racism in Australian society.
To do so, the book will address the following interconnected questions
that reflect issues in racism research within the Australian context:

• How does current research engage with the history of race and race
relations in Australia? What narratives of race relations and racism
are produced and how are these accepted or contested?
• To what extent and how does race play a role in Australia’s
approaches to cultural and national identity?
• What role have racialised discourse and racism played in Australia’s
social policies, laws and institutions?
• What are the economic causes of racism? Which groups do racial
hierarchies and discourses serve, both globally and within Australia?
• What is the state of race relations and the level of prevalence of
racism in Australia today?
• What can explain the prevalence of racism reported in some national
surveys, such as the Challenging Racism Survey and the Scanlon
Mapping Social Cohesion Survey?
• How does racism affect—psychosocially, culturally and econom-
ically—both majority and minority groups in contemporary
Australian society?
• What are the underlying individual, intergroup and structural forces
that affect race relations in Australia?
• To what extent have current anti-racism efforts been effective in
combatting racism?
• What does the future hold for race relations in Australia’s multicul-
tural society?

The book engages with the above research questions by critically exam-
ining evidence from current theoretical and empirical research findings.
Although there are studies that discuss the history of race relations in
16 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Australia, little has been done in relation to the recent and contempo-
rary dynamics in the country (Hage, 2012; Hollinsworth, 2006; Markus,
1994, 2001; Moses, 2004; Yarwood & Knowling, 1982). The shifting
dynamic in racism and race relations requires a more critical and robust
analysis that incorporates recent and emerging knowledge. Advances in
political theory, anthropology, sociology, social psychology, behavioural
science, communication and economics have shown that the way racism
is constructed is changing and adapting to new global forces. Yet, its
impact on society is as, or more, significant than decades ago (Markus,
2017). However, despite research showing racism as a determinant for
a range of outcomes, data limitations have long precluded the investiga-
tion of racism at a national scale (Dunn & McDonald, 2001; Nazroo,
2003). This has changed over the last two decades, with the genera-
tion of a number of relevant state and national surveys. The book takes
advantage of these new data to examine the contemporary state of race
relations. Deploying innovative analytical methods, based on secondary
sources that include quantitative and qualitative data, it investigates the
prevalence and patterns of racism in Australian society. It also employs
historical and current data to synthesise generalisable research evidence
on the past and current state of race relations and their implications for
public policy. Combining methodological advances in public health and
economics, the book analyses the evidence on the economic impact of
racism in Australia and proposes innovative approaches towards tackling
its local and global manifestations.

Structure of the Book

This book is organised into ten chapters, plus this introduction. Each
chapter has a specific area of focus, ranging from historical narratives,
to critique of social policy, analysis of current political discourse, empir-
ical data and evaluation of public initiatives. Chapter 2 briefly surveys
the history of race relations and the political implications of racism in
Australia, highlighting the key moments that shaped the place of race
in the country’s collective national identity. This will include a discus-
sion on how racism, both globally and in Australia’s settler colonial
project, evolved within the context of the capitalist demand for labour,
and was used to justify the continuation of settler colonial policies. It
explores the two distinct but interconnected aspects of Australian racial
history, relations between settler-invaders and Indigenous Peoples, and
 1 INTRODUCTION 17

the White Australia Policy that racially restricted immigration, particu-

larly from Asian countries. Australia has a history of murky race relations,
beginning with colonisation and the consequent racial conflicts. The roots
of racism are very much embedded in a history marked by wars, disposses-
sion and colonial expansion that advanced racist violence, conceptualised
in the literature as settler colonialism (Paradies, 2016). Such sustained
racist and exclusionary colonial projects have ensured the continued
dominance of Anglo-Celtic whites for more than two centuries with long-
term adverse impact on Indigenous Peoples who endured violence and
other racist policies that denied their dignity and rights, and forcibly
removed Indigenous children. A vast body of interdisciplinary research
documents the adverse impact of racism on Indigenous Peoples (Bodkin-
Andrews & Carlson, 2016; Larson et al., 2007; Paradies, 2018). While
colonial expansion and racist policies oppressed Indigenous Peoples for
a long period, the White Australia Policy that was institutionalised in
1901 pushed against immigration, particularly Asian, countries. The rise
of Chinese settlement in Australia in the second half of the nineteenth
century was historically received with strong hostility, arising from deep-
rooted fear of demographic change. As a reaction, the White Australia
Policy was introduced to ensure Australia remained exclusively Anglo-
Celtic. Scholars have argued that this, and subsequent segregationist
and assimilationist policies that institutionalised racism in Australia, have
helped maintain Anglo-Celtic hegemony(Armillei & Mascitelli, 2017;
Johnson, 2002).
Post-War skilled and unskilled labour needs played a key role in
affecting immigration policy in Australia, and led to the arrival of non-
British migrants from Europe. As Australia’s demography kept changing
as a result of the migration pattern, the racially motivated assimilationist
project faltered. The White Australia Policy was abolished in the 1960s,
and Indigenous Peoples were included in the census 1971. The govern-
ment gradually opened up to the idea of Australia’s multiracial identity
when multiculturalism was officially acknowledged in 1973. Since then,
Australia continued to receive migrants from across the globe, and is
now one of the world’s most culturally diverse countries. Yet, there
is strong argument that Australian multiculturalism unequally positions
different ethnic groups and privileges Anglo-Celtic heritage within the
national framework, including in institutional power and in political lead-
ership (Armillei & Mascitelli, 2017; Hage, 2002). In addition, despite the
18 A. ELIAS ET AL.

acknowledgement of multiculturalism, studies indicate that both inter-

personal and institutional racism remain entrenched, as evidenced in
everyday racism, anti-migrant sentiments, high level of Indigenous incar-
ceration and so on (Dunn et al., 2004; Henry et al., 2004; Mellor, 2003).
Chapter 2 also discusses the social climate of Australian race relations in
the context of various policies including the White Australia Policy, the
Racial Discrimination Act and Australia’s multicultural policies and their
impact on both interpersonal and institutional racism.
Chapter 3 focuses on the contemporary institutional aspect of racism,
examining the systemic structures that perpetuate exclusion and racial
inequality, and critically interrogates the policy environment that has
shaped the discourse of race relations in Australia. Coined in 1960 by
Hamilton and Ture (1967/2011), institutional racism refers to racism
perpetrated through “the apparatuses of the state and the structures of
society” (Bourne, 2001, p. 9). The purpose of this chapter is to investi-
gate whether and to what extent there are structural and systemic barriers
in Australia that preclude racial and ethnic minorities from attaining racial
equality across multiple domains (e.g. law, political representation, educa-
tion, employment, health and business). We look at this in light of the
historical interplay between the politics of identity and racial socioeco-
nomic and political reality in Australia. On the surface, institutional racism
officially ended in Australia in the late 1960s, with the abolition of the
laws that promulgated a White Australia Policy. Ever since, particularly
since the late 1970s, the majority of Australians have come to recog-
nise Australia as a multicultural society. The Racial Discrimination Act
of 1975 affirms the equal rights of racial, ethnic and religious minori-
ties, prohibiting racial discrimination on the grounds of race, colour,
ethnicity, religion, and national origin. Despite this, Australian society
remains largely dominated by the Anglo-Celtic population with minori-
ties frequently experiencing disadvantage, discrimination, social exclusion
and less representation socially, politically and economically. A widely
held view among researchers and social policy practitioners postulates
that the socioeconomic circumstances and political underrepresentation
of minority groups point to ongoing systematic and structural racial
inequality and injustice. To what extent these are indicative of an under-
lying institutional racism, with race/ethnicity still determining one’s place
in Australian society, is a heavily debated issue across public policy spheres
and academic discourse. Therefore, in addition to depicting the structural
processes that perpetuate unequal and disparate outcomes for minority
 1 INTRODUCTION 19

racial/ethnic groups, this chapter discusses the ethical dimension of insti-

tutional racism to provide a more nuanced perspective to this ongoing
discourse that sometimes tends to be simplistic and polarised.
Chapter 4 discusses the economic causes of racism. Building on the
summary of the historical roots of racism provided in the previous chapter,
this chapter looks at the traditional rational theory explanations of racism,
and the interpretation of racial discrimination as a cost minimising and
profit maximising choice of economic agents that result in unfair inequal-
ities. This conception differs from the psychological prejudice-based or
unconscious bias interpretation of racism, and explains racism as an
economic phenomenon. Economic theorisation of racism has primarily
focused on taste-discrimination (Becker, 1957/1971), statistical discrim-
ination (Arrow, 1971) and occupational segregation (Bergmann, 1974).
Yet, other than documenting statistical evidences of discrimination, racism
research in economics has not adequately explained why racism continues
to be pervasive and engrained in the societal system, as is argued by critical
race scholarship (Reich, 2017; Sidanius & Pratto, 2001). Within struc-
tural inequality research, social stratification and intersectionality provide
analytical tools to understand the relationship among different contours
of inequalities (race, gender and class) and locate the economic dynamics
of racism (Browne & Misra, 2003; Darity, 2005; Walby et al., 2012). Else-
where, Fraser and Honneth (2003) have argued that, given contemporary
racism has both class and status dimensions, “overcoming the injustices
of racism, in sum, requires both redistribution and recognition” (p. 23).
In this chapter, we explore the racism and structural inequalities litera-
ture, to examine how race, gender, and class interplay, and understand
the extent to which particular groups in society stand to benefit from
continued prevalence of racial discrimination and consequent inequalities.
We explore any causal links between racial discrimination and socioeco-
nomic outcomes, by examining current evidence from cross-disciplinary
research.
Chapter 5 analyses and reviews existing cross-sectional and longitu-
dinal data in light of theoretical discussions and empirical research that
map the state of racism in contemporary Australian society. Our aim is
to resolve actual or perceived gaps between research evidence on racism
and race relations and the ongoing narrative that informs public policy in
the country. A commonly held view in Australia, and one that has some
validity, is the notion that the majority of Australians detest racism. Yet,
they also have a very specific view of what constitutes racism and, tied
20 A. ELIAS ET AL.

to such conceptualisation, reject the notion that they themselves may be

racist. This assertion is usually supported with the claim that there are no
state sanctioned laws that discriminate against racial minorities and that
overtly racist violence is absent or infrequent (Dunn & Nelson, 2011).
The claim rests on the notion that racism must be overt or legally coded
to have adverse impact on racial/ethnic minorities. However, research
widely indicates that new forms of racism prevail today that are unwit-
ting and covert (Dunn & Nelson, 2011; Habtegiorgis et al., 2014;
Mellor, 2003). Research also indicates alarming levels of racism in schools,
with young people from minority racial backgrounds facing increasing
exposure to unfair discrimination (Aveling, 2007; Priest et al., 2019).
The chapter, therefore, examines the two conflicting narratives regarding
racism in contemporary Australia and attempts to present a more balanced
picture of ongoing race relations.
Media plays central role in modern society by setting agenda for public
discourse and disseminating information across time and space. It is vital
for the protection of modern democracy and regulating state power and
holding it to account. Yet, like any other public institution, media can also
be used and abused for various purposes that promote unfair inequalities.
Racism is one such negative social outcome that is widely perpetrated in
media with significant adverse effects on racial minorities (Nairn et al.,
2006; Simmons & Lecouteur, 2008; Van Dijk, 1989). At the beginning
of the twentieth century, racist tropes in the media (e.g. Associated Press)
and the film industry encouraged racist hatred against African Americans.
Similarly, the media was instrumental in carrying racial propaganda for
White Australia. Throughout the 1960s and beyond, media was at the
heart of racial polarisation that continues to this day (Titley, 2019; Van
Dijk, 1993). The recent spike in anti-Asian racism on social media during
the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic further indicates the role of
media in perpetuating institutional racism (Ziems et al., 2020). Chapter 6
examines the role of Australian media in the production, propagation and
enactment of racism. It discusses how media racialises particular groups
and influences political discourse around immigration policy, diversity and
national identity issues.
Chapter 7 offers a synthesis of empirical findings from cross-
disciplinary research on the effects of racism. Drawing on current national
and local empirical research, it discusses the socioeconomic impact of
racism on Australian society. It shows how racism results in avoidable
inequalities that affect minority racial groups disproportionately. A wide
 1 INTRODUCTION 21

body of research across disciplines and geographic jurisdictions has docu-

mented such inequalities with multiple factors exacerbating the problem.
Research also shows that exposure to racism is a stressor for racial minori-
ties (Clark et al., 1999; Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009). Experiences of
racism have strong associations with mental and physical health, labour
market and educational outcomes, socioeconomic status and economic
inequalities (Paradies et al., 2015; Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004).
Exposure to racism, in combination with other adverse factors including
poverty, joblessness and unstable residential accommodation, can also
increase the likelihood of committing violent crimes (Cunneen, 2005).
The chapter reviews some of these associations in the Australian context,
focusing on the experiences of ethnic minorities including migrants
from non-Anglo-Celtic backgrounds and the Indigenous population.
The empirical findings reviewed in the chapter corroborate the argu-
ments advanced in relation to the structural processes that constitute
institutional racism, as detailed in Chapter 3.
While racism affects all genders and age groups among Indigenous
people, ethnic minorities, and migrants, young people within these groups
are more likely to be exposed to both online and face-to-face racism
(Ahmed et al., 2007; Gee et al., 2012; Priest et al., 2011). This arises from
their exposure to intercultural environments such as schools, community,
sports and entertainment settings, as well as their hyperactive engagement
in social media. It is therefore worth closely examining these groups, to
understand how young people in Australia are impacted by racism and
to what extent they engage in its production and dissemination. Thus,
Chapter 8 draws on a mixed methods study that investigated the impact
of racism on the health and wellbeing of young people in Australia. It also
contextualises this within current research on the state of race relations
within this important demographic group.
Today, fast Internet-based communication facilitates the temporal
and spatial spread of racism, with its occurrence in one country
quickly reported globally resulting in both condemnation and solidarity.
Chapter 9 looks at these global dynamics in relation to racism, and
discusses whether and how global forces affect and shape race relations
in Australia. In postcolonial research, global racism has been concep-
tualised and understood in connection with capitalism and colonial
expansion (Batur-Vanderlippe, 1999; Cox, 1948/1959). Yet, racism in
post-World War II Western societies has largely been localised, usually
22 A. ELIAS ET AL.

reflecting internal national structures of racial and ethnic inequalities.

Country-specific socioeconomic, cultural and political factors have largely
determined prevailing intergroup dynamics. In Australia, racism was as
much a colonial legacy as it was an outcome of the country’s insti-
tutional structures, which systematically excluded and disenfranchised
Indigenous Peoples and minority ethnic groups. International race rela-
tions can have direct influence on Australian race relations. Historically,
high-profile global anti-racism episodes such as the US Civil Rights move-
ment and anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa reverberated across
the world, affecting global race relations, including in Australia. The
recent Black Lives Matter movement have similarly affected race discourse
in Australia and beyond. Yet, race relations in every country remained
inward looking and locally specific. This changed with the advent of the
Internet over the last three decades, with cyberspace becoming an ever-
growing domain of intercultural encounter. Racism has now intensified as
a global phenomenon, with racially conscious groups (for example, White
supremacists) gaining access to global audience. Racism today is no longer
perpetrated by mere physical proximity; the culprit is not necessarily one
sharing the same jurisdiction with the target. In addition, racism is not
necessarily an immediate outcome of the local episodes or circumstances
that have allegedly disenfranchised the perpetrators. Groups and individ-
uals with racist ideologies may vicariously import racist hatred, targeting
local minorities. The chapter, therefore, explores how international forces
influence race relations in the contemporary Australian nation state. It
examines the role of an evolving global security environment on local
racial discourse, analysing how episodes of racial strife abroad can have a
snowball effect on local racial politics.
Chapter 10 focuses mainly on anti-racism strategies and interven-
tions. The chapter discusses the key challenges and progress in tackling
racism, evaluates some of the major strategies that have been formu-
lated to date, and proposes additional potentially effective strategies.
The relative global decline of overtly blatant racism over the last five
decades is an outcome of a long history of anti-racism efforts. Enlight-
enment thoughts and concepts of liberty and equality provided the seeds
that inspired the struggles against various injustices. This was evident in
the abolitionist anti-slavery campaigns. Later, anticolonial struggles, the
widespread repugnance over the gross historical injustices of different
social policies (Jim Crow laws, the Holocaust, Apartheid, the White
Australia Policy, etc.), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and
 1 INTRODUCTION 23

the triumph of liberal democracy in Western countries have rendered

racism and ethnic segregation unsustainable (Mullings, 2005). These
global pro-equality social movements put pressure on nation states and
culminated in legislative sanctions against racism and racial discrimina-
tion. In Australia, the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act offered a legislative
framework for anti-racism efforts and the Race Discrimination Commis-
sioner has overseen national efforts that countered racism and racial
discrimination over the last three decades. Over this period, Australian
society has shown growing support for a multicultural identity, although
some monocultural sentiment remains. Although anti-racism efforts have
targeted everyday racism in a range of settings, including in schools,
public spaces, sports settings and workplaces, structural inequalities that
are construed as manifestations of underlying institutional racism have
persisted. To what extent anti-racism strategies can be deployed to address
these structural inequalities is an empirical, as well as practical, question.
So far, a wide body of research has documented the effectiveness, or
lack thereof, of different anti-racism strategies (Aveling, 2007; Ben et al.,
2020; Howarth & Andreouli, 2015; Kowal et al., 2013; Pedersen et al.,
2005). This chapter synthesises current anti-racism research, summarising
the theories, empirics and strategies that have been proposed to address
racism and discrimination. Chapter 10 also reviews existing and potential
anti-racism strategies that could mitigate the adverse impact of various
forms of racism. It examines how these different strategies have been
implemented in Australia, the progress that has been made in reducing
racism, and what the main challenges are to achieving a racism-free
society.
Finally, Chapter 11 provides a reflective post-script as a conclusion that
connects the various elements of contestation discussed throughout this
book. Like many socially constructed beliefs, racism is a potent force with
a far-reaching adverse impact on a culturally and racially diverse society. In
Australia, the impact of racism goes back to the country’s colonial inva-
sion, with race and racial discourse embedded in the colonist’s national
identity since the late eighteenth century. Although Australia today is a
longway from its historical racial past, and the majority of the popu-
lation currently sees it as a successful multicultural state, racial justice
and equality remains an enduring issue with unwitting racism prevalent,
alongside unsanctioned institutional racism that limits the human rights
of racial minorities. This book provides a unique contribution to the
contemporary state of racism and its multifaceted impacts across diverse
24 A. ELIAS ET AL.

domains. Through the synthesis of the literature and analysis of current

data, it analyses afresh the evidence on the prevalence as well as the socioe-
conomic and health burdens of racism on racial minorities in Australia.
The book also reviews and examines dominant and emerging anti-racism
strategies, drawing on national and international evidence and practice.
Finally, the book concludes with a reflective discussion on the emerging
frontiers in racism research, highlighting possible directions for future
research agendas.

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 CHAPTER 2

Race Relations in Australia: A Brief History

An Overview
The history of race relations in Australia is murky and complex, and so
is the contest over truth telling, particularly, in relation to the country’s
settler colonial past and its enduring legacy (Mckenna, 1997). Ideolog-
ical views have long clouded the appraisal of factual evidence, and denial
of racism around historical injustices and racial violence permeate current
racial discourses. In constructing and celebrating collective national values
and identity, many Australians would forget or gloss over the long
history of discrimination and injustices against Indigenous Peoples that
continues to haunt Australia as a nation (MacIntyre, 2004). However,
those who think that Australia should own the legacies of its past and
come to terms with the historical wrongs its Indigenous populations
have sustained, find themselves constantly conflicted by the unpopularity
of such ethical stances. The contestation over history and truth telling
has indeed become a source of political polarisation. This is particularly
so today, in a period of increasingly resurgent populism where scientific
evidence receives less enthusiasm and disinformation spreads unabated.
Despite the growing political polarisation, resurgence of nationalist
ideologies, and subsequent crystallisation of identity politics in Australia,
interest in Indigenous Peoples and racial minority research has grown over
the last few decades, and we now have a growing understanding of the
history of race relations. Today, thanks to emerging research, the past

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 33

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
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34 A. ELIAS ET AL.

and its scars on the Indigenous population are becoming more accessible
to more Australians. Scholars are challenging the way history (of race
relations) has been taught in settler societies for more than a century,
and we are now able to make some sense of what settler colonialism
has meant for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples (Coombes, 2006). Many
scholars have argued that racism is deeply embedded in the Australian
social and political structure (De Plevitz, 2007; Every & Augoustinos,
2007; Henry et al., 2004). As we discuss the history of race relations
in Australia, it is worth noting that, while racism existed prior to being
publicly debated (Cox, 1948/1959),1 the concepts of race relations and
racism did not firmly enter modern social and political debates until
the late nineteenth century (Barrows, 1902). In Australia, while racial
oppression was intertwined with the colonial project, it has evolved over
time.
Australian race-relations, as experienced today, began with the incep-
tion of colonial expansion during the era of settler colonial exploration.
It is well understood that racial conflict is deeply embedded in the coun-
try’s national identity. Central to the Australian story of race relations is
the role of settler colonialism in establishing a modern capitalist state built
through conquest, enslavement, dispossession, displacement and massacre
of the native population. For many years, this story has hinged on the
narrative of Australia as terra nullius at the time of colonisation. Thus,
a history of race relations in Australia must begin by engaging with
this colonialist claim and its impact on Indigenous Peoples. Hundreds
of generations of these peoples marked continuous cultures, which were
subjected to considerable atrocities over the last two hundred plus years.
Recognition of this fact does more justice to the historical inquiry into
race relations, while not doing so undermines its credibility.
This chapter succinctly surveys the complex history of race relations
and the political implications of racism in Australia, highlighting the
key moments (see Table 2.1) that have shaped the place of race in the
country’s collective national identity. It explores the two distinct but
interconnected aspects of Australian racial history. The first is the long and
ongoing relations between British colonists and Indigenous Peoples, and
the second is the relationship between the Australian state and non-white

1 The next chapter will discuss the historical roots of racism and how it is closely aligned
with colonialism and capitalism.
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 35

Table 2.1 Timeline in Australian race relations

Period/Decade Important event in race relations

Prehistorical period
App. before 45–67 millenniaa Arrival of the First Peoples
Eighteenth century
1644 Naming of New Holland and “discovery” of Van
Diemen’s Land
1720s Trading relations: Macassans from Indonesia across
northern Australia
1769 Captain Cook’s arrival at Botany Bay
1788 British First Fleet arrives at Sydney
”” First encounter between Indigenous Peoples and
white people
1790b First recorded incident of hostility
Nineteenth century
1817 The name Australia was adopted by Governor Lachlan
Macquarie
1818 Australia Day publicly celebrated for the first time
1824 The founding of the Australian newspaper
1838 Myall Creek Massacre
1851 Gold Rush and anti-Chinese racism
1900s
1901 Federation
”” Immigration Restriction Act
”” Denial of citizenship to Indigenous people
1903 Naturalisation Act
1904 Queensland Aboriginal Protection Act
1905 West Australia Aboriginal Act
1906 Deportation of Pacific Islanders
1910s
1915 Anti-Greek riots occurred in Perth
1916 Ethnic riots in Kalgoorlie
1920s
1928 Aboriginal activist Anthony Fernando pickets Australia
House in London
1930s
1930 Victorian Yorta Yorta man William Cooper petitions
the King to have an Aboriginal representative in the
Federal House of Representatives
1934 David Unaipon lobbies the Australian government to
take over responsibility for Aboriginals from the states.

(continued)
36 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Table 2.1 (continued)

Period/Decade Important event in race relations

1934 Ethnic riots in Kalgoorlie

1938 Aboriginal protest of Australia Day, and designation
as the “Day of Mourning”
1939 First mention of Australia as terra nullius
1939 The first-ever mass strike of Aboriginal people occurs
(the Cummeragunja walk-off)
1940s
1949 Deportation of Chinese refugees
1950s
1955 The Nationality and Citizenship Act
1957 The Federal Council for the Advancement of
Aborigines established
1958 Migration Act of 1958
1960s
1963 The Yolngu people of Yirrkala in Australia’s Northern
Territory send a bark petition to the House of
Representatives to protest against mining on the Gove
Peninsula
1966 Anti-discrimination legislation
1967 Commonwealth Referendum on Aboriginal Rights
1970s
1971 Inclusion of Indigenous people in national census
”” Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) at Redfern
”” National Aboriginal and Islander health organisation
(NAIHO)
1972 Aboriginal Tent Embassy is pitched outside
Parliament House calling for land rights
1975 Racial Discrimination Act
1977 The Galbally Report
1977 The first land claim hearing to Crown land at
Borroloola in the Northern Territory
1978 Implementation of multicultural policies
1980s
1980 Jim Hagan is the first Australian Aboriginal person to
address the United Nations.
1981 Human Rights Commission
Transfer of ownership of the Ayers Rock (Uluru) to
the Pitjantjatjara people

(continued)
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 37

Table 2.1 (continued)

Period/Decade Important event in race relations

1988 National Inquiry into racist violence

1988 Restoration of the Uluru
1988 Barunga Statement delivered to Parliament. Labor
Prime Minister Bob Hawke affirms that the
government is committed to working for a negotiated
treaty with Aboriginal people.
1990s
1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
1992 Prime Minister Keating’s Redfern Park Speech
1992 Native Title: Mabo Decision
1993 Ayers Rock officially renamed Uluru
1995 Racial Hatred Act
1997 The National Inquiry into the Separation of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from
Their Families
1999 Multiculturalism Policy
2000s
2005 Cronulla Riots
2007 Close the Gap campaign
”” Northern Territory Emergency Intervention measures
2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generation
2010s
2016 Treaty processes commence in Victoria
2017 The Uluru Statement from the Heart
a This represents a long period of Indigenous population of Australia, with remarkable adaptation,
sophisticated culture, ecological knowledge, and egalitarian social structures
b Pemulwuy spears John MacIntyre, and hostility broke between the Eora people and colonists, in
1800, conflict led to the death of 26 whites and many more Indigenous Peoples

immigrants. While the latter goes back to the mid-1850s, its salience crys-
tallised with the White Australia Policy enacted from Federation in 1901,
which racially restricted immigration, particularly from Asian countries.
The roots of racism in Australia are very much embedded in the
country’s settler colonial history. In the seminal book The Fatal Shore,
Robert Hughes (2010) notes that “Australian racism started with the
convicts” who “needed to believe in a class inferior to themselves”
(p. 95). Yet, racism in Australia was far more than the prejudice of
the convicts, as it has been marked by wars, dispossession and colonial
expansion that advanced racist violence, conceptualised in the literature
38 A. ELIAS ET AL.

as settler colonialism (Wolfe, 2006). Such sustained racist and exclu-

sionary colonial projects have ensured the continued dominance of white
Anglo-Celts for more than two centuries with long-term adverse impact
on Indigenous Peoples who endured dispossession, violence and other
racist policies that denied them equal rights, forcibly removed their chil-
dren, and undermined their human dignity (Paradies, 2016). There is
now vast interdisciplinary research documenting the deleterious effects
of racism on the historical and contemporary life of Indigenous Peoples
(Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2016; Larson et al., 2007; Paradies, 2018).
While settler colonial expansion and associated racism have long subju-
gated the Indigenous Peoples, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901,
commonly referred to as the White Australia Policy, signalled a push
against immigration from certain, particularly Asian, countries (Walker,
2012). The rise of Chinese settlement in Australia in the second half of the
nineteenth century, has historically received hostile reaction with deep-
rooted fear of demographic and cultural change, including loss of social
and political power for white settler-invaders. As a reaction, the White
Australia Policy was introduced to ensure that Australia remained exclu-
sively Anglo-Celtic. Scholars have argued that this and subsequent segre-
gationist and assimilationist policies institutionalised racism in Australia,
and have helped maintain Anglo-Celtic hegemony(Armillei & Mascitelli,
2017).
Post-WW II skilled and unskilled labour needs played a key role in
driving immigration policy in Australia, and led to the arrival of non-
British migrants from Europe. As Australia’s demography kept changing
because of these immigration patterns, the racially motivated assimila-
tionist project faltered. In the 1960s, the White Australia Policy was
abolished, and the government acknowledged multiculturalism in 1973,
gradually accommodating the idea of a multiracial Australia. Since then,
Australia began to receive migrants from across the world, and is now one
of the most culturally diverse countries on Earth. Yet, there is strong argu-
ment that Australian multiculturalism unequally positions different ethnic
groups and privileges Anglo-Celtic heritage within the national frame-
work, including in institutional power and in political leadership (Armillei
& Mascitelli, 2017; Hage, 2012). In addition, despite the acknowl-
edgement of multiculturalism, studies indicate both interpersonal and
institutional racism remain entrenched as evidenced in everyday racism,
anti-migrant sentiments, high levels of Indigenous incarceration and so
on (Dunn et al., 2004; Henry et al., 2004; Mellor, 2003). Drawing on
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 39

the historical evolution of race relations in general, this chapter discusses

these phenomena with a particular focus on some key questions: How has
research engaged with the history of race and race relations in Australia?
What narratives of race relations and racism are produced and how are
they accepted or contested? To what extent and how does race play a
role in the country’s cultural and national identity? These questions will
allow us to critically explore the history of race relations by looking at the
significant milestones that shaped Australia’s social and political history.

Pre-Colonial Indigenous History

The history of race relations in Australia, as shown in this book, largely
depicts the history of settler colonialism and its impact on Australians.
This history represents a narrative of how Indigenous Peoples and
minority groups have endured racism and discrimination for more than
two century. However, this should be understood against the backdrop
of a long period of Indigenous survival, of which we humans have
very limited knowledge. Indeed, Indigenous life has been represented as
homogenous and unchanging over thousands of years, a view which can be
considered part of the racist repertoires of settler colonialism (Lourandos,
1997). With more research, nuanced understandings of Indigenous life
as evolving and more complex than has hitherto been appreciated are
emerging, challenging previous assumptions of the Indigenous prehistory
(Lourandos, 1997).
Archaeological and genetic research demonstrates that people have
lived in Australia for more than 45–67 millennia (Clarkson et al., 2017;
Matchan et al., 2020; O’Connell et al., 2018; Tobler et al., 2017). The
Indigenous Peoples of the continent are a diverse mix of hundreds of
peoples and nations, spanning thousands of generations living across
mainland Australia and the adjacent islands (including in the Torres
Strait). They spoke more than 260 languages and 500 dialects, and
maintained cultures that survived a significant proportion of human exis-
tence in the world (Dudgeon et al., 2010). Over this long period,
they had a largely peaceful and prosperous society, although with some
collective conflict (Darmangeat, 2019). This included a pan-continental
system of trade, social interaction and exchange, which was sustainably
balanced with the natural environment. Evidence suggests that Australia’s
Indigenous Peoples worked about four hours a day for subsistence
using sophisticated fire, hunting, gathering, agricultural and aquacultural
40 A. ELIAS ET AL.

skills to curate abundant, convenient, predictable and sustainable land-

scapes (Gammage, 2011). They sowed, irrigated, tilled, weeded, cropped,
stored, altered rivers with dams, channels, weirs; and, in many parts of
the continent, lived in permanent grass and stone houses of various sizes
(Pascoe, 2014). Much of their remaining time was spent on song, dance,
art and story-telling across long and healthy lives of more than 60 years,
on average (Blyton, 2009).
Indigenous scholars and leaders emphasise the strong connectedness
of Indigenous life with Country. This encompasses a deep spiritual and
kinship relationship to land, sea, air, fauna and flora within a living
cosmos (Kwaymullina, 2005; Moreton-Robinson, 2003; Neidjie, 1989).
This entails communicative connections among life-forms, human-animal
ambiguity and metamorphosis, continuations between life and death, and
sentience of natural landscapes (Merlan, 2020). Such intricate and contin-
uous systems involving mutuality of being with all life have been variously
expressed in the Dreaming (Mountford, 2020; Rose, 2000), which
combines both the literal and metaphorical into an immanent enacted
reality (Law, 2004). Dreaming stories make up the cultural, religious, and
governing principles of Indigenous life and culture, setting out relations
and obligations for renewing all creation that privileged autonomy within
embodied constitutive, compassionate and interdependent communal
relationships (Watts, 2013).
Over the last two and half centuries, historians and anthropologists
have documented the Indigenous Peoples’ traditions and cultures, largely
from simplistic and orientalist Eurocentric perspectives. Paradoxically, this
body of literature portrays that Indigenous way of life was primitive and
in a state of nature while reporting the nuanced intricacies of the cultures
and knowledge that were relayed across generations. Today, modern
anthropologists and historians have come to recognise the Indigenous
way of life as the longest continuous civilization in human history
(Gammage, 2011), which continues to represent vast human wisdom
about society and the natural world, gained over millennia of experi-
ence and kept from generation to generation without the disruptions of
catastrophic wars and man-made calamities.
In the wake of European colonialism, the Indigenous Peoples life and
culture was subjected to traumatic disruption. Settler colonialism has not
only exacted oppression, dispossession and exploitation on Indigenous
Peoples, but it has also caused irreparable damage to the Indigenous
Peoples ways of life, resulted in the loss of irreplaceable wisdom and
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 41

inflicted irreversible impact on the physical environment. They have seen

their familial, communal and traditional culture that respected mutuality,
reciprocity and harmony trampled by British culture based on rationalistic
and egotistic individualism. However, despite the ongoing oppression of
colonisation, the Indigenous Peoples continue to practice their dynamic,
vibrant and unique cultures across urban, rural and remote areas of
Australia.

First Contacts
The millennia-old cosmic relationship between Indigenous Peoples and
Country was exposed to Europeans in the early seventeenth century.
The earliest known European explorers to visit the continent were the
Dutch. In 1606, William Janszoon, captain of the Dutch East India
Company, landed on the western side of Cape York Peninsula aboard
the ship Duyfken. He became the first European to map Australia, having
charted about 300 kilometres of coastline. From 1644, Europeans knew
continental Australia as New Holland, after explorations of the western
and northern coasts by Dutch navigators like Abel Tasman, Luís Vaz
de Torres, and Pedro de Quiros. The Dutch, however, did not settle
it as they saw that this strange land seemed to lack water and fertile
soil in addition to lacking tradable merchandise of value that attracted
their mercantile imagination. William Dampier, the British pirate captain
was the other notable explorer to navigate Australia in 1688–1689. The
European colonisation of Australia instead awaited the arrival of another
British navigator and subsequent imperial claim. Yet, Indigenous Peoples
pre-British contact with the outside world was not limited to Europeans.
As early as the 1720s, there have been contacts with people across the
Indonesian archipelago, most notably the Macassans, fishermen hailing
from the town of Macassar who traded with Indigenous Peoples in
Arnhem Land and the Kimberley in northern Australia (Clark & May,
2013). Some accounts suggest Macassan trade going back to 1640 or
earlier (Ganter, 2008). However, it was not until the British explo-
ration and colonisation that the landscape and people of Australia were
irreversibly transformed.
In three years of navigation in the Southern Hemisphere, a
team of British explorers led by James Cook circumnavigated New
Zealand/Aotearoa in October 1769 aboard the HMS Endeavour (Beagle-
hole, 1974). The next year, the team made further discovery as Captain
42 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Cook’s ship sailed west and sighted the eastern coasts of Australia.2 These
discoveries, along with his two other voyages, cemented Captain Cook’s
place in history, and established his name among the most courageous
and farsighted explorers. However, while the Western world hailed the
Captain as a hero, there is another story that mars his achievements,
as his eureka moments were deeply ominous for the natives of Australia
and New Zealand/Aotearoa. The Māori people had their first fatality at
the hands of white Europeans when one of Captain Cook’s crew shot
and killed a Māori man in October 1769 near the bank of Tūranganui
River (MacIntyre, 2004). At least four Māori men were tragically killed
during these early encounters, and this marked the beginning of a trau-
matic colonial experience for the Indigenous Peoples of Australia and
New Zealand/Aotearoa.
In April 1770, the HMS Endeavour sighted the east coast of Australia,
first landing at Point Hicks before arriving in what is now Botany Bay.
In August 1770, the Captain laid claim to the south-eastern coast for
the British Crown, naming it New South Wales. Cook’s mission clearly
showed the colonial intention of the British Empire. Based on a letter
entitled Secret Instructions, Cook was instructed by the British Admiralty
“with the consent of the Natives to take possession of Convenient
Situations in the country in the Name of the King of Great Britain”
(cited in Banner, 2005, p. 97). Unlike the Dutch, the British came to
stay, and with this, an enduring historical relationship between European
imperialism and the Indigenous Peoples emerged. Understandably, the
Indigenous population resisted the encroachment since the beginning,
and Captain Cook himself was well aware that his team was not welcome
(MacIntyre, 2004). This is a typical example of the pattern Edward
Said (1994) observed in Culture and Imperialism where “a historical
experience of resistance against empire” (p. xiv) tends to be common
among colonised people and nations.
Captain Cook noted in his diaries that the Aborigines lived in a tran-
quil ethno-cultural harmony, at peace among themselves and in relation
to the environment. In his own account, he stated that they were keen
to maintain their way of life and their millennia long custodianship of
the continent (MacIntyre, 2004). This directly contradicted the Western
culture rooted in possessive exploitation and self-conscious utilitarian

2 Cook was actually a lieutenant by rank although he became captain of HMS

Endeavour.
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 43

production. The British imperialist drive evolved over time as the colonists
began to develop the land, expand mercantile endeavours, mine natural
resources, engage in rapid human population growth and import a range
of flora and fauna from Britain, instead of living within local ecosys-
tems. Indigenous life thus became an immediate sacrifice for this imperial
project, to which the Indigenous Peoples, who were in no position to
negotiate their way of life and their traditional sacred grounds, vehe-
mently opposed. From the colonists’ viewpoint, the Indigenous Peoples
were regarded as mere nuisance to the settler colonialist endeavours.
The first encounter between whites and the Indigenous Peoples of
Australia was marked by curiosity. However, like other contacts between
white Europeans and other peoples, we can hardly consider this curiosity
as a mutually reciprocated relationship. It was asymmetric in terms of
power dynamics and lacking in imperial regard for the Indigenous way
of life (Strong, 1986). The strategically minded explorer, colonialist
or conquistador whose purpose was exploitation, control, and imperial
expansion could hardly be considered as sharing equal curiosity with
an Indigenous person who was not prepared for conquest as a mode
of engagement that was unlike anything they or their ancestors had
witnessed. The Indigenous relationship with the land and its resources
was purely shared custodianship, where humans are seen as an extension
of the land, completely at odds with the capitalist-minded explorers and
colonialists whose worldview was based on possession and competition,
and conceived the land as part of enemies to be conquered (Bolton, 1981).
The first contact was not just a contact between two groups of people,
black and white, Indigenous and colonist; it was also a contact between
two distinct worldviews, a contact between two different cultures. Both
sides were entering uncharted relationships in the sense that they knew
little about one another. Thus, it is not surprising that the arrival of Euro-
peans in Australia represents an epoch in the continent’s history, an event
that disrupted the long history of the Indigenous Peoples, and eventu-
ally had a radically detrimental impact on the environment, significantly
changing its cultural and topographic landscape (MacIntyre, 2004). By
opening the continent to Western imperial security and commercial inter-
ests, British colonialism introduced a political economy that exploited the
continent’s resources on an industrial scale. This was made possible by the
expansion of European settlements, commercial agriculture and mining.
European settlement in Australia occurred in the middle of the Indus-
trial Revolution, when man was asserting dominance over all nature and
44 A. ELIAS ET AL.

life (Hutton & Connors, 1999). This extended to their massive exploita-
tion, with significant cultural and ecological effects that are evident to
date. Research has documented the environmental degradation and irre-
versible changes European settlement unleashed across the breadth of the
continent (Butzer & Helgren, 2005; Kingsford, 2000).
Understandably, these changes were challenged by environmental
movements, which were active throughout Britain’s colonial history
across the globe (Bolton, 1981; Hutton & Connors, 1999). While the
industrial expansion and concomitant degradation of the environment
became a matter of concern for environmentalists in Britain, the colonial
administration remarkably failed to curb human tragedy that was taking
place in the colonies. Indigenous Peoples were treated as either obstacles
or a cheap human labour force in the capitalist expansion of the colonists.
Historians have only recently began to recount more fully the human
aspect of the impact of Australia’s colonial history (Rogers & Bain, 2016).
It has only been fifty years since Indigenous Peoples have been acknowl-
edged as citizens of their own country, with their experiences receiving
interest in the social sciences. Yet, this colonial history, which is domi-
nated by oppression and racial exploitation, is yet to be fully told, with
scholars beginning to uncover substantial levels of colonial atrocities and
massacres that have been masked by rewritten histories (Dovey, 2017).
The contact that began with Captain Cook was continued throughout
the early and mid-nineteenth century by explorers who travelled deep
into the interior. As these explorers opened up the interior, as well as
the southern and western coasts, inevitable conflict with the Indige-
nous Peoples intensified. These conflicts usually deteriorated into violent
clashes, leading to Indigenous deaths. Indeed, the settlement of convicts
in New South Wales, which was premised on the assumption that Australia
was uninhabited, had set the stage for conflictual relationships between
the colonists and the Indigenous Peoples. Various interrelated socioeco-
nomic and political factors that played out over an extended period have
contributed to the conflicts we explore later in this chapter.
In January 1788, the First Fleet led by Captain Arthur Phillip arrived
at Botany Bay, before docking a week later in Sydney.3 His instruction
from the Crown was to establish a convict colony by taming the natives
and dealing with them peaceably. Governor Phillip at first sought to take a

3 Of the 1066 people who have sailed aboard eleven ships, 31 people are said to have
died during the voyage that took more than eight months (MacIntyre, 2004).
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 45

conciliatory approach towards the colonising mission, which was reflected

in his attempt to establish contact and amity with the Eora and Darug
peoples. He even made friendship with Bennelong, the Indigenous man
who acted as an adviser to the Governor. However, the Governor later
succumbed to rage and vengeance at the fatal spearing of one of his
officers, a suspected murderer of Indigenous Peoples, John Macintyre.
Later, his successor took a hard-line approach. Within a few years of the
First Fleet’s arrival, we have the first recorded incident of hostility that
occurred in 1790s (Blainey, 2004). In 1794–1795, colonists massacred
14 Bediagal Indigenous Peoples of the Eora Nation (Ryan et al., 2019).
The conflict quickly descended into a cycle of violence, as the Indige-
nous Peoples attempted to defend and regain control of their land and
the colonists reacted with vengeance. Historians dispute over whether the
convicts had agency over their behaviour towards the Indigenous Peoples
or they were acting on account of the official policy of the colonial admin-
istration (Rogers & Bain, 2016). This dispute aside, it did not take long
before the relationship evolved into a full-fledged race relations war, as
the European settlement expanded into the interior (MacIntyre, 2004).
The extent of this racial conflict is becoming clearer today with emerging
findings in latest historical and anthropological research (Dovey, 2017;
Ryan, 2010).
The history of race relations in Australia is replete with persistent denial
of historical injustice, sanitisation of genocidal acts and collective forget-
ting of oppression. This forgetting manifests in discourses around the
dispossession, exploitation and elimination of Indigenous Peoples and
their way of life. Many argue that these injustices were tragic episodes
that should be seen within the context of the violent reality of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Conquest, brutality and oppression
were the rules rather than the exceptions across territories vanquished
by Western imperialist expansion. Enlightenment ideals were new (and
largely restricted to white men), while humanitarianism had not emerged
in the global order of international relations. Human rights were alien to
the world and might determined what was right. In this context, geno-
cide and the exploitation of the weak would be considered a legitimate
right of the strong. This is an argument that attempts to sanitise the past
by normalising injustice. It indeed is a common trope narrated to appease
the moral guilt of privileged groups and powers.
Yet, even by the standards of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
neither genocide nor dispossession was acceptable, at least to human
46 A. ELIAS ET AL.

beings who considered themselves civilised. Then, as now, some protested

the ongoing genocide, racial injustice and oppression (cf. nineteenth
century correspondence: Reynolds, 1996). More humane views since as
early as sixteenth century (e.g. Bartolomé de las Casas in Latin America),
anti-slavery initiatives (among Quakers in the eighteenth century and
beyond) and in the nineteenth century (e.g. the abolitionists Clarkson,
Wilberforce and Douglass, in England and the US), tell us the repug-
nance of such injustices to the human conscience (Clayton, 2010;
Hochschild, 2006). Across religious and philosophical traditions, there
have been numerous voices repudiating prejudice and bigotry based on
race, ethnicity, religion and ancestry.
In Australia, particularly in the 1830–1840s, there were a few humani-
tarians who mounted faint protests against the injustices and massacres
of the Indigenous Peoples. However, they were powerless against the
colonists whose economic interests coincided with the then British impe-
rial objectives (Elbourne, 2003). In the end, the settlement policy was
left to the colonial administration itself, which enabled or ignored the
rampant frontier violence occurring in the Australian outback (MacIn-
tyre, 2004). The human dignity and rights of Indigenous Peoples were
considered of marginal significance to the pressing territorial needs of the
Empire.
Australia was chosen as a place for British colonial expansion following
the loss of North America. Historians point to two particular motives
for British colonial expansion in Australia: (1) penitentiary needs: as a
dumping site for dangerous criminals (i.e. convicts) and (2) geostrategic
benefit, as a source for raw materials for shipbuilding (MacIntyre, 2004).
After losing part of the American colonies, the British Empire needed
Australia for its century-and-half old practice of convict transportation
(Kercher, 2003; Maxwell-Stewart, 2010). Thus, like many settler colo-
nial outposts, the establishment of colonial Australia was not modelled
after the full system of British statecraft. The colonial administration
was governed as a military outpost, and convicts toiled as self-sufficient
labourers. In the absence of civilian laws that regulated and protected the
rights and responsibilities of the colonists and Indigenous Peoples, the
British colonial history has been one of protests, mutinies and frontier
conflicts.
The conditions in the penal colony were harsh to say the least, both
due to the scarcity of supplies and the disciplinary regimen enacted to
subdue the convicts. The writer Robert Hughes has described Australia
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 47

then as a harsh place, an exiled world, strange, a gulag only fit for banish-
ment and privation. Due to the harsh conditions, and a variety of social
and economic issues, the early British colonisation were rife with riots
and rebellions. Occasionally, convicts absconded and fled to the bush in
search of freedom, with many vanishing without trace while the remnants
of some were found (MacIntyre, 2004). Ordinary colonists were not at
ease either, with rebellions occasionally breaking out. A notable incident
is the Rum Rebellion of 1808 instigated by disgruntled officers led by
John Macarthur, which led to the overthrow of then Governor William
Bligh.
The harsh treatment of the convicts persisted until conditions
improved in the 1820s under Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Yet, the
stigma attached would continue for generations until it dissipated as
mistreatment of convicts grew into disrepute among growing native-born
Australians (Hughes, 2010). Under Macquarie, significant reform and
infrastructural activity made the colony more liveable for the colonial
settlers. However, Macquarie’s reform was resisted within the colonial
establishment, and at the insistence of commission of inquiry reports by J.
T. Bigge, convicts were reinstated as gang labourers from the 1820s. This
was strongly resented by the emancipists. These native-born colonists who
called themselves Australians were becoming increasingly assertive for the
equal rights of all colonists including ex-convicts. A decade later, there
was heavy pressure against the convict system, and transportation to New
South Wales was totally abandoned in 1840. In Tasmania, which remained
a penal colony under Governor Arthur, transportation continued until
1853.
Meanwhile, in the 1830s and 1840s, free immigrants had began to
replace the transportation of convicts, as the newcomers scrambled to take
advantage of the profitable pastoral opportunities. The arrival of more
immigrants meant more land grab and continuous demographic transfor-
mation. Within sixty years of colonisation, the white population grew to
more than 405,000 by 1850 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019: see
Table 2.2). By then, most of the major colonies were established, with
40% of the white population living in the towns. A place that began as an
exile for the social outcasts, gradually, through expropriation of land and
the dispossession of the traditional owners, and through controlled and
systematic colonisation, became a thriving free society for white colonists.
48 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Table 2.2 Australian population since the arrival of the First Fleet, 1788–2019

Period Total population as at Dec. Year Indigenous peoples population

31sta

1788–1790 2056 1788 314,500

1791–1800 5217 1861 180,402
1801–1810 11,566 1871 155,285
1811–1820 33,543 1881 131,666
1821–1830 70,039 1891 110,919
1831–1840 190,408 1901 94,564
1841–1850 405,356 1911 83,588
1851–1860 1,145,585 1921 75,604
1861–1870 1,647,756 1933 73,828
1871–1880 2,231,531 1947 87,000
1881–1890 3,151,355 1954 100,048
1891–1900 3,765,339 1961 117,495
1901–1910 4,425,083 1966 132,219
1911–1920 5,411,297 1971 150,076
1921–1930 6,500,751 1976b 160,915
1931–1940 7,077,586 1981b 159,897
1941–1950 8,315,791 1986b 227,593
1951–1960 10,391,920 1991b 265,371
1961–1970 12,663,469 1996 386,049
1971–1980 14,807,370 2001 458,520
1981–1990 17,169,768 2006 517,043
1991–2000 19,141,036 2011 669,881
2001–2010 22,172,469 2016 798,365
2011–2015 23,984,581
a Since 1961, the numbers include First Nations, and prior to 1971 numbers indicate actual residents
while thereafter they include estimated residents. For Indigenous Peoples, the numbers indicate
minimum Estimated Resident Population except the years indicated in b which are based on Census
counts
Source Australian Bureau of Statistics (2019)

British Colonialism and Dispossession

Well Mitter … all black-fellow gone! All this my country! pretty place
botany! Little pickaninny, I run about here. Plenty black-fellow then,
corrobbory; great fight; all canoe about. Only me left now, Mitter—Poor
gin mine tumble down, All gone!
–Mahroot, cited in MacIntyre, 2004, p. 66
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 49

These are the words of Mahroot, an Indigenous Elder in Sydney, whose

recollections of the changes he witnessed in his lifetime were recorded by
a British visitor in the 1840s. In Sydney in those days, the Indigenous
population declined significantly, with most of the survivors camped at
Botany Bay.4 The deplorable conditions were similar in other European
settlements. The depopulation was continuing unabated so that “within
five years the Aboriginal people on the outskirts of the new settlements
at Melbourne and Adelaide were reduced to beggary” (MacIntyre, 2004,
p. 66).
This is just one example of the dozens of stories of depopulation that
have been enacted within a century of colonisation, prior to the Australian
Federation. Yet, it tells with remarkable clarity the catastrophic nature
and effect of a settler colonial project on the natives. The goal of settler
colonialism is the removal or elimination of Indigenous Peoples of an
occupied territory to give way to the colonists (Hixson, 2013; Wolfe,
2006). This need not be expressed explicitly, yet it has been imple-
mented in such a way that it realised the objectives despite lukewarm
concerns voiced from some quarters of the Empire. Indeed, when the
British government made its decision to settle Australia fifteen years after
Captain Cook’s exploration, the rights of the Indigenous Peoples were
not taken into consideration (MacIntyre, 2004). It was apparent that
the Crown had little interest in their conditions, as long as the colonial
objectives were achieved while the settlers pursued their violent expansion,
and considered their actions a matter of necessity (Elbourne, 2003). The
Indigenous Peoples were considered as enemies against enterprise (Macin-
tyre, 2004) and enemies to be conquered (Bolton, 1981), and this attitude
inevitably led to conflicts that resulted in massacres.
Looking at the history of Australian settler colonialism from a race rela-
tions perspective, the contact between Europeans and Indigenous Peoples
in Australia has always raised political tensions. The contested narrative is
that while many Australian historians have seen the arrival of Cook and
other colonists as peaceful, postcolonial narratives consider the contact
as asymmetrical and one of the prime examples of intercultural conflict.
As such, many—including Indigenous people—regard Captain Cook’s
claim of the continent for the British Crown as illegal (Banner, 2005). In
Indigenous tradition, the arrival is seen as traumatic colonial invasion that

4 Among the early Indigenous Peoples who resisted the settler colonists were the Eora,
Bidjigal and Wiradjuri peoples.
50 A. ELIAS ET AL.

unjustly and traumatically subjugated, displaced and dispossessed Indige-

nous Peoples in Australia (Konishi, 2019; Moreton-Robinson, 2003;
Reynolds, 2006; Watson, 2005). Once the brief amicable attempts of
the colonists faltered, the enactment of violence as a method indeed
had genocidal effect, with intergenerational repercussions. There is no
doubt that the prolonged exclusion and marginalisation of the Indige-
nous Peoples in Australia provides ample material to show how settler
colonialism and the European way of life unsettled and traumatised the
original population.
Was intercultural conflict inevitable? This is difficult to answer, yet
the contribution of the colonial mentality of the colonists towards the
tense race relations is beyond doubt. The condescension of the colonists
towards the Indigenous Peoples was a norm shared by everyone. Even
the relatively benevolent Governor Lachlan Macquarie was not immune
to violence against Indigenous Peoples. “While he was still ‘determined
to persevere in [his] original plan of endeavouring to domesticate and
civilize these wild rude people’, it was apparent that this could only be
done by removing and remaking them” (MacIntyre, 2004, p. 49). As
in many colonial settlements, the Indigenous Peoples were treated like
captives, which could be dispensed for the benefit of the colonists. One of
these practices relates to the preparedness of the colonists to permit the
convicts to intermarry with Indigenous women during the first contact
and the early colonisation periods. In a typical colonial disregard, the
settler approach towards cultural considerations could hardly be conceived
as sustainable for amicable relationships with Indigenous Peoples.
Across the settlements, the colonial practice involved active campaigns
of land grab, Indigenous depopulation, and encirclement within reser-
vations, which were standard practices. Until 1828, the colonists were
largely confined to Van Diemen’s Land (i.e. Tasmania) and New South
Wales. In the 1820s, expeditions into the interior began to open up the
continent for further colonial incursions. Pastoralists took advantage of
the exploration taking possession of vast grasslands, and over the next
decade, settlements expanded along much of the southeast, with grazing
grounds stretching from Adelaide to Brisbane. With this, production
of livestock expanded, leading to the exponential growth of the wool
industry. By 1850, there were 13 million sheep in New South Wales, and
Australia supplied half of the British wool market (MacIntyre, 2004).
The continuous pastoral incursion was consequential for the Indige-
nous Peoples who found themselves in frequent confrontations with the
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 51

colonists over land and resources. As they continued to be pushed and

removed from their hunting grounds, they mounted occasional resistance.
Although their resistance proved unmatched to the colonists’ firepower,
it did slow the incursions. With their resistance, they were able to strike
alarm to the effect that there was talk of Black War among the colonists.
Subsequently, in the 1830s and 1840s, the colonists in Van Diemen’s
Land, New South Wales and Western Australia mobilised regular troops
and mounted police in pacification expeditions that resulted in heavy
casualties (MacIntyre, 2004). Conveniently, the colonists increasingly
relied on lethal force, unwilling to respect the Indigenous peoples’ prop-
erty rights or accommodate them within the colonial labour force. To
be sure, neither were Indigenous Peoples prepared to accommodate their
colonial invaders. At this stage, the pastoral invaders were increasingly
assuming racist attitudes (Rogers & Bain, 2016). Many of them being
ex-soldiers/officers, they easily resorted to the massacre of Indigenous
Peoples (MacIntyre, 2004, pp. 58–59). For example, the explorer Major
Thomas Mitchell reports killing many Indigenous Peoples, while many
other massacres occurred over the decades of pastoral expansion.
Until recently, accounts of frontier violence were largely suppressed
in Australian history (MacIntyre, 2004). Such accounts only emerged in
recent decades (from the late 1970s) in the works of historians such as
Henry Reynolds, Geoffrey Blainey, Bain Attwood, and Andrew Markus.
Yet, a denial of the frontier violence remains with historians calling for
the inclusion of Aboriginal-European warfare casualties in the coun-
try’s war memorial (Attwood, 2017). Such denial belies the significant
impact frontier conflict had on Indigenous Peoples. For example, the
pace of depopulation of the Indigenous Peoples in New South Wales and
Van Diemen’s Land between the 1820s and 1840s was staggering. The
concerns by some civil society members against the colonial injustices and
martial law imposed over Indigenous Peoples did not deter the colonial
expansion and the extermination of the latter. According to MacIntyre
(2004), Indigenous Peoples in Van Damien’s Land were completely elim-
inated, and many were deported from Tasmania while the last remnants
forced into reserves near Hobart. Indigenous Peoples had no option,
after the expropriation and dispossession of their hunting grounds, but
to succumb to poverty, famine and restricted living within reserves. The
situation in South Australia around 1835 shows an example of the tragic
disregard and destruction of Indigenous Peoples and property. Despite a
lukewarm injunction by the Colonial Office for the respect of the native
52 A. ELIAS ET AL.

proprietors, the massacres that led to the elimination of the Indigenous

Peoples were not prevented (MacIntyre, 2004).
Frontier violence was enacted in concert with the continuous subse-
quent denial of prior organised colonisation of the continent. Until
recently, the colonial establishment of Australia has been assumed to be
based on the doctrine of terra nullius (no one’s land) (Scott, 1940).
However, this has been widely rejected (Borch, 2001), with evidence
that at least 300,000 Indigenous Peoples were living in Australia when
the British colonists arrived (see Table 2.2).5 During the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, international law specified that sovereignty could be
established on a new territory under three conditions: conquest, cession
or settlement (Banner, 2005). Yet, the British Crown never claimed
either of the first two conditions. In fact, there is still apprehension
surrounding calling the arrival of the First Fleet an invasion. Therefore,
implicitly the justification has rested on the doctrine of terra nullius ,
despite the fact that Indigenous Peoples continuously inhabited the land
for millennia. The British colonists found Indigenous Peoples to be
localised with complex social organisation, customary law, and culture
(MacIntyre, 2004). Scholars consider the doctrine in its reference to
Australia as a rationale adopted a century later to justify “the territorial
acquisition of this continent and expropriation of Australia’s Indigenous
Peoples, [that] denied their personhood, culture and governance systems,
and legitimated their exclusion from most benefits of modernisation”
(Havemann, 2005, p. 57; Wolfe, 2006).
To be sure, the Australian colonies did not explicitly invoke the terra
nullius doctrine throughout the 18th while the idea of “land inhabited
by hunters and gatherers to be ownerless, became fairly widespread in
legal thinking in the nineteenth century” (Borch, 2001, p. 238; see also
Fitzmaurice, 2007). This was a retrospective twentieth-century assump-
tion, and has been criticised as a legal fiction (Evans, 2002; Havemann,
2005). Thus, the colonial dispossession of Aboriginal lands remains a
strongly contested issue, particularly so after the Australian High Court
effectively rejected, in the 1992 landmark court case Mabo vs. Queensland
(No. 2), that Australia was terra nullius at the time of British occupation
(Fitzmaurice, 2007; Ritter, 1996).

5 Estimates of the number of Indigenous Peoples at the time of British Colonisation

in 1788 vary from 300,000 to around 1.5 million (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019;
Bultin, 1993; Dudgeon et al., 2010).
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 53

The British Empire colonised Australia on unclear legal ground. Ex post

facto, the colony became Crown property, and the territorial claims did
not clearly indicate that Britain invaded an already inhabited country. Nor
did it negotiate treaty or purchase territory from the Indigenous Peoples.
When a proclamation by Sir Richard Bourke, the Governor of New South
Wales, rejected the treaty signed between John Batman and Aboriginal
chiefs in October 1835, the Crown effectively declared possession of the
colony as terra nullius —no man’s land (Fry, 1946). From the outset, this
has been a complex and contentious issue in Australian colonial history.
Historians indicate that the colonists were clueless about the demography
of the continent. For example, MacIntyre (2004) contends that there was
misunderstanding regarding the number of Indigenous Peoples at the
time of occupation, which may have subsequently led to the adoption
of terra nullius :

Phillip and his officers were therefore surprised by the number of Aborig-
ines round the settlement. They quickly came to appreciate that these
people had social organization, settled localities, customary law and prop-
erty rights. The whole claim of sovereignty and ownership on the basis
of terra nullius was manifestly based on a misreading of Australian
circumstance. (p. 33)

However, given the temporal gap between colonisation and terra

nullius , we do see a clear misappropriation of the legal term in later schol-
arship and legal discourse. In spite of this, claims of terra nullius supplied
an international legal ground, while the justification for colonisation also
rested on another doctrine stipulated in English Common Law. According
to this alternative claim, Australia was desert and uncultivated, and hence
no property rights could be established by Aboriginal inhabitants (Secher,
2007). This colonial claim imposed a Eurocentric view that rejected tradi-
tional Aboriginal laws until the Mabo vs. Queensland decision in 1992
(Banner, 2005; Secher, 2007).
Indigenous Peoples have always resisted British occupation. Captain
Cook’s statement that “All they seem’d to want is for us to be gone”
captures this sentiment (MacIntyre, 2004, p. 28). Indigenous resis-
tance became more apparent during Governor Phillip’s tenure, and
thereafter as the relationship worsened. The colonists knew that this resis-
tance stemmed from the knowledge that the colonial settlement was
dispossessing the Indigenous Peoples, taking their traditional land and
54 A. ELIAS ET AL.

resources. After Governor Philip, open conflict, notably the Hawkesbury

and Nepean Wars, occurred from 1794 to 1816, resulting in the deaths
of 26 colonists and more than 80 Indigenous Peoples. One of the most
notable feats of Indigenous resistance occurred during this period when
an Eora man, Pemulwuy, fought against colonial invasion using guer-
rilla tactics to create confusion, frustration and injury. After more than a
decade of triumphs, daring escapes and near-death experiences, Pemulwuy
was eventually assassinated in Parramatta in 1802.
During the violent frontier expansion of the 1820s–1840s, the Indige-
nous Peoples mounted another wave of resistance. Yet, the result of the
asymmetrical conflict was a swift decline in the number of the popu-
lation (Reynolds, 2006; Wolfe, 2006). Although Indigenous resistance
intensified in the 1830s, it was largely localised, and only succeeded in
delaying the white Australian advance into the interior. It did not amount
to a unified Black war (MacIntyre, 2004). Whenever the confronta-
tions occurred in a direct battle, the Aboriginal spearman had no chance
against the musket, but Indigenous Peoples found better success by
using guerrilla tactics. Yet, this intensified the conflict as surprise attacks
by Aboriginal spearmen provoked brutal retaliations from the colonists,
which sometimes resulted in gruesome massacres. The most notable is the
Myall Creek massacre of at least 28 Kwiambal people in 1838.6
Progressively, the colonists who wielded superior arms and had the
institutional backing of the colonial administration inevitably quelled the
resistance. To put an end to the Indigenous resistance and subsequent
conflict, the settler colonial strategy then changed with the pacifica-
tion—a euphemism for extermination—of the natives (MacIntyre, 2004).
The effect was the swift dispossession, degradation and ultimate subju-
gation of Indigenous Peoples. The colonists had the next challenge, a
scarcity of labour to work the vast farmlands they had commandeered
and controlled. They resorted towards exploiting the Indigenous Peoples
for their labour. Hartwig (1972) describes the condition of native employ-
ment as equivalent to slavery in the American south. Not only were they
treated in a patronising manner, they were treated like objects and did
not receive wages; they survived on rations (see for example May, 1994).
Hartwig (1972) thus writes:

6 The Myall Creek massacre led to an exceptional inquiry that resulted in the trial and
execution of seven colonists.
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 55

the settlers rationalized their exploitative dominance in an ideology of

paternalism and racism, regarding Aborigines as inferior, unintelligent, lazy,
irresponsible grown-up children, acceptable and even lovable, as long as
they were ‘kept in their place’. (p. 14)7

Colonial Massacres
An account of race relations in Australia must begin with the physical
violence that underlined the policy of colonial administration during the
early days of colonisation. Although the violence began before the use
of the words race or racism in academic and social discourse, scholars
have used the concept of racial discrimination to describe historical acts
of violence perpetrated against perceived outgroups (Sweet, 1997). In
Australia, the exclusions and genocidal treatment of Indigenous Peoples
began with the earliest colonial settlements. As the colonists began to
assert their authority, they quickly started to operate as owners of the
continent. However, this could not be enacted without the imperialist
mind, the possessive spirit that is accompanied by the dehumanising
and othering gaze towards native people, and their representation as
uncivilised and ignorant savages (Said, 1979, 1994). The dehumani-
sation of a particular group provides an ontological condition for the
removal of that group (Savage, 2013), and as such plays a critical role
in a genocidal project (Arendt, 1968). In the Australian context, the infe-
riorising and othering outlook towards the native people appears in the
accounts of the explorers, which inevitably must have enabled the ease
with which the massacres took place (Strong, 1986). Beginning with
William Dampier, many of the explorers (e.g. Tasman, Cook, Banks,
Eyrie, etc.) had a prejudiced and dehumanising view of the Indigenous
Peoples that they encountered, and in their accounts, considered the latter
little more than animals. These sentiments were the harbingers for the
brutal outlook and instinctive fear and hatred that would unleash wanton
killings of Indigenous Peoples, in reaction to the slightest provocation
(Evans, 2004).

7 This conception of the Indigenous Peoples reflects the colonialist imagination of

Indigenous societies as primitive and savage. Elsewhere, the representation of colonised
societies as alien other, irrational, indolent, decayed and despotic has been conceptualised
as Orientalism (Said, 1979).
56 A. ELIAS ET AL.

The persistent colonial view of Indigenous Peoples as subhuman, in

addition to providing the pretext to claim colonial sovereignty, has laid
the foundation for the utter disregard for their lives. While there were
initial orders to treat the native people fairly and humanely (e.g. Captain
Arthur’s initial orders), they were quickly ignored as they came to be seen
as hindrance and colonial violence became frequent. On several occasions,
any attempts of the native people to defend themselves and their country
was met with brutal attacks (MacIntyre, 2004). A vicious cycle of Indige-
nous attacks and violent colonist retribution characterises race relations
throughout the nineteenth century.
Consequently, within the context of the settler colonial expansion, an
immediate effect of the successful British colonisation of Australia was
the catastrophic demographic decline in Indigenous population. Scholars
have used the word genocide to refer to the continuous depopulation of
Indigenous Peoples (Moses, 2004; Rogers & Bain, 2016). This decline
was a result of discriminatory policies, including displacement, violence
and infectious disease. The colonies saw the extinction and extermination
of the Indigenous Peoples as essential for successful settlement (Rogers &
Bain, 2016). While states such as Western Australia stated this as an official
policy, there were also those who saw that there was no need for actions to
cause unnecessary cruelty to Indigenous Peoples who were approaching
inevitable extinction (Rogers & Bain, 2016).
The extent of violence in the frontiers involved massacres of thousands
of Indigenous Peoples over several decades. Researchers have recently
started to document the massacres that are directly related to the colo-
nial expansion in the frontiers (Dovey, 2017; Ryan, 2010). An Australian
Research Council project by the University of Newcastle mapped and
documented 311 sites of massacre that included 8271 Indigenous victims
over the 1788–1930 period (Rogers & Bain, 2016; Ryan et al., 2019).
The report indicates how deliberate the acts of violence were:

The act of massacre is usually a planned rather than a spontaneous event.

It takes place in secret. No witnesses are intended to be present. The
assassins and victims often know each other. It is a one sided event in that
the victims lack self-defence. (Ryan et al., 2019)

According to some estimates, British colonists killed 20,000 Indige-

nous Peoples (Kiernan, 2002; Reynolds, 2006). However, massacres
were not the only causes of Indigenous deaths. Infections from diseases
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 57

brought by the colonists (such as influenza, pneumonia and smallpox)

killed the majority of the Indigenous Peoples (Butlin, 1983; Campbell,
1983, 1985). The exact death toll from the infectious diseases as a result
of contact with the British is not clearly known, and estimates vary
between 200,000 and 600,000 people (Campbell, 1983; Kiernan, 2002;
MacIntyre, 2004). Some scholars estimate the death rate associated with
smallpox and venereal diseases to be as high as 80% of the Indigenous
population in New South Wales and Victoria (Moses, 2004).
While settler colonialism effectively led to significant deaths of the
Indigenous Peoples—extinction in some areas (e.g. Tasmania)—until
recently the notion of genocide was applied with strong resistance from
some historians, politicians and writers (Rogers & Bain, 2016). A notable
example is the rejection by Prime Minister John Howard who strongly
disagreed that the historical injustice against the Indigenous Peoples
amounted to a genocide (Barta, 2008; Davidson, 2014).8 This contra-
dicted the historic acknowledgement of such injustice by Prime Minister
Paul Keating in his 1992 Redfern Park Speech.

Race Relations in the Nineteenth Century

The widespread denial of basic human rights for Indigenous Peoples
continued unhindered for much of the nineteenth century (Chesterman
& Galligan, 1997). In the 1830s, this reached a point where some
people raised humanitarian concerns over the potential extinction of
native people in Australia and other colonies (Moses, 2004). A Select
Committee of Inquiry, established in 1837, “urged the British Govern-
ment to take moral responsibility for Indigenous people” (Moses, 2004,
p. 7). However, this remained a faint light in a sea of brutal campaigns
against the native people, particularly in the period when scientific racism
became dominant. Ideologues, writers and scholars (e.g. Charles Dilke,
Anthony Trollope and Charles Darwin) saw the oppression, injustice and
genocidal violence visited upon Indigenous Peoples, as the inevitable
examples of “the strong extirpating the weaker” (Moses, 2004, p. 5).
For others, including politicians, business people and community leaders,
this was a tragic but inevitable outcome of the civilizing mission.

8 In a 2014 interview broadcast, Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program, the former
Prime Minister categorically stated: “I didn’t believe genocide had taken place, and I still
don’t” (Davidson, 2014).
58 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the colonial states confined
the majority of Indigenous Peoples in reservations (Moses, 2004). This
measure, which aimed to protect the natives from frontier violence,
succeeded in significantly destroying the Indigenous way of life. While the
reservations were designed to be safe places for the Indigenous Peoples, in
reality they became instruments of oppression where they were subjected
to stringent regulations, and racial discrimination (Moses, 2004). In
addition, the reservations had been designed to meet the exploita-
tive economic objectives of the settler colonial project, and Indigenous
Peoples served as the source of unpaid or poorly paid labour (May,
1994). While land was the primary factor in the expansion of colonial
settlements, the cattle industry had immensely benefited from Indigenous
labour. Yet, this had not prevented the widespread racial discrimination
and exploitation within the industry (Stead & Altman, 2019). Until
the 1850s, the expansion of colonial settlements and associated fron-
tier violence dominated race relations in Australia. With the discovery of
gold in 1851, Australian history of race and labour relations has been
transformed (Curthoys & Moore, 1995). The racialised labour market
conditions Indigenous Peoples face persisted after Federation. Larkin
(2013) provides a detailed account of the racialised utilisation of Indige-
nous labour and institutional racism in Australia during the colonial
period.
The prospector Edward Hargraves was among the first colonists to
claim discovering gold beyond the Blue Mountains in a place he named
Ophir. Months after his discovery, hundreds of prospectors flocked to
the site in search of the precious metal. This quickly gained more atten-
tion as thousands of locals in other districts, particularly Victoria, camped,
digging in licensed blocks. By the end of 1851, around 20,000 diggers
were engaged in prospecting activities in the Victorian goldfields (MacIn-
tyre, 2004). News of the successful goldmines boosted the immigration
sector, and within a decade, the non-Indigenous population tripled to
1,150,000. Victoria alone accounted for nearly half of this population,
and produced a third of the global gold production (MacIntyre, 2004).
The majority of the immigrants that arrived during the Gold Rush
came from the United Kingdom. However, the search for gold has also
attracted non-British migrants from many European countries including
the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary and Poland. Another
significant number of migrants arrived from China (approximately 40,000
by 1858) and the Pacific Islands (Markey, 1996).
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 59

The Gold Rush lasted until 1888, with goldfields extending from
Charter Towers (Queensland) to the Pilbara (Western Australia). It
fundamentally transformed the Australian economy, with gold revenue
financing infrastructural projects ranging from railway to shipping, manu-
facturing, and building. Meanwhile, as the Gold Rush continued to
stir economic development across Australian colonies, immigration and
social issues became instrumental in introducing political reforms that
reshaped the colonial administration. With this, the colonists gained
significant concessions from the Crown, and the states were invested
with self-government powers, respective constitutions and representative
parliaments. Subsequently, self-government, which was modelled after the
Westminster system, gave the colonists the right to elect their representa-
tives while the property owners secured the Upper House allowing them
to protect their interests. In the long-term, this would become Australia’s
enduring source of structural inequality.
Meanwhile, the interests of the property owners and squatting
colonists were in direct collision during the second half of the century.
This gave rise to political contestation over the inequitable land distri-
bution within the colonies. Unlike earlier squatters who benefited from
the land grabs of the first half of the nineteenth century, many who
immigrated during the Gold Rush did not possess land. This became a
cause for agrarian reform movements, which were subsequently defeated
in the Upper House. Those who managed to purchase enough land later
emerged as successful agro-pastoralists, capitalising on modern railway
and mechanised farming.

Anti-Indigenous Peoples Racism

White colonial relationship with Indigenous Peoples in the second half
of the nineteenth century was confined to the frontiers, and was usually
violent (Pope, 1988). Racial tension in the labour market was limited,
as they were not integrated in the formal economic activity (Markey,
1996). Those who were employed in mines during the Gold Rush were
exposed to smallpox and measles, which had a toll on the rural Indigenous
workers. Indigenous labourers had greater involvement in pastoral activity
in Queensland while, as mentioned above, some were employed in other
industries (e.g. shipping, horticulture, and domestic service) (Curthoys &
Moore, 1995; Stead & Altman, 2019).
60 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Racism against Indigenous employees was not limited to the agri-

cultural sector, it was common across all industries in which they were
employed. Despite many attempts by Indigenous Peoples to settle after
successful employment spells, they were far from being accepted as part
of the colonial society. Even those supporting employment of Indigenous
Peoples maintained that “the two races can never amalgamate—the white
labourer, and the native (be he ever so useful) cannot be brought together
on equal terms” (Dr. Richard Penny, cited in Pope, 1988, p. 14). Pope
(1988) concluded that “This attitude meant that no matter how well the
Aborigines worked, or how long an employee he proved, there was little
chance he would be allowed a permanent place in the labour force of the
colony” (p. 14).
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Indigenous Peoples
found themselves complete outsiders to Australia’s emerging polit-
ical economy that combined representative electoral democracy with
entrenched patronage and political opportunism. Within this system,
racism was allowed to embed itself, enabled by a combination of insti-
tutional and interpersonal racial conflicts. The ideological base of white
superiority and dominance from the outset enacted exclusionary policies
that worked against the incorporation of Indigenous Peoples and certain
racial minorities, e.g. Chinese, Pacific Islanders, etc. (Markey, 1996).

Anti-Chinese Racism
One of the immediate effects of the Gold Rush was the attraction of
immigrants from various countries. Among those who flocked to Australia
were migrants from mainland China. However, their arrival was not
welcomed by the colonists, and they were treated viciously as a commu-
nity with distinct appearance, culture and language (MacIntyre, 2004;
Markus, 1985). Certainly, this anti-Chinese racism was also flaring across
other Anglo-Celtic colonial societies, particularly in the US during the
Californian Gold Rush (Kanazawa, 2005; Markus, 1979). In Australia,
this had both social, economic and institutional dimensions. In the 1850s,
Cantonese Chinese immigrants accounted for the largest non-European
immigration in Australia. Most of them were labourers recruited by
emigration agents from the southern provinces of mainland Chinese
ports, mainly from the Guangdong province (MacIntyre, 2004). The
majority were indentured, assigned to work until their contracts expired,
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 61

with their wage earnings repatriated to China. Despite this, they expe-
rienced vicious and outright racism (Hage, 2014; Markey, 1996). For
example, in 1857, race riots erupted in Victoria, and in 1861, there was
another anti-Chinese racial attack in New South Wales. The Victorian and
New South Wales governments responded by imposing strict regulations
that required Chinese immigrants to pay entry taxes and reside in separate
protected areas in the goldfields (Cronin, 1982). When Chinese migrants
arrived, they were detested and were seen as competitors in the goldfields.
In Queensland (1860s) and the Northern Territory (1870s), most were
forced to relocate into horticulture and other industries.
Between 1878 and 1888, worker’s unions across Australia waged
intense anti-Chinese campaigns, usually accompanied by strikes, rallies
and public gatherings. For example, in 1878 a seamen’s strike took place
in Sydney opposing the appointment of Chinese crew at below stan-
dard wages. This triggered prolonged anti-immigration political debates.
Subsequently, the popular radical nationalist newspaper, the Bulletin,

intensified its established anti-Chinese campaign in 1886. Anti-Chinese

Leagues sprang up throughout the colonies in 1886-88, when some urban
Chinese were physically maltreated and some Queensland shearers were
involved in a number of strikes over Chinese employment that peaked in
1889. (Markey, 1996, p. 350)

Chinese migrants in turn protested the restrictive immigration policies,

yet they barely had an impact on the growing anti-immigration sentiment.
As the campaigns intensified, the unions finally achieved their demands
when the government imposed tighter restrictions on immigration in
1888.
Social and economic factors strongly contributed to the hostility
towards the Chinese immigrants. Infused by white superiority senti-
ments, the colonists saw cross-racial breeding as a potential social threat,
since most of them were bachelors. The response was extreme intoler-
ance towards non-white communities, and anti-Chinese “attitudes were
forged in an environment of fierce economic competition, [and] declining
incomes” (Markus, 1985, p. 88). The notion of class-based exploitation
was vital, particularly for the early labour movement that aggressively
pushed for racially exclusive policies. There was fear that the replacement
of convict labour by indentured non-white labour could undermine union
standards. The idea that “class exploitation through the use of non-white
62 A. ELIAS ET AL.

labor at substandard wages and conditions … would undermine union

standards and unionism itself” (Markey, 1996, p. 346), thus became a
powerful motive for anti-Chinese sentiments among workers. Among the
craft unionists who were dominant within the labour movement of the
nineteenth century, racial exclusion “was an extension of exclusivist poli-
cies that maintained high wages and favorable working conditions by
restricting entry to the trade or calling” (Markey, 1996, p. 346). Such
an exclusionary attitude included opposition to immigration broadly and
specifically towards non-whites such as Chinese immigrants.
During this period, racial issues based on white racial superiority
became a powerful organising platform for the labour movement. It cut
across social class divisions, and was embraced among white colonists.
Racial exclusion was politically profitable as evidenced in the expansion
of political support for the labour movement. While the notion of cheap
Chinese labour as an economic threat provided the basis for anti-Chinese
hostility, overt racism that flared throughout the campaigns raised

greater enthusiasm than anti-immigration activity generally. At meetings,

the same speakers who located the issue in a class perspective of economic
threat always returned to outright racial antagonism. They linked the
Chinese with corruption, disease, opium smoking, and the desecration of
white women. If the Chinese were wayward or criminal, in any way, white
fears confirmed; if well-behaved, Chinese were cunning. (Markey, 1996,
p. 351)

These racist tropes conveniently glossed over the restrictive policies

that rejected admission of Chinese workers to union membership and
denied them the right to bring their spouses. Yet, they provided a polit-
ical platform that broadened the social-base of the labour movement.
This persisted well into the 1890s when the Chinese population declined
significantly. Anti-Chinese hostility was the precursor to the racially
exclusive immigration policies of the early twentieth century (Markey,
1996).

Anti-Pacific Islander Racism

The Labor movement’s agitation against Chinese immigration culminated
with the passage of restrictive legislations in 1888. Over the following
decade, Labor’s attention turned towards the Melanesian labourers in
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 63

Queensland (known as Kanaka). Like the Chinese, significant numbers

of these South Pacific Islanders were brought to Queensland to provide
agricultural labour in sugar plantations (Corris, 1968; Stead & Altman,
2019). Between 1863 and 1904, more than 62,000 Pacific Islanders
were transported. The first ships that brought the Kanaka people arrived
in Queensland in 1863. They were mainly indentured labourers tricked
or kidnapped and forcibly transported from their islands to the colony
because they were considered suitable for hard labour in the tropical
climate. Some of them were minors aged as young as 12 years when
they were kidnapped (Commonwealth of Australia, 2017). In the sugar
plantations, the Kanaka toiled under slavery conditions. The planta-
tion owners euphemistically called the kidnapping Blackbirding (Corris,
1968). Trade unions lamented the employment of Kanakas, albeit for
their own self-interest rather than the conditions. The unions rejected
union membership for the Kanaka who were abused and lived under harsh
working and living conditions. They suffered death rates that were three
times higher than those of the white population. In addition to their
appalling living conditions, the Kanaka were subjected to overt racism,
and they were considered by white settlers as inferior and uncivilised races
(Markey, 1996).
Opposition to the importation of Kanaka intensified across the colonies
towards the end of the 1890s as the colonies drew closer to Federation.
The unions were apprehensive that the Kanaka system could be detri-
mental to the cause of white labour post-Federation. This led to the
extension of the labour movement’s agitations towards comprehensive
anti-alien legislation (Markey, 1996).
Towards the end of the century, outside Chinese and Kanaka, hostility
broadened towards non-white groups including Japanese, Indians, and
Afghans who emigrated in the 1890s and were also considered undesir-
ables. Almost all Asian immigration to Australia ceased by 1901. That
year, nearly 98% of all immigrants arrived from Britain and between 1901
and 1914, the predominant arrivals were from the British Isles (Irish,
English and Scottish) or New Zealand/Aotearoa (Mence et al., 2017).

The Federation and White Australia

Racial attitudes greatly shaped how Australians imagined the nation as it
entered a new phase of colonial settlement. These attitudes were reflected
during the parliamentary debates about who should be included and/or
64 A. ELIAS ET AL.

excluded, and what the newly established Federation would constitute its
national character both culturally and politically. They also reflected the
prevailing socioeconomic conditions of the period, which influenced how
the society responded to non-British migrants.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, more than 3.7 million
people had settled in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019: see
Table 2.2).9 Within four decades, the economy, which was largely based
on wool export, was transformed from one dominated by pastoral, agri-
cultural and mining sectors into an industrial economy financed through
raw material and commodity exports. Unlike the colonial empires of
Western Europe, Australia’s economic prosperity was based on a combi-
nation of imported capital, local capacity aided by massive immigrant
labour, and a growing population that settled exclusively in the coastal
and hinterland towns connected by railroads. More than a quarter of the
population resided in Melbourne and Sydney, the two sprawling capitals
that enjoyed construction booms in the 1870s and 1880s. In just over
a century, the colonies, initially dependent on convict and indentured
labour, later achieved remarkable feats of economic success and were
transformed as destinations for those searching new life and fortunes. Yet,
the economic fortune was not equitably shared, ethnically or across class
distinctions. Those without property and capital had to settle for employ-
ment in fledgling agricultural, manufacturing, construction, shipping and
other sectors. Various unions were formed to protect workers’ interests
against low wages and cheap labour sources, including immigrant labour.
By agitating for racially exclusive policies to achieve political goals, the
then labour movement left its mark on the national character of Australia
as a country of fair go for the white population.
By then, the Australian colonies had become self-sufficient in every
aspect of life, socially, economically, culturally and politically. Importation
of migrants allowed the early demographic gender imbalance to give space
to the family as the core social unit.10 Underlying the emerging sense of
national identity was adherence to Anglo-Celtic heritage, the notions of

9 The steady growth of immigration halted in the 1890s because of recession and severe
droughts that led to widespread unemployment.
10 In 1840, more than 67% of the Australian population were male, and until 1868,
nearly 85% of those transported as convicts were male. In the 1890s, the male population
was just 53% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006).
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 65

individual autonomy and utilitarian sensibilities, and the collective atti-

tudes towards non-white immigrants. By 1888, the epitome of British
colonisation of Australia was on display when Sydney and Melbourne cele-
brated the centennial of the First Fleet with great pomp and exhibition
that paraded two million visitors (MacIntyre, 2004). In just over a decade,
the colonies managed to reimagine themselves as a homogenous society
of Anglo-Celtic heritage, with approximately 94,000 Indigenous Peoples
left to survive in obscurity, and thousands of non-white immigrants
disenfranchised or deported. In spite of these glaring anomalies, vis-à-
vis the Indigenous Peoples and non-white immigrants, the architects of
the Federation convened, and embarked on a vision of a Commonwealth
designed as a worker’s paradise for the white population.
White Australia is a culmination of milestones of race relations, which
since the Gold Rush increasingly grew in the manifestation of overt
racism. Agitated by the labour movement and the rising current of
hostility towards non-whites, the colonies deliberated over a vision of
democracy based on racial exclusion. This new kind of democracy, a
democracy of the working class that was revolutionary in its time,
espoused the most progressive democratic society of the era where women
voted and workers’ rights were protected by law. Yet, this egalitarian
society that integrated ideals of democracy, freedom and equality was
exclusively reserved for white people. In an age of utilitarian egalitari-
anism, the notion of White Australia would be considered a paradox—
indeed a dilemma—to borrow Gunnar Myrdal’s scathing characterisation
of the American society four decades later. Yet, it was democracy within
a popular base demanding provisions for racial exclusion. True to the
majority’s demand and attitude, this vision had no place for Indige-
nous Peoples and non-European immigrants. “The most the progressive
democrats could think in relation to Indigenous Australians was to
smooth the pillow for what they considered was a dying race” (SBS Docu-
mentary, 2011). Thus, for the Indigenous Peoples, Federation became
the culmination of settler colonialism. As far as they are concerned, more
than a century of Indigenous exclusion coupled with growing white priv-
ilege came to perfection at the turn of the nineteenth century, with the
establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia (Yarwood & Knowling,
1982). Once denied of a unique way of life and culture, the Indigenous
Peoples were subjected to racism and oppressive regimes of confine-
ment. Despite this, their fate was justified, in the wake of White Australia
Policy, by an utter disregard of their condition and by racist ideology that
66 A. ELIAS ET AL.

attempted to trivialise their situation as the inevitable tragic extinction of a

primitive race. At a time of its new beginning, Australia once again shirked
taking responsibility of more than a century of injustice, dispossession and
massacre of the Indigenous Peoples.
Indeed, White Australia was not an accident of history. Rather, it was
a continuation of a long-held British colonial policy, explicitly stated in
1841 by James Stephen, the Head of the Colonial Office in London,
when he said, “the English race shall spread from sea to sea unmixed with
any lower caste” (cited in Mence et al., 2017, p. 7). The Commonwealth
government was only reinstating the colonial vision in a reinvented white
national identity. In September 1901, during a parliamentary debate, the
first Australian Prime Minister, Edmund Barton said:

I do not think either that the doctrine of the equality of man was really
ever intended to include racial equality. There is no racial equality. There
is that basic inequality. These races are, in comparison with white races—I
think no one wants convincing of this fact—unequal and inferior. (House
of Representatives, 1901, p. 11)

Barton and his fellow parliamentarians were reacting to alarming

predictions of non-white racial domination by writers like the histo-
rian Charles Henry Pearson. Writing in 1984, Pearson predicted in his
National Life and Character: A Forecast, that what he called the black
and yellow races would soon be free from the shackles of European domi-
nation and assert themselves in international affairs (Meaney, 1995). The
book warned that in future, Africans, Asians and other inferior races, who
would become economically independent and powerful, would dominate
the white race. With these races controlling commerce and other sectors
of the economy, white people would find themselves in a humiliating
and desperate situation. This would threaten the influence and domi-
nance of the civilised, white race, and that the maintenance of Australia’s
Western values and national integrity depended on its ability to maintain a
homogenous population. This alarmist forecast without disguise reflected
that white people would be overrun by other cultures and our civilization
would be swept if we did not do something (House of Representatives,
1905). During parliamentary sessions, politicians openly debated how to
ensure the exclusion of alien races to prevent the scenario of impending
racial domination and contamination. One parliamentarian vowed that he
was: “ready to take all necessary steps to preserve Australia for a white
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 67

people, and to prevent the contamination of our race by that racially

tainted blood which it is so desirable to keep at a safe distance” (House
of Representatives, 1905, p. 6309).
This apprehension, fear of racial domination, and pre-emptive reac-
tion towards race purification was attune to and informed by the scientific
racism of the day. As Jupp (2001) has argued, “the idea of white Australia
was born of mixed parentage out of the hybridity of the nineteenth
century Western racial theories, polygenic, Darwinian and eugenic, that
accompanied the presumptuous task of empire building” (p. 45). The fear
against domination and extinction as articulated by Pearson was the main
motive for the creation of White Australia while pressing economic, mili-
tary and cultural concerns gave more impetus to the racial apprehension
to get greater political considerations. The Australian Parliament in turn
put forth the legislative instruments that cemented racism as the national
character. As the sociologist Andrew Markus argued recently, “the rock
on which this nation is founded so happens to be an enactment of racial
discrimination” (SBS Documentary, 2011).
Predicated on the inequality of races, the Immigration Restriction Act
of 1901 was promulgated to restrict the entry of non-whites and enable
the deportation of undesirable aliens, essentially non-British and non-
Europeans. In addition, the Pacific Island Labourers Act of 1901 was
legislated to expedite the deportation of Pacific Islanders while the Natu-
ralization Act of 1903 established the conditions that enabled European
aliens to acquire Australian citizenship. These three acts established the
legislative framework for what is commonly known as the White Australia
Policy. The policy led to the deportation of South Sea islanders, and
barred aboriginal natives of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands from
entering Australia. Far from being an aberration, this racial policy was
widely supported by Australians who—regardless of class, ideology or
religion—were keen on maintaining Australia’s identity as a white nation
(Jayasuriya et al., 2003).
While the Immigration Restriction Act did not explicitly refer to race as
a parameter for exclusion, it had a key proxy, a dictation test that systemat-
ically restricted the entry of particular ethnic groups. Jupp (2002) argues
that explicit reference to race was avoided to satisfy the British Parliament
to approve the Australian Constitution. Instead, the racist immigration
policy was disguised in the 50-word dictation test that required applicants
to pass a dictation test administered in whatever European language the
custom officers chose to set. Clearly, “the object of applying the language
68 A. ELIAS ET AL.

test is not to allow persons to enter the Commonwealth, but to keep

them out” as Alfred Deakin, then Minister of External Affairs, clearly told
the House of Representatives (House of Representatives, 1905, p. 6341).
And customs officers administering the dictation test made sure that all
non-European applicants failed the test (Mence et al., 2017).
Delivering on the promise of the White Australia Policy, between 1905
and 1914, the Australian Government received approximately 390,000
predominantly British immigrants brought under the assisted migration
programme. After halting during the First World War, an additional
340,000 Europeans arrived in the 1920s. The attitude of Australians
towards immigration usually fluctuated with economic conditions, and
the migration intake varied both in response to the economy and public
attitude. Thus, immediately following the Great Depression of 1929,
immigration significantly declined and subsequently halted during the
Second World War. Public attitudes also hardened (Mence et al., 2017).11
This was particularly apparent in the case of anti-Southern European
(Greece, Italy, and Yugoslavia) sentiments in the inter-war periods.
Greek and Italian settlement in Australia began in the nineteenth
century. However, the twentieth century saw increased migration from
Southern Europe and between 1922 and WW II, Australia received thou-
sands of migrants from the region. These groups experienced hostility,
particularly in periods of economic downturn and during the two world
wars. For example, anti-Greek riots occurred in 1915 in Perth and
in 1916 in Kalgoorlie, for alleged sympathy of the Greek community
towards the German enemies (Alexakis & Janiszewski, 1998). During
the Great Depression, the anti-Southern European sentiment intensified.
In the 1930s, there was growing hostility towards Italians. Concerns of
Italian migrant labour market influence led to the setting up of commis-
sions of inquiry “to investigate the effect of Italian immigration on wages.
Laws were passed to limit the types of jobs non-British migrants could
take, and restricting land ownership” (Castles, 1994, p. 344). In Western
Australia, riots broke out in the Kalgoorlie mine in 1919 and 1934.
During World War II Italians in Australia were treated as enemy aliens,
despite their naturalisation as British citizens. They were subjected to
surveillance, with more than 4000 (10% of the Italian population in

11 A 1948 Australian Gallup Poll Survey indicates that 30% of respondents agreed that
an Asiatic woman who married an Australian man should not be allowed to live in
Australia.
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 69

Australia) imprisoned in camps (Castles, 1994, p. 344). For the most

part, the race relations affecting migrants during this period were as much
outcomes of an economic downturn as they were the fruits of the racially
exclusionary policies.

Stolen Generations
One of the most traumatic periods in Indigenous Peoples history in
Australia is the story of the Stolen Generation, which epitomised the
oppressive acts of settler colonialism. This enactment of racist policy
ensured the continuation of an ongoing displacement of Indigenous
Peoples across generations. This section looks at “a policy which—if it
had been successful—would have put an end to Aboriginality forever”, in
the context of race relations and White Australia’s pursuit of its racially
exclusionary policies (Read, 1999, p. xi).
More than a century after the beginning of settler colonialism, as
White Australia began to take hold as a national identity, the Indige-
nous questions remained unresolved. Yet, the general assumption that
the Aboriginal race would soon be extinct never materialised and it
became clear that the Aboriginal problem would haunt White Australia.
Consequently, the government embarked on a mission to systemati-
cally assimilate (wipe out) the Aborigines through the forced removal of
Indigenous children from their families (Jacobs, 2009). The kidnapped
children came to be known as the Stolen Generations. According to the
Bringing them Home Report, between 1905 and 1967, approximately
100,000 Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their fami-
lies and placed in missions, foster families or girls/boys homes under the
care of white protectors (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commis-
sion, HREOC, 1997, p. 27).12 This was a conservative estimate focusing
mainly on the more systematic and government legislated removals, based
on documentations and institutional records.
However, the removal of Indigenous Peoples children did not begin
after Federation in 1901. More frequently since 1870s—and randomly
since colonisation began in 1788—white colonists have kidnapped

12 One of the terms of reference of the report involved tracing “the past laws, practices
and policies which resulted in the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
children from their families by compulsion, duress or undue influence, and the effects of
those laws, practices and policies” (HREOC, 1997, p. 2).
70 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Indigenous children, and exploited them for their labour in farms and
other workstations. At least five generations have been impacted by these
government policies and missionary practices (Ranzijn et al., 2009).
At least two interrelated factors, eugenics and economics, are consid-
ered to be the key motives for the removal of the Stolen Generations.
First, a universal agreement was emerging among anthropologists, politi-
cians, medical scientists and the media, in support of eugenics theories
calling for assimilation. The Chief Protectors wholeheartedly accepted
eugenics as a method to breed out the Aborigines through biolog-
ical absorption (Haebich, 2001; Moran, 2005). For example, A. O.
Neville, the West Australian Chief Protector, openly lobbied the govern-
ment for legislative support. Chief Protectors had absolute powers over
Indigenous Peoples, and as such were responsible for controlling move-
ment, guardianship of children, employment, regulating marriages, and
ultimately facilitating biological experiments (Short, 2016). Second, as
the mixed descent population increased, the Commonwealth govern-
ment needed to provide for their welfare, education and employment.
Unless they were gainfully integrated in the economy, the appearance
of a growing number of mixed descent children would put burden on
government, posing further social and economic problems. This was met
with public outcry, particularly in the media, with all social evils being
ascribed to those designated as half -caste or with other derogatory labels
(Short, 2016). As public opinion towards the half -caste problem gathered
momentum, a radical action—the removal of the mixed descent Indige-
nous children—was considered as the ultimate solution to the Aboriginal
problem (Haebich, 2001). This would allow for their training and incor-
poration as a source of cheap labour, thereby furthering the market
imperative.
While the forcible removal of the Stolen Generations through compul-
sion, duress, and undue influence was conducted with various justifica-
tions, it invariably struck at the core of Australian indigeneity.13 The
reservation centres that began as protection missions in the 1830s began
to serve as facilities for the furtherance of the racist removals. Historians
argue that although some families may have adopted Indigenous children

13 Some of the justifications given include “sending for service”, “neglect”, “being
Aboriginal”, “welfare”, “apprenticeship”, “at risk of mortality”, “orphan”, or “absence of
parent”.
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 71

with good intentions, since the early colonisation and later after Feder-
ation, the main purpose of the forced removal was to “breed out the
colour” from Australian society (McGregor, 2002, p. 286).14 Removal
was pursued as a national project based on miscegenation, and the notion
of keeping Australia a white nation. Moreover, the removal offered great
economic benefits to the colonists in terms of cheap labour. As they grew
up, many boys worked in farms while girls worked as domestic servants in
white families (Haebich, 2001). Most were paid substandard wages; many
had their wages either stolen or withheld, and many starved because of
low wages and poor living conditions (Banks, 2008; HREOC, 2001).
Henry Reynolds (1990) writes that

the greatest advantage of young Aboriginal servants was that they came
cheap and were never paid beyond the provision of variable quantities
of food and clothing. As a result, any European on or near the frontier,
quite regardless of their own circumstances, could acquire and maintain a
personal servant. (p. 169)

The pursuit of removal proceeded first with scientific guidance from

the racial theory of assimilation, and subsequently as a matter of bureau-
cratic process. Indigenous Peoples were classified into groups based on
their colour and phenotype, with the removal targeting children of mixed
descent. The effect of removal on the Stolen Generations was understand-
ably incredibly traumatic and psychologically damaging. The children
were held under strict rules that banned them from communicating with
their family members or any Indigenous Peoples, speaking Indigenous
languages, and practicing traditional ceremonies. Many of these children
would never see their parents again, a fact that has left them, and their
descendants, with significant ongoing trauma, personal distress and loss.
While under protection, many were subjected to abuse, neglect, humilia-
tion, and sexual abuse (Walters, 2015). Any benefits the children received
were far outweighed by the long-term psychological damages they have
incurred as a result of their experiences. Studies indicate that on average,
the socioeconomic benefits they have supposedly gained did not make
much of a difference. According to a report by the Australian Institute of

14 Many scholars argue that the story of the Stolen Generation amounts to a state
sponsored cultural genocide (van Krieken, 1999).
72 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Human Welfare (AIHW, 2018), the Stolen Generations and their descen-
dants were (and are) more likely to experience adverse socioeconomic,
health and cultural outcomes compared to Indigenous Peoples who
were not forcibly removed. Compared to those who were not removed,
removed Indigenous Peoples were more likely to have the experience of

being incarcerated in the last five years (3.3 times), being formally charged
by police in their lifetime (2.2 times), having government payments as
their main income source (1.8 times), not being a home owner (1.7 times)
and being more likely to have poor general health based on a composite
measure (1.6 times). (AIHW, 2018, p. vii)

Post-War Reforms
White Australia’s race relations entered a new phase in the post-War
period, mainly in response to the growing need for skilled and unskilled
labour. After a relapse in migration intake during World War I and
the Great Depression, immigration to Australia, always a politically
contentious issue, ironically became the main factor for its gradual
change towards becoming reluctantly multicultural (Jupp, 2002). The
government’s post-war recovery programme ushered in a period of long
boom that transformed Australia into advanced industrial country. While
this expedited the nation’s path towards social reform, it was mostly
in response to the radical social movements that put pressure on the
government to abandon its founding racially exclusive policies.
Since the beginning of colonisation, immigration to Australia was
based on an assisted migration system. Mass migration involved the long-
distance transport of European and other migrants aboard passenger
ships. With the advent of commercial flights, immigrants began to arrive
more frequently, unhindered by long-distance sea routes. While regular
migrants arrived for employment and family reunion purposes, the post-
War migration system had a greater focus on filling the skills shortage
for the booming economy. By 1945, Australia was entering a new era
of prosperity, with unprecedented economic activity, population growth
and social progress. As the West recovered from the devastation of World
War II with a massive overhaul of public spending, aided by unprece-
dented large-scale government investments (the Marshall Plan in Western
Europe, and the New Deal in the US), Australia had unveiled its own
fiscal policy that committed to full employment. The landmark 1945
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 73

White Paper on Full Employment would become the major economic

policy for the next twenty-five years. It rested on Keynesian principles
centred on economic recovery based on the regulation of aggregate
demand. This policy “linked levels of employment with expenditure
which in turn gives industry the signals and the motivation to produce”
(Coombs, 1994, p. 4).
The recovery proved to be successful in raising the standard of living
by providing jobs and widening opportunities for the wider popula-
tion. The state-sponsored economic activity boosted production across
industries—manufacturing, housing, food production, etc.—and service
delivery. This in turn had a significant effect on the social and economic
life of Australians, with better access to education, healthcare and leisure.
Australia now needed more workers to sustain production and the subse-
quent demand created by a prosperous middle class. With fortunes
turning for the better, the colonial period mantra populate or perish
was revived as the Chifley government ran an ambitious immigration
programme (MacIntyre, 2004). Led by the Minister of Immigration,
Arthur Calwell, the department at first pursued the strict White Australia
tradition of restricting arrivals to those of British and Irish descent.
However, this became untenable as the British government grew less
enthusiastic, and discouraged emigration to Australia. The number of
British migrants to Australia, which accounted for the largest component
of immigrants until 1953 subsequently declined as Britain underwent
its own economic recovery programme. To meet the demands for an
expanding industrial workforce and retain the White Australia policy,
Europe became the next best source for the supply of immigrants.
Calwell thus turned attention to other European countries, first the Soviet
occupied Eastern Europe and later the south European countries of
Yugoslavia, Italy and Greece.
Post-War non-British migration rose sharply, with Labor’s policy
gaining support from the unions based on the full employment guar-
antee. However, non-white people were not welcome in Labor’s policy.
Upholding old prejudice against the Chinese, Calwell insisted on the
deportation of Chinese refugees in 1949 (MacIntyre, 2004). At the same
time, the migration programme aspired to assimilate the new immigrants
into new Australians by pressing them to relinquish their ethnic affilia-
tion and adopt Australian culture. In 1949, the newly elected conservative
government of Robert Menzies sustained Labor’s migration policy and
maintained some of the economic management policies. The Menzies
74 A. ELIAS ET AL.

government oversaw an economic management programme under the H.

C. Coombs’ economic policy that led to a decade-and-half-long growth
streak based on full employment, rising productivity, and augmented
wages. Despite being elected on an anti-socialist and pro-market plat-
form, the government “was firmly committed to a strong public sector”
(MacIntyre, 2004, p. 207).
Although Australia was becoming increasingly outward looking and
more engaged with the outside world, engaging in global affairs, its
elite retained the exclusionary social policies. Even as decolonisation
swept across the world, with the British government relinquishing India,
Indonesia, and many of its colonies in Africa, the Commonwealth govern-
ment insisted on a White Australia. Prime Minister Robert Menzies was
adamant that Australia should remain homogeneous for as long as it could
be maintained as such. To justify this, he even found himself defending
the issue of Apartheid in South Africa as a matter of domestic affair
(Pijovic, 2014). For two decades, Liberal coalition governments main-
tained close economic ties and diplomatically defended South Africa’s
Apartheid regime (MacIntyre, 2004; Witton, 1973). Menzies’ tactical
support for South Africa was related in his letter to the British Prime
Minister in 1961:

that the South African precedent meant it would henceforth be “quite

legitimate” for the Commonwealth to discuss, for example, the Australian
immigration policy which is aimed at avoiding internal racial problems by
the expedient of keeping coloured immigrants out. I hope my fears are not
justified. (quoted in Gladsworthy, 2005, pp. 26–27)

As far as the government was concerned, a multiracial society was a

recipe for social division. Clearly, there was no question that Indige-
nous Peoples were seen as a source of multiracial Australia, for they
were dismissed as a fringe in the society and not considered citizens
(Brett, 2014). In the backdrop of the assimilation of immigrants into the
Australian way of life, Australia’s Indigenous Peoples continued to expe-
rience exclusion from white society and severe forms of discrimination.
Against this backdrop, a new generation of Indigenous activism emerged
claiming recognition and equal rights for their peoples (Maynard, 2007).
Indeed, beginning in the 1920s, the struggle for the rights of Indige-
nous Peoples has become more assertive, with Indigenous leaders playing
a leading role (Dudgeon et al., 2010). Between the 1940s and 1960s,
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 75

there have been numerous strikes by Indigenous pastoral workers for pay
rises. In 1957, an organisation, the Federal Council for the Advancement
of Aborigines, was formed to support Indigenous Peoples activism. A
combination of the various social movements would finally put pressure
on the government to heed the calls for social reform.
In the midst of the Cold War rivalry (1953–1991), Australian society
enjoyed unprecedented affluence, with more leisure affording space
for pressing social debates. This in turn signalled the inevitability of
social progress; as more people were added to the Commonwealth, the
dated exclusionary policies were increasingly challenged. This trend also
reflected the changing demography. The majority of the two million
immigrants who arrived between 1950 and 1970 were from non-English
speaking countries. With the Migration Act of 1958, the dictation test was
quietly abandoned, and restriction on language gave way to tolerance.
This took momentum, as social attitudes against exclusionary policies,
racism and discrimination grew sharply, propelled by the wave of civil
rights campaigns and social movements. By the 1960s, a change in
direction became inevitable, and Australia’s restrictive policies put the
government, both domestically and internationally, in a morally indefen-
sible position. The final blow to the White Australia Policy coincided
with the retirement of Robert Menzies from politics in 1966. A year
later, Australia entered a new era when the restriction on non-European
immigration was lifted.
Perhaps, nothing in Australian history exemplifies the radical shift
in public racial attitude than the landmark 1967 referendum (Crotty
& Roberts, 2009). Before the referendum, Indigenous issues were the
responsibility of the colonies that later became states and territories.
Responding to mounting petitions, Robert Menzies introduced a Bill in
1965 proposing to alter the Constitution by repealing Section 127 that
stated, “In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth,
or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall
not be counted” (House of Representatives, 1965, p. 2638). On May
27, 1967, the referendum passed with 90.8% yes votes. The referendum
also conferred on the Federal Government the power to make laws for
Indigenous Peoples. Australians supported an amendment of the Consti-
tution to allow for the counting of Australia’s Indigenous Peoples in the
national census. With this reform, Australia entered a new era of race
relations underpinned by an increasingly diverse society.
76 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Multicultural Australia
Assimilation had been the bedrock of Australian migration policy since
Federation. For decades, this remained a majority opinion, and acceptance
in the Australian society meant relinquishing ethno-religious affiliation
and adherence to the Australian way of life. Specifically, at least three
features of assimilation remained central until the late 1960s: colour
and phenotype, majority culture and the English language (Jupp, 2002).
Groups perceived to possess one or a combination of these traits in
distinction from white Australians were considered unassimilable, and
hence barred from immigration to Australia. Assimilation in this sense
was akin to acculturation, but restricted to white people who were encour-
aged to adopt British cultural norms and quickly integrate to resemble the
majority Australian population. Debates and views on such issues are not
entirely absent even today. However, the discriminatory European-only
immigration policy was quickly losing favour in the 1960s. Belief in assim-
ilation began to wane in the 1970s, as the arrival of more non-European
migrants increased ethnic diversity within the society. The immigration
restriction for non-Europeans relaxed in 1966 began to take effect in
1970, with the arrival of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and South
America. Post-War immigration peaked at more than 185,000 in 1970;
between 1947 and 1971, migration increased the population by almost
3.3 million, with around 1.5 million of those arriving between 1945 and
1976 being non-British (Mence et al., 2017). This in turn impacted on
public attitudes and in exposing the dubious racial policies.
Australia’s migration scheme began to extend to Eastern Europe in the
1950s when immigrants from more than thirty countries were encour-
aged to apply. More than two-thirds of arrivals during this period were
non-British. With the number of migrants growing every year, Australians
concerns were emerging regarding the new migrants’ loyalty. To fend of
the fear, the Australian Government enacted a new legislation in 1955
with the purpose of naturalising migrants (the Nationality and Citizenship
Act ).
Among the key components of Australia’s migration programme,
particularly in the post-War period, involved the humanitarian
programme. During the War, Australia agreed to resettle Jewish people
fleeing the Holocaust in Europe, of whom 5000 arrived in 1939,
while the majority (17,000) arrived fifteen years later. In the aftermath,
“[b]etween 1947 and 1954, more than 170,000 displaced persons arrived
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 77

in Australia from countries across Eastern and Western Europe” (Mence

et al., 2017, p. 29). Refugees arrived in various years from Hungary
(1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), Chile (1973), Cyprus (1974), Timor and
Indo-China (1975). Moreover, Vietnamese refugees arrived by boats in
1976, and following the 1975–1976 civil war in Lebanon, around 43,000
Lebanese nationals arrived in Australia.
In 1981, the Department of Immigration announced a Special
Humanitarian Programme providing persecuted refugees permanent resi-
dency in Australia. Between 1982 and 1999, migrants from diverse coun-
tries, including Southeast Asia, El Salvador, former Soviet Union, former
Yugoslavia, East Timor, and Lebanon arrived under this programme.
By this time, migrants were arriving in Australia under three different
schemes, family, skilled and humanitarian. Since 1978 immigration
reform, the Department of Immigration introduced a points system to
assess eligibility to migrate to Australia. Further immigration reforms
included the enactment of the Migration Act Amendment of 1983, which
ended the preferential treatment of immigrants from British backgrounds.
All of these reforms and periodic arrivals of new immigrants had a role in
diversifying the Australian society, and thereby affecting political discourse
around national identity.
Globally, the Civil Rights movements of 1960s and 1970s brought
anti-racism to the forefront of social justice struggles. Anti-racism received
global solidarity and was high on the United Nations’ agenda in 1971,
which was formally designated the International Year for Action to
Combat Racism. Then UN Secretary General U Thant stated that,

a general recognition that the theories, ideas and prejudices which lead to
racism and racial discrimination are unjust and abhorrent, and that a great
responsibility rests upon all to eradicate the shameful practices which they
encourage. (cited in Koffler, 1971, p. 5)

During this period, pressure was mounting on the Apartheid regime

in South Africa (Weissbrodt & Mahoney, 1986). This time Australia was
on the right side, and the Whitlam government announced a strong
anti-racism stance denouncing the Apartheid regime that was becoming
increasingly unpopular (Whitlam, 1973). In immigration policy and in
its international relationships, the Labor government wanted to send
a strong signal regarding its commitment against racism, by aban-
doning racial discrimination and ratifying international anti-discrimination
78 A. ELIAS ET AL.

conventions. In a 1973 Parliamentary Debate, Prime Minister Gough

Whitlam stated:

We have an obligation to remove methodically from Australia’s laws and

practices all racially discriminatory provisions and from international activ-
ities any hint or suggestion that we favour policies, decrees or resolutions
that seek to differentiate between peoples on the basis of the colour of
their skin. (Whitlam, 1973, p. 2649)

The struggle against racism gained a landmark legal recognition with

the passage of the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975, which came
following the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimina-
tion of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Act protected Australian
residents against “distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based
on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin”.15 The enactment
of this legislation came on the back of decades of migrant and Indige-
nous social activism (Jupp, 2002). Indigenous activism during the 1960s
and 1970s was instrumental in Indigenous Peoples struggle for equality
and recognition. In 1971, an Indigenous activist, Neville Bonner, became
the first Aboriginal Member of Parliament in the Senate. During his
tenure, activists set up a Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 that would
symbolise Indigenous Peoples land rights claims. Moreover, the govern-
ment replaced its assimilationist and protectionist policies by adopting
a policy of self-determination that upheld Indigenous Peoples rights
to manage land and resources, and maintain cultures and languages.
The Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs was established in
1972, and an Aboriginal advisory committee, the Aboriginal Consultative
Committee, was set up in 1973 to advise the government on Indigenous
issues.
Under the Whitlam and Fraser governments, Australia embraced multi-
culturalism as formal policy with bipartisan support. Reference of the
word multicultural in 1973 by the Immigration Minister Al Grassby
is considered the beginning of Australian multiculturalism. As originally
conceived, it encompasses the acceptance of ethnic and cultural diversity,
inclusive immigration policies, and legislations prohibiting racial discrim-
ination (Ho, 1990). It has been viewed as an integral component of

15 Racial Discrimination Act 1975, Section 9(1).

 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 79

the Australian national identity, which emphasises normatively the over-

arching goal of achieving a just society that is inclusive of culturally
diverse groups (Levey, 2012). Successive Australian Labor and Liberal
governments have deployed multiculturalism in this normative sense,
formulating a range of social policies, such as: “the pursuit of social
justice, the recognition of identities and appreciation of diversity, the
integration of migrants, nation building, and attempts to achieve and
maintain social cohesion” (Koleth, 2010, p. 2).
Indeed, a vibrant multicultural culture within different migrant
communities was already emerging prior to the ethnic/multicultural
lobby that saw sweeping immigration reforms in the 1970s (Jupp, 2002).
Across metropoles and city suburbs, migrants were playing vital role in
social and economic activities. Then, in the 1970s, the culturally and
linguistically diverse (CALD) communities began to have greater formal
representation when Ethnic Communities’ Councils were established in
Victoria and South Australia. In 1977, the government commissioned
the Galbally Review to assess the programmes and services provided
to migrants after their arrival in Australia. The Galbally 1978 report
put in place a sophisticated infrastructure for various multicultural poli-
cies and institutions, ranging from migrant resource centres and ethnic
media to language and education support (Koleth, 2010; Leeman &
Reid, 2006).16 The report also led to the establishment of the Federa-
tion of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) in 1979.
FECCA advocates and lobbies the government and businesses on behalf
of the multicultural communities with a focus on equitable access for
migrants in education, employment, communication, and legal as well as
social services. The formal organisation of ethnic communities afforded
these communities with greater political voice. The push for the accom-
modation of ethnic and cultural diversity has led to the emergence of
multicultural policies that had significant impact in challenging overt
racism. In 1979, the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs (AIMA)
was established to address the needs of the CALD communities, later
(in 1986) replaced by the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) within
the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Over the next decades,
attitudes towards multiculturalism varied depending on the political and

16 The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) was established to manage multicultural radio
services, and officially commenced broadcasting in 1978. For more on media and race
relations see Chapter 6.
80 A. ELIAS ET AL.

economic environment while patterns of racism evolved, mixing overt and

subtle forms (Blair, 2015).
The multicultural direction was not always smooth. In the 1970s, the
policy faced its first challenge when the arrival of Vietnamese refugees by
boats was met with public outcry. Among a context of high unemploy-
ment and social welfare, heightened anti-Vietnamese and anti-Lebanese
migrants racism flared in the 1980s. A notable issue is the Blainey
immigration debate that gave voice to a growing racial undercurrent
during this period. In 1984, Geoffrey Blainey, a University of Melbourne
professor of history, stirred a debate on immigration with a critique of the
Hawke government’s immigration policy. In a speech in Warrnambool,
Blainey argued that Australia was taking too large influx of Asian migrants
(half of all migrants) from peasant backgrounds that would significantly
affect its cultural identity (Lewins, 1987). According to him, the immi-
gration policy turned the “White Australia Policy inside out” (quoted in
Kirby, 1985, p. 61). When Blainey’s speech was reported, it raised a lot
of controversy, anti-racism rallies, sparked the so-called history wars, and
became an important issue in the 1984 election. In addition to stimu-
lating immigration debate, the controversy brought the old anti-Asian
attitudes to the fore. Three years later, in 1987, the Labor govern-
ment’s immigration policy was reviewed, with the Fitzgerald Committee
Report recommending greater focus on skilled migration that did not
discriminate by country of origin.
Since 1986, oversight of anti-discrimination in Australia has become
the responsibility of the Race Discrimination Commissioner, a position
created with the establishment of the Human Rights and Equal Opportu-
nities Commission.17 The Commission had its first inquiry (the Toomelah
Inquiry) in relation to the Goodwindi riots that sparked in 1986, and
highlighted the stark socioeconomic disparity between Indigenous and
non-Indigenous Australia. A report published the next year reported the
main causes of the racial conflict, recommending more resource allocation
to address economic disadvantages affecting Indigenous Peoples.
In 1988, the Commission also led a national inquiry into the reported
increase in racial violence against Indigenous and non-white minorities
across Australia. Indigenous and ethnic minorities reported numerous
racist attacks perpetrated by various racist and extremist individuals

17 The Commission replacing the Human Rights Commission that was established in
1981.
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 81

and groups. Churches and community leaders opposed to racism were

subjected to a series of organised attacks while the Commission received
growing complaints of racist attacks on Indigenous and non-white
communities (HREOC, 1991). This coincided with the Australia Day
march that saw Indigenous Peoples marching to celebrate their survival
in the face of two centuries of colonisation. Around 1000 people gave
evidence in the inquiry, which found that “Racist violence is an endemic
problem for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in all Australian
States and Territories” (HREOC, 1991, p. 213). The inquiry under-
scored that “[r]acist attitudes and practices (conscious and unconscious)
pervade our institutions, both public and private” (p. 213). Racism
against people from non-English backgrounds was also found to be preva-
lent, and “takes the form of harassment and intimidation rather than
physical assault” (p. 213).
While the Racist Violence inquiry had a broader focus, another inquiry,
the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADC) of
1987 investigated institutional deaths in Australia. In the 1991 report,
the inquiry found systemic defects and failures to “the duty of care owed
by custodial authorities and their officers to persons in custody”, in many
cases contributing to deaths in custody (RCIADC, 1991, Section 1.2.3).
Aboriginal deaths in custody in the period 1980–1999 accounted for
18–21% of all deaths in custody (Williams, 2001). Since the inquiry,
Aboriginal deaths in custody remains a significant issue of institutional
racism; between 1991 and 2016, it fluctuated between 11 and 30% of all
deaths in custody (Gannoni & Bricknell, 2019; Lyneham & Chan, 2013).

Post-Multiculturalism
Despite landmark progress made in anti-racism in the 1970s, racism and
xenophobia have sharply risen in the 1990s (Forrest & Dunn, 2006;
Vasta & Castles, 1996). Anti-immigrant attitudes and discontent with
multicultural policies received voice in media and political discourse
while racism manifested in many forms and across settings, including
within professional sport. A high-profile example is the 1993 Australian
Football League (AFL) event when an Indigenous player of the Colling-
wood football club, Nicky Winmar, was subjected to abusive racial slurs.
Winmar responded to the racist fans by defiantly pointing to his skin, and
shouting, “I’m black, and I’m proud to be black”. This would become a
recurring refrain within Australian race relations over the coming decades.
82 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Amid the alarming rise in racism, there have been milestones in race
relations, particularly in the early 1990s. Among these was the setting
up of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, tasked with facilitating
understanding between Indigenous Peoples and the rest of Australia. This
process commenced with the Redfern Park speech in 1992 by Prime
Minister Paul Keating, the first official admission of the devastating impact
settler colonialism inflicted on Indigenous Peoples. That year, another
landmark ruling acknowledged First Nations Australians’ Native Title
rights in the 1992 Mabo decision (Secher, 2007). Previously, the struggle
for Indigenous Peoples land rights had limited gains in 1970, with the
establishment of the Land Rights Commission in 1973, and the Gurindji
people’s leasehold title in 1975. In 1979, the doctrine of terra nullius was
challenged, leaving open the notion of Indigenous sovereignty over the
land. In 1982, Indigenous issues came into the spotlight when Indige-
nous activists protested for land rights during the commencement of the
Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. The passage of the Tjartutja Land
Rights Act in South Australia in 1984 was another gain during the decade.
However, the Mabo decision was by far the most ground breaking for its
dismissal that Australia was unoccupied during colonisation and for its
recognition of the unique connection between Indigenous Peoples and
Country. The High Court decision paved the way for land rights legis-
lations including the Native Title Act of 1993, which sets the rules for
determining native title interests and recognition (see Secher, 2007).
In September 1995, the Racial Hatred Act that allowed amendments
to the Racial Discrimination Act was enacted after three years of heated
media and community debate about freedom of speech. Despite the passage
of the Act, racism persisted, particularly among groups funnelling polit-
ical opposition to Asian migration. Australia’s multicultural policy came
under attack, with political figures emphatically capitalising on what Hage
(2002) calls white paranoia. In the mid-1990s, anti-immigration, and
anti-Aboriginal rhetoric was the platform for the far-right party, One
Nation, which won a single seat in the Upper House. One Nation
senator Pauline Hanson made controversial remarks in 1996, in her
maiden speech to parliament, that Australia was being “swamped by
Asians” and that “they have their own culture and religion, form ghettos
and do not assimilate”. Although Senator Hanson’s views drew wide
condemnation, it also legitimised racist hate and violence (Ack, 2016;
Sengul, 2020). The same year, the Australian Parliament passed a State-
ment on Racial Tolerance, condemning racial intolerance and reiterating
 2 RACE RELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA: A BRIEF HISTORY 83

its commitment to reconciliation. A bipartisan commitment was also

made to pursue non-discriminatory immigration policy. In general, anti-
multiculturalism rhetoric within Australia had mixed reception.18 In other
western countries, an apparent backlash on multiculturalism was building
up throughout the mid-1990s, with countries like the UK retreating
from multiculturalism, ramping up “a re-assertion of ideas of nation
building, common values and identity, and unitary citizenship—even a
return of assimilation” (Kymlicka, 2010, p. 97).
In 1998, the Australian Commonwealth government launched Living
in Harmony, a social marketing campaign to combat racism and intol-
erance. The campaign lasted for three years, 1998–2001, and involved
partnerships with communities and media. Since March 1999, Harmony
Day celebrations are held annually across Australia and coincide with the
United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrim-
ination.
Towards the end of the millennium, Muslim Australians emerged as
a target group for a new form of racism, Islamophobia (Poynting &
Mason, 2007). While anti-Lebanese racism was nothing new (Asmar,
1992; Hage & Jureidini, 2002), the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
led to a crescendo of anti-Muslim racism. These, and subsequent terrorist
attacks, were instrumental in hardening anti-Muslim sentiments in general
while they also fuelled a resurgent far-right nationalism across Western
society. The rise of Islamophobia since 2001 has invariably triggered
deeply held Orientalist sentiments that invoked a perceived clash of civil-
isation and apprehension towards Muslim migrants (Abrahamian, 2003).
In this context, the racialised and securitised representation of religion for
political purposes contradicted the highly publicised call for harmony and
tolerance (Dunn et al., 2007). This appears to have emboldened the emer-
gence of groups concerned with particular views on national identity. The
Cronulla Riots of 2005 exemplify a clash between groups with conflicting
views. In December 2005, a set of violent anti-Lebanese and anti-Muslim
Australians began rioting on Sydney’s Cronulla Beach, provoking further
retaliatory attacks. The riot, which has been widely depicted as an example
of intergroup conflict in Australia, also signals the influence of public

18 In 1998, in a reversal of fortune, the One Nation Party lost in election and a second
Aboriginal person was elected into the Australian Parliament.
84 A. ELIAS ET AL.

rhetoric in generating racism and violence in a Western context (Bliuc

et al., 2012). It is commonly described by many Australians as one of the
most shameful episodes in Australia’s recent race relations.
In conclusion, race relations in Australia has undergone over two
centuries of evolution ranging from massacres, slavery, and racial violence
to discrimination, prejudice and racial inequity. Widely available national
data over the last two decades have made understanding the nature and
extent of racism today easier. Contemporary race relations in Australia is
characterised by various forms of old and new racisms exhibiting senti-
ments of racial hierarchy, anti-Aboriginal and anti-immigration attitudes,
opposition to multiculturalism, denial of racism and postcolonial ideology
of whiteness (Hollinsworth, 2006; López, 2012; Markus, 2001). In the
succeeding chapters of this book, more focused analyses of contem-
porary racism are presented, reflecting racism across social, economic,
communication and political domains.

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 CHAPTER 3

Institutional Racism and Its Social Costs

In many societies, including Australia, race continues to define an indi-

vidual’s place, with life opportunities and socioeconomic conditions pred-
icated on one’s ethnic, racial, gender or religious group (Better, 2008).
Particularly, the social construction of racial identity creeps in every aspect
of life and crystallises into pervasive institutional racism. Indeed, racism
does not concern only interpersonal and intergroup relations. It tran-
scends negative attitudes and prejudices, with prejudice representing only
one aspect of racism (Henricks, 2016). Racism can occur irrespective of
individual attitudes and beliefs, with significant effects on racial minori-
ties. This aspect of racism occurs covertly and “persists through collective
actions of even the well intentioned” (Henricks, 2016, p. 1). Thus,
racism, as such, is routinely perpetrated without intent through the struc-
tures of society, and is often embedded in institutions and social structures
(Better, 2008; Henricks, 2016).
The pervasive nature of racism has been a subject of considerable
research over the last half century. Specifically, the persistence of prac-
tices, norms and laws that unwittingly discriminate and disadvantage racial
minorities across countries is well-documented, and makes the concept
of institutional racism relevant today. While interpersonal racism focuses
on the attitudes and experiences of individuals, racism at the institutional
level permeates social, cultural and power structures that perpetuate exclu-
sion and racial inequality. By critically examining institutional racism, one

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 95

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_3
96 A. ELIAS ET AL.

can better understand the effects on ethnic minorities of the policy envi-
ronment that shapes laws, practices and discourses in a multiracial society
(Cunneen, 2019; Farley & Allen, 1987; Miles & Brown, 2004). It is
systemic, and exists in spite of the goodwill of the individuals and groups
that constitute societies.
There is no doubt that explicit forms of institutional racism that
emerged with the rise of European colonisation, industrial capitalism
and the Atlantic Slave Trade continue to manifest in twenty-first-century
Western societies. Centuries later, these legacies continue to be founda-
tional to modern nation states, with racism lurking beneath the structures
and institutions that privilege whiteness and disadvantage racial minori-
ties (Fraser & Honneth, 2003). Institutional racism, as we know it today
is not limited to explicit racial policies. While some openly discrimina-
tory policies and practices—such as slavery, Jim Crow laws, Apartheid,
and the White Australia Policy—have been abolished, the systems they
pioneered remain. Neoclassical predictions (e.g. Becker, 1957/2010) that
racism would either be eliminated or driven out of the marketplace failed
to materialise and race in the twenty-first century remains a defining
factor of one’s place in society (Better, 2008; Darity et al., 2015). Our
purpose, in this chapter, is not to answer why racism continues to exist
today. However, we want to note that understanding the historical basis of
racism is important for grasping the institutional nature of the underlying
racial inequities that deeply impact various societies.
The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the state of institutional
racism in Australia from an ethical and human rights perspective. The
chapter discusses the various costs associated with racism occurring at
the institutional level, and maps the ways in which laws, social struc-
tures and institutions perpetuate historical legacies of racial inequities,
with or without the intention of individuals and groups in society. By
merely maintaining existing structures, laws and social norms, society can
impose social, economic and health costs on racial minorities that impinge
on their wellbeing and human dignity. While the impact of interpersonal
racism depends on the relative social power of the perpetuator vis-a-vis the
target, racism effected by powerful social, economic, political and cultural
institutions is far more consequential, as evidenced throughout the history
of slavery, racial violence, segregation and discrimination.
The chapter reviews empirical research with a focus on particular
socioeconomic domains, and uses published evidence to demonstrate how
institutional racism leads to social and economic inequalities in society.
 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 97

It explores whether and to what extent there may be structural and

systemic barriers in Australia precluding racial and ethnic minorities from
attaining racial equality across multiple domains (e.g. law, political repre-
sentation, education, employment, health and business). We look at this
in light of the historical interplay between the politics of identity and racial
socioeconomic and political reality in Australia. The chapter will address
the following key questions: To what extent may existing ethnic/racial
inequalities in Australia reflect an underlying institutional racism? What
role does racialised discourse and racism play in the country’s social
policies, laws and institutions?

Conceptualising Institutional Racism

Racism has been conceived as institutional injustice (Young, 2011).
Indeed, in the traditional Rawlsian or ideal theory of redistributive justice,
racism as structural inequity is not incorporated explicitly (Mills, 2009).
Rawls rejected racism as unjust; yet, his notion of the ideally just society
does not consider racial oppression among the most fundamental features
of Western societies. In an alternative theory, Powers and Faden (2006)
integrate oppressive structures like racism and sexism as “multiclausal and
multifaceted social structural barriers to achieving self-sufficiency” (p. 8).
They locate institutional racism as presenting itself in terms of the nega-
tion of justice, where the rights of ethnic/racial minorities are unfairly
eroded by avoidable disadvantages in health and wellbeing (Powers &
Faden, 2006). These manifestations of structural injustice are not only
outcomes of direct episodes of racism, but can cumulatively build up from
complex and multidimensional processes that may or may not involve
overt racism.
Consider the following three incidents across three countries that
became national and international headlines, raising important debates
on race and custodial injustices:

On July 25, 2016, an ABC Four Corners program aired the abuse of
Indigenous children in an Australian youth detention centre in Darwin.
This shocked the nation, and initiated a Royal Commission that concluded
racism had a part to play in perpetrating such abuses on systemic scales.
(White & Gooda, 2017)
98 A. ELIAS ET AL.

In Britain in 1993, when a young black student, Stephen Lawrence, was

killed in a racially motivated attack, accusations of racist conduct were
levelled against the metropolitan police. This led to an inquiry into police
reaction and handling of the criminal investigation that followed the attack.
The inquiry chaired by Sir William Macpherson concluded that “insti-
tutional racism played a part in the flawed investigation by the police”.
(Bourne, 2001, p. 7)

In the US, in the summer of 2014, police shot and killed two unarmed
young black men in Ferguson (Missouri) and New York City, prompting
widespread protests accusing the police of racial profiling. Unlike Australia
and the UK, there was no equivalent investigation in the US concluding
these incidents indicated underlying institutional racism, nor was there
complete data on police shootings in general. (Peeples, 2019)

Each of these incidents have at least one thing in common. They

do not represent isolated incidents occurring randomly, but have been
occurring almost regularly and reflect the systemic injustices that have
affected minorities in these racially diverse societies. While the numerous
fatal police shootings depict violent racism, they are manifestations of
institutional racism that is pervasive within these societies. Generally, insti-
tutional racism represents various practices, procedures, patterns, and
policies that privilege certain racial groups at the expense of others
in society (Better, 2008; Paradies, 2016). It is inherently exclusionary,
with some groups denied access to certain rights and privileges that
are conferred on others in the form of unearned advantage (Elias &
Paradies, 2021). Institutional racism creates racial power inequalities
through exclusionary production, access and control of information, and
material and symbolic resources in societies (Paradies, 2016).
Institutional racism has been defined as “the collective failure of an
organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people
because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin” (Tendler, 1999, p. 3).
It occurs within various corporate bodies including governments, organ-
isations, corporations and institutions, participating in the production
and maintenance of racial discrimination. These structural inequities are
enacted, and often manifest, in formal and informal social institutions
such as in social norms, laws, customs, as well as policies and practices.
They are systemic in their nature, operating spontaneously, irrespective
of individual agency. Thus, they do not disappear by mere changes of
 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 99

individuals and groups within particular institutions without effecting

transformative reform in the underlying mechanisms that influence insti-
tutional behaviours and outcomes (Tendler, 1999).
The concept of institutional racism was first coined by Ture and
Hamilton (1967) referring to the structural nature of racial injustice
that has been occurring in the US in the 1960s. Ture and Hamilton
(1967) argued that racism occurred both in overt and covert forms, with
white individuals participating in injustice against black individuals while
the white community collectively acted against the black community.
They called these two manifestations of racism individual and institutional
racism, where individual levels of racial prejudice act to motivate institu-
tionalised forms of racism. Likewise, institutional racism that occurs in a
broader social context involves individuals who themselves are integral
parts of various “relationships, social acts, and socio-historical circum-
stances” (Henricks, 2016, p. 1). This indicates that the multiple forms
of racism simultaneously occurring at different levels can analytically
be distinguished depending on how they operate and impact minori-
ties. Racism is reciprocally produced through prejudicial attitudes and
behaviours of individuals, and institutional enactments of racial discrim-
ination through laws, norms and policies (Bourne, 2001; Gee et al.,
2019).
Indeed, institutional racism may not always be easily detected. Particu-
larly, “it is rarely visible to those that are privileged by it, and is sometimes
undetectable to those impacted by it” (Elias & Paradies, 2021, p. 47).
There can be many reasons for this, among which is that it requires
no overt behaviour or attitudes to unfairly exclude or discriminate indi-
viduals and groups, nor does it require self-conscious antipathy towards
individuals or groups. Institutions can be racist without openly stating
racist policies, and by perpetuating existing norms, practices, laws and
bureaucratic structures. By becoming colour blind, meritocratic, or igno-
rant of existing privileges and injustices, people can enable institutional
racism. The systems and structures can then reproduce the status quo,
with deleterious effects on racial minorities.
Institutional racism occurs across multidimensional contexts, pervading
diverse settings such as healthcare, housing, education, employment and
law and justice. Racism in these settings can manifest in many ways
whether interpersonally or in practices such as recruitment, employment,
reporting, service delivery, governance and policy implementation. At all
100 A. ELIAS ET AL.

levels of racism and across institutional settings, the effect is unidirec-

tional with adverse outcomes for racial minorities. Figure 3.1 conceptually
depicts how institutional racism and associated manifestations of injustice
occurred in Australia’s race relations history. At the foundational level,
institutional racism embeds the default practices, laws and norms in the
society. These laws, practices, bureaucracies and institutional norms like in
many other Western societies were set up for the privilege of Anglo-Celtic
whites, and they remain intact. The diagram shows colonisation, slavery,
and dispossession as peaking until the abolition of slavery. Colonisation,
segregation, racial exclusion, continued with the White Australia Policy
until the abolition of the latter, during the decolonisation of nation states.
While it is argued that colonisation still exists, civil rights reforms associ-
ated with multiculturalism have had an impact on the Australian society.
In the current context of post-multiculturalism, the conceptual diagram
depicts ongoing racism manifesting in overt, subtle and systemic forms.

Fig. 3.1 A temporal model of how institutional racism operates

 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 101

Manifestation of Institutional Racism

The systemic nature of racism has been recognised in Western scholar-
ship since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Du Bois,
1903/2015). Years after the abolition of slavery in the US, the growing
prejudice towards blacks and continued racism in the form of legitimised
segregation, discrimination and violence, indicated that institutional
racism was far from eradication.
For more than a century, scholars have theoretically and empirically
documented the various ways systemic racism pervades Western soci-
eties. Among the notable body of works on institutional racism are the
works of American scholars W.E.B. Du Bois, Oliver Cromwell Cox, Gary
Becker and the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal who particularly high-
lighted the endemic nature of racism in the US, which impacts the entire
social, economic and legal structures of society (Becker, 1957/2010;
Cox, 1948/1959; Du Bois, 1903/2015; Myrdal, 1944/1996). The next
chapter will discuss the economic aspects of institutional racism as it
relates to the production and distribution of resources, and the organi-
sation of labour power. The focus in this chapter is on prevalent aspects
of contemporary institutional racism.
Fifty years after the coining of institutional racism (Ture & Hamilton,
1967), a large body of research has been produced on the topic. Much
of this research has primarily focused on racism in the context of law
enforcement (Bourne, 2001), media (Kilty & Swank, 1997), education
(Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2014), healthcare (Henry et al., 2004),
and immigration policy (Hage, 1998; Hing, 2009). Given the breadth
of institutional settings and societal structures that racism embeds, Miller
and Garran (2007) have conceptualised it as a systemic web of racism with
interweaving societal structures of racial inequities. This notion conceives
racism as having institutional roots at its historical foundation, and both
interpersonal and internalised racism persist only if they are institutionally
enabled (Ture & Hamilton, 1967; Seet, 2019). Whether in discriminatory
laws, structures of inequality or the ascription of privileges, institutional
power renders racism more devastating than personal prejudice per se. For
example, the institutions of slavery, Jim Crow, the Holocaust, Apartheid
and the White Australia Policy were institutional racisms that caused
considerable harm for racial minorities. In contemporary Western society,
these overt racisms may be less explicit, despite the prevalence of various
forms of institutional racism. However, their harmful effects continue
102 A. ELIAS ET AL.

to be significant, with various structural inequities documented across

countries (Henry et al., 2004; Seet & Paradies, 2018).

Institutional Racism in Egalitarian Society

The idea that as egalitarian societies we are a longway from the old racism
of the pre-1960s is one of the key arguments levelled against contempo-
rary anti-racism. Today, democracy flourishes in many countries, fostering
equality in multiracial societies. Indeed, some racial minorities have
attained unprecedented positions of economic and political power, such
as the election of Barack Obama to the US Presidency (2008), elec-
tion of Indigenous Peoples to the Australian Parliament (1971), and
appointment of a black Cabinet Minister in the UK (2002). However,
many of these individual achievements do not paint an accurate picture
of racial equity in these countries. Despite the democratic ideals, such as
freedom, fairness and equality, these countries espouse, their institutions
are founded on racist attitudes and norms. In many ways, these institu-
tions (e.g. police, criminal justice system, immigration system, media, and
schools) have either enabled or sustained racism. Thus, in these institu-
tions democracy can unwittingly lead to the continued existence of racism
in society. For example, as discussed in Chapter 2, the architects of the
Australian Federation have enacted racial discrimination by legislating the
Immigration Restriction bill that established an exclusive white society
(i.e. the White Australia Policy) (Willard, 1967).
In democracy, the interests of powerful groups dominates. There-
fore, less represented groups, such as racial minorities, become powerless
to protect their interests. Thus, a democratic system by itself may not
guarantee racial equality. Post (1991) highlights this as follows:

The very aspiration to self-determination reinforces pre-existing inequalities

by empowering those with the resources and competence to take advantage
of democratic processes; it systematically handicaps socially marginalized
groups who lack this easy and familiar access to the media of democratic
deliberation. (p. 327)

As Post has argued, the democratic process, like the market mecha-
nism, has its own handicaps. By definition, democracy is a majoritarian
process, and through the anonymity of the ballot box yields results that
are contrary to racial equality. Indeed, democracy has led to the election
 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 103

of the Nazi Party in the past. Today, a typical example for this is the
election of politicians holding views that are considered racist in many
Western countries. To the extent that those with such views can secure
enough votes, they can influence policies to advance their agenda.1 It can
be argued that democracy indeed responds to popular pressures if these
pressures have reached a critical mass. As such, a representative system of
democracy may not be immune to capture by systems of racial oppres-
sion. Thus, the democratic process alone does not lead to racial equality.
Therefore, it is not surprising that “anti-discrimination activism and much
of its gains (e.g. the Civil Rights legislations and the end of Apartheid)
have come from beyond the representative democratic process” (Elias &
Paradies, 2021, p. 50).
The democratic deficit that is sustained through exclusionary effects of
institutional racism often prevails under a state of denial. Indeed, there
is a moral hazard in acknowledging racism. Accepting that racism exists
to sustain white privilege in Western institutions amounts to admitting
that these societies are not altogether meritocratic (Better, 2008; Littler,
2018). However, citizens are often educated to think of their nations
as based on certain inalienable ideals (Australia: fair go; Canada: fair-
ness, inclusion, equality, diversity; US: freedom, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness; UK: democracy, rule of law, respect and tolerance). No wonder
then, the notion of institutional racism unsettles the Western mind with
a form of cognitive dissonance. Thus, members of these privileged soci-
eties find it “easier to blame the victims of inequality or lunatic fringe
groups than to admit the reality of basic injustice that exists” (Better,
2008, p. 13).
Controlling and reforming existing institutions at the macro-level
represents a serious policy challenge, given they are products of a long
history of prejudice. Developed over centuries of norms and practices,
institutions have become engrained as part of a culture that privileges
the majority groups while disadvantaging racial minorities. For example,
“the dominant group in American society, Europeans, has justified its

1 Typical examples are: the elections of the anti-immigration politicians Nigel Farage in
the UK, Marine Le Pen in France; the leader of an Austrian far right party Norbert Hofer;
the Islamophobe Dutch politician Geert Wilders; the anti-immigrant and Islamophobic
politicians Pauline Hanson and Fraser Anning in Australia; the election of Donald Trump
in the US and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.
104 A. ELIAS ET AL.

rule and exploitation of minority groups by building into its social insti-
tutions ideology as well as practices that supported this domination”
(Better, 2008, p. 13). Most public and private institutions (e.g. schools,
local authorities, businesses, and media organisations, or congressional
committees, service providing agencies, and consultancies), “though
often in the hands of enlightened persons, remain dominated by practices
that produce racial inequities” (Better, 2008, p. 13). Scholars therefore
note that the struggle for racial justice should incorporate avenues that
include a reforming of the democratic institutions (e.g. criminal justice
and policing). One aspect of such reform requires a focus on the class
dimensions of racism, as will be discussed in the next chapter. Fraser and
Honneth (2003), for instance, argue that racism incorporates social status
and class dimensions. While they admit that neither dimension repre-
sents a by-product of the other, race and class interact to produce racial
inequity. Thus, Fraser and Honneth (2003), maintain that “[n]either
can be redressed indirectly … through remedies addressed exclusively to
the other. Overcoming the injustices of racism, in sum, requires both
redistribution and recognition” (p. 23).

Institutional Racism in the Australian Context

Australia has had its share of institutionally sanctioned racism, particu-
larly since the establishment of the Federation, as detailed in Chapter 2.
Scholars argue that various social and political institutions depicting racist
norms and structures persisted in different ways. For example, Henry and
colleagues (2004) have noted that:

In Australia, institutional racism has been an almost constant feature of

our history, from the British designation of the continent as terra nullius,
through the 1897 Convention on Federation (where the question of
whether Aboriginal people should be counted as “people” in the national
census was covered in just 195 words), to the stolen generations and the
failure of the federal government to issue an apology. (pp. 517–518)2

2 Prime Minister Rudd’s Apology speech in 2008 mentioned some of the institutionally
racist policies, saying: “We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments
and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow
Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
children from their families, their communities and their country.”
 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 105

Today, institutional racism can be seen in the Anglo-Celtic privilege

permeating the sociocultural and political structures that constitute the
Australian society. While Australia has been established as an egalitarian
democracy with progressive rights and privileges, these are exclusive to the
white population (Bongiorno, 2013). Prior to Federation, colonial acqui-
sitions and expropriations of Indigenous land, as discussed in Chapter 2,
involved a process of institutionalised racism characterised by violence,
dispossession, slavery, exploitation and discrimination (Havemann, 2005;
Wolfe, 2006). To justify these actions, various governments pursued
ideological narratives that denied Indigenous “personhood, culture and
governance systems” in order to legitimise “their exclusion from most
benefits of modernisation” (Havemann, 2005, p. 57). Institutional racism
persists today through the denial of Indigenous rights and failure to
address Indigenous disadvantage (Chesterman & Galligan, 1997; Head,
2008). In fact, some scholars have equated Indigenous disadvantage
with institutional racism while others have highlighted it as a persistent,
complex and intractable problem facing Australian public policy (Head,
2008). The concept of institutional racism rejects Indigenous disadvan-
tage as a deficit discourse (Pyle, 2018); noting that the deficit discourse
fails to adequately reflect the effect of long-term discrimination and racial
oppression.
When the White Australia Policy ended in the 1960s, and the Racial
Discrimination Act of 1975 prohibited racial discrimination on the
grounds of race, colour, ethnicity, religion and national origin, this
offered legislative ground against institutional racism. Indeed, there have
been some progress over the decades that followed. However, minorities
remain underrepresented across political and economic power struc-
tures in Australian society, which is largely dominated by Europeans.
Despite more than four decades of multicultural experience, 95% of senior
leaders in Australia are from Anglo-Celtic and European backgrounds
although Indigenous and non-Europeans represent 24% of the popu-
lation (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018). Some scholars
and practitioners maintain that the current social, economic and polit-
ical underrepresentation of minorities shows an ongoing racial injustice
(Larkin, 2013). Whether this indicates underlying problems of institu-
tional racism, where race/ethnicity continue to determine a person’s place
in Australian society, is an issue that is strongly debated in public policy
and academic discourse (Bourke et al., 2018; Fuller et al., 2004; Mellor,
2003).
106 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Yet, a substantial body of research shows that many minorities,

including Indigenous Peoples and culturally and linguistically diverse
migrant communities, experience racial discrimination in many settings
(Fuller et al., 2004; Henry et al., 2004).3 Additionally, asylum seekers
experience inhumane treatment in onshore and offshore detention centres
that have been condemned both locally and globally (McNeill, 2003;
Silove et al., 2001). These discriminatory and exclusionary practices
impact on the human rights of racial minorities and asylum seekers, and
have adverse effects on their mental as well as physical health and well-
being (Newman et al., 2008). Thus, in many ways, Australia is yet to
realise racial equity and justice within its multiracial society.
Groups invoking Anglo-Celtic nationalist heritage have always
contested Australia’s gradual transition towards multiculturalism. The
government’s identification of Australia’s cultural diversity as an indi-
cator of the country’s progressive movement away from the racially
exclusive history often generates criticism and sometimes hostile deni-
gration of ethno-cultural heterogeneity (Moran, 2011). This perpetual
racial apathy is demonstrated in the ongoing socioeconomic impoverish-
ment of Indigenous Peoples, the frequent denials of their conditions in
contemporary political debates, and in the lack of progress in Indigenous
constitutional recognition. Occasionally, the reluctance to acquiesce with
Australia’s growing hetero-cultural identity manifests in multiple forms of
discrimination and denigration of minorities from migrant backgrounds.
Non-English speaking migrants, and particularly those from Africa, Asia,
and the Middle East frequently experience discrimination and social exclu-
sion (Polonsky et al., 2011; Saunders et al., 2008; Taylor, 2004). All of
these, in combination with resurgent far-right nationalism that has taken
mainstream routes in the last few years, represent an ongoing challenge
for racial equity in Australia.

The Cost of Institutional Racism

The costs of institutional racism are often multidimensional in nature. As
noted above, there is a broad social cost in terms of democratic deficit
associated with institutionally mediated racism. Although much of the
burden of racism is borne by minorities, it has wider implications on

3 These include the labour, housing, and consumer markets, healthcare, and criminal
justice system.
 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 107

society arising from vicarious experiences and cumulative social burden.

The Australian society bears the cost of systemic racism as a body politic,
fulfilling the principle that “if one part of the body suffers, all the other
parts suffer with it”.4
Scholars have previously attempted to quantify the socioeconomic costs
of racism to society. For example, Elias and Paradies (2016) have recently
estimated the economic costs of racism in Australia. The study examined
racial discrimination as a health cost, based on burden of disease estimates
that measured costs in terms of lost years associated with mental health
disability arising from exposure to racial discrimination (see Chapter 7
in this book). This is equivalent to intangible costs attributable to a
particular health risk factor. According to the Elias and Paradies study,
Australia was estimated to have lost approximately 3% of gross domestic
product (GDP) per year due to minorities experiencing racial discrimina-
tion. Other researchers have found almost equivalent results in the US.
For example, Brimmer (1997) estimated that the US incurred approxi-
mately 3.8% of its GDP due to the racial discrimination experiences of
African Americans. Indeed, racism is far more consequential for human
rights and dignity than is indicated by this economic loss, which is
based entirely on human capital and standard health economic approaches
(Feagin & McKinney, 2005). The nonpecuniary human impact raises
significant ethical issues that scholars and practitioners have debated for
decades (Glasgow, 2009).
Despite society as a whole incurring significant costs, institutional
racism primarily hurts racial minorities. Yet, it can also be argued that
this form of racism may benefit some privileged groups. The benefits
include exclusive rights and privileges, social and economic opportuni-
ties, and political power. In a typical example of the US prison system,
Henricks and Harvey (2017) demonstrate the way institutional racism
functions and benefits some groups. Analysing black incarceration in
the city of Ferguson (Missouri) and Cook County (Illinois), they found
that entire industries and their associates—employees, businesses, contrac-
tors, and government agencies—tend to benefit from the continuation of
high levels of black incarceration (Henricks, 2019; Henricks & Harvey,
2017). Thus, self-interest encourages the police to make more arrests, as

4 1 Corinthians 12:26 (Good News Translation). However, both the Christian Bible and
Muslim Quran state the notion that membership within a group implies that individual
suffering is shared more widely.
108 A. ELIAS ET AL.

more inmates mean enhanced job security for employees, better business
for contractors, and increased funding for government agencies working
within the criminal justice system.
According to Henricks (2019) three bureaucratic dimensions sustain
the systemic racial inequity that besets the prison system. They include:

One, these sanctions are represented in ways that abstract the conviction
process from its highly racialized context. Two, these sanctions enable legal
actors to enact a multilevel mode of decision making, combining compul-
sory and discretionary judgment, that entrenches racial bias within the
broader legal organization of punishment. And three, these sanctions redis-
tribute the operational costs of justice through earmarks onto those who
are processed through the system (i.e. disproportionately people of colour).
(p. 1)

These bureaucratic procedures and practices work paradoxically to

intensify ongoing racial stratification, albeit apparently in a non-racial
manner. However, they clearly demonstrate that racism can operate
unwittingly through measures and processes that in themselves may
appear egalitarian yet with racially disparate impact.
Therefore, institutional racism can manifest indirectly in terms of
disparate impact and intangibly in the form of opportunity cost, associ-
ated with the necessity to keep the system. Intangibly, the cost of dismantling
institutional racism is linked to the amount of resources that needs to be
invested to maintain the institutions that produced the racial disparities.
The extent of racial inequities that are left unaddressed thus determines
the extent of intractable and socially costly institutional racism that is
transferred across generations.
It is not always easy to identify the costs of institutional racism given
its multidimensional context, extending to the human, sociocultural,
economic, legal and environmental spheres. For example, racial profiling
can have significant mental health effects on racial minorities, which can
be socially costly. Related to this are over-incarceration, recidivism and
deaths in custody, which have direct connections with historical, socio-
cultural and environmental factors. In Australia, Indigenous deaths in
custody between 1980 and 2016 ranged between 11 and 30% annu-
ally of all deaths in custody (Gannoni & Bricknell, 2019; Lyneham &
Chan, 2013; Williams, 2001). Scholars in the US have shown how moral
hazard issues deeply impact the prison system to the extent of becoming
 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 109

dependent on the number of inmates (Henricks, 2019; Henricks &

Harvey, 2017). Contemporary prisons, particularly in the US, repre-
sent overlapping interests formed into prison-industrial complex, which is
described as “a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that
encourage increased spending on imprisonment, regardless of the actual
need” (Schlosser, 1998). Research shows a link between the prison system
and race (Henricks & Harvey, 2017), with racism in this law enforce-
ment context perpetuating as a bureaucratic process, becoming an entirely
self-sustaining system. Bhattacharyya et al. (2016) argue that the prison-
industrial complex has been highly racialised and serves the economic and
ideological interests of the country’s economic and political elite. This
renders the eradication systemic racism in the justice system an issue of
conflicting interests.
Research indicates that institutional racism can have social implications,
with deeper impact on fundamental social structures, ranging from family
breakups, homelessness, social exclusion, and criminal involvement (Kerr
et al., 2018). These social problems can become culturally entrenched in
the long term, as is the case in many minority neighbourhoods (Wilson,
2010). These structural issues are clearly visible in the socioeconomic
contexts among, for example, African Americans in the US, Indigenous
Peoples in Australia, Black people in South Africa, and migrants in many
European countries.
The discussion so far has broadly framed the cost of institutional
racism, with emphasis on racism in effect rather than racism by intent.
The racism in effect aspect of racism analytically seeks to uncover estab-
lished “actions, practices, and processes that reproduce variable yet stable
racial hierarchies” (Henricks, 2016, p. 2). In different societies, the way
it is observed varies depending on sociocultural history, and contempo-
rary political conditions. For example, institutional racism in Australia
pervades the labour market (Larkin, 2013), education system (Bodkin-
Andrews & Carlson, 2014), and social services (Fuller et al., 2004).
In the US, institutional racism is shown to be costly, and is particu-
larly visible in income and wealth disparity. This can be clearly seen in
residential segregation, with Black people concentrated in poor neigh-
bourhoods, a problem that perpetuates black poverty (Lichter et al.,
2012). The racial income/wealth gap in Australia is also an enduring
issue adversely affecting Indigenous Peoples (Fuller et al., 2004; Larkin,
2013). Indeed, the contemporary wealth gap in Australia is a legacy
of settler colonial history and its exclusionary policies. Yet, ongoing
110 A. ELIAS ET AL.

labour market conditions have a significant role in the perpetuation of

income/wealth disparity in Australia (Larkin, 2013). Scholars thus argue
that ongoing colonialism and institutional racism are among the key
determinants of chronic unemployment and underemployment among
Indigenous Peoples (Booth et al., 2012; Button & Walker, 2020; Duncan
et al., 2019; Larkin, 2013).
Education is often one of the key drivers of the gap in income and
employment outcomes. Racism in the education system, as reflected in
Australian standard practices or policies (e.g. Eurocentric culture, English
language as standard), can become institutional barriers with adverse
effects on the performance of Indigenous students (De Plevitz, 2007;
Moodie et al., 2019). For example, the 2018 Closing the Gap reports
a persistent gap in student attendance and retention rates, with remote
communities reporting the worse outcomes (Government of Australia,
2019). It is argued that these achievement gaps are reflective of the
intractable institutional condition affecting the educational system.
Healthcare is another area pervaded by institutional racism.
Researchers have reported substantial evidence of implicit and explicit
racist beliefs, emotions or practices among healthcare providers (Maina
et al., 2018; Paradies et al., 2014; Williams & Wyatt, 2015). Racism
in healthcare is often associated with “lower levels of healthcare-related
trust, satisfaction and communication” (Ben et al., 2017, p. 1). In the
US, Krieger (2020) found that minority health outcomes deteriorate as
a result of poor health services and healthcare underutilisation. A similar
observation has been made in Australia, where Indigenous Peoples expe-
rience poorer health outcomes relative to the rest of the population, as
has been consistently reported in the annual Closing the Gap report. The
report indicates that 53% of the health disparity between Indigenous and
non-Indigenous Australians can be explained by social determinants of
health and risk factors, whereas institutional racism alone accounted for
some of the remaining 47% (Bourke et al., 2018). Indigenous Peoples
are heavily burdened by institutional racism, effected through system-
atic exclusion from the healthcare system. Studies consistently show that
Indigenous people overall have significantly lower life expectancy, higher
infant mortality, and higher prevalence rate of major illnesses, in compar-
ison to other Australians. They are also less likely to receive adequate and
appropriate treatments for various illnesses (Bourke et al., 2018; Elias &
Paradies, 2021; Henry et al., 2004). All of these, along with persistent
 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 111

inequities in healthcare funding, disparate treatment regimes, and health-

care service-related cultural barriers indicate acute levels of institutional
racism (Henry et al., 2004).
Another group that frequently face structural and institutional barriers,
particularly in access to healthcare, are migrants and refugees. Research
indicates that migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)
backgrounds often receive inadequate quality of care and have limited
access for various reasons, mainly due to their race or ethnicity (John-
stone & Kanitsaki, 2008a; Richardson & Norris, 2010). Among the
most frequent institutional barriers that prevent migrants and refugees in
Australia from accessing optimal healthcare are cultural and social differ-
ences (Colucci et al., 2015), anti-workplace diversity attitudes (Johnstone
& Kanitsaki, 2008b), acute levels of ignorance about Indigenous Peoples
(Mapedzahama & Kwansah-Aidoo, 2017), and intersecting inequities
(Bastos et al., 2018).
Along with interpersonal and internalised forms of everyday racism
that Indigenous Peoples and CALD migrants experience, the above insti-
tutional barriers impact their overall wellbeing and life functioning as
well as their long-term health outcomes (Fuller et al., 2004). It is well-
documented that Indigenous Peoples have health outcomes equivalent to
and sometimes below the poorest societies in the world, while CALD
migrants tend to have poorer health outcomes than white Australians
(Bourke et al., 2018). Indeed, these outcomes in a rich country with one
of the world’s best healthcare systems represent an ethical challenge that
we further explore in the next section.

Racism, Ethics and Human Rights

Institutional racismis socially costly, and imposing unfair and unneces-
sary inequities harms the wellbeing of racial minorities. Researchers argue
that racism represents an ethical problem with its relative neglect of
the rights of these racial groups (Johnstone & Kanitsaki, 2010). This
section therefore further explores the ethical dimension of racism as an
institutional and interpersonal issue. Johnstone and Kanitsaki (2010),
for example, argue that until racism in the healthcare system receives
adequate moral scrutiny and “unless racism is reframed and redressed
as a pre-eminent ethical issue by health service providers”, the avoid-
able harms of racism on ethnic/racial minorities “will remain difficult to
identify, anticipate, prevent, manage, and remedy” (p. 489). Within the
112 A. ELIAS ET AL.

healthcare setting, a neglect of racism and ongoing systematic disadvan-

tage could trample notions of Rawlsian distributive justice (Rawls, 2001)
and justice conceived in terms of human wellbeing (Powers & Faden,
2006).
Racism represents an unfair treatment of people based on socially
constructed differences, and this arbitrary moral deficiency should make
it a primary subject of ethics. However, its apparent neglect as systemic
injustice and manifest form of privilege belies its harmful effects, while
unwittingly legitimising and justifying its prevalence (Johnstone & Kanit-
saki, 2010; Noah, 2002). An ethical discourse on the subject of racism
is therefore urgently needed, focusing on the consideration of persis-
tent structural inequities and injustices that particularly affect racial and
ethnic minorities. This chapter argued that racism exists because it serves
the interests of racial majorities, and that racism integrates ideology and
unjust practices (Boxill, 2013). Chapter 1 detailed that racism involves
attitudes, stereotypes and beliefs in racial categories, forming race rela-
tions organised as a “hegemonic social function” (Shelby, 2014, p. 66).
However, this notion of racism poses an ethical question, particularly
related to how it may be plausibly explained as unethical attitude or
behaviour. Why is racism morally objectionable? Scholars have argued
that it is easier to explain the moral flaw of racism when it is under-
stood as an injustice rather than ideology (Boxill, 2013; Eidelson, 2015;
Thomsen, 2017). While there are various reasons suggested in the litera-
ture, at least three reasons particularly stand out as the core moral failings
of racism—namely, disrespect, unfairness and harm (Thomsen, 2017).
First, racism can be conceived as a disrespect towards target groups,
indicating an inherent ethical flaw (Eidelson, 2015; Glasgow, 2009). Such
disrespect as manifested in racist attitudes can be seen in a person’s predis-
position or specifically in “the mental state of the endorser” (Glasgow,
2009, p. 84). In whatever level of severity this predisposition is expressed,
the ethical failure rests in the way the worth and conditions of partic-
ular groups are devalued and trivialised. Glasgow (2009) argues that
“endorsing the statement ‘All Arabs are terrorists’ appears racist, but
what’s racist here is arguably not the proposition but the mental state
of the endorser” (p. 84). From this standpoint, it can be seen that
the endorser is mentally assigning different valuations to human persons
based on subjective assessments of race, ethnicity or cultural back-
grounds. Glasgow’s conception also underscores the fact that racialisd
 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 113

disrespect demonstrates how individuals and institutions can perpetrate

racism without holding racist attitudes (Levy, 2017).
Scholars also identify the moral objectionablity of racism at the indi-
vidual level in two types of attitudes, racial antipathy and racial inferiorisa-
tion (Blum, 2002). Racial antipathy is often expressed in terms of bigotry,
hatred and hostility, however, antipathy may not necessarily be the funda-
mental or only basis of racism (Shelby, 2014). Inferiorising is another way
racism can be “expressed in various attitudes and behaviour—disrespect,
contempt, derision, derogation, demeaning” (Blum, 2002, p. 10). This
represents an ideological aspect of racism. Blum argues that it is distinct
from the racial antipathy framing of racism although it is also based on
psychological affect.
While the above propositions may explain some aspects of individual
racism, they do not adequately explain why structural and institutional
racisms should be conceived as disrespect. Indeed, individuals may be
considered racist based on their attitudes and behaviours, which can
represent racialised disrespect. Yet, racialised disrespect by itself does not
necessarily constitute institutional racism. On the contrary, scholars have
understood structural and institutional racism as forms of racism without
racists (Bonilla-Silva, 2006; Massey et al., 1975).
Another aspect showing how racism represents an inherent moral flaw
relates to its unfairness. Whether interpersonal or institutional, racism
imposes bias and inequity on the grounds of socially constructed differ-
ence, and as such tramples on justice, equality and human dignity; hence,
it is morally indefensible. In his theory of justice as fairness, Rawls (2001)
argues that racial or gender discrimination are fundamentally flawed in
a well-ordered liberal society. Before him, other scholars have consid-
ered institutional racism as a dilemma in Western society (Du Bois,
1903/2015; Myrdal, 1944/1996). Ethically, it can also be argued that
the persistence of institutional racism in supposedly liberal egalitarian soci-
eties represents an inherent lack of other-regarding virtue, or a lack of
empathy, or normalcy of indifference. In Rawls’ conception of justice,
other-regarding virtue is not formally incorporated within the veil of igno-
rance framework, although this framing may be conceived as an aspect
of self-othering. Yet, “a proper moral perspective is somewhat other-
regarding and impartial” (Hill, 1989, p. 765). Racism as unfairness can
be understood as disregarding behaviour, and as such, Rawls himself later
114 A. ELIAS ET AL.

recognised it as an important omission within his Theory of Justice (Rawls,

2001). Thus, other regard in this theory becomes integral in the proposi-
tion that discrimination would be justifiable only when applied to remedy
historical injustice.
Racism essentially embodies historical and contemporary injustice in
its systemic perpetuation of inequity. By denying due attention towards
unfair racial disadvantage, while conferring unearned advantages upon
other groups (white privilege), it establishes institutionalised injustice
(Nixon, 2019). This represents an ethical failure to alleviate the desperate
conditions of racial minorities. At the individual level, this signifies an
utter disregard or disinterest towards the condition of the racial other.
This makes interpersonal and institutional racism entirely contradictory
to other regarding morality as an ethical principle.
The conceptualisation of racism as a disregard for racial minorities
can capture many of the framings of racism that have been proposed
in the literature. For example, modern racism, aversive racism, ambiva-
lent racism, subtle racism, as well as Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and
Apartheid, have disregard as an inherent feature in addition to aspects
of disrespect, as has been proposed by Glasgow (2009). Indeed, disrespect
can be seen as a special type of disregard for others. However, unlike disre-
spect, disregard for others does not necessarily reflect a person’s mental
predisposition. Disregard can exist while all members of society possess
some level of respect for racial minorities. For example, this is the case
with institutional racism, which can thrive under conditions of respectful
attitude towards black people. This indeed is what racism without racists
entails. It refers to a situation where one holds some level of respect
towards blacks despite being indifferent to their conditions.
Finally, the third moral flaw of racism rests on the harm it causes the
targets. There is a large body of research across countries, documenting
the harmful effects of racism (Paradies et al., 2015). In Chapters 7 and
8, the health and wellbeing effects of racism in Australia are discussed in
detail, based on empirical evidence. Racism is a significant stressor that
harms people experiencing it across different domains, and as such it
deeply impacts the targets’ human dignity. Both as a system of injustice
and as a health risk factor, it is a morally objectionable phenomenon, irre-
spective of the underlying beliefs, attitudes or antipathy that are used as its
justification. Thus, racism should be seen as an injustice whose existence
represents a moral affront to humanity in contemporary societies.
 3 INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SOCIAL COSTS 115

Conclusion
Racism has an institutional dimension reflected in terms of collective
injustice that adversely impacts racial minorities. Over fifty years of
research has shown institutional racism remains an ongoing issue in many
multiracial societies. This chapter has discussed how, through structures
and practices, institutional racism across these societies unfairly produces
injustices that are largely historical legacies of colonial policies. Today,
racist practices occur across settings such as education, housing, work-
place, healthcare and criminal justice, where they manifest as outcomes of
unwitting bureaucratic racism.
Institutional racism is socially and economically costly, and minori-
ties who experience ongoing systematic exclusion and discrimination bear
most of the burden. It also raises fundamental ethical questions, partic-
ularly in nations that consider democracy and freedom as their central
tenets. Racism restricts access for the fuller functioning and participation
of racial minorities in social and political life, and this contradicts the egali-
tarian principles and equal representation promised in democratic systems.
This has been one of the driving factors for the rise of the anti-racism
movements of the 1960s (Ture & Hamilton, 1967). The leaders of the
movements successfully invoked the promises of democracy to mobilise
support for society wide anti-segregation rallies.
As discussed in this chapter, three fundamental reasons—disrespect,
unfairness and harm—have been suggested to explain key moral flaws
of racism. The conception of racism as disregard for the rights of racial
minorities locates the ethical question of racism within the unfairness
paradigm. This is particularly the case with institutional racism. Another
fundamental moral flaw of racism manifests in the moral failure of indi-
vidual citizens and society to be respectful and other-regarding. Society
in this sense can be seen as shirking responsibility towards its minority
citizens. This represents an ethical dilemma that has been corroborated
in racism scholarship dating back to the works of many scholars including
Du Bois (1903/2015) and Myrdal (1944/1996).
116 A. ELIAS ET AL.

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 CHAPTER 4

The Causes of Racism

Theoretical Perspectives
In Chapter 1, we have reviewed research that defined racism. Consider-
able research also exists showing who experiences what form of racism and
the extent of racism occurring in a given society. In contrast, questions
such as “What causes racism?”, “Why and when did racism originate?”,
and “Who benefits from it?” are also important to consider (Roediger,
1999; Winant, 2000). In this chapter, we inquire into the causes of
racism, and explore the social and economic factors that necessitate its
occurrence. In Chapter 2, we surveyed the history of race relations in
Australia, but did not explain why racism exists and why it endures. After
exploring theories of racism that consider the social and economic systems
underlying the history of Western race relations, we will explore and
contextualise the fundamental questions in Australian race relations.
There is evidence of racism from antiquity, with significant intensi-
fication since the advent of Western colonisation (Bethencourt, 2014;
Fredrickson, 2002; Isaac, 2004). Since at least the sixteenth century,
observations of religious figures that both slavery and colonisation are
the direct result of economic imperatives clearly situate racism as a corol-
lary of an (economic) power-based form of oppression and domination
(van Dijk, 1993, 2021). Scholarship on race, racial prejudice, and racism
as socially constructed systems of inequality can be traced back to the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1910, Max Weber,

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 123

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_4
124 A. ELIAS ET AL.

in a German Sociological Association conference, contended that race

was a social rather than biological construct, and concluded that racial
belonging is a direct result of the urge to monopolise power and status
(Banton, 2007; Gabriel & Ben-Tovim, 1979; Nelson, 1971). According
to Weber, the human desire for economic and social privileges results
in the formation of racial groups and group-based stratification (Nelson,
1971; Winant, 2000). However, it is important to critique this univer-
salising approach to the human condition by noting that such a basis
for racism was only possible in the last several thousand years of human
history. Among the conditions that characterise this period are: the
invention of money and accumulation of capital, significant population
densities that enable social stratification and globalised (forced) migra-
tion that produced racially diverse societies (Paradies, 2020). Subsequent
pioneering works by W.E.B. Du Bois attempted to provide empirical
evidence to the underlying economic rationale for racial inequalities.
During this period, the dominant sociological notion of race was as some-
thing equivalent to caste (Park, 1928). However, with the publication of
Oliver Cromwell Cox’s seminal book Castes, Class and Race in 1948,
we see the emergence of a theory of the causes of race relations—or in
Cox’s terminology—racial antagonism that is distinct from a caste system
(Gabriel & Ben-Tovim, 1978; Miles, 1980). Other influential works
that saw the race problem, particularly in the US, as a social problem,
including Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma (1944/1996), the
works of Drake and Cayton (1945/1993) and Park (1950), have signif-
icantly shaped the race relations scholarship of the twentieth century
(Winant, 2000). Figure 4.1 depicts the variety of perspectives on what
underlies the evolution of racism as an ongoing social problem.
From an economic perspective, explanations of the causes of racism
in social sciences vary depending on which school of thought one is
engaging. Broadly, at least two schools of thought stand out in the litera-
ture: neoclassical theories and Marxist theories of race relations. In this
chapter, we will explore both, before discussing our understanding of
the causes of racism. Neoclassical economics conceives racial identity as
exogenously determined, thus racism (specifically, racial discrimination)
that entails the preference of a certain racial group to another based on
individual tastes is entirely arbitrary (Becker, 1971; Darity et al., 2015).
Within the rational theory framework, racism is seen as irrational to the
cost minimising and profit maximising choices of economic agents in
society. It results in unfair inequalities, but in the long-term, it is not
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 125

Economic Sociological

Human capital Social construct

Race
[Becker] [Weber]
Class
[Marx, Cox]
Nation
[Gilroy]

Individual RACISM Group

Colonial system of
Behavioural choice privilege and
[Kahneman] oppression

Discrimination, Hierarchy, power,

Income, resources,
segregation, status, belonging,
Psychological

opportunities
exploitation, inequality cultural identity

Fig. 4.1 A multidimensional model of racism

sustainable, and thus leads to the ejection from the market of racist or
discriminatory agents. Marxist scholarship offers a competing explana-
tion to the origin of racism based on the theory of class struggle. Racist
thoughts and practices, according to Marxist writers (Cox, 1948/1959),
are specific to a capitalist system and are intertwined with the mode of
production. Since the inception, the hierarchical organisation of labour
power that placed blacks at the lower level of the production process
was necessary for the sustenance of the capitalist system. In pre-capitalist
societies, intolerance and ethnocentrism were prevalent, but did not
constitute racism (Cox, 1948/1959).
Both neoclassical and Marxist theories of racism have been variously
criticised. Most neoclassical models of racial discrimination treat preju-
dice based on racial identity as irrational and exogenous to the market.
However, recent behavioural scholarship has shown alternative explana-
tions, with tastes and psychological factors being relevant in a rational
decision process (Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004; Goldberg, 1990;
Kahneman, 2003). Some studies also indicate that the assumptions of
these models do not always hold (Reich, 1978, 1981). While neoclassical
theories may not adequately explain what the underlying causes of racism
are, Marxist theories have been criticised for reductionist economism,
a critique that we will return to later in this chapter, and a failure to
126 A. ELIAS ET AL.

account for racism in communist societies (Law, 2012).1 Factors (e.g.

psychology, culture, and social issues) other than political class are essen-
tial in understanding the origin of racism (Gabriel & Ben-Tovim, 1978;
Omi & Winant, 2014).
Sociological research has examined the underlying causes of racism
within three theoretical frameworks: ethnicity, class, and nation (Winant,
2000). Each of these represent research attached to particular histor-
ical trends. For example, research on race and class was more salient
at the height of the Marxist school of thought while emphasis on race
and nation flourished during the era of nationalism and decolonisation
(Balibar & Wallerstein, 1988; Miles, 1980; Reich, 1981). Contemporary
racism research is highly diversified. There is an increasing focus on empir-
ical measurements of racism, with the meaning of racism shifting, and
with an ongoing, but relatively limited body of research addressing the
nature and cause of racism (see for example: Augoustinos & Every, 2015;
Bonilla-Silva, 1997; Crenshaw et al., 1995; Feagin, 2013; Omi & Winant,
2014; Roediger, 1999).
The way racism is defined and conceived determines our understanding
of its underlying causes and effects. Ethnicity, class, and nation-based
racial theories as well as racial category and racial oppression theories offer
us distinct perspectives. This is shown in the numerous reasons for the
existence of racism that have been suggested in the literature. Some of the
reasons are that racism is a result of fear, threat and competition, broader
dynamics in intergroup relations, and processes of socially constructed
identity formation (Allport, 1954/1979; Bobo, 1999; Duckitt, 1992;
Lentin, 2004; Omi & Winant, 2014; Stephen & Stephen, 2000). Addi-
tional reasons include, the need to accrue, protect or preserve economic,
political, and cultural power (Bhattacharyya, 2016) through embedded
systems of privilege and oppression (Feagin, 2013), lack of understanding
or ignorance of difference (DiAngelo, 2011), or historical contradictions
or social anomaly (Myrdal, 1944/1996). All of these combine social,
economic and psychological factors, emerging from considerable research
and theorising across disciplines that have focused on understanding what

1 The concept economism, refers to “the reduction of all social relations to market
logic”, and “often appears in critiques of political movements and neoliberal economics”
(Norgaard, 2015, p. 1). In Marxist orthodoxy, Lenin coined it as a critique to “a
determinism of the development of the productive forces” (Balibar & Wallerstein, 1988,
p. 3).
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 127

underlies racism (Allport, 1954/1979; Banton, 1998; Miles & Brown,

2003).2 This chapter will explore racism and structural inequalities liter-
ature to examine underlying causes of racism. It will also explore how
race and class interplay, and whether racism and its resulting inequalities
benefit particular groups in society.

Economic Roots of Racism

Early free market thinkers like Adam Smith and David Ricardo under-
stood the necessity of global markets for capitalist production. When
they conceptualised specialisation, division of labour and comparative
advantage, they underscored that surplus production could only be
realised provided there is adequate market that accommodates the supply
of commodities. During the Industrial Revolution, European surplus
production, economies of scale, decline in transaction cost and the
demand for raw materials pushed the limits of earlier mercantile trade
towards a more efficient international trade (North, 1991). However, the
economic structures of the rest of the world were not aligned to this
capitalist thinking (Goldstone, 2009). Thus, European economic expan-
sion had to force its way into societies with other economic systems
through commerce, conquest and colonisation. We see here colonial
expansion as the inevitable outcome of the economic drive for market
expansion (Brewer, 2002). When Marx problematised capitalism as inher-
ently fixated with insatiable dependence on profit (surplus value), he
connected it with the inevitability of imperial expansion (Brewer, 2002;
Marx & Engles, 1848/1969). In the New World, capitalist expansion
that was premised on plantation economy required a large quantity of
human labour. Slavery offered the best opportunity for expanded supply
of labour in the form of free black and Indigenous labour (Williams,
2014). Whether slavery was contingent on capitalist demand for labour or
the former was a condition for the expansion of the latter has stimulated
considerable debate (Baron, 2000; Vaughan, 1989; Williams, 2014).
The evolution of slavery, race relations and trans-Atlantic trade, and
later historical developments of race relations, show the intertwined and
complex relationship between race and Western economies. Scholars since
Du Bois (1903/2015) have understood that economic factors are at the

2 See Chapters 5 and 6 for reviews of research focusing on measuring the prevalence of
racism.
128 A. ELIAS ET AL.

heart of the racial problems that have persisted in the industrialised West
for almost four centuries. As such, the connection between the evolu-
tion of economic structures and the historical as well as contemporary
racialised organisation of society is not a matter of contestation. Rather,
there is a strong understanding that race constitutes an important social
factor in determining human behaviour, as well as economic and polit-
ical dynamics across many countries (Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004;
Marable, 2015; McAdams, 1995).
Many scholars have articulated these racialised structures (Cox,
1948/1959; Fredrickson, 1989; Lipsitz, 2006). The Color of Money,
a recent book by Baradaran (2017), shows the structural relation-
ship between racism and the legacy of racial inequality in wealth. This
macroeconomic analysis of the history of banking and credit in the US
demonstrates how racism is institutionally rooted within an enduring capi-
talist system that privileges white Americans.3 As Baradaran (2017) and
other authors (Lipsitz, 2006) have argued, despite a publicly espoused
free market economy, Western laws and regulations from the very begin-
ning protected the interests of the dominant racial group. The outcomes
of generationally exclusionary laws and practices are now reflected in the
concentration of both wealth and land ownership, which racial minori-
ties—who now disproportionately experience systemic levels of poverty
and other disadvantages—have no or little access (Marable, 2015).

Neoclassical Explanations of Racism

The economic sphere is the realm of individual choices and decisions.
Individual agents (consumers, firms, and nations) engage in economic
activity, making choices that protect their interests. Groups, collectives,
cultural and social structures are considered exogenous in the economic
analysis of markets, but they are the objects of analysis in sociology. Yet,

3 In many Western societies, the category whites is heterogeneous. For example, in the
US, Hispanic whites are distinguished from non-Hispanic whites. According to the US
census, whites are defined as persons with origins from “any of the original peoples of
Europe, the Middle East or North Africa. It includes people who indicated their race(s)
as White or reported entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or
Caucasian” (Humes et al., 2011). Historically, the majority White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants
have shaped and dominated the political, socioeconomic and cultural life of the society
until the early twentieth century, with Irish, Jews, Italians and others included as whites
in the twentieth century.
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 129

some phenomena can only be understood by the interplay between indi-

vidual agency and group dynamics. Such is the case of racism, which
is a fundamentally group-based relational phenomenon. Until recently,
conventional economics considered racism as occurring because of indi-
viduals’ tastes for discrimination (Becker, 1971). Alternative theories, such
as statistical discrimination (Arrow, 1971) and occupational segregation
(Bergmann, 1974) offered rational informational explanations. Yet, other
than documenting statistical evidence of discrimination, racism research
in economics has not adequately explained why racism continues to be
pervasive and persistent in societal systems, as has been considered by
critical race scholarship (Mac Laughlin, 1998; Sidanius & Pratto, 2001).
In Becker’s model, the origin of tastes for discrimination has not been
adequately explained. Tastes were considered matters of attitudes and
preferences that are entirely determined exogenously outside the market
system (Reich, 1981). Thus, conventional economic analysis has primarily
focused in determining the existence of racial discrimination, with the
assumption that such discrimination was irrational and would disappear
overtime. Because of this neoclassical view of discrimination, adequate
economic inquiry directly tackling the question of what causes racism has
been very limited. The persistence of racial discrimination contrary to
Becker’s prediction of the competing out of racism (Charles & Guryan,
2008) pointed to the theoretical inadequacy of the neoclassical economics
of racial discrimination.
Racial disparity across diverse economic outcomes can and do persist,
with racial minorities in most cases at the bottom of the socioeconomic
ladder (Lundberg & Startz, 2018). The reasons for these persistent group
disparities can be many, but we can point to at least two distinct theoret-
ical explanations for racial disparities. First, racial and ethnic disparities
are examined within the domains of conventional labour economics,
which considers racial disparities as endogenous. Individuals are assumed
to experience socioeconomic outcomes depending on their individual
characteristics. Accordingly, the market rewards them based on their char-
acteristics, and this can lead to racial differences in outcomes. Some of
these characteristics can be inherited (fixed at birth, e.g. ability, IQ)
or acquired (e.g. education, experience). In this framework, measured
discrimination can be partly explained by controlling for an individual’s
characteristics (Ashenfelter & Card, 2010).
130 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Alternative explanations of race and economic outcomes see racial

disparities as exogenous, occurring outside or before the market (Darity
& Mason, 1998). Racial discrimination in this framework is considered
a significant factor in shaping individual characteristics. This explana-
tion debunks most of the assumed individual differences (e.g. ability,
IQ, education, and experience) as historically determined social outcomes
rather than as innate differences. According to Darity et al. (2015), indi-
vidual differences should not be seen as fixed and unaffected by social and
historical phenomena, however,

The over-emphasis on individual optimization and the under-emphasis on

group formation and collective action leads orthodox economists to accen-
tuate differences in individual attributes like human capital endowment,
motivation and tastes as explanations for intergroup differences. (pp. 3–4)

Darity et al. (2015) argue that intergroup disparities require greater

consideration than they are accorded in economic analysis. Some of
the key intergroup inequalities, such as wealth, have stronger associa-
tion with individual racial and ethnic background than with their labour
market outcomes (e.g. employment, productivity, and wages). Yet, major
national indicators (such as wellbeing, per capita income and Human
Development Index) fail to incorporate group-based disparities as dimen-
sions of social welfare (Darity et al., 2015). According to Darity et al.
(2015), the intergroup dimension that has been lacking in conventional
economic analysis could be addressed within the field of stratification
economics, which extends intergroup inequalities to the domains of
health, income/wealth, wellbeing, political influence and social inclusion.
This framework integrates cross-disciplinary insights including group
identity and social classification processes (sociology), rationality and self-
interest behaviours (economics), and social beliefs and perceptions and
related concepts of implicit and unconscious bias, cognitive dissonance,
and stereotype threat (social psychology).
Furthermore, within this analytical framework, competition between
social groups motivated by self-interest, and the intersectionality of
different contours of inequalities (race, gender and class) are incorporated.
Such micro- and macro-level interactions also offer analytical tools to
understand the economic dynamics of intergroup race relations (Browne
& Misra, 2003; Mac Laughlin, 1998; Walby et al., 2012). Unlike the stan-
dard neoclassical approach, stratification analysis does not assume racial
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 131

discrimination to be an irrational individual behaviour, but “is functional

in promoting the privileged group’s relative status” (Darity et al., 2015,
p. 2). It explains persistent intergroup disparities by looking beyond indi-
vidual factors, and focusing on the structural and contextual factors that
lead to the maintenance of relative intergroup status, intergenerational
transmission of wealth and resources, and exclusionary behaviours and
practices.
The conception of racial discrimination as a group privileging social
structure has been alien in conventional economics. By introducing a
social group lens to the analysis of economic disparities, the stratification
framework presumably allows the theoretical plausibility to a persistence
of discrimination under the competitive model. As Darity et al. (2015)
have argued:

There is negligible empirical evidence that discrimination inevitably falls

under pressure from market forces. A review of the available time series
evidence across the handful of market-based economies where estimates
are available did not identify a pattern of declining discrimination. (p. 4)

As per the evidence (Quillian et al., 2019), competition alone may not
eliminate racial discrimination. This can be partly explained by rational
intergroup factors including the notion that dominant racial groups
consider discrimination as an instrument of turf maintenance (Darity
et al., 2015). While this can be one of many reasons, it does not
adequately explain the origin of racial discrimination. A challenge thus
remains for researchers to develop socioeconomic theories that adequately
identify and establish the potential causal factors for racial discrimination,
and to untangle the intertwined processes associated with the production
and maintenance of intergroup inequalities.
To date, economic reasoning in relation to liberal thoughts and racism
show that economic scholarship and liberal thinking have diverged in their
prescription towards addressing racial injustice (Colander et al., 2004).
Ultimately, the prescriptions to address racism (discrimination) rest on
whichever theoretical explanation is taken. Proponents of the endogenous
explanation advise against intervention to correct the effects of discrimi-
nation, as the latter would correct itself by competing out discriminatory
agents from the market (Becker, 1971). Those who argue that racism is
inherently exogenous are in favour of anti-discrimination legislation, as
the market alone cannot weed out discrimination entirely.
132 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Race, Class and Racism

Marxist analysis examines race and racism from a class-based theoretical
lens, one that is entirely different from the race prejudice paradigm of
neoclassical economics theories. In his pioneering work, Oliver Cromwell
Cox (1948/1959) constructed a political economy of race and racism
in the US tracing the roots of racial inequality within the socioeco-
nomic system that established the country. Later theoretical and empirical
works by numerous scholars such as Reich (1978, 1981), Balibar and
Wallerstein (1988), and Gilroy (1987) extended Cox’s Marxist explana-
tions of racism further, by adding the concepts of collective bargaining,
nationalism, and race formation to the analysis of race and class. While
Marxist theories of race were later criticised for privileging class over
race, and subordinating race within the class struggle (Miles, 1980; Omi
& Winant, 2014; Roediger, 1999), they have immensely increased our
understanding of some of the causes of racial inequalities. Critiques have
argued that race and class are distinct, with class having an objective
dimension in relation to ownership of resources or wealth while race being
purely ideologically and socially constructed (Fields, 1982). According
to social dominance theory, notions of race and racist ideologies play
legitimising roles in the creation and maintenance of intergroup inequali-
ties through positive social identities and social status hierarchy (Sidanius
et al., 1992). Indeed, the interplay among the various social, psycholog-
ical and behavioural constructs cannot be ignored, as alluded to in the
discussion of stratification economics (Darity et al., 2015). Other theo-
rists (Hartwig, 1972; Wellman, 1993) see racism as providing economic
rationale for white privilege and domination of racial minorities. These
economic conceptions of race and racism differ from the psycholog-
ical prejudice-based interpretations that focus at either the (inter-)group
or individual level through factors such as personality, unconscious or
implicit bias, discursive/linguistic practices, and social norms/structure
(Duckitt, 1992). They focus mainly on racial discrimination as an act
rather than on racism as an attitude, and racial discrimination is under-
stood as an economic phenomenon, emerging within the context of
market forces, either endogenously or exogenously.
Cox (1948/1959) was one of the earliest scholars to form a coherent
Marxist theory to explain the relationship between racism and capitalism.
His analysis assumed that “economic relations form the basis of modern
race relations” (Roediger, 1999, p. 7). This notion depicted race relations
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 133

as “a feature of the development of capitalism, with the consequence that

a solution to the ‘race problem’ [depended] upon a transition from capi-
talism to a democratic, classless society” (Miles, 1980, p. 169). Thus, the
relationship between capitalism and racism is considered a deeply rooted
historical reality. Cox articulated his theory by distinguishing between
four distinct concepts: race, ethnocentrism, intolerance, and racism. The
focus of this historical analysis was particularly on race relations that Cox
argued had “developed independently of the anthropological tests and
measurements” of the previous century that sought to biologically classify
different “races” (Cox, 1948/1959, p. 320). Cox had a social construc-
tionist view of race, and racism for him was an ideology or “a philosophy
of racial antipathy” (Cox, 1948/1959, p. 321). While he saw race rela-
tions as a historical and social reality, racism according to him was an
abstraction of the rationalisation of race prejudice.
In this sense, the origin and manifestation of racial antagonism can
be traced to the rise of capitalism; accordingly, there is a direct causal
relationship between race relations and capitalism (Miles, 1980). Cox’s
historical analysis connects the emergence of racial prejudice and exploita-
tion in Europe to the rise of capitalism and nationalism, with colonial
expansion facilitating their global spread. As such, “all racial antago-
nisms” according to Cox (1948/1959, p. 322) “can be traced to the
policies and attitudes of the leading capitalist people, the white people of
Europe and North America”. For much of the history of the eastern and
northern Mediterranean, the relationship between imperial ruling classes
and subjects were based on culture rather than race. The Hellenic world
defined in- and out-groups based on their mastery of the Greek language.
Even during the Roman Empire, where slavery was commonplace, “we
do not find racial antagonism, for the norm of superiority in the Roman
system remained a cultural-class attribute” (Cox, 1948/1959, p. 325).
During and after the Middle Ages, the dominant marker of prejudice
was religious belief, with Christian Europe competing against superior—
Muslim, Asian and Jewish—cultures. According to Cox, the policies of the
Catholic Church—promoting universal brotherhood of men—prevented
racial prejudice from its full realisation (Genovese, 1965/2014).4
Cox contends that even during the Portuguese and Spanish expeditions
of the fifteenth century, racial prejudice had not yet emerged. According

4 In Cox’s historical analysis, inclusion in this brotherhood within the Catholic doctrine
depended on acceptance of the Christian faith rather racial identity.
134 A. ELIAS ET AL.

to this analysis, the economic rationale was premature during the period
to warrant racial antagonism. The crusading spirit of the Portuguese and
Spanish is said to have put a check on their pursuit, precluding them
from appreciating the economic value of labour exploitation. Although
the Church itself kept its share of African servants, did not comprehend
the economic utility of segregation and its cultural equivalent. Racism and
segregation as a technique and system of perpetuating the oppression and
servitude of black workers was not developed. Thus, at this stage, “no
rationalizations of inborn human inferiority in support of a basic need for
labour exploitation” has been developed; instead, the Church’s “obses-
sion with the spiritual values of conversion left the Negroes free to be
integrated into the general population” (Cox, 1948/1959, p. 329).
According to Cox, racial antagonism began with European discovery of
America, and particularly with the commercialisation of human labour. It
emerged not out of a particular feeling of antipathy based on colour or
race, but purely out of the economic necessity of the period. This drive to
exploit the labour of coloured people was given legitimacy through Pope
Alexander VI’s edict (1493) and the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). Thus,
two things were at work in this process of racialisation: “the primacy of a
competitive over a religious spirit” and the attitudinal facilitation for the
justification of exploitation (Genovese, 1965/2014, p. 123).5 The insti-
tution of slavery opened a new political economy based on an exploitative
system that clearly demarcated the distinction between the dominating
and oppressed groups. In so doing, it essentially caused racial antagonism
to emerge within the capitalist plantation economy.6 According to Cox
(1948/1959):

This, then, is the beginning of modern race relations. It was not an

abstract, natural, immemorial feeling of mutual antipathy between groups,
but rather a practical exploitative relationship with its socioattitudinal
facilitation—at that time only nascent race prejudice. (p. 332)

5 The triumph of the capitalist/racist spirit over the religious spirit is illustrated by the
conflicting views of Sepulveda and Las Casas, with the former being an outspoken propa-
gandist of the Spanish Atlantic slavery project and the latter being against the institution
of slavery (Cox, 1948/1959).
6 Many scholars accept the proposition that the institution of slavery was the precursor
of racism. Wilson (1996, p. 37) writes: “Modern racism emerged out of slavery and colo-
nialism. These economic institutions created clear demarcation lines between the oppressed
and the oppressor, which overlapped with color lines.”
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 135

For Cox, the main problem within the emerging exploitative relation-
ship was the proletarianisation of labour, which occurred regardless of
the race or colour of the labourer. In this arrangement, racial exploitation
was indeed one aspect of the exploitation. Nonetheless, race prejudice
was only the capitalist’s exploitative tool, an ex post phenomenon that
was conveniently relied upon when the situation demanded. In the early
stages of the capitalist order, white labourers occupied positions often
reserved for people of colour. However, the enslavement of coloured
people proved more profitable and this took the exploitative relationship
to such a fundamentally new level that it required racial justification.

The capitalist exploitation of the colored workers, it should be observed,

consigns them to employments and treatment that is humanly degrading.
In order to justify this treatment the exploiters must argue that the workers
are innately degraded and degenerate, consequently they naturally merit
their condition. (Cox, 1948/1959, p. 334)

In this sense, the nascent system of race relations could be conceived

as the direct outcome—a necessary outcome—of the rise of capitalism. It
was necessary in that the economic exploitation of the so-called inferior
race needed to be justified. Moreover, according to Cox (1948/1959),
the concomitant race prejudice constituted a psychological justification
that was needed for the effortless exploitation of a particular racial group.
This conceives capitalism as requiring both stratification along racist lines
(economic necessity) and its justification to meet the desired political
ends (Genovese, 1965/2014). When the ideology for the dehumanisa-
tion of the oppressed group of people was sufficiently established, the
ruling class, Cox argued, was ready to announce implicitly or explicitly its
claims that:

The colored people have no rights, which the master race is bound to
respect. The exploiting class has an economic investment in this conviction
and it will defend it with the same vigor as it would an attack upon private
property in land and capital. (Cox, 1948/1959, p. 335)

As far as Cox was concerned, race relations were not a moral consider-
ation, but purely an economic issue. Moreover, he categorically rejected
the notion that race relations and caste relations were identical. There is
scholarly debate as to whether caste discrimination can be seen as racism.
136 A. ELIAS ET AL.

D’Souza (1995) argues that, although the Indian caste system cannot be
considered racist since members of the Indian castes belong to the same
race, he admits that castes display “many of the features that would be
expected in a racist society. The caste system is hierarchical and heredi-
tary. Lower castes are stigmatized and marked out as inferior” (D’Souza,
1995, p. 20). Yet, D’Souza considers the caste system as establishing reli-
gious and social distinctions, and cannot be considered a racist system
because Hindus share similar physical features and do not ascribe to caste
any biological features. Other scholars contend that skin colour is inte-
gral part of the caste system (Mishra, 2015) while D’Souza’s view has
a narrow conception of racism as a system entirely based on biolog-
ical differences. Contemporary scholars contend that social caste, such
as the Indian caste system, qualify as racist systems (Goodnight, 2017;
Pinto, 2001). The caste system embodies religion and ancestry as the
bases for hierarchical categorisation of groups and discrimination based
on such attributes. Indeed, based on the broader new racism definition
that includes ancestry, culture and religion as the fundamental grounds of
racist doctrines, the caste system constitutes a racist system.
Coming back to Cox’s analysis, race relations are purely “labor-capital-
profits relationships”, which essentially present themselves as “proletarian
bourgeois relations and hence political-class relations” (Cox, 1948/1959,
p. 336). To him, race prejudice is an outcome of capitalism, which is
a cultural accident in Europe: “It is probable that without capitalism, a
cultural chance occurrence among whites, the world might never have
experienced race prejudice” (Cox, 1948/1959, p. 345). Many Marxist
scholars have shared this argument (e.g. Gilroy, 1987; Omi & Winant,
2014; Robinson, 2000). Robinson (2000) for example maintains that
capitalism and racism are intertwined in such a way that social relations
in the West can be conceived as racial capitalism. Western capitalism has
emerged:

within the feudal order and grew in fits and starts, flowering in the cultural
soil of the West - most notably in the racialism that has come to char-
acterize European society. Capitalism and racism, in other words, did
not break from the old order but rather evolved from it to produce a
modern world system of “racial capitalism” dependent on slavery, violence,
imperialism, and genocide. (Robinson, 2000, p. xiii)
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 137

According this view, racial prejudice, which began under the auspices
of modern capitalism, spread with imperial expansion, setting the rules of
race relations wherever English rule set its foot. The nature of this prej-
udice was unlike anything that happened before, and it set the standard
for all other cultural prejudices. Cox (1948/1959, p. 349) suggested that
once it was instituted, the colour-based racial prejudice of whites function-
ally became the regulator of racial prejudices among minorities. For him,
the prejudice of whites ranked at the apex of the race prejudice ladder,
and where two or more races shared a racial situation with whites, the
latter would have direct or indirect influence over the relationship among
subordinate races.
Cox saw the solution for the antagonistic race relations in democracy,
where progress and the advance of democracy limits and reduces race
prejudice. Since Cox sees capitalism as the cause of racial antagonism,
he conceives class struggle as the ultimate emancipator of the racially
oppressed black people. As a strategy, therefore, blacks should cooperate
with their class allies—white workers—to ultimately defeat the ruling capi-
talist class through socialist revolution. The inherent problem of racial
oppression would “most probably be settled as part of the world prole-
tarian struggle for democracy” (Cox, 1948/1959, p. 583), and thus the
advances that the oppressed people make would have actual or potential
impact on the freedom of coloured people.
Since Cox’s classic work, the Marxist explanation of racism has been
criticised for its inadequacy and for failing to focus on the problem of
whiteness (Miles, 1980; Roediger, 1999). There has been considerable
discussion around the notion of racism being a determinate product of
capitalism. Some of these discussions (e.g. Gabriel & Ben-Tovim, 1978;
Genovese, 1965/2014; Gilroy, 1987; Miles, 1980) reject reductionist
economic explanations of the origin of racism, and call for a holistic
approach to race relations as a social system. For example, Gabriel and
Ben-Tovim (1978) criticise the emergence of a strand of Marxist thought
that conceives racism as an outcome of conspiratorial effort of the ruling
class. The theoretical weakness of this conception is that it identifies
racism with its effects that are in turn considered responsible for the
production of racism.

The concept of race thus appears not as a necessary function of certain

economic laws, which are consequently seen to be responsible for real
economic categories, but rather a deliberate attempt to weaken and
138 A. ELIAS ET AL.

fragment the working class through the production of utterly false biolog-
ical/genetic criteria for differentiation: an incomplete economism is thus
supplanted by a voluntaristic class reductionism. (Gabriel & Ben-Tovim,
1978, p. 125)

The logical outcome of the economism of a racism/capitalism thesis

according to Gabriel and Ben-Tovim (1978) is “the collapse of anti-racism
struggle into class conflict” (p. 144), thereby usuping the former from
much needed solidarity of the masses.
While Cox’s theory of race relations offered a Marxist analysis of the
causes of racial antagonism, it has been criticised for some fundamental
logical flaws (Miles, 1980). Three criticisms levelled by Miles (1980) are
of particular significance. First, he argues that Cox’s theory conflated soci-
ological and Marxist concepts of exploitation. Cox’s conclusion that black
and white workers suffered similar exploitation under the capitalist ruling
class was based on the Marxist notion of exploitation of surplus value.
However, the exploitation coloured people suffered was racial, a stigma
that never changed with change in social class. Second, Cox conceived
the subordination of blacks as inferior race as proletarianisation of black
labour. Yet, this ignores the fact that blacks were enslaved and owned as
property, and did not freely sell their service nor were they voluntarily
recruited for their labour. Besides, it is difficult to conceive blacks as a
homogeneous proletariat class in as much as whites cannot be so consid-
ered (Gabriel & Ben-Tovim, 1978). Third, Miles notes that, by taking
Cox’s concept of proletarianisation of black labour to the post-abolition
phase, racial antagonism cannot just be considered political class conflict.
In addition to being proletarianised, the racialisation of blacks provided
the capitalists the opportunity to extract greater surplus value. This would
ultimately result in the development of race consciousness that undercuts
class-consciousness (Camfield, 2016).
Miles’ critique highlights another contradiction in Cox’s theory, which
establishes that racial prejudice is the creation of the ruling class for the
exploitation of labour. Yet, the theory also noted that race prejudice can
be reproduced as it becomes a social heritage, where groups in society—
including workers—engage in its propagation without being conscious
of how and why it originated. This contradicts Cox’s analysis, which
does not permit the possibility of working class expressing race preju-
dice (Miles, 1980). Cox’s attribution of equal status to political class and
ethnic system, and the subsequent theoretical inadequacy in connecting
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 139

the two was one of the weaknesses identified in his theory. Miles (1980,
p. 174) concludes his critique by noting Cox’s work as a pioneering
attempt in theorising the relationship between political class and race
relations; yet due to its fundamental contradictions, the theoretical rela-
tionship “between the capitalist class structure and racial categories”
remains unresolved.
Following up from this critique, Miles (1980) hints an alternative
explanation where racial categories and political class are seen as evolving
distinctly. For him, race category and political class are separate with
distinct underlying social processes. While race as a social construct “pre-
supposes the existence of a consciousness of physical difference”, class
presupposes “the existence of a definite mode of production” (Miles,
1980, p. 185). One can cut across the other, but it does not distort or
impede the other. Within the Western capitalist social formation, blacks
have been regarded by the white majority, irrespective of class position,
as deserving of second-class status. Hence, the continuous production of
socioeconomic exclusion could be “potentially a motive for a political and
ideological class alliance between the working class and the bourgeoisie”
(Miles, 1980, p. 185). Racism, therefore, as a relation of the produc-
tion process is closely intertwined with racism as an ideological system,
and the two cannot be disconnected. Ultimately, race for Miles represents
an ideological effect masking concrete economic relationships (Solomos
& Back, 1995). Miles and Brown (2003) thus argue that racism should
be seen as “a necessarily contradictory phenomenon rather than that it is
functional to the mode of production” (p. 137), and class should be high-
lighted as one “dimension that interacts with racism in the production of
inequalities” (p. 137).

Racism and Social Systems

The racism/capitalism thesis proposed by Cox and other Marxist scholars
is just one explanation of the causes of racism. A number of scholars,
among them Eugene Genovese, suggest alternative explanations, where
slavery, rather than being the outcome of a capitalist mode of produc-
tion, is itself seen as a deliberately conceived and established social order
encompassing ideological, political, economic and psychological aspects of
social life (Gabriel & Ben-Tovim, 1978). Rejecting the capitalist extrac-
tion of black labour hypothesis as inadequate, Genovese (1965/2014)
argued that slavery was much more; other than being an institution that
140 A. ELIAS ET AL.

supported the plantation economy, it was an organised and integrated

social system.

It extruded a class of slaveholders with a special ideology and psychology

and the political and economic power to impose their values on society as
a whole. Slavery may have been immoral to the world at large, but to these
men, notwithstanding their doubts and inner conflicts, it increasingly came
to be seen as the very foundation of a proper social order and therefore
as the essence of morality in human relationship. (Genovese, 1965/2014,
pp. 7–8)

Drawing on Genovese’s holitic sysnthesis of the slave economy, Gabriel

and Ben-Tovim (1978, p. 127), note that the interaction between the
complex historical experience that motivated the enslaving colonists and
the emerging debates around the development of capitalist production
were responsible for race relations within the New World. Race relations,
in other words, emerged as an outcome of the institutional leverage of
the enslavers, whose influence was critical on the pace of capitalist devel-
opment. Thus in this sense, race relations appears to be “a complex
determinate product of a multiplicity of forces” (Gabriel & Ben-Tovim,
1978, p. 127), including the socio-historical dynamics of the colonial
community and the evolving production process.
This alternative analysis of racism recognises the significance of the
socio-historical context that legitimised the radically new race relations.
However, Genovese’s Marxist theorisation of racism was criticised for
its essentialism because of its focus on the ideology of the slaveholder
community. Thus, both “Cox’s economism or Genovese’s voluntarism
[slave-master relation], ultimately cohere in a common reductionism and
essentialism” (Gabriel & Ben-Tovim, 1978, p. 129). Both approaches to
race and class appear to ignore the notion that racism is independently
constructed, and incorporates “its own contradictory determination” and
“complex mode of theoretical and ideological production” (Gabriel &
Ben-Tovim, 1978, p. 146), with consequences for the class struggle at
the economy and state levels (Miles, 1980; Miles & Brown, 2003).
One of the key problems in theorising and situating racism under a
Marxist historical analysis in the context of capitalist mode of production,
has to do with the continuous evolution of racism from crude biogenetic
ideology to one incorporating cultural differences. As such, it is diffi-
cult to identify and attribute specific characteristics of an ideology of
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 141

racism that are exclusive to the capitalist system. Gabriel and Ben-Tovim
(1978) argue that “the complex, changing and at times contradictory
nature of racial ideologies defy a straightforward reduction to certain
forms of production relations” (p. 132). This posits a central question
that Marxist scholars did not adequately address in their racism/capitalism
thesis, namely that of establishing why racial categories inherently become
the basis for conflictual relationship between capital, exploited labour
and/or surplus labour (Solomos & Back, 1995). To state this differently,
the key issue with Marxist analysis remains that the economy per se has
no ground to establish an inherently racial basis for intergroup differ-
entiation; thus Gabriel and Ben-Tovim (1978) suggest that the “racial
dimension may only be superimposed from without” (p. 138).
Noting the apparent difficulty of the racism/capitalism framework,
Gabriel and Ben-Tovim (1978) point to the inherent centralisation of
capital within the capitalist system as a possible context for the emer-
gence of racial antagonism. The perpetual accumulation that leads to
centralisation of capital provides a basis for conflict within the capitalist
relation. This can in turn provide a basis for the emergence of racial
conflict, provided there is coincidence between the fractions of capital and
racial categories. Consequently, racial prejudice results from the “compe-
tition between capitals in the course of their centralisation” (Gabriel &
Ben-Tovim, 1978, p. 133).

Racism, Nationalism and Capitalism

As mentioned earlier, sociological theories conceive three distinct
approaches to race: ethnicity-based, class-based and nation-based
(Winant, 2000). The concept of nation has historically served as
a discourse for collective identity formation. However, it is closely
connected to the discourse of race, and the production of racism, particu-
larly in Western capitalist societies. For example, the philosopher Étienne
Balibar argues that there is a constant reciprocal relationship between
nationalism and racism (Balibar & Wallerstein, 1988). Both historically
and in contemporary political discourse, racism has often presented itself
in the form of nationalism. Thus, it is not difficult to see the ideo-
logical connection between the two, as they both embody the notion
of biogenetic identity rooted in idealised national myth making (Hage,
1998; Seet, 2019).
142 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Balibar connects the origin of diverse forms of racism within the

framework of social formation. He describes racism as manifesting in a
“combination of practices, discourses and representations in a network of
affective stereotypes” conferred on socially constructed “objects” or “sub-
jects” that are distinguished from “a community of racists” (Balibar &
Wallerstein, 1988, p. 18). Racism as a social phenomenon evolves through
the internal contradictions within capitalist societies, a fact apparent in
the racist theories that support capitalism. For Balibar, “racist theories
are indispensable in the formation of the racist community. There is in
fact no racism without theory (theories)” (Balibar & Wallerstein, 1988,
p. 18). By race theories, Balibar is mainly referring to the pseudo-scientific
theories of racism that intellectuals in Europe propagated and rationalised
during the nineteenth century. Yet, he also notes that there has always
existed “a racism which does not have the pseudo-biological concept
of race as its main driving force” (Balibar & Wallerstein, 1988, p. 24),
its prototype being anti-Semitism that goes back to European Enlight-
enment period. Racism of different varieties evolved from the myth of
biological heredity to that focusing on insurmountable cultural differences
(differential racism)—hence the designation new racism. Such evolution,
according to Balibar, is only reflective of a repackaging of racism albeit
with some form of camouflage:

It may well be that the current variants of neo-racism are merely a

transitional ideological formation, which is destined to develop towards
discourses and social technologies in which aspects of historical recounting
of genealogical myths … will give way to … psychological assessments
… and optimal reproduction, … aptitudes and dispositions. (Balibar &
Wallerstein, 1988, p. 26)

Wallerstein and Cox reach almost similar conclusions about the origin
of racism. Racism, according to Wallerstein is some kind of magic formula
that through the ethnicisation of the workforce achieves a reduction in the
cost of labour and the necessity of physical elimination of the unwanted
races (Balibar & Wallerstein, 1988). Reproducing Cox’s analysis, Waller-
stein argues that capitalists create racism to maintain certain groups at
the bottom of the occupational ladder. Racism and capitalism have a
symbiotic relationship, given the exclusionary and anti-universalist nature
of racism enables the capitalist system to perpetuate itself. This is made
possible through the shrinkage of the rewards of the major segments of
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 143

the workforce unjustifiable on the basis of merit (Balibar & Wallerstein,

1988).
From a sociological perspective, Paul Gilroy (1987) provides a radi-
cally different analysis of race, nation and racism that connects racism
and nationalism through the notion of cultural character distinct from
a biogenetic orientation. For Gilroy et al. (2018), nationalism embodies
a new form of racism to the extent that is “strongly cultural in char-
acter—so cultural, so different supposedly—from a biological racism that
it could hold up its hands and plead that it wasn’t racism at all” (p. 182).
In a critique of the relegation of race in British political economy, Gilroy
(1987) revives the Marxist approach to race by adding a race formation
component to previous theories of race and class. Such race forma-
tion is pervasive, and is displayed across social milieus ranging from the
family to education institutions, to the nation state. Gilroy notes that
national belonging and homogeneity inform the political discourse on
race, blurring any sense of distinction between the nation and race.
The notions of race and nation play out in new racism discourses of
inclusion and exclusion. These represent rationalising discourses around
which groups may legitimately belong in the imagined national commu-
nity, and why certain groups may constitute outgroups who do not
belong, and are thereby excluded (Gilroy, 1987). An inability to assimi-
late was considered by nationalists such as Enoch Powell as an adequate
rationale for their exclusion from the British race (Gilroy, 1987). Thus,
as Gilroy observes, British nationalist consciousness during the 1970s,
invariably conceived the racialised Caribbean black and Asian as alien
to the national character of the UK. One can see a parallel here
between Gilroy’s analysis of the concept of national character and asso-
ciated nationalist discourse in British politics and the Australian racially
exclusionary discourse leading up to Federation.7
Today, amid serious global crises, racism, nationalism and capitalism
are increasingly antagonising and challenging previous gains in civic and
human rights, as well as the appeals of democratic participation (Paul,
2020). While the nation remains a dominant entity around which iden-
tities of imagined communities are formed, through everyday symbols,
languages, and cultural representations, nationalism also remains an ideo-
logical force that consolidates groupist and exclusionary social identities

7 cf . Chapter 2 of this book, a discussion on Charles Henry Pearson’s book.

144 A. ELIAS ET AL.

(Edensor, 2020; Wimmer, 2002). Whether through the manifestation of

xenophobia, patriotism, and militarism, discourse and practice of exclu-
sion, or through idealised civilisation and cultural domination, racism and
nationalism intertwine to create groups that are considered undeserving
of inclusion. This continues to persist in the context of globalisation and
international migration (Wodak & Reisigi, 1999: see Chapter 8 for detail).

Ideology and Social Construction of Race

In the book Racial Theories, Michael Banton (1998) discusses how the
meaning of race has historically shifted in at least seven distinct concep-
tualisations. Race, according to Banton, has been framed in the US first
as a designation to distinguish among diverse groups. Culturally, it was
used as a lineage in genealogical texts. Controversially, nineteenth-century
references of race as a type and subspecies of human beings assumed that
humans could be classified into different breeds or stock sharing distinct
traits. An entirely different racial classification emerged at the beginning of
the twentieth century where race was conceived as a form of social status.
The conceptualisation of race as class was a radical proposition of Marxist
analysis that rejected people’s physiological or psychological taxonomy.
Today, the notion of race as a social construct has gained more acceptance
in social science.
An analysis that conceives race as a product of the social construction
of identity dominates contemporary theorisation of racism (Haney-Lopez,
1994). In this framework, race and class are seen as distinct social
phenomena that operate in entirely distinct fashions (Fields, 1982; Miles,
1980). Fields argues that race should be seen for what it is, essentially
as a ideological conception rather than a biological or physical reality
(a thing ). Thus, for Fields, race is an “entirely socially and historically
constructed as an ideology in a way that class is not” (Roediger, 1999,
p. 7). The direct causality that class and racism are presumed to have is
considered, according to many scholars, too simplistic (Miles & Brown,
2003). Thus, the scholarship on the nature and causes of racism, particu-
larly since the 1980–1990s has diversified from the Marxist focus on race
and class, and the neoclassical emphasis on the agentic rationalism. Many
scholars now consider racism a complex concept, involving ideology,
attitudes, behaviours, actions, policies, laws, and institutional practices
(Bonilla-Silva & Baiocchi, 2001; see also introduction to this book for
a detailed conceptualisation of racism).
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 145

Politically, the post-War global environment had a critical impact on

race and racial thinking and practice. In particular, the emergence of
global political upheavals in the second half of the twentieth century had
a significant role in shaping our understanding of race, racism and racial
theorisation. Banton (1992), for example, considers how the concept of
racism and its related but distinct variant racial discrimination, are ideo-
logical constructs that have been deployed with mixed political effects.
Banton’s main focus was the utilisation of these concepts in producing
consensus within the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination (ICERD). Racism here “is usually assumed to be
historically specific, something that originated in a particular time to ratio-
nalise an economic interest…. [It is] seen as an ideology which has given
rise to a false consciousness” (Banton, 1992, p. 70). According to this
argument, racism emerged and evolved in tandem with colonialism, and
has therefore been exclusive to Western societies. Clearly, this analysis has
largely been reflected in Cox and related scholars. Banton (1992) argues
that the United Nations did not offer a clear definition of racism when
the ICERD was ratified in 1965. This has led to the use and abuse of
the word, sometimes serving as a powerful rhetoric for anti-colonialism
in Africa, at other times creating discord in international relations (e.g.
Israeli-Arab dispute), and inspiring claims and counter-claims of racism in
the USA and Britain (Banton, 1992).
Racial discrimination, according to Banton (1992) has been defined in
legal documents such as ICERD with more precision than racism, and in
turn has had considerable rhetorical power because of the legal backing.
Moving away from the race/class discussions of Cox and other earlier
Marxist authors, Banton (1992) notes that the ICERD and other legisla-
tions (e.g. UK Race Relations Act) have broadened the concept of racial
discrimination by defining protected groups, including colour, descent,
ethnic origin and national origin in addition to the unobservable category
race. The addition of these categories to the concept of racial discrimina-
tion and later to the concept of racism, which has also been attached to
culture, makes the argument that racism is entirely the creation of capi-
talism unconvincing. Yet, this by no means negates Cox’s conclusion, as
it was based on a narrow definition of race and race prejudice.
During the formulation of the ICERD, the United Nations located
the causes of racism and racial discrimination in ideology and histor-
ical episodes (Banton, 1992). Racial doctrines, particularly of the Nazi
type, lead to racist activities, which incite racist hatred; while colonialism
146 A. ELIAS ET AL.

resulted in segregation and discrimination. There is dispute among

scholars regarding the temporal specificity of racism. Cox (1948/1959)
and Puzzo (1964) locate the timeline to the Conquistador period.
Some scholars (Allen, 1975; D’Souza, 1995) indicate racism appeared
towards the end of the eighteenth century, while others (van den Berghe,
1967) locate its emergence with post-Darwinian thought. Banton (1992)
concurs with van den Berghe in locating the origin of racism in “attempts
in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to account
for biological variations among humans” (p. 78).8 For some scholars,
the trajectory of racism in history, particularly since the Middle Ages,
indicates why racism emerged as a historical accident through the inter-
play among political economic hegemony, ideology and pseudo-scientific
thought in Western society (D’Souza, 1995).
Racist ideologies have arguably sprung up with historical social
Darwinian thoughts, yet there are also situations, where more discrimina-
tion has emerged as an outcome of “the association between skin colour
and social class” that are distinct “from ideas of inherited inequalities”
(Banton, 1992, p. 78). Typical examples for this is the role of skin colour
in the social status of women of colour in the USA (Hunter, 2002),
and the salience of skin colour stratification in Latin America (Villarreal,
2010). According to Banton, this indicates that racial discrimination
can be produced in societies that are not attuned to particular period in
history. He therefore argues that the answer to the question what causes
racism? can be found in the socialisation of individuals in society rather
than in specific periods or episodes. This argument holds that racial
discrimination:

does not have a geographical, historical and psychological origin, anymore

than crime has such an origin. Racial discrimination can result from a
variety of different causes; it can occur wherever people are distinguished
by appearance or descent, and was practiced before the formulation of
racist doctrines. (Banton, 1992, p. 79)

Based on this theoretical perspective, both individuals, groups, and

institutions have a role in the production of racial discrimination. Before
the creation of supportive ideology, racial categories can customarily

8 Indeed, there are also scholars who maintain that racism had its origins in classical
antiquity, among Greeks and Romans (Eliav-Feldon et al., 2009).
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 147

emerge as a social practice. Members of the society can then invariably

participate in the continuation with or without supporting ideology. The
crystallisation of social practices into ideologies may take place gradu-
ally, constantly framed and reframed to suit changing socioeconomic,
political and cultural conditions. In this way, racism practice becomes
normalised, and individuals can voluntarily practice discrimination “to
express a prejudice, or unreflectingly in accordance with local custom,
or involuntarily because someone has ordered it, or consciously so as to
obtain an economic advantage, and so on” (Banton, 1992, p. 79). When
discrimination is shared across groups with dominant political economic
and cultural hegemony, the impact becomes consequential. A practice that
began without supporting ideology may morph into one that has distinct
norms and beliefs depending on the need for justification.

Beneficiaries of Racism
It is logical for an inquiry into the causes of racism to consider an equally
significant and fundamentally connected question: Who benefits from
racism? Previous sections of this chapter have addressed the question in
relation to the emergence of racism with the Atlantic Slave Trade. Racism
during this period was produced and reproduced because it benefitted
the slaveholder community (Genovese, 1965/2014). Through intergen-
erational transfer of resources, its perpetuation benefitted white-European
descendants across many colonial societies. Therefore, it is beyond dispute
that these dominant racial groups continue to gain from a system based on
racial hierarchy, as do dominant groups in other non-Western and non-
white societies, such as, for example, in Asia. Yet, scholars have different
views about which section of the white-European population are the
main beneficiaries. Both Cox (1948/1959) and Reich (1981) argue that
the benefits of racism accrues to white capitalists while white and black
workers stand to lose. For Miles (1980) and Roediger (1999), racism
benefits the entire dominant racial group. Neoclassical economics on the
other hand holds that racism ultimately hurts racist employers (Becker,
1971) while there is a diversity of views based on empirical studies (Arrow,
1971; Ashenfelter & Card, 2010).
148 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Capitalists as Beneficiaries
Michael Reich (1978) posed a pointed question: “Who benefits from
racism?” in an article contending that white capitalists stand to gain
while black and white workers lose. This contradicts neoclassical models—
particularly Becker, Krueger, Thurow’s—that predict racial discrimination
ultimately hurts capitalists and benefits white workers (Reich, 1978).
Other neoclassical models—such as Bergmann, Welch and Arrow’s—
predict neutral effect or small gains for skilled white workers. Reich on the
other hand contends the opposite to be the case. By exacerbating “racial
antagonisms and divisions between black and white workers” (Reich,
1978, p. 525), racism causes division within the working class. As a result,
the “collective strength of labor is weakened in its bargaining with capital
over the wage rate and income shares. Capitalists gain and white workers
lose, and the income differences between capitalists and white workers
are increased” (Reich, 1978, p. 525). Based on this, the weakening of
worker’s bargaining power and subsequent harm in their share of income
occurs irrespective of how racial discrimination is created.
Within the Marxist tradition, other scholars have developed alterna-
tive economic explanations of the causes of racism. Reich’s seminal book
Racial Inequality: A Political-Economic Analysis is of particular signifi-
cance, given its emphasis on market segmentation, bargaining power and
subsequent racial inequality (Reich, 1981; Reich et al., 1973). In this
rigorous critique of neoclassical theory of discrimination, Reich (1981)
argues that racial discrimination primarily divides working class solidarity
and reduces the bargaining power of the working class, thereby bene-
fiting capitalists. Neoclassical theory, according to Reich, failed to take
into consideration the significance of power and conflict as determi-
nants of the distribution of income. From a class struggle perspective,
he argues that discrimination is employers’ strategy of dividing the work-
force, allowing them to reduce the bargaining power of the working
class. In this framework, the capitalists’ profits are inversely related to
the relative bargaining power of workers, the latter being an inverse func-
tion of racial inequality. Thus, Reich contends that it is in the interest
of employers to pay premium wages to white workers, thereby creating
racial inequality. Conversely, Reich emphasises that both white and black
workers are better off when they have class solidarity. White workers in
particular “have more to gain from overthrowing the monopsony”—the
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 149

market system that produces racial inequalities—“than from supporting

racial discrimination” (Reich, 1981, p. 213).
Cox and Reich’s conclusion that the benefits of racism are reaped by
capitalists at the expense of black and white workers may be economi-
cally plausible. Focusing entirely on the pecuniary distribution of gains
in the labour market, the monopsonistic outcome would favour the capi-
talist. This is effected through weakening the bargaining power of the
suppliers of labour. Yet, scholars have also argued that white workers may
materially and psychologically benefit from racial solidarity with the white
capitalist class (Miles, 1980; Roediger, 1999). Reich’s focus on the sole
pecuniary remuneration in the labour market only partially explains the
economic effects of racism. White workers’ perceived gains in social class
could also lead to their support for racial discrimination. For example, this
was historically the case during the Reconstruction era in the US,

when most whites favoured black disenfranchisement because they feared

that if whites split along economic lines blacks would hold the balance
of power. It is ironic, therefore, that the rise of lower-class whites to
power and political consciousness contributed to black disenfranchisement.
(Wilson, 1976, p. 103)

As discussed in Chapter 2 of this book, white workers’ racism has

a historical parallel in the Australian context. The labour union move-
ment in the second half of the eighteenth century primarily organised to
oppose non-white employment in mining and other sectors. Until Feder-
ation and beyond, Labor’s opposition to immigration was predicated on
both economic and racial antagonism.

Racism and White Privilege

The question of who benefits from racism can be also examined from the
theoretical lens of whiteness, which attaches inherent parallels between
racism and the privilege of being white in Western societies (Roediger,
1999). In whiteness scholarship, racism is defined in terms of privilege,
and is conceived to encompass “economic, political, social, and cultural
structures, actions, and beliefs that systematize and perpetuate an unequal
distribution of privileges, resources and power between white people and
people of color” (DiAngelo, 2011, p. 56). As an ideology, “whiteness
150 A. ELIAS ET AL.

is used to maintain unearned privilege through the structure of institu-

tional racism” (Better, 2008, p. 16). There is a bidirectional feedback
between whiteness and institutional racism where whiteness capitalises on
institutional racism to generate unearned advantage while the perpetua-
tion of institutional racism is sustained by whiteness. As Henricks (2016)
has argued, the institutional framework “related racism to protecting a
group’s social, political, economic, cultural, symbolic, and psychological
position as much as [to] explicit ideas of bigotry endorsed by individuals”
(p. 1).
While the meaning of the concept of “whiteness”, particularly outside
the US context, is being debated in the literature (Garner, 2007; Nico-
lacopoulos & Vassilacopoulos, 2004), it can still shed light on how
dominant racial groups—whites in the case of European colonist soci-
eties—continue to benefit from systemic racism in the form of cumulative
privileges. Racism as a system of oppression is intrinsically linked to priv-
ilege; it disadvantages minority racial groups and fundamentally results
in some groups (e.g. whites) systematically accruing unearned advantage.
Such privileges are not just contemporary facts, accruing from hard work
or personal/group investments per se. In North America and the UK, to
a large extent they are historically acquired as legacies of slavery, and have
accumulated as unearned wealth over centuries (Oliver et al., 2006).9 The
wealth from slave labour and associated black poverty were the basis of
current inequalities, showing a direct link between slavery and modern
racial inequities (Fredrickson, 1989). The abolition of slavery has affected
the flow of new unearned income, but it did not compensate freed slaves,
nor did it cause white slave masters to relinquish their unearned wealth.
The repercussions of such historical exploitation, and the embedded-
ness of racial hierarchy had generational implications, as reflected in the
persistent racial economic disparities (Oliver et al., 2006).
Thus, in Western social contexts at least, we cannot adequately under-
stand racism without considering white privilege. Racism was institu-
tionalised and maintained through conquest, colonialism, slavery, and
segregation (Du Bois, 1903/2015). Its legacy is maintained through the
default sociocultural hegemony of whiteness. As articulated throughout
this chapter, racism is not just about ideological racial symbols and iden-
tity construction, but it essentially incorporates the production, expansion

9 Unearned wealth refers to wealth that people accumulate both without having worked
for it and by benefit from injustices such as slavery, crime, etc.
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 151

and maintenance of white privilege and power (Feagin, 2004; Miles,

2004). Thus, sociological inquiry into the identification and analysis of
the white privilege and power has considerably grown over the last few
decades (Nevill et al., 2001). Coined by the critical whiteness scholar
Peggy McIntosh in 1987, the concept of “white privilege” connotes
“an invisible package of unearned assets” that a white person counts
on cashing every day of which they are “‘meant’ to remain oblivious”
(McIntosh, 2007, p. 377).
Wellman (1993) argues that the racial hierarchy into which modern
Western society is organised effectively serves its purpose—the main-
tenance of privilege and power. This concurs with theories that view
racism as a “rational response to struggles over scarce resources” (p. 54).
According to Wellman (1993), only an understanding of racism as a
culturally sanctioned phenomena allows us to “account for its widespread
character and avoid the inconsistencies and meaningless distinctions that
arise when it is viewed as prejudice” (p. 54). This approach holds to the
notion that a complex web of socioeconomic and structural intercon-
nections can explain the persistence of white racism. For Wellman, racial
stratification, like class division, is an integral part of the Western social
structure. It is not just a legacy of the past, but also a critical component of
how modern Western society is organised. Racism in this context is a care-
fully constructed structural relationship premised on racial subordination.
In a US context,

The subordination of people of color is functional to the operation of

American society as we know it and the color of one’s skin is a primary
determinant of a person’s position in the social structure. (Wellman, 1993,
p. 55)

Wellman argues that prejudice towards blacks is secondary to the racial

dynamics, and thus is not a critical determining factor in the racial rela-
tionship. Rather, it is the superior ideological and structural position that
whites and their institutions enjoy that maintains and reproduces the
prevailing racial inequality. Like Cox, Wellman puts strong emphasis on
the dialectics between the practical production of racial inequality and the
racism that is created as a justification. In a society organised on the basis
of race, competition over resources between racial groups can be under-
stood as a zero-sum game. Since one racial group’s gains become the
dominant racial group’s loss, it becomes rational for white people in the
152 A. ELIAS ET AL.

West to have strong interest in the maintenance of the prevailing racial

order.

From this vantage point, racism can be seen to systematically provide

economic, political, psychological, and social advantages for whites at the
expense of blacks and other people of color. In Blaunter’s terms, racism
generates unfair advantage, or privilege, to whites. (Wellman, 1993, p. 56)

The economic and structural justifications of racism are therefore

to some extent rational and grounded on tangible material conditions
with historical validity, and resonate with the contemporary thinking of
race ideologues. Wellman (1993) argues that these justifications cannot
be dismissed as manufactured reasons, misperceptions or psychological
defensive mechanisms. They can be understood as ideological defences of
white privilege within the context of a structure of racial inequality. Since
racial inequality, unlike other forms of inequality, directly contradicts the
ideals espoused in Western society, posing a visible dilemma (Myrdal,
1944/1996), it needs justification. According to Wellman (1993), this
kind of inequality is an ascribed inequality, and its justification consti-
tutes the heart of racist thinking —a dynamic thought process that adapts
to changing context and circumstances. This racist thinking is able to
accommodate new realities such as the assertiveness of racial subordinates
or changing socio-political and economic forces that shake the social posi-
tions of subordinate groups (Wellman, 1993). To understand how white
racism operates as an ideology for the defence of the privilege white
people have in the society, Wellman (1993) poses a series of pointed
questions that can be empirically examined:

(1) Do white people recognize the existence of racial inequality? (2) If

they do, how do they cope with it? How do they explain it? (3) How do
they deal with challenges to the racial order? Do the ways in which they
handle challenges indicate any consciousness of interests or privileges in
the system of racial stratification? In other words, what, if anything, do
their explanations of the situation defend? Finally, it is crucial to know (4)
if and how they justify their racial interests. The last question gets to the
heart of racist thinking in the current period of American race relations.
(pp. 61–62)
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 153

Wellman’s thesis is shared by more recent critical race scholars as can be

seen in the works of Better (2008), Baradaran (2017) and Lipsitz (2006).
For example, Better (2008) argues that the “use of race is thinly disguised
rationale for economic exploitation” (p. 5). By falsely establishing the
biological superiority of fair skin over dark skin, race offered a justification
for the institution of colonialism, slavery and associated land acquisition.
According to Better (2008) race as a construct.

provided a “scientific” justification for the exploitation of inhabitants of

conquered countries by using skin coloring and other physical attributes
as a method for supporting white skin domination. Racism is a Western
invention coming out of a need to explain the huge gap in power, wealth,
and influence of European countries over the rest of the world. (p. 5)

Thus, in Better’s view, “the central reason for institutional racism is the
desire for economic advantage. Negative attitudes and feelings are viewed
as a by-product of the original need to justify the economic exploitation”
(Better, 2008, p. 12).
The perpetuation of the unearned advantage through institutions
constitutes the main ingredient of systemic white privilege. Lipsitz
(2006) observes in contemporary racialised contexts—particularly in US
society—an enduring creation and recreation of what he calls possessive
investment in whiteness. This possessive investment is created for the priv-
ilefe of European Americans through “[c]onscious and deliberate actions
[that] have institutionalized group identity in the United States, not just
through the dissemination of cultural stories but also through systematic
efforts from colonial times to the present” (Lipsitz, 2006, p. 371). While
whites have already secured these longstanding privileges, the structure
also socialises and encourages them to invest invariably in whiteness and
its maintenance as it perpetuates the provision of resources, power and
opportunity (Lipsitz, 2006). According to Lipsitz, whiteness, as a social
investment, has cash value, with privileges permeating the entire structure
of society. Whiteness, writes Lipsitz (2006),

accounts for advantages that come to individuals through profits made

from housing secured in discriminatory markets, through the unequal
educational opportunities available to children of different races, through
insider networks that channel employment opportunities to the relatives
154 A. ELIAS ET AL.

and friends of those who have profited most from present and past
racial discrimination, and especially through intergenerational transfers of
inherited wealth that pass on the spoils of discrimination to succeeding
generations. (p. vii)

Although the majority of discussion of whiteness and the privilege asso-

ciated with it incorporates the US experience, its underlying premise is
equally applicable to other Western contexts.10 In the same way that
slavery exploited black slaves, causing enduring inequities, colonialism
exploited the colonised people in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and
created a large chasm between the developed and the developing world.
Particularly, the notion of white privilege and its contrast with racial
minority disadvantage is clearly visible in the structural racial inequality
in Britain, Apartheid South Africa, and the settler colonial societies of
Canada and Australia. Scholars (Levine-Rasky, 2012; Salter, 2013) have
shown that whiteness can be seen as having both universal and specific
dimensions, in terms of its pervasiveness and local specificity, respectively.
For example, across Western societies, the perpetuation of institution-
alised racism through ghettoisation, reservations, and the segregation of
black people or Indigenous people that has been described in the liter-
ature as internal colonialism reflects its commonality (Blauner, 1969;
Short, 2005; Stone, 1979). However, the privileges of whiteness are
contextually different in Australia, for example, with its small Indigenous
population, compared to the US with its significant black population (see
Moreton-Robinson, 2004).

Racism and Power

We have discussed at length the argument that racism exists as an
ideological premise to protect certain economic interests (Darity et al.,
2015). At its core, racism also presents itself as a system of domina-
tion strongly reflecting pervasive imbalance of cultural and political power
(Collins, 2006). As such, it is difficult to imagine racial hierarchy without
consideration of this power dimension. Without underlying social power,
prejudice alone cannot meaningfully produce consequential racial inequal-
ities (Wilson, 1976). Hence, scholars have often understood racism as

10 Some scholars (e.g., Garner, 2007; Gilroy, 1987) resist the American hegemony of
racism theorizations, and caution against the imposition of US-based concepts such as the
concept of “whiteness” in non-US context.
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 155

incorporating both prejudice and social power (Operario & Fiske, 1998).
Indeed, the power dimension recognises racism as an underlying system
perpetuated for the benefit of white people in Western countries and
therefore as one aspect of the white privilege that we have discussed
earlier in this section. Racial power and the notion of racism as a system
of oppression over people of racial minorities has its roots in the Atlantic
slave trade (Leonard, 2003). Without this power dimension, racism is not
conceivable in history or in contemporary societies.
Cox (1948/1959) notes that, for its effectual realisation, “race preju-
dice must be actually backed up by a show of racial excellence, secured
finally by military might” (p. 347). Thus, racism in effect mixes both
action (often through the application of violence or its threat) and
ideology. This nexus between racial ideology and power has manifested
historically, in the expansionary colonial conquests that enabled Euro-
pean powers to dominate and subjugate the colonised societies of five
continents. Across the histories of Africa and the settler colonist societies
of North America and Oceania, the hegemonic aspect of racism was at
play against black and Indigenous Peoples as the most oppressed groups.
Indeed, the pattern of domination—including colonisation, disposses-
sion, and exclusion—were not enacted in the same way across countries.
Yet, all displayed power and various forms of racial oppression, with
varying degrees of ideological justification (Hartwig, 1972). Often, these
ideologies seek to justify:

The projects that brought racism to ideological fruition and with it the
independent capacity to shape the societies and polities of the United States
and Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were
organized efforts to reverse or limit the emancipation of blacks in the
former country and of Jews in the latter. (Fredrickson, 2002, p. 75)

While much of the history of colonialism and segregation had violence

and dehumanisation as strategies (Fanon et al., 1963), the power
dimension of racism may not always be enacted in overt conflict or
violence (Wilson, 1976). Racial domination can also be subtle, not always
requiring the display of brute force, and its perpetuation often predicated
on the dominant group’s ability to enforce laws, norms and practices
that sustain its interests (Lipsitz, 2006). The creation and perpetuation
of racial inequities, in this context are effected through embedded insti-
tutional and social structures (although often backed by a monopoly on
156 A. ELIAS ET AL.

violence, force and coercion). Ture and Hamilton (1967/2011) under-

stood this institutional nature of racism as a system of power established
for the perpetual oppression of black people. This was evident during
the American Civil Rights era when black leaders saw the problem
of institutional racism as the main obstacle against the integration of
blacks. Hence, many black—particularly the Black Power Movement—
leaders were convinced that the solution lay in black people’s ability to
control economic and political power. However, half a century later, in
the post-Obama era, racial stratification and racial power differential in
the US—and arguably across the West—remains widespread (Kinder &
Dale-Riddle, 2012).11
Welsing (1974) provides a slightly different conceptualisation of the
power dimension of racism, where racism is viewed as a survival strategy
for white people in an otherwise non-white majority world. This reflex
reaction conceptualised as the:

Color Confrontation Theory postulates that whites are also vulnerable

to their sense of numerical inadequacy. The behavioral manifestations or
expressions of their sense of this inadequacy in their numbers become
apparent in the drive or need to divide the massive majority of “non-
whites” into fractional as well as frictional minorities. (Welsing, 1974,
p. 38)

This numerical inadequacy thesis is a rallying racial-political trope

among those holding White supremacist views. One can see a clear parallel
to this in the anti-black, anti-immigrant, anti-diversity, Islamophobic and
anti-Semitic aggression and rhetoric of contemporary global far-right
movements (Blee & Creasap, 2010; Jung et al., 2011). An inference
of potential powerlessness provides these racist communities a strategic
group solidarity, tipping them against any perceived outgroup. The power
dynamics of their racist agenda emerges from their pre-emptive strategy to
capitalise on resurgent populism and collective grievances emerging with
the decline of Western industrial capitalism.12
Furthermore, the notion of racism as a strategic response to main-
tain white privilege and power, works both in actions/practices as
well as defensive avoidance. The concept of white fragility, which was

11 See Chapter 2 for a detailed treatment of institutional racism.

12 Far-right nationalism and contemporary racism are discussed further in Chapter 9.
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 157

conceptualised by DiAngelo (2011) articulates this unique psycholog-

ical phenomenon. DiAngelo (2011) conceptualises white fragility as “a
state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress became intol-
erable, triggering a range of defence moves” (p. 57). It is explained
as part of the denialist aspect of racism, with the ultimate objective of
suppressing guilt and accountability while enjoying unearned privilege
(DiAngelo, 2011; Roediger, 1999). Racism within this framework creates
a cushioning “social environment that protects and insulates … from race-
based stress” (DiAngelo, 2011, p. 55). Particularly in North America,
argues DiAngelo (2011), racism benefits whites as a racial group while
disadvantaging people of colour:

Racism is not fluid in the U.S., it does not flow back and forth, one day
benefiting whites and another day (or even era) benefiting people of color.
The direction of power between whites and people of color is historic,
traditional, normalized, and deeply embedded in the fabric of U.S. society.
(p. 56).

The power dynamics effected by racism works both at the national level
and discursively serves to maintain solidarity at the global scale. We will
return to this in more detail in Chapter 9. But for now, we quickly note
that racism remains a potent organising principle as the recent surge of
race solidarity that has galvanised racist movements has shown us in ways
that would be unthinkable three decades ago. Some scholars conceive race
as an instrument of power applied to control and manage human differ-
ences. According to Lentin (2019), the ultimate goal of the instrument
of race is maintenance of White supremacy at a global level (see also Jung
et al., 2011). This view to some extent aligns with the global Apartheid
thesis proposed by Gernot Kohler in the 1970s to describe the postcolo-
nial global order underpinned by the Global North’s domination of the
Global South (Kohler, 1982).

Causes of Racism in Australia

In Chapter 2, we have detailed the evolution of race relations within
Australian society. The historical survey detailed how the continuous
colonial expansion and encroachment of British colonists into Aborig-
inal and Torres Strait Islander territories became a source of constant
158 A. ELIAS ET AL.

racial violence and massacres. While we can understand this settler colo-
nial violence as predicated on local sociocultural factors, it can also be
understood within the context of the global capitalist expansion predi-
cated on economic factors. A similar proposition was made, for example,
in McMichael’s analysis of settler colonial agrarian history. “The devel-
opment of colonial Australia”, writes McMichael (2004, pp. xi–xii),
was a constituent part of “the world-capitalist economy”, with settle-
ments expanding in a “contradictory process of the expansion of the
British state and capitalism”. While this contradiction was visible in the
inherent inequality within groups of colonists, across time the contradic-
tion would assume racial dynamics as European settlement expanded into
the hinterland and as Australia attracted multi-ethnic immigration.
Evidently, since Africa, Asia and North America provided ample
material for Britain’s economic needs, the newly discovered continent
of Australia was not sought, at least at first, for its economic poten-
tial. Rather, the security needs of the British Crown took priority over
economic interests, until the colonists’ discovered that the continent was
an economic breadbasket (MacIntyre, 2004). Thus, it was after British
colonisation that economic factors began to take root. And this was
mainly related to land. As the colonists began to realise the need for
grazing ground for commercial livestock, this increased demand for more
land led to further expansion of the colonies into the interior. The
problem was that the continent had native inhabitants whose livelihood
depended on large hunting grounds. This incompatible land use led to
inevitable competition and frequent conflicts (MacIntyre, 2004).
As McMichael (2004) observes, at least two economic factors can
be identified as the main drivers of colonial territorial expansion within
Australia. One was the economic interest of the colonists themselves,
and another was the Crown’s economic and political interests in its
colonial project (Genger, 2018). However, as the human toll of the colo-
nial expansion grew, and with news of the frontier violence reaching
the public, the need for justification arose (MacIntyre, 2004). Hartwig
(1972) argues that this racist justification was an integral part of the
colonial project. Thus:

The need to rationalize dispossession and exploitation of Aborigines (espe-

cially the former, and the use of force and the devastating effects on
Aboriginal society that settlement entailed) has obviously been felt in
Australia from the outset. (p. 12)
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 159

Racism thus emerged as an outcome of this necessity for ideological justi-

fication of violent dispossession and exploitation. The perceived notion of
Indigenous Australians as savage, primitive and racial inferiors offered an
explanation that was palatable to the then British political elite.

For the colonist participating in the process of dispossession, it was psycho-

logically desirable, at the very least, to persuade himself that Aborigines
were inferior, being pests and nuisance who deserved their fate. (Hartwig,
1972, p. 12)

Racism in Australia, therefore, has settler colonial expansion and its

ideological defence as its root causes (Ardill, 2009). The idea that
whites are superior, more civilised, and better equipped to cultivate
and maintain the land than the natives, and that Indigenous Peoples
lacked the desire and capacity to develop/civilise, along with Biblical
and pseudo-scientific theorising constituted the socio-biological narra-
tive for justifying dispossession. However, this provides only part of the
causes of racism in Australia more broadly, which have also consistently
focused on perceived nationalist threats from non-whites, especially from
Asia in which Australia is arguably situated (see Paul, 2020). In a self-
contradictory narrative, white colonists used civilisation as a rationale
for colonisation while preventing other civilised groups from entry to
Australia.
Indeed, the causes of racism in Australia could hardly be different
to that of racism in other Western societies. As we discussed above,
the question about the root cause of racism has stimulated considerable
philosophical and practical inquiry for centuries. Equally, a question that
received significant attention is whether race and racial disparities can be
considered endo- or exogenous within a capitalist economic system. Yet,
despite the recognition of racism, few have attempted to explain why
racism happens in the first place. What is the underlying reason for racism?
In the literature, various scholars have proposed potential unified theories
of racism that aimed at explaining racism as a system of inequality. These
range from Marxist notions of race, nation and class, to socio-biological
notions of race, heredity, and human difference, to psychological theories
of prejudice, power and tribalism.
In some ways, racial ideology may mirror a reflection of the basic
human urge to protect self (economics) and group (sociology) interests
within certain social configurations. This may be characterised by the
160 A. ELIAS ET AL.

potential for wealth, property and privilege to accumulate intergenera-

tionally; significant population densities that enable social stratification;
and globalised migration, sometimes forced, which result in racially
diverse societies, now, often characterised by super-diversity (Vertovec,
2007). Within this social hierarchy, some groups are perceived in-
groups while others are not. In this racial context, the basis for group
membership is the race construct. While racial ideologues (such as White
supremacism) overtly display this racial ideology, the subtle—or those
who consider themselves colour-blind—do not need to display their racial
ideology. They can consciously or unconsciously participate in favouring
certain racial groups, electing racist individuals/groups into power and
discriminating against racial minorities.
This chapter has discussed how racial hierarchies and discourses around
them serve particular dominant racial groups both in Australia and glob-
ally. It looked at particular groups who are considered beneficiaries of
continued racial hierarchies, largely Whites but also other ethnic groups
in power in various national contexts around the world. Indeed, racism
does not essentially originate in a particular space and time, nor does
it depend on certain innate psychological conditions. Like crime, it can
occur anywhere under conditions where people are stratified by physical
appearance or ancestral backgrounds. Prior racist doctrines need not exist
for racism to occur.
Looking at the history of racism, it cannot be seen as an accidental
or unintentional aberration. Across settler colonial societies, colonisation
and the displacement of native populations were enacted through racist
acts and their justifications. In North America, its emergence was rooted
in the strategic institution of slavery, and was later defended vigorously to
preserve the interests of Southern slave-owners. Elsewhere, similar inter-
ests necessitated the maintenance of racism. In South Africa, the system of
Apartheid protected the interests of White people; in Australia, the colo-
nial laws that dispossessed Indigenous people protected the interests of
European settlers and the British Empire. All of these depict why and how
racism occurred across various societies, hinting at the causes of racism in
economic, social and cultural factors intersecting in complex and nuanced
processes.
 4 THE CAUSES OF RACISM 161

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 CHAPTER 5

Contemporary Racism in Australia

Racism Today1
In the last two decades, numerous studies have documented widespread
racism—experiences and attitudes—in Australia, with prevalence across
settings ranging from 9 to 34% in nationally representative studies
(Blair et al., 2017; Dunn & Nelson, 2011; Dunn et al., 2004, 2007;
Forrest et al., 2020; Markus, 2014, 2019).2 Racism remains an enduring
phenomenon within society, frequently emerging as a source of heated
political and ideological debates. This chapter discusses racist attitudes
and experiences of racism within the Australian context, presenting find-
ings from empirical analyses of racism across the country. The findings are
based on repeated cross-sectional data, compiled between 2001 and 2011,
by Western Sydney University (Dunn, 2012). We extend the discussion
with a review of more recent research findings to map the state of racism
in contemporary Australian society.

1 Part of this chapter has been previously published in a peer-reviewed article

(Habtegiorgis et al., 2014).
2 This range excludes cyber-racism. Some studies indicate higher levels of racism occur-
ring in social media such as Facebook. For example, Jakubowicz et al. (2017) report that
35% of Australians in a national survey (in 2013) witnessed cyber-racism, with 4.8% of
them experiencing it as direct targets.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 169

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_5
170 A. ELIAS ET AL.

The chapter also attempts to resolve actual or perceived gaps between

research evidence on racism and race relations and the ongoing narra-
tive that informs public policy in Australia. A commonly held view in
Australia, and one that has some validity, is the notion that the majority
of Australians oppose racism (Markus, 2019). Yet, Australians have a very
specific view of what constitutes racism and, tied to such conceptuali-
sation, generally reject the notion that they themselves may be racist.
This assertion is usually supported with the claim that there are no state
sanctioned laws that discriminate against racial minorities and that overtly
racist violence—like the 2005 Cronulla Riots—is absent or very rare. The
claim rests on the notion that the only type of racism is overt racism.3
In this popular understanding, no consideration is given to the adverse
impacts of racism on racial/ethnic minorities (Priest et al., 2016; Walton
et al., 2013). However, research widely indicates that new forms of racism
prevail today that are unwitting and covert (Bonilla-Silva, 2013). Research
also indicates significant levels of racism in schools, with young people
from minority racial backgrounds facing increasing exposure to unfair
discrimination within the school system (Priest et al., 2019). The insid-
ious nature of these new racisms is that their deleterious impacts require
no legal codes or blatant racist policies.
Globally, the salience of racism varies, depending on the respec-
tive social, economic and political issues of each country or region
concerned. In Europe, the revival of far-right racist ideologies, Islamo-
phobia, and anti-Semitism parallels a growing influence of populism and
anti-immigration sentiments. This could be interpreted as a sign that old
racism remains relevant in a context of rampant new racism. Likewise, we
see anti-immigration sentiments and White supremacism gaining ground
in the US, particularly in an age of populism, while ongoing police
brutality against African Americans is stirring a growing debate about
institutional racism. In other settler colonial societies such as Australia,
New Zealand and Canada, while longstanding racism against Indigenous
people remain significant, anti-immigrant racism has been part of ongoing
racism debates. For example, in contemporary Australia, blatant and overt
forms of old racism are prevalent alongside new forms of racism (Seet
& Paradies, 2018). Racism in non-Western societies (e.g. Brazil, South

3 Jones et al. (2016) define overt racism as “explicitly negative demeanor and/or treat-
ment enacted toward social minorities on the basis of their minority status membership
that are necessarily conscious” (p. 4).
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 171

Africa, India and China) is no less significant, particularly in the current

context of resurgent nationalism. Some of this is discussed in Chapter 9,
while the current chapter focuses on a Western context because of obvious
cultural proximity to Australia. New racism takes the form of denial of
Indigenous disadvantage; strong anti-Muslim sentiments; and stereotypic
views of Asian, South Sudanese and other CALD migrants. Another major
issue in Australia’s problem with racism is Indigenous Peoples’ over-
policing, hyper-incarceration (Anthony & Blagg, 2020) and deaths in
custody (Cunneen, 2006; Williams, 2001).
Scholars have pointed to at least two views surrounding contemporary
racism discourse in Australia (Augoustinos & Every, 2007; Mapedzahama
& Kwansah-Aidoo, 2017). One is what has been dubbed the silencing
racism discourse, a discourse that attempts to diminish the occurrence
of racism in Australia but cautions against overemphasising claims of
racism. At the extreme, this discourse approaches a denial that racism
remains an issue of concern in Australian society (Dunn & Nelson, 2011).
Another discourse draws attention to Australia’s troubled historical past,
reminding us that it is a racialised space, with the legacy of racist colo-
nial policies still causing damage, particularly for Indigenous Peoples. This
discourse points to Australia’s dominant social and institutional structures
in demonstrating how it characteristically remains a white space, embel-
lished with multicultural images (Hage, 2012). Racism in such context is
depicted as an inherent feature built within the state system rather than an
anomaly out of tune with the national narrative. Yet, much of the research
indicates that the discourse that portrays Australia as a country of enviable
social cohesion unlike the toxic race relations in other Western countries
tends to dominate (Augoustinos & Every, 2007; Dunn & Nelson, 2011).
It is difficult to evaluate how Australia fares in terms of racism relative to
other countries in the absence of benchmark data for global comparison.
Indeed, the World Values Survey provides some international comparison.
However, its use of a single question that does not account for cultural
variation and historical contexts limits its applicability for a robust racism
research (Elias & Mansouri, 2020).4 Despite these limitations, there is
ample national data to show the trend of racism within Australian society.
This chapter takes into account the above two parallel narratives in
explaining the contemporary manifestation of racism in Australia. We do

4 The question for racism in World Values Survey is: “Could you please mention any
that you would not like to have as neighbors? [Q19: People of a different race].”
172 A. ELIAS ET AL.

so by asking two research questions. The first question focuses on the

prevalence of racism: “What is the state of race relations and the preva-
lence of racism in the country today?” We discuss in detail how five
years before and after the Cronulla Riots of 2005, nearly one in five
Australians have experienced racial discrimination annually (Dunn, 2012).
Second, we discuss how this heightened level of racism relates to expres-
sions of Anglo-Celtic racism, and examine specific aspects of racism in
light of key contributing factors. In other words, we ask the question:
“What can explain the recent heightened levels of racism reported in
some national surveys?” We also contextualise this in relation to imple-
mented anti-racism strategies. The chapter details a novel examination
of the association between perpetrator attitudes (as a proxy of perpe-
trator behaviour) and target experiences of racism. We also report on the
influence of various racist beliefs on the propensity of specific groups to
experience racism.

Measuring Racism
Before detailing the findings, we would like to point out that there is
no single way to define or measure racism. As we have alluded in the
introductory chapter, defining racism has been a key challenge for social
scientists. This has been particularly the case after the landmark victories
of the civil rights struggles that saw the widespread rejection of so-called
old-fashioned racism. If racism is no longer as clear as it was in the Jim
Crow era, under Apartheid, or during the White Australia Policy, how can
we measure it today? What does contemporary racism look like? To what
extent can we confidently conclude what is racism and what is not? These
questions have been the subject of considerable research across North
America, Europe and Australia, and still stimulate a substantial body of
research each year.
Research indicates that we can measure racism in a variety of ways
(see for example: Atkins, 2014; Barkan, 2018; Grollman & Hagiwara,
2017, 2019; Krieger, 2020; Lewis et al., 2015; Williams, 2016; Yoo
& Pituc, 2013). One approach of measuring the prevalence of racism
in a society is by focusing on those groups who have the social power
to perpetrate racism. Racism in this case can be measured as a list of
thoughts, perceptions, beliefs and stereotypes; a list of enacted behaviours;
salience in words, epithets and symbols (e.g. signs, flags, and gestures);
salience in text, conversations and (social) media discourse (Yoo & Pituc,
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 173

2013). The second approach is to focus on groups that are the poten-
tial targets of racist expressions and behaviours. Racism here is measured
as the frequency of racist episodes, a list of settings where racism occurs,
the perceptions of minority group members, and the extent of internal-
isation of racist stereotypes or beliefs (James, 2020; Reihl et al., 2015;
Williams, 2016). A third approach focuses on the salience of racism
in institutions. This approach assesses racism as a set of discriminatory
laws, regulations, and institutional structures; an enactment of racist and
discriminatory practices; or a systemic pattern of racial disparities across
outcomes (Better, 2008; Henricks, 2016).
These three distinct approaches have been widely applied in racism
research, with a substantial body of work documenting the pervasiveness
of racism across Western countries. In this chapter, we mainly focus on
the first two interpersonal aspects of racism, particularly racism as the atti-
tudes of the perpetrators and racism as the experiences of the targets. By
connecting these two, we show how racist attitudes in society can have an
impact on the wellbeing of minority groups (cf. Mansouri et al., 2009).

Racism as an Attitude
Racism is a problem of dominance and oppression. This assertion points
to its underlying beliefs, ideologies, behaviours and practices that perpet-
uate injustice and oppression against racial minorities (Paradies, 2006,
2016; Teel, 2010). In this sense, racism is expressed as a negative atti-
tude of dominant racial groups (often, but not always, white people)
against specific racial, ethnic and cultural groups. Such attitudes usually
manifest in discriminatory practices, behaviours and systems resulting in
unfair inequities. The beliefs that underlie racist attitudes are constituted
from group-focused antipathies, preferences for cultural homogeneity,
false beliefs and stereotypes, and convictions regarding racial or cultural
hierarchies. The latter includes racial supremacism, which has a hold on
a proportion of the population in countries like Australia (Dunn et al.,
2004; Peucker & Smith, 2019), and may be associated with more overt
behaviours—i.e. with more racist acts and experiences. This belief some-
times results in a higher level of racism against some groups compared to
others. For example, racism is more prevalent against Indigenous Peoples
and those who are more visibly distinct from culturally privileged groups.
The persistent racism towards black Sub-Saharan African migrants is a
clear indicator of such racist attitudes.
174 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Based on the theoretical conceptions of racism as an overt or a covert

expression of attitudes, which as detailed above is one of several ways
to conceptualise racism, researchers have developed numerous measures
of racism. As noted in the introductory chapter of this book, racism
has been depicted in a range of conceptualisations. For example, old-
fashioned racism is commonly understood as the most overt form of
racism, invariably expressed in attitudes of White supremacism, segre-
gation and animosity towards racial minorities (McConahay, 1986).
Over the last fifty years, less overt forms of racism have been iden-
tified as prevalent, particularly in Western societies. Among the most
notable conceptualisations to date are symbolic racism (Kinder &
Sears, 1981), modern racism (McConahay, 1983), ambivalent racism
(Katz, 1981), aversive racism (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2004), laissez-faire
racism (Bobo & Zubrinsky, 1996), institutional racism (Hamilton &
Ture, 1967/2011), and everyday racism (Essed, 1991). Each of these
constructs details specific characteristics of privileged group members’
attitudes and behaviours towards racial or ethnic outgroups. For example,
symbolic racism, according to Sears and Henry (2003), is “a coherent
political belief system whose content embodies” (pp. 259–260) the denial
of the continued prevalence of racial discrimination, blaming blacks for
their experiences of disadvantage, and claims that blacks make too many
demands and that they are getting more than their fair share. Ambivalent
racism (Katz, 1981) holds that some whites can harbour hostile attitudes
towards blacks while at the same time being pro-black. This is some-
what related to aversive racism, which is also characterised by inconsistent
behaviour seen in racial attitudes of white people endorsing egalitarian
values and regarding themselves as unprejudiced, yet subtly discriminating
in rationalisable ways (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2004).
Some authors have adapted a few of the above-mentioned racism
measures for use in Australia (Pedersen et al., 2004; Walker, 2001; White
& Gleitzman, 2006). One study has developed a new scale unique to the
Australian context (Grigg & Manderson, 2016). Yet, most studies of racist
attitudes focus on attitudes towards specific communities, and are there-
fore limited in terms of generalisability for the wider Australian society.
The data used in this chapter has advantages in terms of both sampling
representativeness and item specificity to Australian racial discourse.
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 175

Racism as an Experience
Racism takes a significant psychological and emotional toll on racial
minorities. Thus, empirical analysis of racism cannot be complete without
a consideration of their experiences. In the literature, experience of
discrimination has been conceptualised variously including as lived and
perceived experiences. Irrespective of whether or not they harbour prej-
udicial attitudes themselves, the racism that racial minorities are exposed
to is likely to deeply affect their wellbeing, as many studies have shown
(James, 2020; Krieger et al., 2011; Paradies et al., 2015; Mansouri et al.,
2009).
Like racist attitudes, measuring experiences of racism is complex for a
variety of reasons. First, racial minorities in different societies are exposed
to diverse sociocultural issues, histories and circumstances. Their expo-
sures to these diverse contexts usually shape their lived experiences and
the way they understand such experiences. This has been conceptu-
alised in the literature in terms of intersectionality, which highlights the
interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, gender and
class when they are invoked to explain the discrimination, oppression
and marginalisation of certain individuals and groups (Crenshaw, 1991).
Second, racial demographic compositions in different countries vary. This
can affect both the saliency and significance of race-related issues as well
as who constitute majority and minority groups. For these and other
reasons, measuring racism as an experience can be complex and difficult
to evaluate within and across countries.
In addition, the prevalence of racism can vary depending on how it
is measured. Assessments based on self-report, field-experiment, implicit
assessment or observed disparities can yield different results. Likewise,
a measure of racism can vary depending on whether an actual or a
perceived experience is being measured. Both actual occurrence and
perception matter. When racism happens, it may or may not be perceived.
However, in a society where racism is salient, it can still be perceived
whether (or not) it actually occurred as an episode or event. The effect of
such perceived racism is no less harmful than the actual event occurring
(Pieterse et al., 2012).
Despite these challenges of measurement, researchers across countries
have developed dozens of scales to examine the prevalence of racist expe-
riences (Atkins, 2014; Bastos et al., 2010; Kressin et al., 2008). Some
176 A. ELIAS ET AL.

of the most widely used measures include the: Everyday Discrimina-

tion Scale (EDS, Williams et al., 1997), Experiences of Discrimination
(EOD, Krieger et al., 2005), Perceived Racism Scale (PRS, McNeilly
et al., 1996), Racism and Life Experience Scales (RaLES, Harrell, 2000),
Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire (PEDQ, Contrada et al.,
2001), and Schedule of Racist Events (SRE, Landrine & Klonoff, 1996).
While each of these scales measures experiences of racism among specific
samples, they are unique in the number of questions asked, how they
are framed, the response options provided and the intensity and dura-
tion of exposure assessed. For example, the EDS has nine items asking
general questions with six frequency response options. It provides reason
of discrimination (e.g. race, gender and age) as a follow-up question.
Likewise, the EOD asks a question with nine items, but provides dichoto-
mous yes/no options. Those responding in the affirmative are provided
three-point frequency response options. The EDS focuses on the type of
discriminatory experiences while the EOD focuses more on the settings
where racism is experienced over a given period. Other scales have distinct
features of their own depending on their underlying theory, research
focus, and sample characteristics (Bastos et al., 2010).
In general, more than half of racism scales (19/34 in one review) have
been psychometrically validated for diverse samples, and had Cronbach’s
Alpha ≥ 70 (Kressin et al., 2008). While nearly all of the scales originated
in the US, the majority of the study samples were of African Americans.
Other population groups including Hispanic, Asian, and Native Amer-
icans were also included in 17 of these studies. Health was the main
outcome of study assessed in connection with the perception of racism,
with numerous studies showing experiences of high levels of racism,
particularly among African American, Hispanic, and Asian Americans.
In Australia, few racism measures have been developed to date (Grigg
& Manderson, 2016). The only psychometrically validated measures
are the: Measure of Indigenous Racism Experiences (MIRE), which
was developed by Paradies and Cunningham (2008, 2009); Perceived
Discrimination and Multiculturation scale, by Bodkin-Andrews et al.
(2010); and Racism, Acceptance, and Cultural-Ethnocentrism Scale
(RACES) by Grigg and Manderson (2016). Applications of these scales
indicated high levels of racism reported by Indigenous Peoples. Racism
was also strongly associated with depressive symptoms among Indigenous
Peoples in Australia (Paradies & Cunningham, 2012). Such experience
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 177

has persisted. In a recent study, Markwick et al. (2019) show that Indige-
nous Peoples continue to experience racism at a disproportionate rate to
other Australians.

Linking Attitudes and Experiences

Social psychologists have long understood the direct relationship between
social categorisation of groups and intergroup behaviour (Abrams &
Hogg, 2006; Tajfel et al., 1971). This relationship has been framed
as social identity theory, “a social psychological analysis of the role of
self-conception in group membership, group processes, and intergroup
relations” (Hogg, 2018, p. 111). The theory also seeks to explain how
social categorisation by emphasising intergroup distinction can reinforce
forms of intergroup discrimination. In the current discussion, suffice it
to note based on this theory that attitudes can indeed shape individual
or group behaviour towards perceived outgroups. Studies in Australia
and internationally have shown this to be the case (Grigg & Manderson,
2016; Talaska et al., 2008; Wagner, 2008).
Negative stereotypes about Indigenous Peoples, Muslims and other
CALD migrants are the common aspects of racist attitudes in Australia
(Awofeso, 2011; Paradies et al., 2008). Another popular attitude is inse-
curity about cultural diversity though this may be less likely to impact
target groups (Dunn et al., 2004). However, this and other forms of new
racism attitudes could have a particular impact upon members of groups
seen as not fitting into majority group cultures. The beliefs underlying
racist attitudes may therefore convert unevenly into racist behaviours and
the resulting experiences of racial discrimination (ERD).5
To date, numerous studies have examined either perpetrators or targets
of racism in isolation, while relatively few have investigated both in
conjunction (Dovidio et al., 1996, 2002; Flynn, 2005; Gaertner et al.,
2005; McConahay, 1983). In fact, to our knowledge, with the exception
of two of our papers (Forrest et al., 2016; Habtegiorgis et al., 2014), no
attempt to quantify the association between attitudes and target reported
experiences has been published in the literature. There is, however, an
extensive body of evidence investigating the association between the racist
attitudes of majority group members and their racist behaviours. For

5 Throughout the chapter, we use the abbreviation ERD to refer to self-reported

experiences of racial discrimination.
178 A. ELIAS ET AL.

example, in two European studies, Pereira et al. (2010) found that prej-
udice is positively related to discriminatory behaviours while Kauff and
Wagner (2012) showed that diversity beliefs are negatively related to
discriminatory behaviours. Talaska et al. (2008) analysed 57 studies and
found moderate relationships between attitudes and discrimination as well
as some heterogeneity between attitudes and behaviour. Similarly, the
relationship between attitudes/behaviours and target self-reported expe-
riences of racial discrimination (ERD) may also vary across specific beliefs
about ethnic relations, race and diversity.

Prevalence of Racism in Australia

This section reports the findings of an Australian study analysing the
relation between self-reported racist attitudes and ERD. It draws on
data from the Australian 2001–2008 Challenging Racism Project (CRP)
survey. The project was initiated by Professor Kevin Dunn (Western
Sydney University), to understand the extent and nature of race-related
attitudes in Australia. It was the first national survey on racism and has had
significant influence on racism discourse in Australia, with wide impact in
anti-racism policy and practices engaging local communities and various
levels of government.
The collection of the CRP survey data began in 2001 in the states of
New South Wales and Queensland where 5056 respondents completed
a questionnaire (Dunn, 2012; Dunn & Nelson, 2011). This survey was
repeated in Victoria in 2006 with 4016 respondents. Other states that
participated in the CRP in subsequent years included South Australia
and the Australian Capital Territory in 2007 (n = 1484 and n = 454,
respectively), as well as the Northern Territory, Tasmania and the city of
Perth in 2008 (n = 300, n = 351 and n = 851, respectively). These
surveys included questions about attitudes towards cultural diversity and
racism, utilising probability-based random telephone sampling techniques
that allowed a representative sample of each relevant state or territory.
These findings were then consolidated into a single national dataset (n =
12,512).
The dataset includes demographic characteristics such as age, sex,
educational attainment and geographic location that are utilised as
controls. The average age of respondents in the sample was 50 years and
six months, varying between 18 and 97 years. In terms of gender, the data
are slightly skewed with females accounting for more than half (59%) of
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 179

Table 5.1 Attitudes towards other racial/ethnic groups among Australians

Attitudes to other racial/ethnic groups Disagree Agree Indifferent

Old Racism
All races of people are equal 10.9 85.1 4.0
NOT prejudiced toward other cultures 12.2 81.3 6.6
Humankind is NOT made up of separate races 79.6 14.9 5.6
Support racial cross-marriage 11.2 79.9 8.9
New Racism: pro-assimilation
Multiculturalism is good for Australia 6.1 88.0 5.8
Feel secure with other ethnic groups 9.2 80.3 10.5
Other ethnic groups DO NOT weaken Australia 42.2 43.1 14.7
New racism: denial
There is racial prejudice in Australia 7.7 85.9 6.5
British descent Australians are privileged 41.4 43.2 15.4

Response categories recoded as: Disagree = Strongly disagree + Disagree/Agree = Strongly agree
+ Agree/and Indifferent =Neither agree nor disagree. The sample size range is 12,054–12,413

the respondents. Almost 27% had a university degree or more, but more
than 50% had no more than a high school certificate. More than 61%
of the respondents were from Australian capitals with more than 58% of
them residing in New South Wales or Victoria, 27% were residents of
Queensland or South Australia, and only 15% were from the remaining
states and territories. Almost 40% had a father or mother born overseas,
or both.
The CRP questionnaires asked respondents about their attitudes
towards cultural diversity, assimilation, Anglo-Celtic privilege, racial
equality, racial hierarchy, acknowledgement of racism, self-declared prej-
udice and nomination of cultural or ethnic groups that do not fit into
Australian society (i.e. outgroups). The focus in this chapter is on nine
attitude variables available across these datasets, each question has a
5-item Likert scale response set (see Table 5.1).6
Table 5.1 shows the attitudes of Australians towards diversity. The
items classified into old and new racism indicate some variety in expres-
sions of racist attitudes. Old racism was prevalent to an extent ranging
between 11 and 15% of respondents. New racism tended to be more

6 The response categories for the Likert-type responses are coded on a scale of 1–5
ranging from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree.
180 A. ELIAS ET AL.

nuanced. Although only 6.1% disagreed that multiculturalism is good

compared to 88% who agree, 42.2% believe peoples’ maintenance of
racial/ethnic distinctiveness weakens Australia compared to 43.1% who
do not.
In addition, the CRP data has another six questions, each with 5-
item ordinal scale measuring ERD. These questions involve ERD in the
workplace, schools, housing markets, shops and restaurants, policing, and
sporting events (see Table 5.2). Reported experiences vary from as low as
3.5% (in renting/buying house) to as high as 10.1% (in schools). Discrim-
ination tends to be more pronounced in educational settings, at sporting
events, in the labour market and in shopping and restaurants. Out of
the total sample (n = 12,512), 54.8% of those born overseas (n = 1757)
reported ERD compared to 21.9% of those born in Australia (n = 2036).
A similar result was also obtained at the state level (Dunn et al., 2007).
For simplicity, we treat response items indicating the respondent
doesn’t know, is not sure or refuses to give an answer as missing values
(0–4% across all variables). Instead of the dichotomous dummy variables
mentioned earlier, we construct another dependent variable—ERD—with
a 5-item ordinal scale response. We aggregate the responses from the five
frequency of discrimination variables to create this variable (α = 0.79,
mean = 1.22 and standard deviation [SD] = 0.67) by selecting the
highest discrimination experience reported across the five questions (see
Habtegiorgis et al., 2014). Applying this procedure for the whole sample
with available data (n = 12,505), the distribution of the aggregate ERD

Table 5.2
Experienced racial discrimination Yes No
Self-reported experiences
of discrimination among Workplace 9.8 90.3
Australians Education 10.1 90.0
Renting/Buying house 3.5 96.5
Dealings with police 3.8 96.2
Shops/Restaurants 8.6 91.4
Sports event 8.4 91.6
Average 7.4 92.7

Stem question: ‘How often have you experienced discrimination

because of your own ethnic origin in the following situations?’
Response categories recoded as: No = Never + Hardly ever and
Yes = Sometimes + Often + Very often. The sample size range is
(12,160, 12,486)
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 181

is never (65.1%), hardly ever (12.6%), sometimes (14.3%), often (4.6%)

and very often (3.4%). This indicates that 22.3% of Australians reported
an ERD of more often than hardly ever. Among racial minorities, the
proportion is 35.8%. Alternative computation based on aggregation of
the rates of exposure or domain counts yielded an overall exposure rate
of 5.7 and 15.1%, respectively.
The reported frequencies vary depending on which method is used to
construct the ERD variable. However, this had little impact on multi-
variate associations since the entire raw sample is used to estimate the
models. For example, the effect of re-scaling on the results is minimal with
a difference in the correlation coefficient of just 0.04 (see the sub-section
Relationship Among Forms of Racism). Similarly, using the domain count
approach, we obtained (ordered logit/Poisson) regression outcomes that
are comparable to those reported in this chapter. In fact, as we treated
missing values in these alternative estimations as zeroes, our estimation
is conservative with lower bound coefficient estimates. In general, these
findings suggest that the discrimination variable is robust to alternative
scaling. Comparing it to other national samples across age and gender,
the prevalence rate is higher for the CRP survey. For comparison, consider
two national surveys, the Mapping Social Cohesion (MSC, Markus, 2019)
and Social Research Centre’s Dual Frame Omnibus (DFO) surveys. The
MSC survey, annually conducted between 2007 and 2013 (n = 2000 in
each wave), indicates that 9–19% of respondents reported ERD over the
period 2007–2013 (Markus, 2019). The DFO survey (2012, n = 2000),
conducted by the Social Research Centre contains three items on racism,
and almost 20% of the respondents reported ERD. Figure 5.1 summarises
the distribution of ERD in the three datasets based on age and gender.
According to these three national surveys, the average prevalence of ERD
among those aged 64 years and below ranged from 13.4 to 20.1%, with
ERD declining by age and males reporting more experiences of racism
than females.

Statistical Modelling of Racism

As an initial step in the analysis, we calculate correlations between racist
attitudes and ERD. We first compute the average racist attitudes among
Australian-born respondents who nominate a specific outgroup for each
of the nine racist attitude variables. For instance, the percentage of
anti-diversity attitudes (one of the nine attitude variables) among those
182 A. ELIAS ET AL.

CRP (Males)
CRP (Females)
MSC (Males)
MSC (Females)
40 DFO (Males)
DFO (Females)
35

30
Prevalence rate

25

20

15

10

0
17-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75-100
Age Categories

Fig. 5.1 Prevalence of racial discrimination in Australia by age and gender

(Note Values are percentages of those who indicated they experienced racial
discrimination in their lifetime)

who nominate Middle Easterners as outgroups is 16.5%. In general,

the average rate of nominating Middle Easterners as outgroup is 36.2%,
indicating that Australian-born respondents who nominate Middle East-
erners as an outgroup hold, on average, more racist attitudes than other
respondents. Following a similar procedure, corresponding values are
then assigned to each member of the nominated outgroup. For example,
we assign each respondent identifying as Middle Easterner a value of
0.362. Thus, the average value for racist attitudes is used as a weight vari-
able assigned to target group membership. In this way, we can create a
categorical variable anti-outgroup specific racist attitudes. Since members
of the same group are assigned the same value, they can be considered as
one category.
There are 13 minority groups we assess in this analysis, each assigned
a unique value as described above, after excluding some groups due to
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 183

sample size and geographic contiguity.7 The result is a racist attitude

variable—racism towards outgroups —with 13 categories indicating specific
racist attitudes directed towards perceived outgroups. Multivariate anal-
yses then examine the strength of the relationship between these attitudes
and ERD.
The ERD variable has been derived reflecting the prevalence of the
highest ERD as reported by CRP respondents. This provides an individual
level ERD measure along with another variable assigned to each minority
respondent based on group membership (i.e. members of minority groups
nominated as outgroups). These variables allow us to estimate an indi-
vidual level association. The setting-specific correlation between ERD
exposure and racist attitudes (outgroup specific racist attitudes) for the
CRP sample ranges between 0.13 and 0.20 (p < 0.05). The strength of
the correlation is higher for the aggregate ERD variable, r = 0.19 (p <
0.05). This indicates that there is some association between a person’s
membership in an outgroup (as nominated by racist respondents) and
the self-reporting of ERD. However, this is a crude estimate because the
method used involved several steps in deriving the individual level vari-
able racism towards outgroups. Thus, this is further explored using a more
sophisticated two-stage estimation strategy to examine the association in
a multivariate model.

Relationship Among Forms of Racism

We developed several multivariate models to understand what factors
influence the relationship between racist attitude and ERD. Our data
included dichotomous and mostly ordinal variables as dependent vari-
ables. Thus, the analysis involved binary and ordered logistic regression
models to estimate respective multivariate relationships (for details on the
estimation models see: Habtegiorgis et al., 2014).
Using aggregate ERD as the dependent variable and other covariates
including prevalence of racism, age, gender, education, region of birth,
region and state as explanatory variables, we estimated ordered logistic

7 Two group categories Muslims and Balkans are excluded in the final analyses because
the former are not geographically limited to a certain region category and the later are
part of South Europeans in the UN regional classification. Jews, East Africans and Rest
of Africans are excluded in the final analysis because their sample size is far smaller than
other groups.
184 A. ELIAS ET AL.

regression to detect any association between racist attitudes and ERD.

The key independent variable in this multivariate model was the preva-
lence of racist attitudes represented by the nine attitude variables that
are included in separate regression models along with covariates and the
dependent variable. Each attitude variable was recoded dichotomously
taking a value of 0 if the respondent agreed or strongly agreed with items
listed in Table 5.1 and 1 if they disagreed or strongly disagreed with these
items.
The main challenge in measuring the association between racist atti-
tudes and ERD is attributing the attitudes to perpetrators and the
experiences to targets. Such attribution is confounded by individual level
data. It is methodologically inaccurate to measure the two variables (i.e.
attitudes and experiences) in a single model because these two variables
are not mutually exclusive. This is the case because one cannot attribute
the racist attitudes in the CRP data solely to perpetrators and experi-
ences solely to targets. Anyone can potentially be a perpetrator or target
of racist behaviour, regardless of their ethnic background (Sawrikar &
Katz, 2010). Thus, we effectively have two different samples to construct,
the first sample consisting only of perpetrators and the second sample
consisting only of targets.
The confounding in the attitude and experiences variables could be
corrected by introducing an estimation strategy (see Appendix “Linking
Attitudes and Experiences of Racism”) that first examines perpetrators in
relation to their targets, with these results then used to estimate another
model involving only targets. To analyse perpetrators of racist attitudes
in the first stage, the sample is restricted to Anglo-Celtic Australians.
Clearly, other Australians can also perpetrate racism, but in this study we
are primarily interested in the attitudes of the majority group. Further-
more, we are not suggesting that all Anglo-Celtic Australians perpetrate
racism but simply that majority groups are usually in a better position
(i.e. generally have more social power) to do so (Hill, 2011; Manglitz,
2003). Since there is no comprehensive ancestry variable in the CRP
data, we restricted our sample to the closest proxy for ethnicity available
(i.e. country/region of birth), including respondents born in Australia
(n = 9311) as a surrogate for Anglo-Celtic Australians. Clearly, this
group includes many non-Anglo-Celtic Australians, but arguably, nativity
is another form of majority group membership, which to some extent,
allows members more opportunity to perpetrate racism.
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 185

Racism Towards Perceived Outgroups

Our data indicates that racist attitudes are directly linked to perception of
outgroup status (see Appendix “Modelling Racism Towards Outgroups”
for statistical detail). From Table 5.1, we see that 12.2 and 11.2% of
the respondents acknowledge their opposition to inter-racial marriage
and self-declare racial prejudice, respectively. These attitudes are positively
associated with ERD (Table 5.3). The odds ratios for the variable preju-
diced against other cultures are statistically significant and range between
1.80 and 1.84, and for anti-cross-marriage sentiments from 1.09 to 1.25,
indicating positive relationships. Racial supremacism, the other old racism
attitude in the survey, has a strong direct association with ERD in all four
models: 1.45–1.54. In addition, more prejudice against minorities and old
racism attitudes are associated with an increased ERD (and vice versa).
The new racism attitudes against diversity are directly associated with
ERD. The estimated odds ratios for model 1 ranges between 1.42 for
anti-diversity attitudes (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14–1.77) and
1.98 for sense of insecurity when among other ethnic groups (95% CI:
1.66–2.35). The assimilationist belief that Australia is weakened by ethnic
diversity is directly associated with ERD. This indicates that poor disposi-
tions towards diversity and towards living in diverse culture with fairness
are associated with worse cross-cultural relations (in the form of ERD on
the basis of ethnic background).
The covariate non-acknowledgement of racism in Australia is statis-
tically significant for models 3 and 4, with the expected negative sign.
The trend indicates that reduced acknowledgement of racism in Australia
is associated with increased self-reporting of racial discrimination. Non-
acknowledgement of racism has been described elsewhere as denial of
racism, and it makes sense that non-acknowledgement could be associ-
ated with higher prevalence of racism. If acceptance is a first step towards
addressing racism, then denial fundamentally undermines remediation of
racism and allows it to flourish without check. Dunn and Nelson (2011)
found that Australians with a language background other than English,
and those who were born overseas, are less likely to acknowledge racism
as a problem in Australia, even though they are the groups more likely to
report experiences of racism. This trend aligns with the statistical nega-
tive trend outlined above, though not always significantly. Finally, odds
ratios for the denial of Anglo-Celtic privilege covariate are non-significant
suggesting no association with ERD.
Table 5.3 Odds ratio from ordered logistic regression models: association between self-reported ERD and racist
186

attitudes in the 2001–2008 CRP datasets

Independent variables Self-reported ERD

(1) (2) (3) (4)
df = 1 df = 11 df = 35 df = 28

Old racism
A. ELIAS ET AL.

Anti-cross-marriage 1.085 1.231*** 1.249** 1.167*

[0.94]a [7.17] [13.05] [11.63]
Against racial equality 1.451*** 1.494*** 1.549*** 1.542***
[28.62] [9.75] [18.19] [13.57]
Belief in racial categories 0.892 0.894 0.977 0.949
[2.5]a [8.57] [12.73] [12.07]
Prejudiced against other cultures 1.822*** 1.801*** 1.827*** 1.843***
[66.52] [12.59] [18.54] [15.47]
New racism: pro-assimilation
Anti-diversity attitudes 1.423*** 1.529*** 1.712*** 1.632***
[10.25] [7.547] [16.97] [13.60]
Sense of insecurity among other ethnic groups 1.973*** 2.100*** 2.032*** 2.063***
[60.44] [12.49] [15.25] [14.95]
Australia weakened by ethnic diversity 1.197*** 1.285*** 1.364*** 1.318***
[10.08] [7.60] [12.91] [11.81]
New racism: denial
Non-acknowledgement of racism in Australia 0.868 0.922 0.722*** 0.707***
[2.36]a [7.21] [12.56] [11.73]
Denial of Anglo-privilege 1.006 1.003 1.027 1.027
[0.02]a [7.13] [12.78] [11.64]
Independent variables Self-reported ERD
(1) (2) (3) (4)
df = 1 df = 11 df = 35 df = 28

Observations 12,505 12,389 12,088 12,088

Control Variables
Age in years No Yes Yes Yes
Gender (Ref: Male) No Yes Yes Yes
Highest education attained No Yes Yes Yes
Region (Capital city/Rest of Australia) No No Yes Yes
State No No Yes No
Region of birth No No No Yes
5

Father’s ancestry not Australian No No No Yes

Mother’s ancestry not Australian No No No Yes

Notes This Table reports odds ratio from 36 ordered logistic regressions with each cell reporting the results of a separately estimated model given
the independent variable of interest indicated. Across the board, the dependent variable is the response variable self -reported ERD, which has ordinal
outcomes ranging from Never to Very often. Based on this, Model 1 is estimated with a single independent variable (reported in the first column of
the first nine rows). Model 2 includes as control variables Age, Gender and Education. Model 3 adds additional residential controls: Region and State.
Finally, Model 4 further adds ancestral origin variables: Region of birth, Father’s ancestry and Mother’s ancestry. Estimations are adjusted for population
weights. The first number in each cell is odds ratio, and F -statistics are reported in squared. Significance values indicate: *** = p < 0.01; ** = p <
0.05; * = p < 0.1
a Model 1 is not statistically significant at the conventional levels when estimated with Denial of Racism in Australia, Anti-cross-marriage Sentiments
or Denial of Anglo Privilege as the only independent variable
CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA
187
188 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Anti-diversity dispositions are clearly linked within this sample to ERD,

as is the belief in racial supremacy (i.e. against racial equality and self-
declared prejudice). These analyses, therefore, indicate that both old and
new racist beliefs can influence the reported ERD. The same is true to
some extent for anti-cross-racial marriage and non-acknowledgement of
racism. However, the effects of belief in racial categories and denial of
Anglo-Celtic privilege did not have clear trends.
So far, our interpretation has been based on models directly esti-
mated from the CRP data. All estimations involved the whole sample
excluding missing values (the sample sizes vary between n = 12,088
and n = 12,505). But, due to the nature of the individual level data,
we did not clearly separate the perpetrators and targets of discrimina-
tion. Thus, the findings are showing crude association in that the racist
attitudes in these models do not necessarily reflect only those of perpe-
trators. Similarly, as mentioned in the section Prevalence of Racism in
Australia above, the ERD does not necessarily show only those groups
we normally consider targets (i.e. minorities). For example, minority
groups can have racist attitudes (Sawrikar & Katz, 2010) while the
majority group can, in limited contexts, be targets of racism as well
as potentially feeling disenfranchised and claiming reverse discrimination
(Norton, 2011). Additionally, it should be noted that the majority group
in Australia is not homogenous.
The results for the first stage of our estimation are reported in
Table 5.4. As stated above, we restricted the sample to respondents born
in Australia to proxy for perpetration of racist attitudes by the majority
group. All of the nine models include six demographic and human capital
control variables (age, gender, education, region, state and region of
birth) as well as the outgroup variables of interest, together with the
nine racist attitudes as dependent variables. Estimates for the demographic
and human capital variables have mixed results in terms of statistical
significance, but for brevity, we only report estimates for the nominated
outgroup. Each column reports one of the nine attitude items in the CRP
dataset as a dependent variable.
In these results, Asians (in general), North East Asians, South East
Asians, Middle Easterners and Muslims are consistently nominated as
outgroups by Australian-born respondents who have old-fashioned racism
expressed in anti-cross-racial marriage and anti-racial equality attitudes
and self -declared prejudice towards other cultures (columns 1, 2 and 4,
respectively). Respondents with new racism beliefs such as anti-diversity
Table 5.4 Odds ratio from logistic regression models: association between outgroup nomination and expressions of
racist attitudes in the 2001–2008 CRP datasets
Old racism New racism: pro-assimilation New racism: denial

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

Variables Anti-cross-marriage Against Belief in Prejudiced Anti-diversity Sense of Diversity weakens Denial of Denial of
racial racial against attitudes insecurity Australia racism in Anglo
equality categories other among Australia Privilege
cultures outgroups

South East Asians 1.422* 1.746** 1.447* 1.443**

North East Asians 1.832*** 2.104*** 2.148*** 1.904***
South Asians 1.670*** 1.502*
5

Asians 1.608** 2.286*** 2.454*** 1.893*** 1.973*** 1.666***

North Europeans 0.354*
South Europeans 0.354**
Balkans 2.897*** 1.940*
Middle Easterners 1.286* 1.431** 1.442*** 1.366***
Africans 1.530***
Pacific Islanders
Indigenous Australians 1.572* 2.031*** 0.615**
Muslims 1.642*** 1.300*** 1.459*** 1.599*** 1.236* 1.819*** 1.159*
Foreigners 0.553* 0.587** 0.810*
East Africans 0.418**
Rest of Africans 2.419**
Observations 9057 9057 9057 057 9057 9057 9057 9057 9057
F -Statistics 12.75 8.687 4.687 10.86 21.66 17.44 29.41 6.132 3.206
Degrees of Freedom 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 18

(continued)
CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA
189
Table 5.4 (continued)
190

Old racism New racism: pro-assimilation New racism: denial

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

Variables Anti-cross-marriage Against Belief in Prejudiced Anti-diversity Sense of Diversity weakens Denial of Denial of
racial racial against attitudes insecurity Australia racism in Anglo
equality categories other among Australia Privilege
cultures outgroups
A. ELIAS ET AL.

p-value <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001

Note This table reports the nomination of minorities as outgroups by Australian-born respondents who have racist attitudes. Targets are nominated as
outgroups if the respondent answers yes to the question asking: “Do you believe that there are any cultural or ethnic groups that do NOT fit into
Australian society”. Column headings are the dependent variables in the respective model. For brevity, only values that are statistically significant are
reported. For each cultural group nominated as outgroups odds ratios are reported. All models were estimated by including age, gender, education,
region and state as control variables. Three groups in the models, namely, Jews, East Africans and Extremists are not shown because they have
statistically non-significant results. The sample size is restricted to Australian-born respondents and results are corrected for population weights.
Significance levels: ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 191

attitudes and sense of insecurity among other ethnic groups also nomi-
nated them as outgroups (columns 5 and 6, respectively). Those with
self-declared prejudice and anti-racial equality attitudes did not identify
South East Asians as outgroups. Respondents who are against inter-racial
marriage consider three groups, South East Asians, South Asians and
Muslims as outgroups. Asians and Africans in general are also nominated
as outgroups by those with the old racist belief in racial categories. Finally,
the perception of South Asians as outgroup in this finding is associated
with sentiments against racial equality and inter-racial marriage. The racist
attitude variable that has the strongest association with the outgroup
nomination variable is anti-racial equality with statistically significant esti-
mates for six groups (North East Asians, South Asians, Asians, Balkans,
Indigenous Australians and Muslims). Muslims are the most consistently
nominated group, nominated as an outgroup by those who hold seven
out of the nine measured racist attitudes.
The results in column 8 suggest that the non-acknowledgement (denial)
of racism variable in the CRP data fails to predict the association between
racist attitude and nomination of minorities as outgroups. This finding for
the denial of racism is inconsistent with that of Table 5.3. From Table 5.1,
we see that only 7.7% deny that there is racism in Australia with denial
predicting decreased ERD in Table 5.3. This result is partly explained
by the relevant sample size of outgroup nominating respondents (fewer
respondents who nominate outgroups deny the existence of racism in
Australia compared to the other attitude variables).8 Acknowledgement
of racism is very prevalent (86%, see Table 5.1), and the reasons for denial
are multiple. Therefore, denial does not seem to be a consistent predictor
of antagonism towards specific outgroups.
In column 1, we observe that the perception of Muslims, South
East Asians and South Asians as outgroups is strongly associated with
having anti-cross-marriage sentiments. However, such perception towards
South Europeans is negatively associated with opposition to inter-racial
marriage. According to column 9, nominating people from the Balkans,

8 Percentage of the relevant sample (outgroup nominating respondents with racist atti-
tudes) for each attitude variable is: denial of racism = 8.6%, anti-diversity attitude =
15.9%, sense of insecurity = 12.5%, self -declared prejudice = 20.6, anti-cross-marriage =
17.1%, British privileges = 43.1%, Australia weakened by diversity = 24.5%, anti-equality
sentiment = 17.6%, belief in racial categories = 10.2%. This indicates that denial of racism
is not as strongly associated with outgroup nomination as it is for other attitudes.
192 A. ELIAS ET AL.

the Rest of Africa (non-East Africans) and Muslims as outgroups is

strongly tied to denial of Anglo-Celtic privilege. It seems likely that
antipathy towards people with ancestry from the Balkans would princi-
pally be a disposition of Australians with a European heritage, and so it
makes sense that they (Europeans) would be less likely to acknowledge
cultural privilege in Australia. Anti-Muslim prejudice would be expected
as part of the post-9-11 phenomenon. However, Anglo-Celtic Australians
would be less likely to acknowledge it as having association with their
privilege. Similarly, while antipathy towards the Rest of Africa category
would be expected with race more salient among Africans than the other
minority groups, Anglo-Celtic Australians with racial disposition against
Africans would be less likely to acknowledge their cultural privilege.
Another important observation is that those who believe that Australia
is weakened by diversity are more likely to nominate Asians, Middle
Easterners and Muslims as outgroups. Finally, while nominating Indige-
nous Peoples as outgroups is associated with self -declared prejudice and
having anti-racial equality attitudes, nominating Africans as outgroups is
strongly tied to a belief in racial categories.
Re-calculating the racist attitudes analysis by including the neutral
response categories from each attitude variable yields similar findings. For
some nominated outgroup categories, scores are lower than the corre-
sponding values reported in Table 5.4 (e.g. estimates for those with
anti-diversity attitudes and the nomination South and North East Asians,
Asians and Muslims). This indicates that the effect of racist attitudes is
more evident when racial neutrality is excluded from the overall sample.
Only in a few cases are the results divergent (e.g. for Balkans and the Rest
of Africans the scores become higher than in Table 5.4).
Our results indicate that anti-Asian sentiment is associated with new
racism (i.e. beliefs against diversity) although the denial discourses
conceptually attached to new racism are not associated with anti-Asian
views. Old racist beliefs in racial categories and against racial equality
are also associated with anti-Asian attitudes. Asian-Australians are a set of
groups for whom there has been extreme racialisation in Australia since
the nineteenth century (Kamp, 2010), and this was notably enlivened
during the so-called race debates following the election wins of the One
Nation Party from the mid to late 1990s (McAllister & Moore, 1989).
Antipathy towards European groups is only focused against those with
Balkan heritage and demonstrates the only statistical trend is that it is
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 193

associated with denial of Anglo-Celtic privilege and anti-racial equality

attitudes.
Likewise, Middle-Easterner out-status is associated with new racism
and this accords with research that links anti-Middle Easterner attitudes
with narrow constructions of national identity and citizenship (Dunn
et al., 2007; Morgan & Poynting, 2012). Negative views on the extent
to which Muslims fitted-in in Australia, as the most prevalent of the
outgroup dispositions (Dunn et al., 2004), is associated with all racist
attitudes with the exception of denial of racism and belief in racial
categories. Antipathy towards Indigenous Australians is associated with
old racist attitudes such as a belief in racial supremacy (against racial
equality). Anti-Indigenous sentiment is also associated with self-declared
prejudice. Separate analyses, tracking the relation between self-declared
prejudice and antipathy towards racialised groups yielded interesting find-
ings. Antipathy towards Jewish-, Indigenous- and Asian-Australians was
associated with this self-declarative judgement of prejudice. The results for
the Jewish, East African, Rest of African and Latin American categories,
however, are not conclusive due to small sample sizes.
In the second stage, we utilised the results in Table 5.4 as a basis
for creating a categorical variable representing outgroups nominated by
CRP participants reporting racist attitudes. The groups thus nominated
according to Table 5.4 are Muslims, Middle Easterners, South East
Asians, North East Asians and Asians in general. These are groups for
which there is strong association between their nomination as outgroups
and the expressions of racist attitudes. Other groups with significant
results are Balkans, South Asians and Indigenous Peoples, each of which
is nominated as an outgroup by those with racist attitudes expressed in
responses to exactly two items (these items vary for each group). East
Africans and the Rest of Africa are nominated by those who believe in
racial categories and deny Anglo-Celtic privilege, respectively. We proxy
these targets by their region of birth, thereby, creating dummy variables to
identify them as targets of racial discrimination in the regression models.
Although Muslims are one of the most likely migrant groups to be targets
of racist attitudes (see Blair et al., 2017), we could not analyse their ERD
because the CRP data does not have the participant’s religion as a vari-
able. We also regroup the Balkans category into South Europeans (based
on United Nations, 2020). The results are reported in Tables 5.5 and
5.6.
194 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Table 5.5 Odds ratio from ordered logistic regression models: self-reported
ERD by targets nominated as outgroups in the 2001–2008 CRP data

Variables Coefficients Standard Odds 95% Confidence

errors ratios interval

Targets of Racist
Attitudes
(Ref: non-Indigenous
Australians)
Indigenous Australians 1.374*** (0.169) 3.950 (2.819–5.534)
North Europeans 0.304*** (0.088) 1.356 (1.137–1.616)
Western Europeans 0.649*** (0.155) 1.913 (1.402–2.610)
Eastern Europeans 0.491* (0.288) 1.634 (0.919–2.907)
South Europeans 0.553*** (0.168) 1.738 (1.241–2.435)
Middle Easterners 0.928*** (0.289) 2.529 (1.419–4.505)
North Americans 0.281 (0.246) 1.324 (0.809–2.165)
Pacific Islanders 0.670*** (0.171) 1.953 (1.389–2.748)
Africans 0.600** (0.247) 1.822 (1.111–2.989)
South Asians 1.030*** (0.187) 2.801 (1.926–4.072)
North East Asians 1.053*** (0.185) 2.866 (1.981–4.146)
South East Asians 1.155*** (0.144) 3.173 (2.379–4.232)
Control Variables
Age in years −0.008*** (0.002) 0.992 (0.989–0.996)
Gender (Ref: Male) −0.397*** (0.078) 0.673 (0.575–0.787)
Highest Education −0.013** (0.006) 0.988 (0.976–1.000)
Attained
Region (Capital City/Rest 0.059 (0.069) 1.061 (0.924–1.219)
of Australia)
Non English Spoken at 0.745*** (0.103) 2.106 (1.713–2.589)
Home
Observations 12,051
F -statistic 30.19
Degrees of Freedom 17
p-value 0

Note The dependent variable is self-reported ERD. Cut-points are not shown. Coefficients are logit
estimates (exp(β)/1+exp(β)) and they are exponentiated by exp(β) to give their corresponding odds
ratios (column 4). In addition to variables included in previous Tables, non-English language spoken
at home is included to control for its impact on the dependent variable. Significance levels: *** p <
0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1

The results in Table 5.5 are in line with our expectation. Overall,
the model is statistically significant: F (17, 12,051) = 30.19, p < .001.
All coefficient estimates for the categorical variable nominated outgroups
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 195

Table 5.6 Odds ratio from ordered logistic regression models: self-reported
ERD by targets nominated as outgroups in the 2001–2008 CRP data

Variables Coefficients Standard errors Odds ratios 95% Confidence

interval

Targets of Racist 0.779*** (0.083) 2.179 (0.846–2.573)

Attitudes
Age in years −0.008*** (0.002) 0.992 (0.988–0.996)
Gender (Ref: Male) −0.394*** (0.080) 0.675 (0.575–0.791)
Highest Education −0.011* (0.006) 0.989 (0.977–1.000)
Attained
Region (Capital 0.0389 (0.072) 1.040 (0.900–1.201)
City/Rest of
Australia)
Non English Spoken 0.899*** (0.082) 2.458 (2.085–2.898)
at Home
Observations 12,348
F -statistic 78.61
Degrees of Freedom 6
p-value 0

Note This Table is estimated by grouping the targets, creating a dummy variable which takes 1 if
the group is identified as outgroup and targeted by racist attitudes and 0 otherwise. The dependent
variable is self-reported ERD. Significance levels: ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1

are statistically significant, except North Americans.9 For the Eastern

European category, the estimates are marginally significant at the 10%
level. Generally, our hypothesis that there is an association between ERD
by targets and the racist attitudes of perpetrators is supported. Those
targets nominated by CRP participants as outgroups are more likely to
report ERD. The reference group for racist attitudes in this analysis are
Australian-born respondents.
Our final estimation involved grouping the targets into 15 groups
(including non-Indigenous Australians as reference group) and mapping
the racist expressions observed in Table 5.4, with two groups excluded
from this analysis due to small sample size (Latin Americans) or
geographic contiguity (Asians). Out of the 12 minority groups, Indige-
nous Australians scored the highest probability of reporting ERD

9 Nominated outgroups: refers to groups nominated by those expressing racist attitudes as

outgroups.
196 A. ELIAS ET AL.

followed by South East Asians and South Asians. The next groups
with more likelihood of reporting ERD are North East Asians. These
results suggest that ERD is more prevalent among Indigenous Australians
and Asians in general than among other minority groups. Middle East-
erners and Pacific Islanders are also more likely to report discrimina-
tion than Australian-born non-Indigenous—hereafter Australian-born—
respondents. Although slightly less likely than Middle Easterners and
Pacific Islanders, Western Europeans and Africans are also more likely to
report ERD than Australian-born respondents. The rest of the minority
groups are considerably less likely to report discrimination than the
above groups, although more likely than Australian-born non-Indigenous
respondents.
Another observation from Table 5.5 is that non-English language
spoken at home is associated with increased reporting of ERD. In addi-
tion, gender (being male) and age are negatively associated with reported
ERD although the magnitude of this association with age is small. There
is a growing body of evidence supporting some form of association
between socio-demographics and ERD (Lewis et al., 2012; Paradies,
2006; Perez et al., 2008). In many studies, reports of ERD are lower
among women compared to men (Broman et al., 2000; Sellers & Shelton,
2003), and our findings from the CRP datasets support this association.
Similarly, we find that higher level of education is statistically significantly
associated with fewer ERD although the magnitude of association is negli-
gible. Region of residence is another covariate with no association in the
ERD model.
Table 5.6 combines the targets and reports a single coefficient by
creating a dummy variable that takes a value of 1 if the group is nomi-
nated as an outgroup by those with racist attitudes and 0 otherwise. The
result is similar to Table 5.5, with this variable predicting the likelihood
of ERD. In addition, in Table 5.6, we report that the negative effect of
gender on ERD is statistically significant. Similarly, the data confirm that
non-English spoken at home is strongly associated with increased ERD.
Although the coefficient for age is statistically significant, both age and
education are negligible in terms of coefficient magnitude.
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 197

Australian Racism in Context

This chapter proposed that racist attitudes are related to racist behaviours
among perpetrators that are, in turn, related to experiences of racial
discrimination among targets. Previously, this has been under-examined.
The chapter tested the hypothesis using data from the Australian Chal-
lenging Racism Project, by isolating perpetrator racist attitudes and target
experiences, and constructing two sets of variables from nine attitude and
five experience questions.
The findings, particularly those reported in Tables 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6,
support the proposed hypothesis. There are strong direct associations
between the expressions of racist attitudes, in the form of nominating
outgroups, and ERD. Our results go one further step than the exper-
imental research on the relationship between attitudes and behaviours,
by showing a direct link between attitude and experiences (Dovidio
et al., 1996, 2002; Gaertner et al., 2005; McConahay, 1983). We
have demonstrated a within-sample relationship between racist attitudes
towards outgroups and ERD among these groups. Racist attitudes are
linked with ERD by those nominated as outgroups. Our findings also
suggest that negative attitudes towards certain groups are associated with
particular racist beliefs. For example, antipathy towards Asians is linked
with both new racist dispositions against diversity and with old racist
notions of racial supremacy (Table 5.4). Those who see Asians as not
fitting within Australia are more likely to self-declare as racists, aligning
with old racist beliefs. There is a strong within-sample correspondence
between a stance against racial equality among majority group members
and reports of discrimination by minority group members (Table 5.3).
This is also the case for majority group members who are against or are
insecure about ethnic diversity. Not surprisingly, antipathy towards Asians
is strongly associated with higher level of ERD by Australians born in Asia
(Table 5.5).
Our results show that those targets identified as outgroups in the
first stage of our estimation were more likely to report having experi-
enced discrimination. Thus, we conclude that nomination of outgroups
by those with racist attitudes is strongly associated with ERD. Our initial
study (Habtegiorgis et al., 2014) was the first published within-sample
test that examined perpetrators of racism and targets of self-reported
discrimination, predicting a link between racist attitudes and ERD.
198 A. ELIAS ET AL.

This analysis did not include socioeconomic variables, although region

of residence (capital city vs. rest of region) and education may proxy
socioeconomic status to some degree. We are aware that there is strong
evidence of the influence of socioeconomic status on attitude towards
outgroups (see Pedersen et al., 2004) although some studies suggest no
association between these variables (Bobo & Zubrinsky, 1996; Branton
& Jones, 2005). In analysing ERD, our analysis did not account for the
effect of social desirability bias, or strength of social identity. There are
currently mixed findings in relation to the direction of bias associated
with such potential unmeasured confounding (Janus, 2010; Stocke, 2007;
Tsuchiya & Hirai, 2010). More research is needed to investigate how
social desirability influences the association between perpetrator racist atti-
tudes and target ERD. Moreover, an ideal dataset to further explore this
association would include more detailed categories of target specific (e.g.
based on national origin, ethnicity, etc.) racial attitudes.
Despite these limitations, this analysis contributes to the literature on
racial discrimination by quantifying the association between discrimina-
tion experiences of minorities and racist attitudes of majority groups.
Our results suggest that majority group racist attitudes, manifested as
behaviours, are experienced as discriminatory acts by minority group
members. Attitudes do matter, and the variation in racist attitudes towards
different outgroups has a marked effect on the prevalence of their racist
experiences. We also found that the attitudinal disposition towards groups
is underpinned by varied racist beliefs. Old racisms are a stronger factor in
the antipathy towards Indigenous Australians, Asians and Africans whereas
new racist beliefs were more strongly tied to negative views about those
who are either Muslims, Middle Easterners or Asians.
Our findings are indicative of the continued prevalence of old racism
in contemporary Australia parallel to other forms of new racism (Seet &
Paradies, 2018). Other recent studies found similar results. For example,
a recent survey by Inclusive Australia indicates that one in four Australians
reported experiences of racial discrimination over the 2017–2018 period
(Faulkner et al., 2019). Similarly, Peucker et al. (2019) found racism
towards three different groups (Muslims and ethnic minorities) growing
over the 2015–2016 period, with anti-Muslim hate posts on Facebook
ranging between 23 and 42%.
Recent data have shown consistent prevalence rates nationally. For
example, the 2019 Scanlon Foundation report indicates that, on average,
17.5% of Australians reported experiencing racial discrimination annually
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 199

over the 2012–2019 period (Markus, 2019). A second CRP national

survey (2015–2016) commissioned by SBS highlights the continuing
significance of old and new racisms as the basis of racist attitudes in
Australia, with some degree of overlap between the two. According to
the survey, Anglo privilege continues to be salient, with substantial levels
of racism in metropolitan Sydney across districts of many immigrant
groups or none. This is suggestive of the importance of media and public
discourse as primary drivers of racist attitudes. The survey also shows
a high rate of antipathy towards Muslim, refugee, Middle Eastern and
African Australians (ranging between 16 and 22%: Blair et al., 2017;
Forrest et al., 2020; Kamp et al., 2017). In addition, 23% reject the
acceptance of migrants and 21% think African refugees increase crime in
Australia. In this sample, the overall prevalence of racism experienced was
17%. Across institutional and everyday settings, between 24 and 35% of
the respondents indicated experiencing discrimination because of their
cultural or religious background. Once again, Indigenous Australians
were more likely to experience racism than any other group. All these
findings indicate that Australia has a longway to go before the prevalence
of racism is substantially reduced across all levels and sectors in society.
In conclusion, the analysis reported in this chapter demonstrates the
complexity of racism in contemporary Australia. It provides some insight
into how best to target anti-racism efforts in order to address the discrim-
ination faced by specific minority groups. While some old-fashioned racist
antipathies are prevalent, a range of new forms of racism, particularly
a general denial of its prevalence along with racism specifically directed
against Muslims and migrants, tend to be more pervasive. The findings are
consistent with the resurgence of some forms of old racism and growing
Islamophobia across Europe and North America (Lajevardi & Oskooii,
2018; Tesler, 2013).

Appendix
Linking Attitudes and Experiences of Racism
This section provides a summary of the estimation strategy followed in
this study to link racist attitudes and experiences of racism, as illustrated
in Fig. 5.2. As can be seen in the diagram, the first stage is to measure
200 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Model A Model B

DV Attitudes
Racist IV DV
Racist Attitudes Nominated Outgroups Self-Reported ERD

Perpetrators Targets

Fig. 5.2 A two-stage estimation strategy for the association between racist
attitudes and self-reported ERD

the association between respondents nominating specific outgroups10 and

their race-related attitudes (denoted by Model A). In the next stage,
we create a proxy categorical variable for those nominated as outgroups
by mapping them against their respective region of birth. At this stage,
we can use the nominated outgroups categorical variable as regressor in
the discrimination model. With exposure to racial discrimination as the
dependent variable, we estimate the marginal effect of being nominated
as outgroup on ERD in this model, denoted by Model B. Whereas “A”
measures the racist attitudes expressed against specific target groups, “B”
measures the ERD reported by these target groups. If both set of models,
“A” and “B”, are statistically significant with the expected signs of coeffi-
cients, then this establishes evidence of the relationship between the racist
attitudes of perpetrators and ERD by targets. Significance in the first set
of models (model A) suggests that the racist attitudes relate to specific
groups. Similarly, significance in the second model (model B) shows that
groups who are the focus of racist attitudes report more ERD. These two
models are linked by the nominated outgroups that are used to denote
the targets of discrimination.

10 As determined by answers to the question: ‘which cultural or ethnic groups do you

believe do NOT fit into Australian society?’
 5 CONTEMPORARY RACISM IN AUSTRALIA 201

Modelling Racism Towards Outgroups

This section details the statistical modelling applied to examine groups
considered outgroups in Australia and the level of racism towards them.
Multivariate analyses of the relationship between ERD and racist attitudes,
controlling for other characteristics, are shown in Table 5.3. First, we
specified a set of ordered logistic models by successively increasing the
number of covariates to capture the association between ERD and racist
attitudes. Our first model begins with just one attitude variable. In the
second and third models, demographic characteristics (age, gender and
educational attainment) and region/state dummy variables (to control
for geographic variation in the sample) are included. Finally, the fourth
model is estimated by including ancestry variables (respondent birth
country/region as well as parents’ ancestry). We follow this procedure
for each of the nine attitude variables, amassing a total of 36 regression
models. The results are reported in Table 5.3, which presents odds ratios
comparing the likelihood of observing each category of the response
variable (ERD) given different explanatory variables in each model. For
simplicity, we have collapsed the 5-item Likert scale response options of
the racist attitudes (i.e. the independent variable) into two where strongly
disagree and disagree are coded as disagree, while strongly agree and
agree are coded as agree. We have excluded neither agree nor disagree
responses, ranging between 4 and 15% across the nine variables. For only
one variable (sense of insecurity when among ethnic others ) does the neutral
response (10.5%) exceed the racist response (9.2%).
The results in Table 5.3 indicate that nearly all the models we estimated
are statistically significant. Only four regression models generate non-
significant results. However, once we include more control variables, even
these become statistically significant. The last two columns (column 3 and
4) suggest that including the geographic and ancestry controls improves
the estimation significantly as can be seen from the large increase in F-
statistics, in moving from model 2 to model 3. The state dummy variable
is statistically insignificant and is therefore dropped in the fourth model.
202 A. ELIAS ET AL.

The odds ratios11 indicate mixed evidence in predicting the effect of

racist attitudes on ERD. There is significant variation in the responses
to different questions. This can be due to the wording of the survey
questions where some of the questions are more direct (e.g. “you are
prejudiced”) while others are not (e.g. “Australia is weakened by ethnic
diversity”). Thus, those holding racist views may respond differently when
exposed to direct questions than when asked more subtle questions. Five
out of the nine attitude variables strongly predict ERD. We found mixed
evidence for anti-cross-marriage attitudes and non-acknowledgement of
racism in Australia with the multivariate models (models 3 and 4)
showing statistically significant results while the simple model has non-
significant results. Non-acknowledgement of racism is also non-significant
in model 2. The results for denial of Anglo-Celtic privilege and belief in
racial categories indicate that these variables are unrelated to ERD.

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 CHAPTER 6

Media, Public Discourse and Racism

Whether in discourse, language or communication, ethnic, religious as

well as other minorities have usually been othered, racialised, stereo-
typed, criminalised and subjected to biased reporting in mainstream
media that have a long history of racist propaganda in Western societies
(Denzin, 2001; Steuter & Wills, 2009; Van Dijk, 1989, 2015). These
mediatised racisms constantly change in form and intensity depending
on social, economic and political contexts influencing public discourse.
Thus, unlike early forms of blatant racism, racism in media today may
be subtler and more sophisticated, while being pervasive and normalised
in daily reporting across Europe, North America and Australia (Simmons
& LeCouteur, 2008; Van Dijk, 2015). This is little disputed and well-
documented in the plethora of research that attests to the media’s role
in (re)producing racist narratives, influencing public opinion, perception
and discourses around race.
This chapter examines the role of media in the production, propaga-
tion and enactment of racism in Australia. Media plays a central role in
modern society by setting agenda for public discourse, political debates
and cultural transformations. It is vital for the protection of modern
democracy and political accountability. Yet, like any other public insti-
tutions, media can be used and abused for various purposes that promote
unfair inequities. Racism is one such negative social outcome that is
widely perpetrated in diverse media including mainstream and social

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 211

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_6
212 A. ELIAS ET AL.

media (Nairn et al., 2006; Simmons & LeCouteur, 2008; Van Dijk,
1989). In order to understand the processes of production and repro-
duction of racism, we should first realise that racism in general is to be
analysed primarily within the structural framework of historical, political,
socioeconomic and cultural power relations in society (Mullard, 1985).
Racism in media is usually framed ideologically, with media being “a
powerful source of ideas about race” (Hall, 1995, p. 82). As a place
for the creation and elaboration of ideas, the media’s role as a gateway
for ideas of race is often used to flag the debatability of whether certain
acts, behaviours and incidents constitute racism or not (Teo, 2000; Titley,
2019). For example, instead of looking at the evidence, claims of racism
experienced by racial minorities are often dismissed, in conservative media
outlets, using language and clichés such as playing the race card, polit-
ical correctness and identity politics, which incentivise particular discourse
at the expense of others (Hall, 1992). These are code words often
used to deflect racism and racial injustice. Individuals and groups invoke
them in an attempt to delegitimise anti-racism efforts by racial minorities
and those who support their struggle. When they are used in main-
stream media, they have the power to normalise systemic injustice by
encouraging a culture of denial and apathy towards such injustice (Hall,
1995).
Scholars have argued that media and race intersect in the production
of structural inequities that racially assign groups to forms of social and
political power and subjugation, as a form of necropolitics (see Mbembe,
2003). Before delving into a detailed discussion of this narrative, we
should define the concept of media, considering the techno-capitalist
advancements in this regard. The word media here refers to any medium
for communicating information to a mass audience. For the purposes of
this book and chapter, we focus on news media, mass media and digital
media as tools of power in the constructions of race (Hall, 1995). Racism
ought to be primarily analysed within a context of historical, political,
socioeconomic and cultural power relations forming the structural frame-
work of the modern state (Mullard, 1985). Therefore, we situate it in
a framework of Western colonisation and imperialism, as the infrastruc-
tures of mass media are largely constructions of the Western Empire.
Imperialism operates on several levels including intuitional, economic and
discursive power.
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 213

Media conveys ideologies about matters such as class and race that,
in turn, shape cultural attitudes towards various social groups (Ott &
Mack, 2020). Further, as van Dijk and Mueller predicted decades ago,
social information processing is mostly based on discourse and communi-
cation accessed via mainstream media (Mueller, 1973; Van Dijk, 1989).
In the context of today’s globalised world, people build mental models
of ethnic minorities that they are not exposed to, largely based on nega-
tive constructions of the other and “generalize these to general negative
attitude schemata or prejudices that embody the basic opinions about
relevant minority groups” (Van Dijk, 1989, p. 202). For Nick Couldry,
in mediated societies (such as the current techno-capitalist environment),
social reality is defined by those who set the parameters of discourse,
thus unevenly distributed between media producers and their audiences
(Couldry, 2000). This engenders a symbolic hierarchy where symbolic
power (Bourdieu, 1991) lies with media institutions, which form part of
the deeper structures of the Western Empire.
Racialised discourse in the media, enacted through the application of
racialising frames of minorities, is often systemic, reflecting conditions
of institutional racism (Teo, 2000; Windle, 2008). This is particularly
evident in the link between language and power in media where racist
and xenophobic discourses often function as tools of social power (Fair-
clough, 2001). Fairclough (2001) articulates this power dynamics, in
language standards and access to discourse, by arguing that “the whole
social order of discourse is put together and held together as a hidden
effect of power” (p. 55). Media’s hidden power of discourse in this sense
lies in its position to determine how events and subjects with multiple
identities are represented. Critical here is the representation of groups
with intersecting identities. However, intersectionality, which has been
noticed as an important social fact (Crenshaw, 1991), remains absent
from the news, due to the hierarchical nature of information acquisition
in Western media. Mass media inform how audience understand those
who are different from them (Saeed, 2019; Van Dijk, 1995). This failure
of the media as institutions of democracy multiplies oppressions and
preserves a white majority thinking and the problematic status quo. In
Australia, this means that the colonial legacies of the British and the
ongoing systemic oppression and dispossession of Indigenous Peoples
persist with little resistance and active denial by the Anglo-Celtic majority.
The production of racism in Australian media also manifests in
coverage of non-white migrants. In Chapter 2, we briefly mentioned how
214 A. ELIAS ET AL.

the media influenced public opinion during the White Australia period.
Over the last few decades, media coverage of migrants and asylum seekers
has played a key role in driving Islamophobia and anti-migrant racism. In
its latest manifestations of racialised media coverage, Sinophobia has re-
emerged as well as Afrophobic discourses in the context of the Black Lives
Matter movement, which campaigns to stop black deaths in custody. To
illustrate, Indigenous activists based in Melbourne organised a solidarity
protest with those in the US commemorating the murder of George
Floyd in police custody and calling for an end to racial hierarchies that
see black people disadvantaged in all sectors of US society. The protests
in Melbourne, Stop Black Deaths in Custody, called for an end to the
oppression and genocide of Indigenous Peoples. Coverage in the main-
stream Australian media was mostly negative, linking the protest to a
potential spike in the novel coronavirus (the virus which causes the disease
COVID-19).
In the rest of the chapter, we discuss how racial minorities are racialised
across media platforms. We look at manifestations of racism in contem-
porary mainstream media. We also discuss and contextualise mediatised
racism in the digital space and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The
chapter mainly focuses on news media while it is noted that there are
documented biases in entertainment media (Beckett & Sasson, 2004;
Cavender, 2004).

Racialised Discourse and Media

Research on racism and the press is mainly rooted in European and
US contexts, owing to the longevity of the media institutions in those
regions. Conventional press has had a relatively shorter history in
Australia, confined to just over two centuries. The first colonial news-
paper in Australia began in 1803.1 Yet, race discourse has been at the
heart of Australian media discourse, and this continues to be the case
today. Windle (2008) argues that “processes of racialisation” have promi-
nently featured in Australian media leading to the production of “new”
racism “predicated on cultural rather than biological attributes” (p. 555).
According to recent studies by the University of Technology Sydney and

1 See National Library of Australia website, “Press timeline 1802–1850”, January 25,
2012. Accessed on July 14, 2020: https://www.nla.gov.au/content/press-timeline-1802-
1850.
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 215

All Together Now (ATN, a not-for-profit organisation), negative race-

related reporting is common in the media, particularly in News Corp
publications such as the Daily Telegraph, The Australian and Herald Sun
(ATN, 2017, 2019).
Generally, race has been an important, if not the most central, element
of the Western media since the Atlantic Slave Trade. Research docu-
menting racism in media indicates that both print and broadcast media
have contributed in racialised discourse that perpetuate disparate social
order. Empirical studies around racism in media, particularly those led
by a school of thought associated with the sociologist Stuart Hall, have
documented how non-white minorities are racialised in the production
and representation of knowledge about them (Hall, 1995). According to
Murji and Solomos (2005), racialisation refers to “the cultural or polit-
ical processes or situations where race is involved as an explanation or a
means of understanding” (p. 11). Racialised representation of minorities
in media often carries intensive political charge, galvanising political agita-
tions that in turn dynamically produce and reproduce further mediatised
racism (Titley, 2019).
Scholars, such as Saeed (2007, 2019), point to the double-edged sword
in media representations of minorities. In Western media, minority voices
are marginalised, ignored or invisible (Saeed, 2007); yet, at the same
time, minorities are often problematised and negatively portrayed as social
burdens to the Anglo-Celtic mainstream (Budarick, 2011; Chivaura,
2019; Ewart et al., 2017; Phillips, 2011). A typical example is the
portrayal of two black African women in Australia, in June 2020 that
appeared on the front page of a tabloid newspaper Courier Mail, pictured
alongside the headline “enemies of the state” for breach of COVID-
19 restrictions.2 When crossing into the state of Queensland, which has
implemented strict border controls to restrict the spread of COVID-19,
the women allegedly provided misleading information to the authori-
ties about their previous whereabouts. The Queensland Human Rights
Commission pointed to a direct correlation between the media coverage
and people of African backgrounds, reporting harassment via social media

2 See The Guardian, July 30, 2020. Accessed on August 18, 2020: https://www.
theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/30/naming-brisbane-women-risks-a-second-
wave-of-covid-related-racial-hostility-commission?CMP=share_btn_tw.
216 A. ELIAS ET AL.

or in text messages.3 Furthermore, racial discrimination can be reported

to regulatory bodies, but often fails to achieve favourable outcomes due
to the structure governing news (Jakubowicz & Seneviratne, 1996), as
will be detailed further in the chapter.
Incidents of biased reporting of racial minorities such as these are
recurrent in Australian mainstream media. Such reporting in turn influ-
ences hyper-vigilance in social media as has been the case with the above
incident. It is well established that media holds a unique and powerful
position in the conveyance, articulation and defining of the parame-
ters and contours of discourses (Cottle, 2006; Hall, 1995). Drawing
on Edward Said’s analysis of the West, Stuart Hall notes the power of
discourse in the reproduction and representation of reality. Hall (1992)
particularly highlights the significance of discourse as “the production of
knowledge through language” (p. 201) that is used in the formation of
systems of representation.4
As articulated above and emphasised by Mullainathan and Shleifer
(2002) and Abbas (2020), information can be manipulated for various
political and ideological purposes. Language serves here as a powerful
tool for manipulating and distorting facts by way of:

ignoring or omitting information that is opposite to or inconsistent with

the message of the news story; finding information sources that can rein-
force or strengthen the story; ignoring, neglecting, and undermining
information sources that are incompatible with the message; or using
misleading and deceitful language and images that support the story.
(Abbas, 2020, p. 2)

Media today operates in an increasingly super-diverse climate (Vertovec,

2007), and as a result, the media as well as its audience and coverage
of issues, at least in theory, would be expected to reflect such level of
diversity. Yet, it has been well established that the media in Australia,
and in the West overall, remains less democratic and highly racialised,
often problematising racial minorities (Jakubowicz, 1994; Titley, 2019;

3 See a statement in the Commission’s website. Accessed on August 23, 2020: https://
www.qhrc.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/27434/2020.07.30-Media-statement-
re-new-Queensland-COVID-cases.pdf.
4 One of the vocal debates on racism occurred in the discussions surrounding anti-
discrimination clause in the Racial Discrimination Act, namely Section 18C.
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 217

Windle, 2008). As per findings in the US, UK and continental Europe,

the media often portrays minority communities in a deviant othered light.
Media moral panics (see Cohen, 1972) and controversies have erupted
over bans of face veiling in public spaces, citing security concerns, debated
by key figures such as politicians and lawmakers, and then re-articulated
and funnelled through mass media (Dunn et al., 2007; Hussein et al.,
2019). Such mediatised articulation of racialised discourse is not confined
to print or online media. Racialised public discourse also emanates from
community leaders including politicians and policymakers at various levels
of government. Parliamentary debates in Australia occasionally enter-
tain discursive messages from politicians often othering, criminalising and
essentialising minority groups (Forrest et al., 2021; Nolan et al., 2011).
Typical examples in this discourse are the depiction of Muslims as out-
groups, the African gang narrative and the discourse on Asylum seekers,
so-called boat people.
Research has found that social commentators and politicians regularly
express racist views, both overtly and covertly, such as dog whistling,
de-contextualisation and irony (ATN, 2017).5 Even under tight regu-
lations, prominent newspapers continue to publish problematic framings
of race under opinion sections (ATN, 2017). In a context of changing
technology, racist portrayals of racial minorities in mainstream media is
ironic, while not surprising in the current climate of resurgent nation-
alism. Traditional media outlets are still the preferred source of news
where minorities are often presented in the peripheries (Phillips, 2011;
Rodrigues & Paradies, 2017).

Media, Race and Crime

Crime reporting is one of the most racialised domains in the media going
back centuries. Historically in broadcast media, race has been a salient
factor in crime reports (Dixon et al., 2003). In Australia, crime reporting
research shows increasing levels of sensationalism and unconscious bias
in media coverage overall (McGregor, 2017). Within this setting, lack of
diversity, and a problematic framing of those outside the Anglo-Celtic
paradigm have been the foci of many scholarships in Australia (Ewart

5 Dog whistling refers to a political strategy that uses coded messaging directed towards
particular groups (e.g. white working-class men) to win their support.
218 A. ELIAS ET AL.

et al., 2017; Hage, 1998; Mansouri & Wood, 2008), in the US (Larson,
2006), and in the UK (Hall, 1995; Saeed, 2019).
In the book Media, crime and racism, Bhatia et al. (2018) point to the
long-established scholarship around the link between crime, race and the
media, first brought to light in the 1970s to the broader interrogations
that permeate the discipline. The diverse ways in which the links appear
nowadays can be explored through case studies of media coverage on
issues such as deaths in custody, police violence, people seeking asylum,
terrorism and Islamophobia (Bhatia et al., 2018). Indeed, when reviewing
recent literature on media and race in the Australian context, the themes
that appear surround these discourses. This is also reflected in localised
research projects such as ATN (2017), Reporting Islam (2016) and Police
Accountability Project’s (PAP) reporting crime and race (2017).6 Despite
the efforts of projects such as those previously mentioned and the plethora
of research attesting to the problematic nature in which racism plagues
reporting, Australia, and the broader archetype of Western media have yet
to see effective change in racialised reporting, as evidenced by reporting
on COVID-19, examples of which are peppered throughout this chapter
(Abbas, 2020).
Drawing associations between ethnicity, race, religion or country of
origin and crime are common in Australian media and play into the
moral panics of the day. When reporting on crime, journalists and media
institutions exaggerate crime rates and exhibit racial bias (Dorfman &
Schiraldi, 2001). In the absence of critical alternative media, the media’s
verdict often becomes the only story that frames discourse around race
and crime. In the US, there is a well-documented tendency to exaggerate
rates of black offending and white victimisation, especially poignant with
sexual assault on white women not unlike the Scottsboro Boys case, where
nine teenagers were repeatedly tried and sentenced for crimes they never
committed. This is one of several examples of widely covered mediatised
crime coverage. A study by Ghandnoosh (2014) found that,

[a]lthough there is a broad range of media coverage about crime, with

some venues and reporters cautious not to promote biased public percep-
tions, less mindful coverage abounds on television and in print. Given that

6 For reports on Reporting Islam see: https://reportingislam.org/ and for Police

Accountability Project’s (PAP) see: http://www.policeaccountability.org.au/commentary/
reporting-crime-and-race-a-short-guide-for-journalists/.
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 219

the public widely relies on mass media as its source of knowledge about
crime and crime policy, these disparities have important consequences.
(p. 22)

The news media operates in the same way in Australia, most often bias-
edly reporting on people outside the Anglo-Celtic Australian paradigm.
The human rights and police-monitoring network, PAP, provides a guide
for journalists in Australia who often misuse crime statistics driven by
unconscious bias. In the US, the racially biased reporting of crime has
been widely reported. For example, studies have concluded “that news-
worthiness is not a product of how representative or novel a crime is, but
rather how well it can be ‘scripted using stereotypes grounded in racism’”
(Ghandnoosh, 2014, p. 23).
Time pressured environments of newsrooms and overwhelming lack
of diverse journalists hired by large media companies in the twenty-
first century lead to a reliance on the journalists’ often poor cultural,
historical and contextual knowledge and a lack of research. Australia’s
media institutions remain controlled by an overwhelmingly Anglo-Celtic
majority, despite calls for more diversity (Rigby, 2020; Rogers, 2020).
The 2016–2020 Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC, 2016) Media Outlook
Report, found not only a lack of diversity but also that the average
employee in Australian media is 27 years old, Caucasian, and male while
the workforce remains overwhelmingly monolingual (82.7% monolingual
English: PWC, 2016). Two years on (PWC, 2018), the same outlook
report encouraged media to look to more diverse audiences to accumulate
growth. The current lack of diversity in Australian media contradicts social
justice and market imperatives. Indeed, “research abounds indicating that
a diverse workplace delivers increased product and process innovation,
creativity and problem solving. This leads to sound business opportuni-
ties by ensuring competitive advantage” (Paradies & Elias, 2017). Yet,
the media remains designed to maintain a social order that excludes racial
minorities, trampling on diversity in a workplace that is critical for social
justice in addition to its economic dividend.

Contemporary Racism in Australia Media

As mentioned in the previous section, research has widely demonstrated
the prevalence of racism and white privilege in Australian media (Larson,
220 A. ELIAS ET AL.

2006). The last four decades have particularly seen recurrent racialised
coverages of successive migrant groups in addition to the permanent
racialised discourse in relation to Indigenous Peoples. Among the migrant
groups who have been the subjects of such discourse are Vietnamese
(Morris & Heaven, 1986; Teo, 2000), Lebanese (Noble & Poynting,
2003), South Sudanese (Baak, 2019; Windle, 2008) and other migrants.
This section will discuss some of these groups within the context of
mediatised racism.

Indigenous Peoples
One aspect of contemporary racism is reflected in the frequent racialised
coverage of issues pertaining Indigenous Peoples. Both mainstream and
new forms of media (e.g. social media) have often been used in the
production and reproduction of narratives associating Indigenous youth
with crime and violence. These in turn tend to normalise and legitimise
practices that involve the criminalisation and incarceration of these youth
(Cunneen & Russell, 2017).
In the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, ongoing
for centuries, though popularised in 2020, Madeline Hayman-Reber,
Gomeroi journalist, called for a remaking of Australian newsrooms
(Hayman-Reber, 2020). This echoes the concern of many Indigenous
journalists who have called out their industry for the lack of diver-
sity and systemic racism that Indigenous journalists in particular face.
For example, Kodie Bedford, a Djaru journalist, denounced her former
employer, Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), for systemic and systematic
racism.7 Using online platform Twitter, she cited her continuous expe-
riences of racism while employed at SBS, Australia’s public multicultural
and multilingual broadcaster.
Journalists reporting on Indigenous experiences of injustice and asso-
ciated trauma face a multitude of factors such as race-based bullying
and de-legitimisation. For many, coming across the institutional dogma
festering journalism—impartiality, and unbiased objectivity—is increas-
ingly frustrating. These mottos can promote a politicised tug-of-war
where they are not needed. Hayman-Reber (2020) notes this as she retells
how white journalists misrepresent Indigenous stories by butchering these

7 See a June 30, 2020 Google News story at news.com.au: “I felt dirty and humiliated,
Suicidal”: Kodie Bedford details treatment at SBS.
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 221

stories to fit “them for their white audiences under the guise of ‘fair
and balanced journalism’.” According to her, these practices add to the
community’s trauma and highlight the urgency for allowing more space
for Indigenous perspectives, which are important:

[n]ot just as a box-ticking exercise, but as professionals with specialised

knowledge. We don’t need understanding managers or superiors; we need
to be in these positions of power and respect. There is dire need for
systemic change, for the appointment of people of colour to positions of
power and editorial control who understand the issues we face in order for
constructive change to occur. (Hayman-Reber, 2020)

“Mediatised public crises” (Cottle, 2004, p. 2) or moral panics

(Cohen, 1972) created by a concentration of media attention on asso-
ciating an ethnic minority population with crime and violence has been
well documented in scholarship (see Budarick, 2011; Sweet et al., 2013;
Waller, 2013). The dominant frame through which Indigenous Peoples
are viewed in the mass media is one of underlying societal risk that bene-
fits the colonial ideology (McCallum, 2005). Despite interventions to
counteract dominant news framing through technologies such as digital
media by communities of colour (see Budarick & Han, 2015; Cover,
2012; Nunn, 2010) and Indigenous Peoples (see Sweet et al., 2013), the
mainstream conventional news media is still imbued with a lack of diver-
sity. Moreover, niche and community media, like the Koori Mail, often
offer alternative narratives to those in the mainstream and can challenge
dominant frames and disrupt normative understandings (Budarick, 2011;
Jacobs, 1996, 2000).
Publications like the Koori Mail can hold mainstream papers to
account, as seen through the coverage of the Redfern Riots in 2004 (see
Budarick, 2011). By placing acts of rebellion and contention within a
continuity timeframe since White invasion, and in a settler colonial frame-
work, disruptions such as these offer a more contextual understanding to
race politics in Australia. It is, however, limited to the readership and still
relies on a form of settler colonist power to effect changes in social norms
and symbolic power of the press (Budarick, 2011). Sweet et al. (2013),
point to the advantages of micro-blogging social media sites, such as
Twitter, as an opportunity for Indigenous Peoples’ voices to have further
reach, and engage with audiences not interpersonally encountered. The
rotating account @IndigenousX, that later partnered with The Guardian’s
Australian edition, was founded for this very reason. Reflecting on the
222 A. ELIAS ET AL.

emergence of internet-assisted activism (Nielsen, 2013), it is important to

note that many may yet remain disengaged with these discussions in the
new public spheres (Park, 2012). These emerging and multiplying public
spheres are equally the sites of racial contention as they can amplify racism
(Hughey & Daniels, 2013).

Arab Muslims
Australian media has a particularly negative frame when it comes to the
representation of issues affecting Muslims. There are consistent themes
in the literature in relation to how Islam and Muslims have been
construed in Australian, and more broadly in Western media (Ahmed &
Matthes, 2017). These relate to the longstanding ideological tradition
that informed Western view of Muslims.
In 1997, postcolonial theorist Said worriedly commented that “mali-
cious generalizations about Islam have become the last acceptable form
of denigration of foreign culture in the West” (Said, 1997, p. xii). In this
book, Said challenges Huntington’s clash of civilisations thesis that epit-
omised Western view of Islam as a single, coherent entity (Huntington,
1993). According to Said (1997), Orientalist scholars, Western mass
media and Western policy makers developed hostile generalisations about
Islam. Through the images promoted by commentators, Islam has been
denied any diversity in character, practices and beliefs, and all Muslims and
Arabs are presented as having intrinsic pejorative natures (Said, 1997).
Said (1997) suggests that these generalisations have dangerous conse-
quences, inciting hatred and distrust towards Muslims and those associ-
ated with Islam, creating associations between Islam and fundamentalism.
However, while recent and historical world events involving Muslims
and their analysis in Western media have shaped the basis of anti-Arab and
anti-Muslim sentiment, such sentiment cannot be understood solely in
these terms. Australia has a long history of formal and informal exclusion
of others. While there are historical specificities that shows why particular
ethnic and religious groups have been marginalised, in the case of Muslim
and Arab-Australians, there are some commonalities in the exclusion of
minority groups that exist across groups’ experiences.
Policy makers and commentators alike have contributed to portray a
problematised image of Australian Muslims, allowing misguided stereo-
types to define a vastly heterogeneous community. While global political
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 223

events have undoubtedly contributed to foster the anti-Muslim senti-

ments in Australia, as elsewhere in Europe and North America, specific
historical and local factors have also played a crucial role. Negative atti-
tudes towards Muslim-Australians characterise and dominate the current
social and political discourse. These attributes need to be reconsidered in
light of interrelated factors, including media representations, social poli-
cies (in the form of a folkloric version of multiculturalism), as well as the
deep, if unconscious, influence of Orientalist discourse on perceptions of
Islam and the East.
Research attests to stereotypical representations within the realm of
unwanted other, deemed inferior, backwards, threatening and incom-
patible with Australian values (e.g. Aly, 2007; Brown et al., 2015;
d’Haenens & Bink, 2006; Hussein et al., 2019; Poynting & Noble,
2003; Rane et al., 2014). Positive frames of Muslims in the media are
usually within the assimilationist ideals of the Australian settler colo-
nial state, mainly via integration through sports, fashion or celebrated
via entrepreneurial success and food (see Bloul, 2016; Hussein et al.,
2019). These positive frames often rely on the negative framing and
thereby reinforce the often Orientalist and negative tropes by highlighting
an out-of-the-ordinary or exception to the rule circumstance peppered
throughout news stories in question (Bloul, 2016).
Research indicates that Muslims are the most frequently targeted
section of the society in Australian commentary pieces (ATN, 2017).
Muslim asylum seekers are often constructed as possible invaders (ATN,
2017). For example, the Lebanese community has been frequently
targeted by Islamophobic discourse in the Australian media (Dunn et al.,
2007; Hyndman-Rizik, 2008). Indeed, such biased portrayal has had
repercussions. In particular, the post-September 11 panic concerning
terrorism is a reflection of the “dynamic and socially constructed nature
of intolerance” (Dunn & Forrest, 2004, p. 426), as reflected in media
representations of a public school in Melbourne accused of “trapping
immigrant students in their own closed culture” (Bolt, 2004). Through
constructions of the despised other, the demonisation of Arab-Australians
in Australian media affects these communities socially, economically and
culturally (Brown et al., 2015; Kabir, 2006). For over two decades,
the media has generated a level of concern over Muslims, and associ-
ated vulnerable and heavily scrutinised groups such as Arab-Australians
are frequently labelled as terrorists (Poynting et al., 2004). This has
caused greater social and cultural exclusion among these communities
224 A. ELIAS ET AL.

that has affected their health, wellbeing and sense of social connectedness
(Mansouri & Trembath, 2005).
Moreover, the Western media has often portrayed Muslim women as
oppressed victims in need of liberation from a religion that is gender-
oppressive and violent. These portrayals have rendered Muslim women
as mistrusted outsiders in society. Numerous scholars have investigated
media portrayals and perceptions of hijab usage among Muslim women
(Donnell, 2003; Fahmy, 2004). For example, Donnell (2003, p. 123)
argues that the events of September 11 replaced constructions of the
veil, as “an object of mystique, exoticism and eroticism” with a “xeno-
phobic, more specifically Islamophobic gaze through which the veil,
or headscarf, is seen as a highly visible sign of a despised difference”.
However, it is clear that the xenophobic attitudes towards the veil started
before 9/11, along with the re-Islamisation of ex-colonial countries in
the Middle East and North Africa, set off by the Iranian Revolution
in 1979. The negative discourse just increased post 9/11, highlighting
existing East/West tensions, and pointing to issues of difficulties with
integration of Muslim communities in European and Anglophone coun-
tries. Others highlight that the media created a general understanding
that veiled Muslim women should not be a part of the non-Muslim
progressive public sphere (Byng, 2010). However, conterminous plat-
forms that have developed with digital communication, such as social
media, have enabled community-based initiatives where marginalised
voices have better chances of being heard in mainstream mass media.
According to the Australian Arabic Council, a 20-fold increase in vilifi-
cation against Arab and Muslim Australians was registered in the country
in the three weeks following the events of September 11 (Mansouri,
2020). At a time when hysterical and panicked sections of the public
in Australia (and across Western nations) began to look at their fellow
citizens and at asylum seekers, Arab or Muslim or both were being consid-
ered potential terrorists and untrustworthy individuals (Hage, 2002).
During the same year, the Australian Government contributed to foster a
racist and negative representation of asylum seekers coming from Middle
Eastern countries. The climax was reached during the so-called MV
Tampa refugee and children overboard incidents that happened within
Australian territorial waters (Every & Augoustinos, 2007; Leach, 2003).
Following these incidents, the Government made substantial legislative
changes, making it more difficult for asylum seekers of Arab and Muslim
backgrounds to reach Australian (Leach, 2003).
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 225

As Leach (2003) argues, the above two incidents were used by the
Government as a “central motif” (p. 25) of their 2001 election campaign.
The electoral campaign aimed to define the Australian national identity
against those who were labelled as Arab Others (Poynting et al., 2004).
Arab Others were Muslims and, primarily, Middle Eastern. In the fearful
post-September 11 environment, Australian politicians often associated
asylum seekers to global terror networks, fostering Australian nation-
alism and portraying non-Anglo-Celtic Australians, especially Arab and
Muslim Australians as undesirables (Leach, 2003, p. 29). Another inci-
dent that involved the government was the failed attempt to mobilise
Islamophobia, stocking fear of Islamic terrorism prior to federal election
in Sydney (Dunn & Kamp, 2012). All of these incidents, while feeding
into the negative representation of Arab Muslims in Australian media,
have the potential to reinforce the Orientalist view discussed above.

Humanitarian Migrants
The highly politicised nature of refugees is mirrored in the political
agenda disseminated in and throughout the Australian media. Indeed,
the politicisation of refugees as potential threats has a long history in
colonial Australia (Tascón, 2002). Current discourses, surrounding the
portrayal of refugees as terrorists, queue jumpers and so on, can be
linked to a turn in political discourse since the 1990s when the Hawke-
Keating governments labelled boat arrivals as queue jumpers. Research
into the media coverage of people seeking asylum has found stereotypes
and certain covert images whereby people seeking asylum are constructed
as a problem and danger for Australia (Pickering, 2001). People seeking
asylum are depicted through four to five main lenses including criminality,
war, health, and race (Pickering, 2001), and/or terror (Saeed, 2007,
2019).
Young refugees in Australia are often portrayed as a risk, because
of a discourse that is greatly influenced by highly politicised immigra-
tion policies, fear of refugees on a global scale and media reports that
link the behaviours of youth gangs with an inability to belong. These
young people are framed as the cause of the breakdown of multicultur-
alism and the reason that others are unable to negotiate their differences
with Australian values and beliefs (Harris, 2013). Such problematised
discourse is often disproportionate to the overall level of the issue or
problem concerned, while frequently “the media’s portrayal of migrant
226 A. ELIAS ET AL.

and refugee young people is not balanced with an emphasis on problems

and conflicts” (Centre for Multicultural Youth, CMY, 2014, p. 7). Alter-
native voices representing these migrants, to balance the biased reporting
in mainstream media, are absent, thereby leading to politicisation of the
refugees in public discourse (CMY, 2014).
Somewhat paradoxically, Australians, on the whole, support Australia’s
refugee resettlement policies; as long as they arrive via official chan-
nels, in contrast to those arriving by boat (Markus & Arunachalam,
2018). Like in preceding decades, there is a marked difference in opinion
towards people arriving by boat, which can be attributed to an adverse
political and media context. Data from the Scanlon Foundation surveys
between 2010 and 2012, found that a substantial majority (67–75%)
of Australians support the intake of refugees assessed outside Australia
under the Humanitarian Program (Markus, 2019). While research and
evidence from polling, in general, suggest favourable views on immigra-
tion via approved channels, the concern lays with irregular arrivals. Polling
in 2015, after the governmental decision to increase refugee intake by
12,000 people, in response to the civil war in Syria, showed majority
support (Markus & Arunachalam, 2018). However, the difference is
stark when compared to polling on sentiments towards asylum seekers in
2017, which suggest overall negative attitudes towards resettling refugees.
Overall, 67% of respondents thought that people seeking asylum should
be returned to their country of origin if their claims were unsuccessful
while 25% thought that the government was not tough enough.8
The data and previous research (e.g., Markus & Arunachalam, 2018;
Muller, 2016) shows significant public concerns over the integrity of
Australia’s border. These concerns mirror the moral panics and politi-
cised discourses such as the War on Terror. The polling is consistent
with research that indicates that those who are able to take a more
nuanced, global and structural view of the reason why people take
extreme measures to leave their countries are more sympathetic towards
asylum seekers. The data also echoes, what McKay et al. (2012) find,
that the general public has limited accurate knowledge about issues
surrounding asylum seekers and that the knowledge is highly reliant on
media reporting (for more on Australian media discursive representations,
see Lueck et al., 2015).

8 See Essential Report, Weekly surveys, May 30, 2017 available at https://essentialvis
ion.com.au/asylum-seekers-3.
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 227

Africans
The increased reporting of ethnic youth gangs as the perpetrators of
public violence have merged with the fear of refugees and asylum
seekers, creating a complex landscape of social exclusion in Australia
(Harris, 2013). A recent study that examined refugee reporting in
Melbourne newspapers reiterates the negative perception of young
refugees within news media that continuously sensationalises “the connec-
tion between youth violence and refugees from African and Pasifika
nations” (MacDonald, 2017, p. 1184). This creates a challenge and
puts considerable pressure on young refugees, as they negotiate their
settlement paths.
The high level of negative media coverage afforded to young African
migrants and refugees in Melbourne has had a notable effect on federal
politicians, media commentators and the wider society, reinforcing the
well-established trope of foreign and black-bodied criminals strolling
Australian cities (MacDonald, 2017; Majavu, 2020). Indeed, this height-
ened attention significantly contradicts these groups’ actual rate of
offending within the society overall. MacDonald (2017) puts this in
context by pointing to an article published in 2012 in The Age analysing
the crime rates within Sudanese and Somali communities. According to
the report, “Sudanese and Somali-born Victorians are about five times
more likely to commit crimes than the wider community” (Oakes, 2012).
This headline story is, however, later qualified with a statement that
it should be noted “that the overall proportion of crimes state-wide
committed by the Sudanese and Somali communities is only 0.92 per
cent and 0.35 per cent respectively” (Oakes, 2012). With these migrant
communities accounting for less than 1.3% of the overall youth crime in
Victoria, this brings into question “the extent of media coverage devoted
to African young people – while the 98.73% of remaining offenders are
not considered newsworthy” (CMY, 2014, p. 9).
This unbalanced media coverage relative to the actual offending rate
of African Australians has been replicated in a Jesuit Social Services study
that analysed data for the 2010–2011 period, from the Victoria Police
statistics. According to the study, young African Australians do not pose a
level of threat to public safety to warrant the level of news coverage they
are given. Only 0.7% of those offending and dealt with by the police in
2010–2011 were young Sudanese Australians while Somali young people
228 A. ELIAS ET AL.

accounted for just 1%, with other Africans being negligible in the overall
offending.
What these statistics suggest, is that stereotypes rather than factual
evidence influence the negative framing of Africans, which has become
normalised in Australian media. This reinforces existing institutional
racism reflected in pervasive racialised reporting. Such racialised portrayals
of the African community, which often links young people, race and
crime, “have the potential to sow the seeds of alienation and disengage-
ment amongst the very communities being reported on” (CMY, 2014,
p. 9). Thus, the Australian media has a long way to go in fairly and
accurately reporting the African community and its issues within society.

Digital Media and Racism

A relatively new form of racism that has permeated today’s global society
is racism in the digital world—so-called cyber-racism (Daniels, 2009;
Jakubowicz et al., 2017). Cyber-racism is particularly notable in social
media, which has added a new dimension to racist discourse engaging
substantial sections of society (Cleland, 2014; Matamoros-Fernández,
2017). Fake news and conspiracy discourses are among the manifesta-
tions of racism that circulate and overwhelm discourse in the digital space.
Groups opposed to the emergence of a plural multicultural environment
across many societies vent their hatred of perceived inferior racial and
religious minorities via platforms such as social media (Peucker & Smith,
2019).
In a global environment of securitising discourses, ultra-nationalist
groups and minor parties have seen success in running highly racialised
and anti-immigration campaigns. The election of far-right minor parties
such as One Nation in 2016 and again in 2019 are an indication of rising
xenophobic sentiment as the party, among others such as Katter’s, has
surged on a platform of fears of the other (Jakubowicz, 2017). Addi-
tionally, One Nation has gained popularity and media attention through
frequent, and often xenophobic, stunts (Feldman & Huddy, 2019).
Mirroring the rise in support for parties such as One Nation, right-wing
grassroots groups with a white nationalist xenophobia, nationalism and
militarism agenda have adopted aggressive tactics, both discursive and
visceral.
In line with worldwide trends, an examination of the social media
practices of Australian right-wing United Patriots Front (UPF) found
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 229

that the group functions much like labelled terrorist organisations, such
as ISIS, yet is tolerated and allowed to run an Islamophobic discursive
space (Richards, 2019). Members of the far-right group express a violent
fear towards asylum seekers, linking refugee intakes to a chaotic dystopic
present and future if numbers increase (see Richards, 2019). However,
there has been a noticeable shift in the categorising of terror offences and
the dangers posed by far-right groups in political and media discourse
since the Christchurch terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand
in 2019.
In 2018, in the midst of the African Gangs media circus preceding the
Victorian state election, commercial media outlets such as Sky News and
the Herald Sun, both of which are owned and operated by Murdoch’s
News Corp Australia, purported race-based immigration policies, with Sky
News featuring Blair Cottrell, a neo-Nazi extremist (Meller, 2018; Sout-
phommasane, 2019). De-racialising discourse around minorities in the
contemporary media context can be challenging in Australia, given the
“high concentration of traditional media ownership dominated by News
Corporation and Fairfax Media who together own the majority of national
and capital city newspapers” (Newman et al., 2016, p. 77). Another
study on media ownership also indicates that in 2011, with the excep-
tion of China and Egypt, Australia had the most concentrated newspaper
industry out of 26 countries studied, with Murdoch News Corp control-
ling 57% of the market share (Noam, 2016). By 2018, the tight oligopoly
of the Australian media landscape has increased, with further mergers,
despite new publications entering the Australian market such as foreign
owned publications The Guardian and Buzzfeed (Muller, 2018). This
trend in media monopoly is likely to further exacerbate and monopolise
race discourse in Australia, as it limits the breadth of voices and narrows
framing (Bagdikian, 2000; Muller, 2016).

Racism, Media and COVID-19

The fear of being swamped by Asians has been a key psychological factor
in Australian political discourse. In recent political discourse, Pauline
Hanson’s One Nation Party has embodied this in its ideological rhetoric
(Horsfield & Stewart, 2003). The media played a key role in popular-
ising the rhetoric that stirred a renewed immigration debate in the late
1990s. Before Islamophobia overtook anti-Asian sentiments post-9/11,
it has received significant attention in commercial talkback radio shows
230 A. ELIAS ET AL.

such as those by Stan Zemanek and Alan Jones. Anti-Asian racism has
remained substantial over the last decades as reported in national studies
(Dunn et al., 2004). Indeed, it has significantly spiked recently in reaction
to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Emerging data in many countries indicate that the COVID-19 crisis
has caused a re-emergence of xenophobia and overt ethno-cultural racism
aimed largely at individuals of Chinese and Asian backgrounds (Reny &
Barreto, 2020). The situation of escalating racist attacks against Asian
migrants across many Western émigré societies has been extensively
reported and documented across print and social media. Yet, these racist
attacks were not restricted to Asian migrants, but COVID-19 related
racism has also affected other racial minorities (e.g. Africans, Indians
and Roma) in many countries (Human Rights Watch, 2020; Matache &
Bhabha, 2020; Sojo & Bapuji, 2020; Teixeira da Silva, 2020).
In Australia, in the midst of the pandemic, racially motivated attacks
on people of Asian appearance were fuelled in part around the panic of
the Chinese virus. Many of these attacks were recorded by eyewitnesses,
and uploaded onto popular social media sites, such as Twitter and Face-
book. The Australian Human Rights Commission indicated that a third
of the racial discrimination complaints it received in February and March
2020 were related to the COVID-19 pandemic (Fang et al., 2020).
This was partly in response to media coverage that connected the virus
outbreak to mainland China, and the circulation of fake news on social
media and sensationalist reporting (Zen, 2020; Zhou, 2020). The media
(2 GB and The Courier) also reported ill-substantiated news of busloads
of tourists (signalling East Asian tourists) flocking to regional towns and
stockpiling supplies.9 The reports were based on a handful of talkback
radio callers and two photographs of a bus in parking lot in a regional
Victorian town. While race relations have been foundational in Australian
colonial history (see Chapter 2), the COVID-19 pandemic may have laid
bare the institutional racism in modern Australian media that continues
to affect other minorities including Asian Australians (Vrajlal, 2020).

9 See 2 GB’s March 19, 2020 report in https://www.2gb.com/im-gonna-come-after-

you-peter-dutton-issues-stark-warning-to-busload-hoarders/; and The Courier’s March
19, 2020 report in https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/6686812/have-busloads-of-
hoarders-from-out-of-town-actually-been-buying-up-here/?cs=62&fbclid=IwAR3_XyovmX
YAWn2MZrjeILdl84ezwilroZgsf7gQklQGL8U4C0RCPDhZj3c.
 6 MEDIA, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND RACISM 231

Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic did not create these deep-seated

racist attitudes and practices in Australian society and elsewhere, but
rather it exposed the fallacy that white privilege has all but disappeared
in a truly inclusive, equitable multicultural society (Vrajlal, 2020). What
the spark in racist attacks reveals is that human tendency to create
collective identities as a way of mapping broader social relations, both
positive and negative, becomes even more excessive during times of
acute crises such as COVID-19. Painting differentiated others as being
somehow a homogenous group makes it easy to lay the blame for
whatever ills society is going through, and therefore legitimises racist atti-
tudes and behaviours. However, racism of this nature is not altogether
pre-determined and unavoidable human tendency. Indeed, it feeds off
circulating public discourse that, in many cases, is nothing more than
what has been coined as fake news disseminated through online platforms
and various social media outlets (Shimizu, 2020). The spread of disinfor-
mation about certain, often vulnerable, groups in society is a key driver of
racism, even if not its sole reason. For example, there has been a surge in
online fake posts about Asian Australians that have been shared by racist
ultra-nationalist groups (Wilson, 2020).
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the media was quick to spread stories that
denigrated the Black Lives Matter movement with accusations of helping
spread the contagion. Yet, in contrast to right-wing groups, protestors at
Black Lives Matter rallies, in locations ranging from Melbourne to Sydney
to Los Angeles, Seattle and Minnesota, have embraced the use of face-
masks and physical distancing as ways of staying safe while continuing
to engage in acts of dissent and civil disobedience. However, this did not
prevent false claims that blamed people attending the protest for the spike
in the rise in COVID-19 cases.10 News media (e.g. a Sky News report)
were quick to report that there was a link between the COVID-19 surge
and the Black Lives Matter rally held in Melbourne on June 6, despite
overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including the official state line.11
Similarly, several public housing towers in the city of Melbourne were
forced into a prison-style lockdown in June 2020. The reasons the state

10 See June 22, 2020 Sky News report. Accessed on 18 July 2020: https://www.sky
news.com.au/details/_6166254713001.
11 See the following July 2020 RMIT-ABC Fact Check (Accessed July
30, 2020: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-24/coronacheck-black-lives-matter-
melbourne-andrew-bolt-masks/12481360.
232 A. ELIAS ET AL.

government gave included that community transmission rates were higher

in the estates, which mainly house newly arrived people from the Horn
of Africa, and those with low incomes.
Generally, the COVID-19 related racism detailed above has common-
ality with the discourse that unfairly frames racial minorities as risk to
the Anglo-Celtic majority. Scholars have identified an increasing reliance
of the media on what they describe as risk communication where expert
advice and opinions are relegated in favour of experiential information
(Davis, 2020; Gaffey, 2019; Majavu, 2020). This racialised discourse has
negative implications both for the racial minorities who face challenges
in negotiating difference within the multicultural landscape, and for
Australian society in general due to an unhealthy mediatised concoction
of social division.
While the future of mediatised racism paints bleak reality, it also signals
urgency for the diversification of Australian media landscape and the need
for more ethical and responsible media that protects the democratic rights
of all Australians without racial distinction. Indeed, in a diverse multi-
cultural society, the existence of media that respects the rights of racial
minorities—e.g. Indigenous groups and migrants—and gives voice and
representation to the views of these groups, is critical for the smooth
functioning of the democratic process. Racism in media undermines this
notion of equity and representation, by denying justice to the individuality
of particular communities and misrepresentation of group identity.

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 CHAPTER 7

Social and Economic Impacts of Racism

Arguably, the most important aspect of racism is its impact. Racism

deeply impacts society by excluding, stigmatising and dehumanising racial
minorities, while privileging, empowering and awarding dominant groups
with unearned advantages. In Australia, racism is both part of the nation’s
history and, for the most part, remains deeply embedded in the contem-
porary social fabric, as we have discussed in the last five chapters. Today,
various forms of old and new racisms are pervasive as we showed in
Chapter 5. Unless they are effectively tackled, both forms of racism
can widen existing social fissures and disharmony in Australia’s growing
multiracial environment. In this chapter, we consider racism and its dele-
terious human cost. We examine this by looking at the various social
and economic impacts of racism from a health cost perspective. Drawing
on a synthesis of empirical findings from cross-disciplinary research, the
chapter provides robust estimates of the economic cost of racism to
Australian society.
This analysis is based on the notion that racism creates disparities across
domains (e.g. health, education, social services, policing and entertain-
ment). It invariably results in avoidable inequities that disproportionately
impact minority racial groups. A wide body of work across disciplines and
geographic jurisdictions has documented such inequities with multiple
factors exacerbating the problem (Antonovics & Knight, 2009; Farkas,
2003; Williams & Mohammed, 2009). Exposure to racism has been

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 241

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_7
242 A. ELIAS ET AL.

shown to be a multidimensional stressor for racial minorities (Brondolo,

2011). Research indicates that individuals and groups experiencing racism
suffer mental and physical illnesses, experience higher spells of unemploy-
ment and higher school dropout rates and are less likely to access social
services (Assari & Caldwell, 2018; Ben et al., 2017; Moodie et al., 2019;
Paradies et al., 2015). Exposure to racism is also likely to increase the
possibility of violent crimes in combination with other adverse factors
including poverty, joblessness and unstable residential accommodation
(Kosny et al., 2017; Pager & Shepherd, 2008).
Research in Australia shows that racial minorities, including Indigenous
Peoples and migrants from non-European backgrounds, are adversely
impacted by racism across diverse domains including the labour market,
health, education, sport and the criminal justice system (Anthony &
Blagg, 2020; Cunneen, 2006; Mansouri et al., 2012; Priest et al., 2012).
In addition to depicting the structural processes that perpetuate unequal
and disparate outcomes for racial minorities, these adversities highlight
the enduring legacy of Australian racial history. For Indigenous Peoples,
the collective experiences and memory of historical injustices take inter-
generational dimensions, deeply shaping their current status including
their overall health and wellbeing (Awofeso, 2011; Durey & Thompson,
2012; Paradies, 2016). For migrant Australians, both current and life-
time experiences of racism have deleterious effect on their mental health
(Ferdinand et al., 2015).
Drawing on Australian data, and using findings from international
research, this chapter examines the public health impact of racism
in Australia. The discussion contextualises findings of the underlying
research to the wider Australian economy and society. The chapter
particularly seeks to answer two questions: “How does racism affect –
psychosocially and economically – both majority and minority groups in
contemporary Australian society?” and “what are the underlying indi-
vidual, intergroup, and structural forces that affect race relations in
Australia?” In answering these questions, the health economic cost of
racism is presented as a case study later in this chapter. The findings
indicate that racism has profound health economic impacts, which corrob-
orates the arguments advanced in Chapter 3 in relation to the structural
processes that constitute institutional racism. When racism becomes more
prevalent, not only does it deplete social cohesion and foster intergroup
strife, it also imposes health costs by increasing the risk of mental illnesses
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 243

among racial minorities. In the language of economics, these are oppor-

tunity costs that are entirely avoidable.1 Indeed, Australian society would
benefit significantly from measures that effectively reduce the prevalence
of racism (Zhao et al., 2016).

Social Impact of Racism

An op-ed in The Australian (d’Abrera, 2019) recently lamented about
various scholarly research programmes on racism, arguing that such
research wasted scarce resources. Along similar critical lens, some
members of the public might ask, “why should society care about racism?”
The short answer is because it is harmful and inhumane, yet a visibly
persistent reality. The inhumane nature of racism has been pointed out
over a long period of global civil rights struggles. In one of his influential
public addresses, Martin Luther King Jr. talked of racism as one of the
three evils in society along with poverty and war.2 Dr. King stated that
racism, in addition to being a perpetual American dilemma has always
been “the plague of western civilization.” The sociologists Miles and
Brown (2003) make a similar assertion, depicting racism as a flawed
practice that:

… distorts human beings and social relations, brutalises and dehumanises

its object, and in so doing also brutalises and dehumanises those who
articulate it. Racism is a denial of humanity (substituting, as it does, “races”
for “the human race”) and a means of legitimating inequality (particularly
inequality explicit in class structures). (p. 10)

Today, many people express their detest towards racism.3 Yet, few
are willing to admit to being racist, with the exception of perhaps the
most hardened white supremacists. Even those holding views that can

1 In economics, opportunity cost refers to the value of the best alternative that is lost
or forgone as a result of the particular course of action taken. For example, when
someone experiences discrimination in a workplace, and as a result suffers from anxiety,
the economy is deprived from the contribution he could make as a healthy employee.
This lost contribution is an opportunity cost.
2 Speech delivered at the National Conference on New Politics, August 31, 1967,
Chicago.
3 This is despite the incessant denials of racism in Australia, and globally (Nelson, 2014;
see also Chapter 5).
244 A. ELIAS ET AL.

be considered racist (e.g., new racism views) claim that they are colour
blind, and that they see not race, but people (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). Thus,
the label racism is becoming increasingly contested and unpopular. There
is a stigma attached to the label racism, to the point that many researchers
are worried this is blocking productive discussion on the issue of racism,
particularly with white Europeans (DiAngelo, 2018). Without a robust
and critical discussion of what racism entails, little can be achieved in
addressing its impact, given the flawed popular understanding that racism
is an evil that can only be perpetrated by people who are morally depraved.
That many people agree about the moral repugnance of racism is in
itself positive progress. Yet, the popular notion, that racism is only the
act of the morally depraved, ignores the major harm that unconscious
bias causes to racial minorities. Thus, a complete examination of racism
should uncover the entirety of racism and its social impact, irrespective
of who the perpetrators are. It is thus the goal of this chapter to more
concretely show how racism adversely impacts society by considering the
latest scientific evidence.
Racism occurring at any level—interpersonal, internalised or institu-
tional—has concrete social and economic impacts. In addition to denying
dignity, racism constrains the individual and group agency of racial
minorities, and perpetuates racial inequity in opportunities and outcomes
(Gee et al., 2019). For more than a century, some scholars have under-
stood this and advocated for collective actions against it; yet, the enduring
reality of racial inequity and related social injustice remain the defining
characteristics of western society (Bell, 1988; Brimmer, 1995; Du Bois,
1903/2015; Myrdal, 1944/1996). If we examine racism at the interper-
sonal level, we can better understand its impact by taking a life course
perspective. This perspective helps appreciate how human experiences are
shaped and unfold over time (Gee et al., 2012, 2019). Viewed from this
lens, the impact of racism on the lives of racial minorities spreads across a
lifetime. Their experiences of racism shape and determine their lives over
time.
At the societal level, the impact of racism can be considered by looking
at how it permeates multiple layers of human functioning. Feagin and
McKinney (2003) identified three crucial costs associated with racism:
psychological and emotional costs, physical health consequences, and
family and community costs. Each of these are immediate results that can
be partially quantified using appropriate statistical measures while other
medium and long-term political and structural consequences can also
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 245

be examined using quantitative and qualitative methods (see Henricks,

2019). While the immediate effects of racism are predominantly borne by
racial minorities as the main targets, in the long term, racism ultimately
impacts the entire social structure of a nation.

Racism as a Social Determinant of Health

Human health is affected by an interconnected web of sociocultural,
economic, and environmental factors. Research over the past 30 years has
documented that nonmedical—particularly social—factors play a signif-
icant role in determining physical and mental health outcomes (Daniel
et al., 2018). The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies at least
ten social determinants of health (SDH) that include social gradient,
social exclusion, social support, early life, work, stress, unemployment,
food, addiction, and transport (Wilkinson & Marmot, 2003). SDH repre-
sent conditions of life. They are defined as “the conditions in which
people are born, grow, work, live, age, and the wider set of forces
and systems shaping the conditions of daily life” (WHO, 2011a). These
conditions are largely shaped by how social, economic, political power
and resources are distributed across groups and geographic spaces, both
nationally and globally. Today, SDH are increasingly being considered
fundamental causes of health inequities and health afflictions (Cockerham
et al., 2017; Wilkinson & Marmot, 2003). A recent American College
of Physicians position paper highlights the significance of SDH with the
following empirical data:

An analysis of studies measuring adult deaths attributable to social factors

found that, in 2000, approximately 245,000 deaths were attributable to
low education, 176,000 were due to racial segregation, 162,000 were due
to low social support, 133,000 were due to individual-level poverty, and
119,000 were due to income inequality. (Daniel et al., 2018, p. 577)

In this and numerous public health studies, racism/discrimination

features as one of the key SDH (Bailey et al., 2017; Cockerham et al.,
2017). This is not surprising in a racialised context that creates and
perpetuates structural inequities. Throughout this book, we have high-
lighted that racism is an inherent system of inequity that excludes certain
groups and privileges others. As such, racism has been described as organ-
ised structures or “systems within societies that cause avoidable and unfair
246 A. ELIAS ET AL.

inequalities in power, resources, capacities and opportunities across racial

or ethnic groups” (Paradies et al., 2015, p. 2). The inequities in socioe-
conomic opportunities and outcomes created and perpetuated by systems
of racism directly manifest in health inequities (Nazroo, 2003). Thus,
much of the racial disparities in health can be explained by the embedded
structural/institutional racism in society (Bailey et al., 2017).
While racial inequities can widen due to embedded social structures,
such settings in turn provide an ideal environment for everyday racial
discrimination.4 Ultimately, this leads to avoidable risk factors for the
health of minority group members. In fact, research indicates a range
of associations between exposure to racial discrimination and negative
health, particularly mental health including depression, anxiety and post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD: Paradies et al., 2015). Despite this,
the direct negative health impact of racial discrimination—as reported
in Elias and Paradies (2016)—has not yet been costed. However, some
economists have estimated indirect non-health-related productivity costs
(Brimmer, 1995; Turner, 2016). As we show in the next section, burden
of disease estimates associated with exposure to racial discrimination allow
us to measure its economic impact on society as a whole.

Estimating the Economic Cost of Racism5

Existing scholarship acknowledges the cost of racial discrimination and
its disproportionate bearing on racial minorities (Feagin & McKinney,
2003; Harris et al., 2006; Paradies, 2006). However, the economic conse-
quences of racial discrimination extend beyond the immediate targets
to those witnessing discrimination and even to the perpetrators them-
selves (Chrobot-Mason et al., 2013; Grigg & Manderson, 2015; Kwate
& Goodman, 2014; Malat et al., 2018). Flow on effects can occur
for the targets’ immediate and/or extended families, communities and
institutions that are tasked with combating discrimination (Halim et al.,
2013; Tran, 2014). At an aggregate level, the country can incur losses
in terms of direct healthcare expenditures arising from the health-related

4 We use racial discrimination hereafter, in reference to race-based acts and behaviours

resulting in avoidable and unfair inequalities in opportunities and outcomes (see Chapter 2
for more detail).
5 This section and the rest of this chapter are adapted from a previously published
article (Elias & Paradies, 2016).
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 247

impact of racism, and indirectly in the form of forgone output related to

employment discrimination.
As the impact of exposure to racial discrimination is most evident on
targets’ mental health, our research estimating the cost of racism has
focused on mental health outcomes (Elias & Paradies, 2016). We apply a
step-by-step costing method to estimate the health impact of experiences
of racial discrimination (ERD), focusing on four key health outcomes
including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and
other psychological disorders. Following a brief discussion of the litera-
ture and methods involved, we report burden of disease estimates and
health cost estimates.
Elias and Paradies (2016) is the first study to use burden of disease
(BoD) analysis to estimate the cost of ERD. Although there has been
research on employment-related costs of discrimination, intangible costs
that manifest in terms of pain and suffering arising from the physical and
psychological illnesses may also be considerable (Triana et al., 2015). A
wide body of evidence has documented the negative health outcomes
associated with ERD (Paradies et al., 2015; Pascoe & Richman, 2009;
Schmitt et al., 2014). However, to our knowledge, no other previous
study has estimated these health-related costs in monetary terms. The
findings reported in this chapter contribute to filling this gap by esti-
mating the dollar value of these intangible health-related costs from a
societal perspective, focusing on mental illnesses. Australian prevalence
data and association data from a recent meta-analysis (Paradies et al.,
2015) were used to calculate BoD estimates in terms of disability adjusted
life years (DALYs) for outcomes with the requisite data.
Previously, estimations of the economic cost of ERD followed the
neoclassical approach, which generally focuses on indirect costs related to
productivity loss increased from discrimination premiums (Arrow, 1971;
Becker, 1971). In labour economics, these costs are measured as differ-
entials in wages, earnings, employment, promotion and labour supply
(see Altonji & Blank, 1999; Blank et al., 2004; Darity & Mason, 1998).
Similarly, literature at the intersection of law and economics has been
limited to detecting evidence of racial discrimination rather than esti-
mating its human and social impact. Another strand of research related
to the housing market, measures ERD-related costs to minority group
customers in terms of potential indirect costs, associated with higher
prices and limited services (Kain & Quigley, 1975; Yinger, 1995).
248 A. ELIAS ET AL.

So far, only a handful of studies have gone beyond a focus on the

indirect microeconomic impact in estimating the cost of ERD (Brimmer,
1995; Joint Economic Committee, 1980; Turner, 2016). Although these
studies are also based on indirect productivity loss (i.e. opportunity costs
to businesses), they have attempted to estimate the potential aggregate
effect of ERD on an economy. These estimations attribute the costs to
foregone wages for minorities, and indirectly measure losses in national
output from an industry perspective. Along with this is the literature
on reparations to African Americans in the US, which estimates the
present value of benefits forgone by black people and transferred to whites
(America, 1990; Browne, 1971; Craemer, 2018).

Experience of Racial Discrimination (ERD)

Depending on the prevalence of ERD and the degree of its association
with health outcomes, ERD can also be seen as a public health issue as
it can affect the overall wellbeing and quality of life of a society. This
aspect of the cost of ERD can be assessed using cost of illness methods,
which are widely utilised in health economics. Using this approach, the
cost of ERD can be conceptualised in terms of health outcomes from an
individual/societal perspective where the health burden is largely borne
by individuals, and cumulatively by a society, in the form of physical and
mental illnesses.
Following the cost of illness literature, the cost of ERD can either be
determined by identifying the cost components from different perspec-
tives (industry/business, government or society) or classified into three
distinct components: direct costs, indirect costs and intangible costs
(Drummond et al., 2005; Rice, 2000). Taking the latter classification, the
direct cost component of ERD would include all the health-related costs
that are immediate consequences of discrimination. These costs include
health sector costs such as outpatient costs, prescription drug purchases,
medical fees, etc. Other direct cost components include those borne by
different sectors of an economy including production and consumption
related costs, administrative, welfare/transfer and other costs.
Indirect costs involve productivity loss and other employment related
costs associated with ERD. The loss in productivity includes, for instance,
the costs incurred by employers due to absenteeism, resulting from the
target having to cope with depression, anxiety, physical illness, hospital
visits, etc. In addition, costs due to lower performance at work by
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 249

employees exposed to discrimination are included. Potentially, however,

the largest amount of illness cost due to ERD would come from the
intangible cost component. In this chapter, we estimate this aspect of
the health cost of ERD. Intangible costs involve the pain, suffering
and premature death associated with a risk factor/health outcome. For
example, depression and related symptoms associated with ERD affect the
wellbeing of targets. This and other associated illnesses can be included
in the estimation of loss in wellbeing in terms of disability adjusted life
years (DALYs), the tool widely used in costing a range of epidemiological
conditions (Drummond et al., 2005; Lopez et al., 2006). This tool allows
us to determine the burden of disease (BoD) fractions of illnesses arising
from the targets’ exposures to discriminatory episodes.
This analysis followed three distinct stages. First, it used prevalence
data along with the magnitude of association between racism and four
key health outcomes from a comprehensive meta-analysis to calculate
BoD estimates ascribed to ERD through loss of DALYs (Paradies et al.,
2015). Second, it used the results to compare the current health status
with a counterfactual of no lifetime discrimination. Finally, these esti-
mates were converted into monetary estimates using standard health
economic parameters. Sensitivity analysis was conducted for the robust-
ness of the cost estimations, using three scenarios of the valuation of
life (low, medium and high value of statistical life—VSL) and a range
of discount rates.

Linking Racism and Health

The prevalence of experience of racial discrimination is usually measured
either based on self-report or observational data (Habtegiorgis &
Paradies, 2013). One advantage of self-report data in discrimination
research is that it enables researchers to directly measure the experiences
of the targets (Bobo & Suh, 2000). Unlike observational data, it does
not rely on observed differentials in outcomes (e.g. wages and salaries,
years of schooling, etc.) of different racial groups per se to determine
the prevalence of ERD. Self-report data can extract more complete data
on ERD as perceived by targets themselves. However, self-report data
can be susceptible to reporting bias (Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2001).
Respondents may not correctly understand the question; they may suffer
from recall bias, over report their experiences (vigilance bias), or they
250 A. ELIAS ET AL.

may underreport them (minimisation bias). Yet, research to-date indicates

that it is under-reporting rather than over-reporting which is more preva-
lent (Kaiser & Major, 2006; Krieger et al., 2010). Noting the strengths
and drawbacks of self-report data, we utilise the three national surveys
mentioned above to estimate ERD among Australian respondents.
Noting the strength and drawbacks of self-report data, the reported
analysis is based on racism data from Australian national surveys, the indi-
vidual target being the unit of reference. We use three nationally represen-
tative surveys to estimate the prevalence of ERD in Australia (reported in
Chapter 5 in Fig. 5.1). These include the Scanlon Foundation’s Mapping
Social Cohesion (MSC) survey (2007–2012), the Challenging Racism
Project (CRP: 2001–2008) and the 2012 National Dual-frame Omnibus
Survey (DFO). These surveys provided the best available data during the
time of analysis. Since then, other surveys and extensions of MSC have
been collected, with exposures levelling or increasing overtime (see for
example: Markus, 2019).
Furthermore, a comprehensive assessment of the overall cost of ERD
requires estimates of the health impact of exposure to racism. As part of
a previously published meta-analysis, Paradies and Elias investigated 293
studies, and found significant unadjusted associations between ERD and
some key health outcomes ranging from depression to hypertension based
on studies published between 1983 and October 2013 (Paradies et al.,
2015). Subject to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, more than 21 asso-
ciations of ERD and major health outcomes were identified.6 However,
this study focuses on only three illnesses and a composite of psychological
disorders across 102 studies, because the rest are either co-morbid with

6 The inclusion criteria that can be found in Paradies et al (2015) include:

1. be published in a journal article or dissertation

2. report at least one association between racism and a health outcome/s
3. be an empirical study
4. report quantitative data
5. contain relevant exposure/s and/or outcome/s
6. report unadjusted associations
7. report statistics that allow calculation of effect size.
For this paper, further inclusion criteria were added:
1. The study has to report at least one of four health outcomes (depression, anxiety,
PTSD and psychological disorder).
2. It has to report statistics/data that allow for the calculation of odds ratios (OR).
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 251

illnesses such as depression, or they are not available in the Global Burden
of Disease, which is the basis of the analysis. For example, chronic stress
is associated with depression, and depression in turn is associated with
obesity (Hammen, 2005; Stunkard & Allison, 2003).
In most cases, the studies included here utilise standard measures.
For example, the instruments used in depression studies include the
Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale, the Major Depres-
sion Episodes and the Beck Depression Inventory. For anxiety, studies
utilised instruments such as the State Trait Anxiety Index, the Beck
Anxiety Inventory and the General Health Questionnaire.
To allow an unbiased estimation of BoD attributable to ERD, the ideal
effect size would be risk ratio (RR), indicating the prevalence rate of
the health outcome among the exposed group relative to the unexposed
group. However, almost all of the included studies (94.1%) had insuffi-
cient data for the calculation of RR. Given sufficient data, it is possible to
convert odds ratios (OR) to RR using the formula proposed by Zhang
and Yu (1998). However, the prevalence of the outcome on the control
(unexposed) group was not reported for most of the studies reporting OR
(and other OR convertible estimate). Therefore, only associations based
on ORs (n = 197) were utilised in this study, resulting in a focus on 101
studies (reported in 128 articles) involving 83,057 participants in total.
There is a limitation in using OR in BoD analysis in that it exaggerates
the risk of the outcome if the outcome of interest is common (Davies
et al., 1998; Pepe et al., 2004). However, Davies et al. (1998) indicate
that the size of the exaggeration depends on the size of the OR. Smaller
OR would have minor exaggeration effect compared to large OR, there-
fore, using OR as alternative for RR would introduce minor exaggeration
for OR < 3.0. In this study, the OR for all the illnesses except PTSD
is less than three. Although we expect the OR for PTSD to have some
exaggeration effect, the impact on the overall study findings is negligible
given the small prevalence rate of PTSD considered here along with the
small disability weight assigned to it in the Global Burden of Disease.
Within this association data, one remaining issue is the heterogeneity
in the measures where outcome scales varied from dichotomous (yes/no)
categories to a range of categories including 3 to 9-point Likert type
scales, and in some cases continuous measures. To account for this
heterogeneity, two types of response categories are reported. First, we
report health outcomes for dichotomous response measures as one group,
252 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Table 7.1 List of Association between ERD and health outcomes categorised
by major illnesses

Illness/health Statistical outcome

outcome
Odds Lower Upper Z-value P-value Total Number of
ratio limit limit sample associations
(95% (95% size
CI) CI)

A. Exposure response: yes/no

Anxiety 2.050 1.758 2.391 9.140 0.000 13,216 13
Depression 2.051 1.811 2.323 11.319 0.000 70,115 32
PTSD 4.560 2.656 7.829 5.501 0.000 212 2
Psychological 2.584 2.068 3.137 9.318 0.000 13,705 3
disordersa
B. Exposure response: 3-point and over
Anxiety 2.275 1.619 3.279 4.922 0.019 11,228 37
Depression 2.386 1.987 2.870 9.499 0.005 53,115 90
PTSD 3.756 2.225 6.637 5.248 0.040 2021 9
Psychological 2.018 1.445 2.944 4.793 0.030 3946 11
disorders

Note This table reports the effect size of the association between ERD and health outcomes
categorised by response types from a meta-analysis (Paradies et al., 2015). Panel A is based on
a dichotomous measure of ERD while panel B is based on ERD measured as a categorical variable
with 3-point and over response options. a Hereafter, this excludes anxiety, depression and PTSD

with associations comparing the ERD-exposed and unexposed respon-

dents. Second, the rest of the exposure measures are weight averaged
and reported as one group, comparing those who had low with those
who had high level of ERD exposure (see Table 7.1). The sample size
reported in Table 7.1 varies by the number of studies included, with
depression having the largest overall sample (n = 124,049) and PTSD
having the smallest overall sample (n = 2621). All associations were statis-
tically significant (highly so in most cases) with odds ratios of two to three
for all health outcomes except for PTSD.

Burden of Disease Estimation

BoD analyses of risk factors/health outcomes are frequently used in
measuring the health impact of a range of exposures. The health impact of
ERD can likewise be estimated using this method based on WHO guide-
lines for the calculation of BoD. The WHO defines BoD as a measure
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 253

quantifying “the gap between a population’s current health and an ideal

situation where everyone lives to old age in full health” (WHO, 2009,
p. 4). It is numerically estimated in terms of DALYs where a loss of one
DALY is equivalent to a loss of one healthy year of life (Mathers et al.,
2001). Mathers et al. (2003) describe DALY as “a summary measure of
population health that combines in a single indicator, years of life lost
from premature death and years of life lived with disabilities” (p. 3).
Several international studies have used BoD-based DALY in cost estima-
tions for a range of illnesses (Begg et al., 2007; Cohen et al., 2005; Rehm
et al., 2009).
Although BoD represents direct health impact resulting from the
exposure, it is not a measure of immediate expenditures. It exists as
an opportunity cost that was lost or a cost that can be averted. In
different cost of illness studies, DALYs express the “pain, suffering and
premature mortality” component of the health costs (Access Economics,
2004, p. 19). In this chapter, prevalence data is used to estimate these
costs attributable to racial discrimination. Either prevalence or incidence
measures are used in the literature in the calculation of the BoD (Begg
et al., 2007; Mathers et al., 2001). Formally, DALY is calculated as:

DALY = Years of Life Lost + Years Lived with Disability (7.1)

In this calculation, years of life lost is premature mortality due to expo-

sure to the risk factor/illness; years lived with disability is the number of
years of less than functional life attributable to the risk factor/illness. In
theory, exposure to ERD is causally associated with some illnesses, which
are in turn causes of mortality (e.g. anxiety and depression, see: Begg
et al., 2007). Due to the timing issue regarding the exposure to ERD
and the incidence/prevalence of death, the causal relationship is likely
to be confounded. In addition, mortality is already excluded from the
meta-analysis, which is the basis of our analysis, as racial discrimination
per se appears to have no immediate association with mortality (Albert
et al., 2010). Therefore, assuming zero years of life lost in this analysis,
the measure to be estimated becomes:

DALY = Years Lived with Disability (7.2)

where:

YLD = Prevalence × Duration × Weight (7.3)

254 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Prevalence here is the prevalence of the illness, duration refers to the

duration of the illness since its onset and weight is the disability weight. To
exploit the population attributable fraction (PAF) data already estimated
in this paper, an alternative specification is used to estimate the DALYs
(WHO, 2011b). The duration of illness is replaced by the PAF whereby
the value will be interpreted as DALYs attributable to the ERD as a risk
factor. This is specified by:

DALY = Prevalence ∗ Weight ∗ PA (7.4)

PAF indicates the fraction measuring the degree of causal relationship

between ERD and the illness. The PAF or BoD attributable to a risk factor
(e.g. ERD) is estimated using the standard formula:
 k   k 
 
PAF = pi (R Ri − 1) ÷ pi (R Ri − 1) + 1 (7.5)
i=0 i=0

In this formula, i stands for the exposure category and i = 0 represents

the baseline category (no exposure); pi is the prevalence of the exposure
(risk factor) for the ith category; R Ri is the relative risk for the group
with i level of exposure and is compared with no exposure. After some
algebraic manipulation and assuming the relative risk for the unexposed
group to be 1, this formula can be rewritten as:
   
 
PAF = pc R R c − 1 ÷ pc R R c (7.6)
c c

Here, c stands for the category of interest. Since most studies included
for association estimation have no sufficient data to calculate relative risk
(RR) ratio for an outcome, the formula we actually utilised in calculating
the PAF is:
   
 
PAF = pc O R c − 1 ÷ pc O R c (7.7)
c c

Once the DALYs attributable to the prevalence of ERD are estimated,

the next step is to convert them to monetary value, which was done using
the value of statistical life (VSL) approach. The literature suggests a range
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 255

of values that can be used as conversion parameters (Cutler & Richardson,

1998; Miller et al., 1997; Nordhaus, 2002; Viscusi & Aldy, 2003). These
studies suggest a VSL value ranging between $600 thousand and $19.1
million. A recent study by Andersson and Treich (2011) reports a wider
range of a VSL of $261 thousand to $36 million. The corresponding
cost per DALY falls in the range of $70,000–$175,000. Drawing from
the literature, Access Economics (2004) uses a VSL of $3.7–$9.6 million
in measuring the cost of domestic and family violence in Australia. This
corresponds to a conversion rate of $162,561 per DALY. In this analysis,
we use a rate close to this ($166,250), as it draws from available evidence
and best practice in an Australian context. The conversion involved key
parameters including a VSL of $6.65 million, a 3.3% discount rate and
a timeframe of 40 years. The conversion rate is estimated using the
discounting formula:
 Value of Life Years
VSL = (7.8)
(1 + r )t
In this formula, r is the discount rate. Value of life years is multiplied by
DALY for each health outcome to convert the latter to a monetary value
that represents the health cost attributable to the risk factor, an estimation
we report in the next section.

Pecuniary Value of the Estimated Cost

The third stage of the analysis combines the prevalence measure of ERD
and the corresponding association effect sizes used to estimate population
attributable fractions (PAFs). Table 7.2 reports the ERD-related PAFs
for males and females, for each of the illnesses, which have statistically
significant association with ERD. This table reports the proportion of
the prevalence of the designated illness attributable to the prevalence of
ERD. Columns 1, 3, 5 and 7 in Table 7.2 were calculated assuming no
exposure to ERD, and indicate that reducing ERD to zero can result in
a 20% reduction in the prevalence of depression among men aged 17–
24. A similar reduction of ERD can result in an 18.7% reduction in the
prevalence of stress among women aged 35–44. The rest of the values can
be interpreted likewise.
Columns 2, 4, 6 and 8 in Table 7.2 are calculated assuming a non-
dichotomous (3-point and above) exposure measure of ERD. The values
 256

Table 7.2 Population Attributable Fractions: The prevalence of illness attributable to ERD by age and gender

ERD (dichotomous) ERD (non-dichotomous)

Age group Depression Anxiety PTSD Psychological Depression Anxiety PTSD Psychological
disorders disorders
A. ELIAS ET AL.

Males
17–24 20 20 45.9 27.4 27.8 24.8 29.5 23.4
25–34 19 19 44.2 26.1 26.5 23.6 28.1 22.3
35–44 16.2 16.2 39.6 22.6 23 20.4 24.5 19.2
45–54 15.2 15.1 37.7 21.2 21.5 19.1 23 17.9
55–64 12.6 12.6 32.7 17.8 18.1 15.9 19.4 15
65–74 8.1 8.1 23 11.8 12 10.4 12.9 9.8
75–100 6.3 6.3 18.7 9.3 9.4 8.2 10.2 7.7
Females
17–24 17.4 17.4 41.7 24.1 24.5 21.8 26.1 20.5
25–34 16.6 16.6 40.3 23.1 23.5 20.8 25 019.6
35–44 15.9 15.9 39 22.2 22.5 19.9 24 18.8
45–54 14.8 14.8 37 20.7 21 18.6 22.4 17.5
55–64 12.3 12.3 32.3 17.5 17.8 15.6 19 14.7
65–74 8.7 8.6 24.3 12.5 12.7 11.1 13.7 10.4
75–100 4.8 4.8 14.5 7 7.2 6.2 7.7 5.8

Note All values are population attributable fractions (PAF) in percentages, indicating the proportion of each illness attributable to exposure to racial
discrimination and were calculated based on the prevalence data discussed in the text
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 257

are calculated assuming ERD can be reduced from the highest to the
lowest theoretical minimum. For example, reducing ERD to the lowest
possible level can result in a 23.6% reduction in the prevalence of anxiety
among men aged 25–34. A similar reduction of ERD can result in a 22.4%
reduction in the prevalence of PTSD among women aged 45–54. Like-
wise, a reduction of ERD to its theoretical minimum could reduce the
prevalence of depression among men aged 25–34 years by 26.5%. This
would mean a 26.5% saving in the treatment cost of depression in this
age group. The rest of the values can be interpreted similarly.
The final results of our BoD analysis are reported in Table 7.3
(columns 1–3). A total of 235,452 DALYs lost in Australia per year can
be attributed to the prevalence of ERD. The number of DALYs lost is
relatively higher among women (DALY = 140,073) compared to men
(DALY = 95,397). Depression for women (32.0%) and psychological
disorders for men (33.8%) are the leading causes. For men, depression
accounts for 30.3% of lost DALYs attributable to ERD. Overall, the loss
in DALYs caused by ERD is estimated to be 8.9% of DALYs from all
causes in Australia. This would place ERD above tobacco as a major
risk factor since tobacco was estimated to account for 204,788 in lost
DALYs (according to the 2003 BoD in Australia, see Begg et al., 2007). A
detailed version of this table that disaggregates the findings by age groups
can be found in Elias and Paradies (2016).
Monetary estimates of the total DALYs attributable to ERD allows for
comparison with aggregate economic measures. Columns 4–6 in Table
7.3 report the health cost of ERD in Australia, calculated using the value
of statistical life (VSL) approach. According to this estimation, ERD
accounts for a total of $37.9 billion in health cost to the Australian
economy. This is roughly 3.02% of the annual average GDP for the
period 2001–2011 (for GDP figures see Piccinelli & Wilkinson, 2000).
The largest cost of ERD, $11.9 billion, comes from its effect on depres-
sion. This result is comparable with previous studies, which used a human
capital approach to estimate the cost of ERD. For example, the Joint
Economic Committee (1980) reported that ERD cost the US economy
4% of GDP while Brimmer (1995) estimated the ERD cost to be $241
billion (3.8% GDP).
To check the robustness of the costs reported in Table 7.3, we have
conducted a sensitivity analysis. We look at three scenarios where we use
three VSL values: $3.7 million, $6.65 million and $9.6 million. For each
 258

Table 7.3 Health cost of racial discrimination by gender and causes in Australia
A. ELIAS ET AL.

Cause/Illness DALYs Cost ($ millions)

Male (%) Female (%) Total Male Female Total Cost

Anxiety 15,890 (16.7) 24,908 (17.8) 40,797 2557 4009 6566

Depression 28,888 (30.3) 44,786 (32.0) 73,673 4649 7208 11,857
PTSD 18,366 (19.3) 32,776 (23.4) 51,142 2956 5275 8231
Psychological disorders 32,235 (33.8) 37,604 (26.8) 69,840 5188 6052 11,240
Total of illnesses attributable to ERD 95,379 (100) 140,073 (100) 235,452 15,350 22,543 37,893
DALYs from all causes in Australia 1,364,614 1,268,156 2,632,770
Percentage of all DALYs attributable to ERD 7.00% 11.00% 8.90%
Australian average annual GDP (2001–2011) 1,256,769
Health cost of ERD as a percentage of GDP 3.02%

Note The values are DALYs attributable to the prevalence of ERD in a year. The percentages in parentheses indicate DALYs caused by ERD as a
proportion of the total
Source DALYs from all causes was taken from The burden of disease and injury in Australia 2003 (Begg et al., 2007). GDP data from World Bank
national accounts data (World Bank, 2015), and OECD National Accounts data files. GDP is in constant local currency unit (LCU)
Table 7.4 Sensitivity analysis: Health cost of racial discrimination in Australia

Cause of DALYs Discount rate

Illness
0% 1% 2% 3% 3.3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10%

Scenario A: VSL=$3.7 million

Anxiety 40,797 3774 3736 3700 3664 3653 3629 3594 3560 3527 3494 3462 3431
Depression 73,673 6815 6747 6681 6616 6597 6553 6490 6429 6369 6310 6252 6195
PTSD 51,142 4731 4684 4638 4593 4579 4549 4505 4463 4421 4380 4340 4301
Psychological 69,840 6460 6396 6333 6272 6254 6212 6153 6094 6038 5982 5927 5873
7

disorders
Total of 235,452 21,779 21,564 21,352 21,145 21,084 20,942 20,742 20,547 20,354 20,166 19,981 19,799
illnesses
attributable
to ERD
Australian 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769
average
annual
GDP
(2005–
2012)
Health cost 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.6% 1.6% 1.6% 1.6% 1.6%
of ERD as
a percentage
of GDP
Scenario B: VSL= $6.65 million
Anxiety 40,797 6783 6715 6650 6585 6566 6522 6460 6399 6339 6280 6222 6166
Depression 73,673 12,248 12,127 12,008 11,891 11,857 11,777 11,665 11,555 11,447 11,341 11,237 11,135
PTSD 51,142 8502 8418 8336 8255 8231 8175 8097 8021 7946 7873 7800 7729
Psychological 69,840 11,611 11,496 11,383 11,273 11,240 11,164 11,058 10,954 10,851 10,751 10,652 10,555
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM

disorders

(continued)
259
Table 7.4 (continued)
260

Cause of DALYs Discount rate

Illness
0% 1% 2% 3% 3.3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10%

Total of 235,452 39,144 38,756 38,376 38,004 37,893 37,638 37,280 36,928 36,583 36,244 35,912 32,960
illnesses
attributable
A. ELIAS ET AL.

to ERD
Australian 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769
average
annual
GDP
(2005–
2012)
Health cost 3.1% 3.1% 3.1% 3.0% 3.0% 3.0% 3.0% 2.9% 2.9% 2.9% 2.9% 2.9%
of ERD as
a percentage
of GDP
Scenario B: VSL= $9.6 million
Anxiety 40,797 9791 9694 9599 9506 9479 9415 9325 9237 9151 9066 8983 8901
Depression 73,673 17,682 17,507 17,335 17,167 17,117 17,002 16,840 16,681 16,525 16,372 16,222 16,074
PTSD 51,142 12,274 12,152 12,033 11,917 11,882 11,802 11,690 11,579 11,471 11,365 11,261 11,158
Psychological 69,840 16,762 16,596 16,433 16,273 16,226 16,117 15,963 15,813 15,665 15,520 15,378 15,238
disorders
Total of 235,452 56,508 55,949 55,400 54,863 54,703 54,335 53,818 53,310 52,812 52,323 51,843 51,371
illnesses
attributable
to ERD
Australian 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769 1,256,769
average
annual
GDP
(2005–
2012)
Cause of DALYs Discount rate
Illness
0% 1% 2% 3% 3.3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10%

Health cost 4.5% 4.5% 4.4% 4.4% 4.4% 4.3% 4.3% 4.2% 4.2% 4.2% 4.1% 4.1%
of ERD as
a percentage
of GDP

Note This table is a sensitivity analysis of the results reported in Table 7.3 at a range of discount rates for three scenarios: Panel A assuming a value
of statistical life of $3.7 million, Panel B $6.65 million and Panel C $9.6 million. The benchmark discount rate and the associated values are indicated
in bold numbers. Values reported in columns 1–11 are in millions of dollars unless indicated otherwise
7
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM
261
262 A. ELIAS ET AL.

of these VSL values, we varied the underlying discount rates in the 0–

10% range. The result, reported in Table 7.4, indicates a range of health
costs due to ERD. At the lower VSL scenario (Panel A), the overall cost
of ERD ranges between 1.6 and 1.7% of the average GDP for Australia
for the 2001–2011 periods. Using the highest discount rate of 10% yields
an ERD cost of $19.8 billion while a 0% discount rate results in $21.8
billion. At a 3.3% discount rate, the estimated cost is $21.1 billion or 1.7%
of GDP.
At the medium VSL value of $6.65 million (Panel B), the health cost
of ERD ranges between 2.9 and 3.1% of average annual GDP (2001–
2011) (Massey & Lundy, 2001). This is $33 billion at a discount rate of
10% and $39.1 billion at 0% discount rate. For the discount rate of 3.3%
the cost is $37.9 billion or 3% of GDP. Similarly, at a high VSL of $9.6
billion (Panel C), the cost is 4.1–4.5% of GDP or $51.4 billion for 10%
discount rate and $56.5 billion for 0% discount rate. At a 3.3% discount
rate, ERD costs 4.4% of GDP, or $54.7 billion per annum.
It can be concluded that the cost estimation varies depending on the
underlying parameters, discount rate and VSL estimates. Using the same
discount rate (3.3%), the cost estimate variation across VSL estimates is
in the range of $21.1–$54.7 billion (1.7–4.4% of GDP).

Putting the Economic Impact in Context

Our analysis estimated the economic value of reducing ERD directly
from estimated BoD data. Using a cost of illness method, we measured
the PAFs for four key health outcomes (depression, anxiety, PTSD and
psychological disorders). Our findings indicate substantial loss in DALYs
due to ERD. On average, Australia loses up to 3.02% of GDP per annum
as a result of individuals being exposed to some form of racial discrim-
ination. Gender differences are evident in the DALYs estimated due to
the prevalence of both racial discrimination and the illnesses. Empirical
evidence shows that the prevalence of psychological illnesses tends to
be higher among women than men (Angst et al., 2002; Piccinelli &
Wilkinson, 2000). In addition, the prevalence of ERD also tends to be
higher among women, as is evidenced in our data (Kessler et al., 1999;
Utsey et al., 2002). This corresponded with higher prevalence of mental
illnesses, leading to higher values of estimated DALYs.
The cost of illnesses estimates reported in this study reflect cost savings
measured against their counterfactuals. They can potentially be realised
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 263

via measures that can reduce the prevalence of racial discrimination, as

a risk factor, to zero or the possible minimum. However, the findings
we report should be considered exploratory and indicative. They do not
necessarily represent immediately realisable estimates. They are opportu-
nity costs, costs that could be saved by avoiding the need for treating the
preventable disease (Mathers et al., 1998). A range of assumptions are
involved in this estimation, the causality of the relationship between ERD
exposure and health being the most important.
First, establishing causal relationship between ERD and health
outcomes from cross-sectional studies has limitations, as a target could be
experiencing negative health outcomes due to multiple factors. Reverse
causation between ERD and negative health outcomes cannot be ruled
out although there is considerable evidence suggesting that ERD precedes
ill health (Gee & Walsemann, 2009; Paradies et al., 2015). Obtaining
association data in terms of RR rather than OR should improve the
accuracy of the findings and solve the causality issue. Second, only unad-
justed associations between ERD and health are utilised in this analysis.
However, confounding due to multivariate effects in such associations
cannot be ruled out. For example, demographic and socioeconomic
factors can have a role in ERD and health outcomes. A thorough investi-
gation of longitudinal analysis and adjusted associations should, therefore,
give a better picture regarding the BoD outcomes related to the ERD.
Our estimation of DALYs also has some limitations. First, our study
has estimated the cost of ERD for only four illnesses although the liter-
ature indicates association with physical illnesses such as hypertension,
diabetes and hypercholesterolemia (Dolezsar et al., 2014). This is likely
to lead to the underestimation of the health cost estimates reported.
The main reason for the exclusion of physical illnesses in this study is
insufficient data for the calculation of BoD estimates. Apart from the
four illnesses indicated in Table 7.4, we could not use 21 associations
reported in a meta-analysis utilised here for they are not available in the
Global Burden of Disease (GBD). Either they are only risk factors which,
cannot be strictly considered illnesses (e.g. overweight, obesity, etc.) or
they are not defined in the GBD due to co-morbidity (e.g. stress, psycho-
logical distress, internalising symptoms, etc.). For those that are not in
the GBD categories, no disability weight data is available for the calcula-
tion of DALYs. For mental/psychological disorder, a composite disability
weight index was used by averaging across all the mental disorders weights
available in the GBD (Begg et al., 2007; Vos & Mathers, 2000).
264 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Second, we could not find prevalence data for some illnesses (e.g.
stress, internalising symptoms, etc.). Therefore, the requirement for the
calculation of DALYs could be completed for just four studies. The
association data was obtained from our recent meta-analysis of studies,
conducted at various times with prevalence data for the period 2001–
2011 (Paradies et al., 2015). Therefore, there may be confounding
across different time periods. The DALYs are crudely measured without
accounting for time lag, and adjustments for any confounders. Further
refinement and the inclusion of relevant associations are needed to give
definitive conclusion regarding the DALYs caused by ERD.
Furthermore, the data used in the calculation are heterogeneous.
Prevalence data for anxiety and psychological disorder was obtained from
the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (Australian Bureau
of Statistics, 2007). For depression and PTSD, the prevalence rate from
the same source is aggregated by gender. This was disaggregated across
age groups using census data, based on the information that depression
has similar variation across age groups up to 64 and declining thereafter
for those aged 65 and over (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare,
AIHW, 2006). In addition, disability weights were obtained from a range
of studies including the GBD (2008), Vos and Mathers (2000), the 2005
Victorian Burden of Disease Study and Begg et al. (2007). The deriva-
tion of these weights, particularly for psychological disorders, involved
averaging across studies and disease categories. For example, the GBD
(2008) disaggregates the weights by age group; Vos and Mathers (2000)
provide weight range while a single weight is used in the Victorian BoD.
Our estimation does not include direct healthcare expenditures and
indirect costs associated with racial discrimination, which can arise from
inefficiency in the labour market due to the underutilisation of educa-
tion, skills and experiences of the targets. As such, even for the few health
outcomes for which there was the requisite data, our estimates are lower
bound as they only measure intangible costs. In addition, our estimation
does not consider the intergenerational effects of racial discrimination on
health inequities. Research indicates that the “lack of economic or social
mobility can also affect future generations who are born into environ-
ments that contribute to negative health outcomes” (Daniel et al., 2018,
p. 577).
Therefore, the total cost is likely to be higher than 3.02% if all
cost components were included. A fuller costing of ERD would include
hospitalisation and out-of-pocket expenses in addition to the BoD-based
 7 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RACISM 265

intangible cost reported in Table 7.4. According to the AIHW (2013),

Australians (individuals), on average covered 17.3% of the total health
expenditure in 2000–2012. The rest of the health cost was funded by
state and federal governments and private insurers. The AIHW (2012)
reports that out-of-pocket expenses accounted for 18.2% of total health
spending, and averaged at 2.4–2.8% of total household spending in the
decade ending 2009. In addition,

More than half of non-government funding (58%) came from out-

of-pocket payments by individuals. This included circumstances where
individuals met the full cost of goods or services, as well as where they
shared the cost, for example, with private health insurance funds or the
Australian Government through Medicare. (AIHW, 2012, p. 475)

According to this report, the total out-of-pocket spending by individ-

uals covered $7.7 billion or 47% of the total cost of medications in the
years 2009–10. Addition of such costs attributable to ERD exposure can
therefore substantially increase the health cost of ERD.7
In conclusion, while this study has focused on Australian data, the
analysis can be replicated cross-nationally with potentially comparable
findings. The exact cost of ERD for each country will depend on the
prevalence rate of ERD. As such, countries that exhibit higher ERD
prevalence will bear a higher overall cost. For Australia, the availability
of population level probability survey data allowed for the estimation of
the economic impact of ERD from a societal perspective. Economic costs
are usually estimated based on production loss and/or the consumption
of resources. Another important cost component is the pain and suffering
involved due to illness that can be attributed to a risk factor, such as racial
discrimination. In this study, we found the BoD attributable to ERD asso-
ciated with anxiety, depression, PTSD and psychological disorders to be
substantial.

7 Another source of cost would be litigation cost that results if alleged racial discrimina-
tion is brought to the court. Some of the settlement and litigation cost would be transfer
payment and may not be attributed as loss in GDP. But, some part would be incurred
as a loss to society as time and resources are diverted to execute the litigation process.
An example for this is the $72.69 million per annum lost in litigation cost to settle
racial discrimination complaints in the US (see: a 2014 Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission report).
266 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Using new evidence and integrating it with advances in public health

research, our study was able to estimate the economy-wide loss directly
attributable to ERD. The evidence clearly shows that the Australian
economy would be significantly better off in the absence of ERD. In
addition to its infringement on the rights of individuals and groups, racial
discrimination has detrimental impact on the economy. Further, the cost
would be much higher if discrimination related direct expenditures were
added. As such, the addition of hospitalisation and out-of-pocket expen-
diture should also be estimated in future work to give a better picture
of the total health cost of ERD. The other source of cost is the indirect
costs related to loss of productivity. As there exists little research that has
estimated this, more research is needed in this area to corroborate the
scant evidence base regarding the cost of ERD.
Although we did not include a range of cost items in our analysis, our
study was able to estimate a vital aspect of the cost of racial discrimi-
nation. We found that racial discrimination is substantially costly to the
health of individuals expressed in loss of healthy life years. The find-
ings of this study are particularly important in informing public policies
and advocacy activities related to public health, community social cohe-
sion, anti-discrimination and cultural diversity. By quantifying the cost of
discrimination, the study contributes to the rational for anti-racism strate-
gies that seek to benefit society by reducing the costs associated with
discrimination. The findings also indicate that given some of the costs
resulting from ERD are avoidable; measures taken by governmental and
non-governmental institutions to curb racial discrimination are likely to be
socially and economically feasible. Countries with racially and ethnically
diverse population can therefore realise substantial savings by enforcing
effective anti-discrimination measures (Ben et al., 2020; Kwate, 2014).

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 CHAPTER 8

Racism and Young People

We have argued in Chapters 3 and 4 how racism continues to repre-

sent a serious challenge in Australia and other settler colonial societies,
and considered some of its significant social and economic impacts on
minority groups and the wider Australian society in Chapter 7. The
research we summarised indicates that racism affects everyone in society in
profound and often negative ways. Specifically, over the last two decades,
we have seen sharp increases in discriminatory behaviours and racist atti-
tudes against Muslim migrants, Indigenous people, African migrants and
asylum seekers to name just a few examples (see Blair et al., 2017; Dunn,
2012; Dunn & Forrest, 2004; Markus, 2019). These racist attitudes and
behaviours often manifest through discriminatory treatments of racial
minorities across multiple sectors, including education, employment,
housing and health care.
The impact of racism is often compounded by the intersectionality of
multiple forms of discrimination with “members of ethnic and religious
minorities [becoming] victims of discrimination on additional grounds
such as their gender, disability, age or sexual orientation” (Bara et al.,
2008, p. 3). For example, black women can experience discrimination
because of their race and gender in workplaces (Berdahl & Moore,
2006). Similarly, migrant youth experience substantial levels of racism
at schools because of their cultural background and age (Mansouri &
Jenkins, 2010; Priest et al., 2019). These multiple interacting exposures

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 275

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
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276 A. ELIAS ET AL.

can have deleterious effects on the health and wellbeing of these groups
(Paradies, 2006; Paradies et al., 2009). Thus, the intersectional framework
can offer a powerful analytical lens to understand the multidimensional
processes through which racism impacts diverse groups in society.
While racism has a societal level effect, it may not be experienced
equally across groups. For children and youth, in particular, the impact
of racism can be more consequential, given the vulnerability associated
with their developmental stage (Gee et al., 2012). A substantial body of
research has shown that racism has a strong relationship with diminished
wellbeing, health and increased anxiety, psychological distress, depression
and social isolation among target groups (Benner, 2018; Cave et al.,
2020; Heard-Garris et al., 2018; Pachter & Coll, 2009; Priest et al.,
2013). Thus, we have devoted this chapter to examine the unique aspect
of racism upon the health and wellbeing of young people in Australia.
The chapter will focus on two key, interrelated themes; namely the impact
of racism on the health and wellbeing of youth, as well as its manifesta-
tion within schooling, a key institutional environment for young people
that is usually expected to educate and empower youth regardless of their
backgrounds.1

Racism and Its Impact on Young Australians

A review of literature on racism and health revealed that racism is
associated with negative outcomes for mental health and health-related
behaviours. Although the importance of studying the impacts of racism
for children and youth has been widely recognised (Ahmed et al., 2007;
Frykman et al., 2007; Paradies, 2006; Paradies et al., 2008), prior to
2010, only a small proportion of research focused on children as opposed
to adult populations (Paradies, 2006; Williams & Mohammed, 2009).
Since then, there has been a growing body of research examining the
effect of racism on child and youth health, although much of this was
in the US (Priest et al., 2013). In Australia, research on racism and child
health needs further development (Australian Human Rights Commission
[AHRC], 2019; Zubrick, et al., 2005; Refugee Health Research Centre,
2007).

1 Some of the findings in this chapter are based on previous research by Mansouri and
colleagues (e.g. Mansouri et al., 2009b, 2012; Mansouri & Jenkins, 2010; Mikola &
Mansouri, 2015).
 8 RACISM AND YOUNG PEOPLE 277

However, there have been several studies that examined how youth
experience racism, how they are impacted by it and how they are likely to
respond to its manifestations. For example, various studies by Priest and
colleagues have documented the health impacts of racism on minority
and Indigenous children and youth (Priest et al., 2011a, 2014; Shepherd
et al., 2017). Other researchers, such as Baak (2019) and Mansouri and
Kamp (2007), have also shown substantial experiences of racism among
African and Muslim migrant students.
Furthermore, emerging research on racism indicates ambiguity around
young Australians’ understanding of racism (Grigg & Manderson, 2015).
This has been shown in a study completed in 2000, where students
verbalised “a socially progressive and liberal view on ‘race’ ‘religion’ and
‘diversity’ while they also expressed (unwittingly) racist attitudes when
discussing the issue of racism at greater length” (McLeod & Yates, 2000,
p. 5). For example, one student was adamant that he was against racism,
but in relation to Indigenous Australians and Pauline Hanson’s approach,
said “it may be a small minority that she thinks about … but most of
them are fine” (McLeod & Yates, 2000, p. 5). This is indicative of how
white students patronise Indigenous Peoples by describing them as a well-
behaved group, “a clearly defined ‘them’ to whom ‘we’ show fairness and
understanding” (McLeod & Yates, 2000, p. 5).
Indeed, many studies that investigate the experience of racism and
racist behaviour among youth from migrant backgrounds have concen-
trated on the experience of one particular cultural group (Baak, 2019;
Moodie et al., 2019; Poynting & Noble, 2003; Priest et al., 2011a). For
example, the pioneering Isma‫( ع‬Listen) report, released by the Human
Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 2003, highlighted the prej-
udices occurring in schools for Australian Arab Muslims and how these
prejudices are often related to labels of terrorism (Poynting & Noble,
2003). However, increasingly, larger quantitative studies are attempting
to examine the experience and impact of racism among broader youth
cohorts including migrant and Indigenous groups. For example, one such
study of migrant youth found that racism impacted upon the settlement
and transition processes of individual migrants, affecting their self-esteem,
self-confidence and overall belonging to the broader community (Francis
& Cornfoot, 2007). The study highlighted how racism threatens personal
and cultural identity and is linked to psychological distress, specifically
anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and anger. It also warned marginal-
isation can result in withdrawal from active participation in mainstream
278 A. ELIAS ET AL.

life and anti-social attitudes and behaviour (Francis & Cornfoot, 2007).
This is especially the case when the marginalisation is linked to forms of
systemic, institutional racism.
Critically, the research data on experiences of racism and its impact on
vulnerable groups, including youth from minority backgrounds, remains
inadequate, largely due to insufficient legislation and institutional support
for such endeavours. Nevertheless, the few large-scale studies undertaken
provide stark reminders of the challenges ahead for overcoming racial
inequalities (Priest et al., 2019). This is especially the case for groups
who are impacted by multiple variables such as age, gender and socioeco-
nomic status that amplify the negative experience of racism. For example,
there is strong empirical evidence that when age intersects with race this
tends to accelerate the intensity and frequency of racism experiences (Bara
et al., 2008; Gee et al., 2019; Priest et al., 2019). A European Commis-
sion study in 2008 found widespread ethnic and age-based discrimination
that indicated a heightened degree of intersectional inequity and injustice
impacting racial minorities across European countries (Bara et al., 2008,
p. 13).
In Australia, systematic research on racism and its impact upon the
health and wellbeing of young people was limited until recently. Recent
large-scale studies based on local and national surveys indicate significant
impact of racism on minority youth health (Priest et al., 2011b, 2012,
2014). In the wider field of racism, a broader range of materials is acces-
sible, both internationally as highlighted above in relation to the EU study
(2008) and in Australia (Paradies et al., 2009, 2015). The existing liter-
ature on racism points to persistent mainstream panic and concern over
racial mixing and positions mainstream Australians as having “a monopoly
over ‘worrying’ about the shape and the future of Australia” (Hage, 1998,
p. 10). It is this type of “worrying” that constructs a panic concerning the
number of immigrants, supposed welfare support that Indigenous Peoples
receive and so on; and which makes the politics of far-right-extremists
quite popular with its aggrieved lower-middle-class supporters (Peucker
& Smith, 2019).

Racism and Indigenous Youth

The most vulnerable to societal neglect remain most impacted by racism
in all of its manifestations and regardless of the temporal situation. These
vulnerable individuals and groups often reflect intersecting dimensions of
 8 RACISM AND YOUNG PEOPLE 279

long entrenched structural disparities that remain little discussed and over-
whelmingly unreported (Crenshaw, 1989). The case of Indigenous youth
in Australia is an optimal example of how interlocking systems of power
combine to maintain cultural oppression, socioeconomic subjugation and
political marginalisation.
The exposure of Indigenous Peoples to various forms of structural
inequities begins before birth and continues across the life course. Racism
as a key social determinant of health remains a significant driver of health
and wellbeing for Indigenous children and youth (Priest et al., 2011a).
Long and repeated exposure to racism in both its interpersonal and
institutional form contributes to their cumulative inequities manifesting
in disparate economic and social outcomes. In studies by Priest et al.
(2011a, 2011b), between 32 and 52% of Indigenous youth reported
experience of racism. Their exposure to racism was associated with a range
of health outcomes including anxiety, depression, suicide risk and poorer
overall health. This finding is replicated across different youth cohorts
(Cave et al., 2020; Paradies & Cunningham, 2012; Priest et al., 2012).
Researchers have long argued that the disparate impact of racism on
Indigenous health reflects the persistence of structural institutional racism,
which remains a barrier for Indigenous socioeconomic progress (Henry
et al., 2004).

Racism and Migrant Youth

As briefly discussed above, there is a growing scholarship on racism specif-
ically focusing on young people in Australia. Migrant youth, aged 15–24,
have unique intercultural experiences related to their age and ethno-
cultural background (Mansouri et al., 2013). This is especially the case
for migrant youth whose cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds
are visibly different from those of the majority group. An extensive body
of research shows that youth from minority groups often suffer from
multiple forms of discrimination across economic, judicial and cultural
domains (Hasford, 2016). Given issues of race remain as intractable as
ever, even in the most of progressive, multicultural societies, it is not alto-
gether surprising that youth from minority groups continue to experience
racism and discrimination as part of their everyday lived existence. In the
Australian context, the history of migrant settlement over the last few
decades is testament to how successive groups of migrant youth experi-
enced and tried to resist daily encounters with racist attitudes, behaviours
and practices.
280 A. ELIAS ET AL.

As discussed before, though migrant youth in general tend to be

subjected to forms of racism that shape their educational, economic and
health outcomes, the situation is even more critical for young refugees
and asylum seekers. Young refugees and asylum seekers are among the
most vulnerable migrant groups, particularly for those with stressful
pre-migration experiences, prolonged detentions, difficulties during their
initial release into the community and limited social services support.
Historically, the settlement experiences of refugees from Vietnam (1970s
and 1980s), and Lebanon (1980s and 1990s), attest to the difficult social
integration processes and the traumatic race relations that have shaped
Australia over these periods (Baak, 2019; Morris & Heaven, 1986).
This barely changed today, with South Sudanese refugees (2000s),
continuing to experience a range of racist experiences across multiple
settings. Research indicates that schools, workplaces and media are among
the most common locations for the occurrence of substantial levels of
institutional and interpersonal racism (Dunn, 2003; Dunn & Nelson,
2011). Muslim and migrant youth in Australia in particular have been
the usual targets of racism in schools (Baak, 2019; Poynting & Mason,
2007). This persistent exposure to racism is likely to impact targets’ health
and ability to achieve successful educational and career aspirations.

Racism in Schooling
Evidently, racism affecting young Australians occurs across settings,
including schools, healthcare, criminal justice, sport entertainment and
media. For brevity, the remainder of this chapter will focus on schools
as microcosms of the ethno-culturally diverse Australian society. The
Australian education system promises to provide an environment in which
students can learn in a safe and comfortable manner, free from fear
of verbal or physical abuse. As one of the most multicultural countries
in the world, Australia has committed itself to the development of an
inclusive multicultural society. A considerable effort has been made to
cater for minority groups and to embrace the interesting and sometimes
challenging cultural contrasts within Australian schools. Because of its
unique situation as a country with “no sizeable ethnic minorities” (Inglis,
2004, p. 187), Australian schools have to cater for a small number of
students from one or more minority groups within a larger Anglo-Celtic
context (Mansouri et al., 2009a). Consequently, Australian schools, as
 8 RACISM AND YOUNG PEOPLE 281

microcosms of society, present challenging but exciting possibilities for

influencing social change regarding attitudes towards diversity, culture
and race.
However, for many schools, the ability to create this safe environment
has been undermined by a rise in society-wide intercultural tensions that
inevitably permeate the school boundary (Edgeworth & Santoro, 2015;
Mansouri & Jenkins, 2010; Priest et al., 2019). These in-school racial
tensions can lead to negative consequences for students who experience
racism at school, either as targets or perpetrators. Schools as institutions
meet essential conditions under which students can construct and develop
their identities (Giroux, 1998; Hawkins, 2005), these tensions may have
an adverse impact on secondary school students who are in a crucial stage
of identity development and formation. Identity incorporates a complex
number of components including gender, social class, aspirations and
racial identity (Davis, 2007; Torres et al., 2009). The cultural and racial
diversity of many Australian schools indicates that they are well positioned
to facilitate an exploration of cultural identity while challenging racial
stereotyping. However, the presence of racial tensions within the school
system may undermine the development of a healthy racial identity, and
thereby exacerbate negative racial attitudes.
For decades, the multicultural nature of school populations have been
growing because of the Federal Government’s commitment to the migra-
tion programme (Den Brok & Levy, 2005). Many teachers now work
within a multicultural context, which often challenges their intercultural
competence to teach students from diverse backgrounds. Simultane-
ously, they are required to deal with associated issues pertaining to
these changing educational communities. This continuous change in the
school environment and educational approach has also been fuelled by a
“resurgent interest in values and intercultural education” (Hiferty, 2008,
p. 61), which has taken place in Australia, and other receiving coun-
tries (e.g. New Zealand, UK and US) over the last ten years. It is
argued that multiculturalism and values education are interlinked because
liberal western democratic governments have responded to a sense of
insecurity resulting from global immigration (Hiferty, 2008). As part
of this response, governments have returned to values education as a
vehicle to aid social cohesion and contribute to a sense of commu-
nity, thereby ameliorating social tensions. Teachers are now required
to have even higher levels of competency in communication than were
expected previously, placing extra demands on their time and energy.
As teachers incorporate increasingly values-laden education into an often
282 A. ELIAS ET AL.

multicultural student community, their competency levels, and the types

of competencies required, are changing. These factors challenge teachers
on an individual level, and the education system and pre-service teacher
training as a whole.
Despite the rapid change in the diversity of student populations and
the extra demands this has placed upon teachers and the curriculum, it
is reasonable to expect that students will be taught by teachers who are
educated about racial and cultural issues (Mansouri et al., 2009a). The
education system, and teachers themselves, have a professional duty to
respond appropriately to social change, and to develop an above average
level of intercultural communication, cultural understanding and general
competency in inclusive teaching.
Teachers are very influential, not only in their role as classroom
educators, but as role models for appropriate and positive interpersonal
behaviour (Villegas & Lucas, 2002). As such, students’ academic achieve-
ments, and their attitudes towards particular subjects, are interconnected
with how they perceive their teachers’ interpersonal behaviour (Brekel-
mans et al., 2002; Den Brok et al., 2004; Wubbels & Brekelmans, 2006).
This interpersonal behaviour includes their response to issues of diver-
sity and their approach to students with diverse cultural backgrounds.
Teachers are uniquely placed as agents of change, in that the starting
place for institutional and social change is the individual. While it could
not be argued that teachers bear the sole responsibility for the trans-
formation of educational systems (Villegas & Lucas, 2002), they play a
crucial role in the modification of attitudes regarding race and culture
within the Australian school system. Teacher education institutions should
therefore ensure that pre-service teachers are taught about cultural diver-
sity, cultural sensitivity, multiculturalism and equity. In many Australian
universities, this type of pre-service education is a compulsory part of
teacher education courses. School principals and school management also
“have an important role to play in the battle against racism” (Ryan,
2003, p. 158), both by supporting teachers in their work and themselves
exhibiting culturally inclusive behaviour. This is particularly important in
the current climate of intercultural tensions.
Contemporary research indicates that racism is very prevalent in
Australian schools (Priest et al., 2019). However, it is often misrepre-
sented and misreported as a disciplinary, behavioural management or
disadvantage issue related to racial minorities, and/or as a challenge
of regional and remote education pertaining to Indigenous Peoples
 8 RACISM AND YOUNG PEOPLE 283

(Moodie et al., 2019). This represents a challenge for the education

system’s ability to create a safe learning environment, with dire conse-
quences for the wellbeing of Indigenous and migrant students. Thus,
discourses on racism and race relations remain a critical component of the
discussion regarding schools as settings of intercultural tensions. These
tensions within the educational system are underpinned by racist attitudes,
which have been shaped by the changing face of globalisation. In partic-
ular, young migrants entering the Australian school system experience
racism for diverse reasons, all of which affect their educational outcomes
(Priest et al., 2014, 2019). In the next section, we will discuss some of
the underlying factors, to contextualise the current intercultural relations
within Australian schools with particular reference to the experiences of
migrants and refugees.

Measuring Racism Among Young Australians

In 2009, the Foundation for Young Australians commissioned a national
project to investigate the impact of racism on the health and wellbeing of
young Australians. The project had three key objectives: examining the
experiences of racism for young people from English-speaking, Indige-
nous, migrant and refugee backgrounds; investigating how young people
in Australia reported and responded to racism and exploring the attitudes
of Australian youth in relation to key issues in contemporary race rela-
tions, such as cultural diversity, tolerance and privilege. Overall, eighteen
Australian secondary schools participated in the project. Of these, fifteen
were involved in a survey and interviews while three schools participated
only in interviews. In total, 823 secondary school students took part
in the project, with 125 interviewed, and 698 students completing the
survey.
The survey was designed to measure the prevalence of racism, settings,
target response, to whom the incident was reported, and its impact upon
the target’s health and wellbeing. Quantitative data was collected through
a 6-item Likert scale and dichotomous yes/no questions. Participants
were asked eleven questions regarding various racist experiences including
questions indicating their agreement or disagreement with statements
regarding cultural diversity, racism and white privilege, and questions
related to how their school responded to racist behaviour. For example,
participants were first asked whether or not they had experienced a
particular racist incident, with a follow-up question if they answered
284 A. ELIAS ET AL.

in the affirmative. Furthermore, the survey collected demographic data,

including ethnic background and country of birth. A series of open-ended
questions were also asked, providing opportunities for more extended
responses on particular racist incidents or related attitudes and personal
accounts. Finally, a series of wellbeing questions with a 5-level Likert scale
response option were asked to measure the participant’s sense of calm,
level of energy and feelings of sadness. This was extended by a question
regarding participants’ general health and level of anxiety.
The findings of the survey indicate that racism is a critical issue for
the schools as sites for intercultural relations and as potential vehicles
of change regarding attitudes about diversity, culture and race. Asked
to identify the settings for the racist behaviour, the majority of partici-
pants reported that most racist experiences occurred inside classrooms,
the schoolyards, oval or sporting areas. More than 66% reported that
racist experiences take place in school, 21% in the media, 6% at work and
0.3% in government agencies. While the qualitative data supported this
finding across groups generally, Indigenous interviewees invariably indi-
cated that they experienced equal levels of racism at school and within
the wider community. However, the small number of Indigenous partic-
ipants, both in the survey (n = 20) and interview (n = 9) may account
for these variations between the quantitative and the qualitative sets of
data.
Table 8.1 details the number of participants who indicated that they
had experienced, witnessed or been involved in an act of racism. Partic-
ipants were either perpetrators of racism, or the victims of racism.

Table 8.1 Number of participants who witnessed or were involved in racist

incidents

Response Participants
Frequency Per cent Valid Per cent

Valid Yes 399 57.2 75.1

No 132 18.9 24.9
Total 531 76.1 100.0
Missing System 167 23.9
Total 698 100.0

Note Prevalence of racism in a survey of 15 Australian schools in 2009 (Mansouri et al., 2009b)
 8 RACISM AND YOUNG PEOPLE 285

Therefore, this finding is an overall exposure of the sample to any type

of racist knowledge, behaviour or attitude.
Table 8.2 reports more detailed finding, including responses to specific
survey questions that asked the students about their experiences with
eleven racist scenarios. On average, 21% of participants indicated that
they experienced racism as targets. The most common racist experience
was hearing or reading stereotypic comments about one’s cultural group
(50%) followed by being called offensive slang names referring to one’s
cultural group (39%). Other frequent racist experiences also include racist
jokes, songs or teasing as well as seeing racist pictures.
Almost 70% of all participants had experienced at least one of these
eleven racist behaviours, while approximately only 29% indicated they did
not have any experience of such incidents. The majority of the racist inci-
dents occurred occasionally. In most cases, the participants decided to
take no action; they did not confront the perpetrator or seek help.
Figure 8.1 presents the prevalence of racism, grouping the partici-
pants based on their backgrounds. The results show strong similarities
in the experience of racism across all migrant groups. More than 80% of

Table 8.2 Racist experiences in Australian schools, 2009

Racist incidents Per cent (Yes)

Total sample 675

Been called an offensive slang name for your cultural groupa 38.7
Been the target of racist jokes, songs or teasing 29.3
Heard or read comments stereotyping your cultural group 49.8
Seen pictures that portray your cultural group in a poor light 28.9
Been verbally abused (including offensive gestures) because of your 20.6
cultural background
Felt excluded or left out because of your cultural background 15.8
Felt that people avoid you because of your cultural background 10.1
Felt that people treated you as less intelligent, or inferior because of 16.6
your cultural background
Been refused entry or use of a service because of your cultural 5.2
background
Been refused employment because of your cultural background 3.9
Been treated with suspicion because of your cultural background 12.3
Mean score 21.0

Note Based on the report by Mansouri et al., (2009b) a The total sample for the first item is n =
670
286 A. ELIAS ET AL.

100%
12.2% 14.1%
90% 17.6% 19%

80% 36.8%
45.4%
70%

60%

50%
87.8%
No
85.9% 82.4%
40% 81%
Yes
30% 63.2%
54.6%
20%

10%

0%
Migrant < Migrant 5yrs+ 2nd & 3rd gen Refugee Aboriginal Anglo
5yrs migrant

Fig. 8.1 Participants, according to background, who have experienced racism

participants from all groups of migrants indicated that they experienced

racism. The lowest was among Anglo-Celtic Australians and Indige-
nous Peoples, 55 and 63% of whom, respectively reported having such
experience. However, it should be noted that only twenty Indigenous
participants completed the survey, thus this finding should be interpreted
with caution. Migrants who arrived within five years reported the highest
frequency of racist experiences, at 88%.

Reporting the Incident

Survey participants were asked to identify to whom they reported the
racist experience. The survey provided four options: a teacher, counsellor,
health professional or police. By far, the majority of participants who
reported the incident, reported it to a teacher (52%), followed by a school
counsellor (31.7%). Only 12% indicated they reported to the police while
4.2% reported to a health professional. A troubling aspect of this data was
that for all eleven forms of racism, the majority of participants reported
that they took no action in relation to their experience, far more than
choose to confront the perpetrator or seek help.
 8 RACISM AND YOUNG PEOPLE 287

As in the survey, the interview also indicated that the person to whom
most interviewees reported their racist experience, if they did so, was a
teacher. Teachers were chosen for consultation and reporting even when
the racist experience had not occurred in school. However, both the
quantitative and qualitative data indicated that many students do not
officially report their experiences of racism; they merely confide the inci-
dent to friends from whom they seek solace and comfort. Indeed, friends
can be an excellent source of comfort. Yet, the non-reporting of the
experiences was a troubling result (Grossman & Liang, 2008). Young
students are not mature, experienced or educated enough to deal appro-
priately with a friend who is temporarily distressed or suffering ongoing
trauma from racism. This is particularly so if the racism is regular and is
causing issues for the student victim regarding school attendance, family
communication, and the development of identity and sense of self.

School Response
To understand how the participating schools reacted to and managed
student experiences of racism, interviewees were asked two follow-up
questions: “how does your school deal with racist incidents?” and “who
would you talk to at school about racist incidents?” The interview situ-
ation provided time and a comfortable space in which the participants
could give details about their perception of the school’s response to the
racism.
Generally, schools either took a positive preventative approach or had
ongoing policies in place to deal with issues of intercultural relations
as they arose. Some schools incorporated both approaches, while others
turned a blind eye and did nothing. The latter approach was troubling,
although whether or not the school was turning a blind eye seemed to
be dependent on who was being interviewed. Some students within the
same schools had starkly different opinions about the success or other-
wise of a particular school’s approach to dealing with racism. However,
it was generally conveyed by interviewees that “people should know
where the boundaries are” (Akoch, a Sudanese male participant). This
indicated a desire for schools to be clear about expectations regarding
student behaviour and consequences, and to address breaches of these
expectations.
Interviewees also reported positive, preventative measures in their
schools that included welcoming programmes in which parents of new
288 A. ELIAS ET AL.

migrant and refugee students were given a tour of the school, provided
with a translator if required, and made to feel very welcome. Part of the
preventative approach adopted by some schools was to implement units
of work, which deal with diversity, race and culture. This was generally
done in year levels nine and ten as part of social science programmes.
Programmes may include discussions relating to identity, race, culture,
multiculturalism and religion. Several schools had taken this proactive
and positive approach, and the students who were interviewed at these
schools demonstrated attitudes that were comparatively more culturally
and racially aware and sensitive.

Racism and Health

A closer examination of the survey supports the broad hypothesis of
a direct relationship between racism and health among young people.
Correlations were run to examine the strength of the relationships
between health, experience of racism and demographic variables. Since a
pre-existing measure of health/wellbeing was not included in the survey,
four individual items assessing these constructs were combined to give an
overall indication of participants’ health/wellbeing. An assessment of the
internal reliability of this scale revealed a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.67, indi-
cating a satisfactory level of internal reliability. Scores on this scale could
range from 4 to 20, with higher scores indicating better health/wellbeing.
Results for correlations are presented in Table 8.3.
The correlation between the health and wellbeing score and the
experience of racism (witnessing or being involved in) was statistically
significant, and negative in direction (r = –0.12, n = 512, p = 0.008).

Table 8.3 Correlation

Variable Health Experience of
between health,
Racism
experience of racism and
various demographic HEALTH 1.000
variables Gender −0.137** (624) –
Experience of −0.118** (512) 1.000
Racism
Middle years 0.142** (628) −0.107* (517)
Senior years −0.170** (628) 0.127** (517)

Note Values reported are correlation coefficients (Spearman’s rho),

relevant sample sizes are indicated in parentheses, and significance
levels indicate ** < 0.01 and * < 0.05 (2-tailed)
 8 RACISM AND YOUNG PEOPLE 289

Either witnessing or being involved in racism was strongly related to a

decreased level of health and wellbeing. Nearly 12% of the variability in
health could be explained by knowing if a person had an experience with
racism. Similarly, the health/wellbeing score and gender were negatively
correlated (r = −0.14, n = 624, p < 0.01), as being female predicted a
decreased level of health and wellbeing. Around 14% of the variability in
health was explained by a person’s gender.
The finding indicates that health and wellbeing scores were directly
related with being in middle school years, years nine and ten (r = 0.14,
n = 628, p < 0.001). More than 14% of the variation in health was
explained by participant school year levels, with participants in the middle
year levels more likely to have higher health and wellbeing scores. This
finding is in line with, and may be explained by, the significant correla-
tion that was observed between experiences of racism and being in the
middle year levels of high school (r = −0.11, n = 517, p < 0.05).
Middle school participants were less likely to have experienced racism.
On the other hand, the health and wellbeing score was negatively asso-
ciated with being in the senior years at school (r = −0.17, n = 628,
p < 0.001). Participants in the senior years of school (years 11 and 12)
had significantly lower levels of health and wellbeing, and this variation
accounted for 17% of the overall variability in health. Partly, this may be
driven by the high level of racism experienced by students in senior years
(r = 0.13, n = 517, p < 0.01).
A range of factors can contribute to the effect of racism on health.
To determine what factors predicted the variation in the health and
wellbeing of participants of this study, further analysis was conducted.
Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to assess the relationship
among participants’ demographic variables, experiences of racism and
health/wellbeing.2 Participant demographic variables: gender, year level,
ethnic background and experience of racism were the key independent
variables while the total health/wellbeing score was the dependent vari-
able. To transform the essentially categorical data into a form that can
be analysed meaningfully, the year level category was dummy coded.
Likewise, the year level category was coded into junior years (years

2 Various statistical tests were applied to test whether the data met all relevant
assumptions for a hierarchical regression, including sample size, multicollinearity, outliers,
normality, linearity and homoscedasticity criteria. Results indicated the data satisfied these
assumptions and was feasible for a hierarchical model.
290 A. ELIAS ET AL.

7 and 8), middle years (years 9 and 10) and senior years (years 11
and 12). The junior years category was the reference in the regression.
Ethnic background was analysed as a dichotomous variable where 1 repre-
sented Anglo-Celtic Australians and 0 represented all other ethnic groups.
Figure 8.2 shows a conceptual model for the multivariate relationship
among the key sociodemographic factors and health/wellbeing.
The results of the final regression reported in Table 8.4 revealed
three significant predictors of a decrease in health/wellbeing score: being
female, being in the senior years of school, and experiencing racism.
Regressions that included other predictor variables were also run but were
excluded from the final estimation as they were not statistically significant
predictors of health outcomes. Some factors did not appear to have any
statistically significant relationship with health outcomes of participants.

Experience of Year level Cultural

Gender
racism category background

Health/Wellbeing

Fig. 8.2 Examination of variables that significantly affect health/wellbeing

Table 8.4 Hierarchical multiple regression with health/wellbeing as dependent

variable

Category Progressive Adj. R2 (%) B Beta p-values

Step 1 Gender 3.4*** −1.10 −0.207 0.000

Step 2 Racism 4.6** −0.54 −0.09 0.042
Step 3 Middle – −0.70 −0.137 0.192
Senior 9.1*** −1.74 −0.339 0.001
Step 4 Culture 9.5 −0.42 −0.082 0.066

Note Significance levels indicate *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001
 8 RACISM AND YOUNG PEOPLE 291

Among these were the participant’s religion, cultural background, state

and type of school attended.
In Step 1, with gender as the single covariate, the model was
significant (F (1466) = 17.5, p < .001), accounting for 3.4% of the
variance. This indicates that gender significantly predicted participant
health/wellbeing for the sample, with females having significantly lower
levels of health/wellbeing than males. Step 2 (gender and experience of
racism) was also significant, F (2465) = 12.2, p < .001, accounting for
4.6% of the variance. Participants who either experienced or were involved
in racism had significantly lower health/wellbeing than participants who
had no experiences. Step 3 added year level category to the model along
with gender and experience of racism. The F-statistic was statistically
significant (F (4463) = 12.7, p < .001), with the model accounting
for 9.1% of the variance, although only senior years were a significant
predictor of health/wellbeing. According to this model, those in senior
years of school have significantly worse health/wellbeing compared to
younger participants. The final step, which added cultural background to
the equation was not statistically significant, meaning that being Anglo-
Celtic Australian or not has no significant impact on the health/wellbeing
score. The adjusted R-squared for the overall model explained 9.5% of the
variance, and 9.5% of the variability in health/wellbeing can be explained
by information on gender, school year and experiences of racism.

Current Trends of Racism Among Young People

More research has been undertaken on the racism related experiences of
young Australians since the current findings were reported. Among the
latest such research is the Speak Out Against Racism (SOAR) project,
a representative survey of Australian students conducted in New South
Wales and Victoria (Priest et al., 2019). The study was based on a survey
of 4664 primary and secondary students (2081 from New South Wales
and 2583 from Victoria), mainly in government schools. Participants were
primary (60%) and secondary school (40%) students aged 8–17 years. It
examined the prevalence of racism within the school system, as reported
by students, and perpetrated by student peers, teachers or society in
general.
According to the SOAR study’s findings, 60% “of the student partici-
pants reported seeing incidents of racial discrimination” perpetrated “by
292 A. ELIAS ET AL.

peers against other students” (Priest et al., 2019, p. 2). The experi-
ences of discrimination included such things as “being left out, teased or
treated with less respect by other students, and physical violence” (Priest
et al., 2017, p. 2). Around 40% of the students from non-European back-
grounds reported experiences of racial discrimination, usually perpetrated
by their peers. In addition, almost 20% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students reported experiencing racism, and more than 42% of
teachers reported witnessing racial discrimination happening to students
(Priest et al., 2019).
These findings are consistent with other national studies. Table 8.5
reports how racism is trending in Australia over the 2001–2020 period.
According to these data, generated from multiple studies, the levels of
racism experiences among young Australians is rising, particularly for
Indigenous and migrant young people. In addition, studies indicate that
racism continues to be widespread in Australian schools, and students
from minority backgrounds are disproportionately burdened with social
stressors, which in turn affect their health, wellbeing and learning experi-
ence. Either being directly or vicariously exposed to racial discrimination

Table 8.5 Trends of experiences of racism/discrimination among young

Australians 2001–2020

Discrimination CRPa MSCb SOARc

Y N Y N Peers Teachers Society
Y N Y N Y N

National 30.7 69.4 18.2 81.5 31.2 68.8 26.5 73.5 26.5 73.5
Victoria 29.6 63.9 24.9 75.1 24.9 75.1
New South 32.3 67.7 27.7 72.3 27.7 72.3
Wales
Sample
characteristics
Age 18–25 18–24 8–17
Sample size 1017 4169 4664
Years 2001–2008 2007–2019 2017

Note Responses are a Yes = Sometimes—Very often; b MSC for 2007–2012 is for age group 18–25.
c The SOAR sample is for Victoria and NSW overall. Survey questions include: CRP: “How often have
you experienced discrimination because of your ethnic origin in the following situations?” [Workplace,
education, renting house, police, shops, sport]; MSC: “Have you experienced discrimination because
of your skin colour, ethnic origin, or religion?” SOAR: “Have you experienced particular situations
of discrimination due to their race, ethnicity or cultural background?”
 8 RACISM AND YOUNG PEOPLE 293

leads to persistent effects of depressive symptoms and loneliness, and

physical illnesses such as hypertension and cardio-metabolic disease (Priest
et al., 2017, 2019, 2020).
As highlighted in the study we reported above, teachers play critical
role in school intercultural experiences and anti-racism programmes. They
are well placed to promote “equity, opportunity and improved inter-
cultural relations” in addition to challenging racism within classrooms
(Forrest et al., 2016, p. 8). Yet, teachers’ racist attitudes when they
occur can have profound adverse effect on student wellbeing, with morbid
effects of teacher racism more pronounced among students from minority
groups (Bodkin-Andrews et al., 2013; Mansouri & Jenkins, 2010).
Recent studies in Sydney and country New South Wales indicate wide
support for pro-diversity policies among teachers (Forrest et al., 2016,
2017). For example, Forrest et al. (2016) examined a sample of 1309
teachers in an online self-administered survey in Sydney, and found high
level of support for cultural diversity in schools. This compares with a
few minority who are not comfortable with multiculturalism (11%) and
teachers who denied the existence of racism (16%). The study also found
mixed attitude towards diversity policy. While the surveyed teachers were
generally supportive of anti-racism policy (71%), “only 46% were positive
about the implementation of the multicultural education policy, and a
high proportion (48%) did not know if it had been implemented” (Forrest
et al., 2016, p. 10). This indicates the significance of anti-racism strategies
that creates more awareness among Australian teachers about racism, its
prevalence and deleterious effects on student wellbeing.
In conclusion, while racism deeply impacts young people, they play
active role in challenging it across online and onsite domains. Thus,
programmes and policies that empower young people to take initiatives to
constructively engage in society are vital in tackling racism and its delete-
rious effects. Chapter 10 discusses anti-racism in more detail. At this stage,
it is worth noting that young people bear the largest burden of prevalent
racism in Australia (see Table 8.5, and cf . Figure 5.1 in Chapter 5), and as
such have more stake in its eradication. They are the most active in social
media, and thus better positioned to confront cyber-racism. In addition,
in sport settings, schools and the wider community, they represent the
majority of both perpetrators and targets of racism, and thus should be
considered as the vital targets of effective anti-racism strategies.
294 A. ELIAS ET AL.

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 CHAPTER 9

Travelling Racism: Global Forces and Their

Impact on Racism

Mass communication has long facilitated the spread of information and

ideas on wide-ranging social issues across time and space. Through various
kinds of networks (Lupton, 2014; Margetts et al., 2015; van Dijk,
2006), ideas developed within particular societies, cultures or countries
have inspired social transformations elsewhere. Today, computer-mediated
networks (particularly, social media), are engendering global interconnec-
tions, with far-reaching socio-political impact. Race relations is one area
where social ramifications of the nascent digital revolution are evident.
Chapter 6 has discussed how fast Internet-based communication impacts
the manifestations of racism. By compressing spatio-temporal barriers,
racism and other social phenomena are able to transcend geographic and
temporal boundaries, and widen their impacts. The Arab Spring events
that swept across North Africa and the Middle East was a case in point
of how social media can enable social and political transformations that
previously would have been considered almost impossible (Howard &
Hussain, 2011, 2013; Mansouri, 2020; Tufekci & Wilson, 2012). Racism
is another social phenomenon that quickly spreads across nations, through
social media platforms attracting both condemnation and solidarity. For
example, the recent eruption of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement
in the US in May 2020 has shored up worldwide support and solidarity,
with global condemnation of racism and xenophobic nationalism leading
to assertive anti-racism across all continents.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 299

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_9
300 A. ELIAS ET AL.

In Australia, BLM solidarity has stirred renewed political debate

focused on the disproportionate number of Indigenous deaths in custody.
Historically, civil rights movements in the US and anti-Apartheid struggle
in South Africa impacted Black activism in Australia while White
Australia’s relationship with these movements was regressive. Evidently,
the effect of global forces on the dynamics of race relations in Australia is
not limited to anti-racism. Global racist and xenophobic nationalism can
also have direct effects on broader intercultural relations within Australia.
The actions of far-right groups and individuals (e.g. the attack in a
Christchurch Mosque in March 2019), and anti-Asian racism during the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic indicate that racism has spatial and
temporal fluidity.
Traditionally, racism was often localised, usually reflecting internal
national structures of racial and ethnic inequalities that are indicative
of formations of deeper racist histories wrought largely through colo-
nialism. According to the Challenging Racism Project, racism in Australia
tends to be geographically localised in smaller communities, and is charac-
terised as having an everywhere different pattern (Forrest & Dunn, 2006;
Nelson & Dunn, 2017). At the national level, country-specific socioeco-
nomic, cultural and political factors often determine prevailing intergroup
dynamics. As we have surveyed in Chapter 2, racism in Australia, has
at least two distinct historical origins, one in relation to the colonial
and postcolonial institutional structures that systematically excluded and
disenfranchised Indigenous Peoples, and the second in relation to migrant
minority ethnic groups and their treatment within the White Australia
Policy. International manifestations of race relations had limited impact
on Australia, although high-profile global anti-racism episodes such as the
US Civil Rights movement and anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa
reverberated across the world, affecting global race relations, including
in Australia. A recent incident is the 2007 Lindsay Pamphlet Scandal,
which was a failed political attempt to agitate the electorate with global
Islamophobia threat in the seat of Lindsay, Sydney (Dunn & Kamp,
2012; Thompson, 2009). Despite this, race relations in every country
tends to be largely inward looking and locally specific. This changed with
the advent of the Internet over the last three decades, with cyberspace
becoming an ever-growing domain of intercultural encounter.
Racism has now become a global digitally connected phenomenon,
with racially conscious groups (for example, White supremacists) gaining
 9 TRAVELLING RACISM: GLOBAL FORCES AND THEIR IMPACT ON RACISM 301

access to worldwide audiences. Racism today is no longer strictly perpe-

trated in close physical proximity; the culprit is not necessarily one sharing
the same legal jurisdiction with the target. In addition, racism is not neces-
sarily an immediate outcome of the local episodes or circumstances that
have allegedly disenfranchised the perpetrators. Groups and individuals
with racist ideologies may vicariously import racist hatred, targeting local
minorities. This chapter, therefore, explores how international factors
influence race relations in the contemporary Australian nation state. It
examines the role of an evolving global security environment on local
racial discourse, analysing how episodes of racial strife abroad can have
ripple effects on local racial politics. The chapter examines these global
social dynamics, and specifically addresses the question: What are the main
global forces that have direct implications for race relations in Australia?

Conceptualising Travelling Racism

Most ideologies develop and endure within specific contexts. Racism as
an ideology incorporating social power and prejudice can be concep-
tualised in terms of racial political solidarity, such as the ideology of
White supremacy. Such solidarity or support shown towards similar racial
groups internationally is a key driver of a dynamic travelling racism.
We understand travelling racism as the notion that because of socio-
political solidarity emanating from whiteness, racial issues and events
that arise in a given Western country can, based on sociocultural and
ethno-racial relationships, have a direct bearing on the racial dynamics
of another—particularly Western—country. Racist ideologies and beliefs,
like any other ideas and theories, travel translocally both in space and
time, passing “from person to person, from situation to situation, and
from one period to another” (Said, 1983, p. 226). Mandaville (2003)
conceptualises the movement of ideas as travelling theories, in a context
of transnational social movements, global politics and information tech-
nologies, particularly in Muslim diasporic politics. Travelling racism can
likewise be understood as a form of translocal movement of ideas, which
are adapted to local contexts across nations.
In an analysis of Mexican American racism towards African Americans,
Foley (2010) distinguishes between two distinct sources of racism—
locally bred and imported racism. The first was inherited from centuries
of slavery and racism within the US while the second was imported
from Mexico’s context. Foley (2010) considers the latter an ideology that
302 A. ELIAS ET AL.

had no local colonial roots in Mexico. It was thus an imported racism

entirely different from the locally bred colonial era racism across the US.
As such, the race relations between blacks and Hispanics emanates from
anti-immigrant sentiment, largely in response to language differences,
geographical separation and competition over jobs (Orozco, 2011).
Following Foley’s depiction, we can conceive of imported racism as
racism that has no local historical context, yet can, by cultural association,
influence intergroup dynamics within a particular country.
By virtue of its cultural, psychosocial and political alignment with the
West, Anglo-Celtic Australia is deeply impacted by contemporary issues
affecting kindred societies. Thus, the socio-political factors leading to the
production of racism in Australia have both local and global dimensions.
We have discussed the former in detail in Chapter 2 while Chapter 4
broadly discussed the wider economic and political causes of racism. Our
focus here is on the global aspect or imported variety of racism, which
emanates from the multifaceted connectedness of the modern world. In
discussing imported racism, it is worth noting that there is an inevitable
equivalent mirror image—i.e. exported racism (Hale, 2014). Both have
a lot to do with the globalisation and associated transmission of racism
as a culture of oppression. We therefore conceive of both as subsets
of travelling racism, a racism that moves across time and space largely
unconstrained by the bounds of a nation state. Racist policies, ideologies
and representations are continuously transmitted—such as from Anglo-
America to Australia—through the exportation of culture and through
what Young (2011) calls cultural imperialism—“the universalization of a
dominant group’s experience and culture, and its establishment as the
norm” (p. 59). This occurs in a wide variety of settings such as media,
culture, show business, sport and industrial enterprise (Hale, 2014).
Together with the racialisation, criminalisation and securitisation of
migration, the cultural power dynamic embodies the notion of globalised
racism that manifests as both imported and exported racism (Tesfahuney,
1998). Exported racism in the Australian context can be seen in the case
of the White Australia Policy, which has been adapted in South Africa
in the last century to structure Apartheid policies (Witton, 1973). A
more recent example is the promotion of Australia’s anti-asylum policy
by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and other politicians in Europe
and the US. Such policies and discourses represent tacit and active forms
of globalising racism that perpetuate global racial inequities.
 9 TRAVELLING RACISM: GLOBAL FORCES AND THEIR IMPACT ON RACISM 303

Globalisation of Racism
Chapter 2 has detailed how racism evolved in Australia over time, partic-
ularly in relation to local social relations. This discussion demonstrated
how racism was related to historical contexts such as the expansion of
colonialism and the socioeconomic issues surrounding the Atlantic Slave
Trade. However, we did not delve into the dynamics of race relations
in Australia relative to broader global political developments. Now, we
turn our attention to race as a political factor in global multidimensional
inequity (Tesfahuney, 1998).
Since the post-War period, race relations across Western societies have
seen significant reconfigurations due to global social and political transfor-
mations. Because of forces unleashed by increased worldwide mobility of
ideas, people and capital, countries have become greatly impacted by what
happens beyond their borders. Yet, these free movements and circulations
of ideas were not restricted to positive social forces, with racism particu-
larly being one of the detrimental ideologies transmitting unabated. Some
authors have argued that even localised racism often has an important
global dimension (Winant, 2017). There is ongoing debate as to whether
this globally travelling racism constitutes a form of global apartheid
(Mazrui, 1994; Munck, 2005). Whether the growing global socioeco-
nomic disparities and imbalance of power within the current international
order represents this hypothesis remains an open issue. Ansley (1997)
defines global apartheid as:

a political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly

control power and material resources. … and relations of white dominance
and non-white subordination are daily re-enacted across a broad array of
institutions and social settings. (p. 592)

However, some World System scholars have dismissed the global

apartheid thesis as an inherently orientalist depiction because of its
simplistic designation of the world into unifying rubrics of “whiteness”
and “colouredness” (Dunaway & Clelland, 2016). Arguably, the global
dimension of racism has more nuance and complexity, given the super-
diversity of societies worldwide (Vertovec, 2007), and the socio-political
and cultural contexts affecting all levels of social organisation.
304 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Globalisation today cuts across many areas including movement of

people, ideas, capital, information and technology (Goldin & Reinert,
2007). While there has been transnational movements of people and
ideas since the ancient times (O’Rourke & Williamson, 2002), this has
grown to unprecedented levels over the last few decades (Dreher et al.,
2008). Globalisation is a reality no country can avoid. It is seen in inter-
national migration with 272 million people migrants worldwide in 2019,
exceeding previous projections for 2050 (International Organization for
Migration, IOM, 2020). It is also seen in the value of world merchandise
exports of $19.48 trillion in 2018 (World Trade Organisation [WTO],
2019), and 4.1 billion people using the Internet in 2019.1 The issue thus
appears to be not so much about whether to be pro or against globalisa-
tion, but about what kind of globalisation to pursue. Some scholars have
pointed to alternative globalisation, one that challenges the hegemonic
domination of market fundamentalism, the centrepiece of the neoliberal
political tradition (Callinicos, 2009; Evans, 2008). The idea is that the
prevailing order based on the Western dominated neoliberal order should
democratise the global distribution of power, resources and agenda.
Many scholars have emphasised the intertwining nature of race and
class in the prevailing global political climate, particularly in the Global
North, where migrants and racial minorities remain excluded from social,
economic, cultural and political privileges (Abu-Laban & Gabriel, 2002;
Massey, 2009; Thomas & Kamari Clarke, 2013). Bhattacharyya et al.
(2016) see racism and its connection with globalisation from a Marxist
perspective, where racism and whiteness interact within a globalised
system to maintain the economic interests of the privileged Anglo-Celts
in the Global North. Paul (2020) argues that racism is intertwined with
global capitalism and structured in its existing order:

The global crisis, is energized in the contradictions of global capitalism

that is in effect totalitarian in its global aspiration to economic and polit-
ical power, an aspiring global state, and the imperatives of economic
growth, driving every nation-state of the world. Racism is embedded in
the emergence of a new imperialism to maintain Western global hege-
mony, a growing source of instability and violence in the world system,
endangering the survival of humanity. (p. 2)

1 See International Telecommunication Union, 2019: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/

Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx.
 9 TRAVELLING RACISM: GLOBAL FORCES AND THEIR IMPACT ON RACISM 305

In this expanding state of resurgent nationalism contradicted by

increasingly dynamic global crises, occasionally Australia finds itself in
awkward entanglements in such things as colonial legacy, immigration
rights, climate science and racist discourse (Dandy & Pe-Pua, 2015;
Fredrickson, 2015; Rigney, 1999).
The immigration rights issue in particular has long been a controver-
sial global phenomenon, and frequently so in Australia (see Chapter 2).
Across many Western countries, migration policies have often been driven
by xenophobia and racism, which also contribute significantly to the
globalisation of racism. However, perhaps war has been the most impor-
tant catalyst of the globalisation of racism (Bosworth et al., 2008).
Since the end of the Cold War era, and the subsequent War on Terror
before and after 9/11, the global spread of racism has taken a clash
of civilisations dimension, with its securitisation of intercultural rela-
tions worldwide. Putting a political economic dimension in a context
of assertive neoliberalism, scholars such as Macedo and Gounari (2006),
depict the globalisation of racism as a strategic outcome of the whole-
sale exclusion of the majority of the world through the implementation
of racist neoliberal policies and practices. Macedo and Gounari (2006)
argue that neoliberal predictions of the end of racism failed to materialise:

in light of the exponential increase of xenophobia throughout the world,

which has been caused in large measure by neoliberal policies producing
economic dislocation that has impelled millions of the world’s poor to
seek economic relief by migrating from rural to urban areas and from
poor to rich countries. This massive migration has, more often than not,
heightened racism that has manifested itself differently in other contexts.
(p. 7)

In addition to the enabling power of social media and information and

communications technology (ICT), the globalised dimension of racism is
reflected in the neoliberal policies that produced the structural conditions
for inequality, discrimination and socioeconomic oppression of minorities
and vulnerable groups across the world. Below, we examine some illus-
trative examples of how the politics of racism play out in the context of
Indigenous Peoples and migrant groups.
306 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Examples of Globalised Racism

Locally driven racism varies depending on social groups within a country
or region, and is in most cases a result of historical circumstances within
the particular country or region. For example, racism against Indigenous
Peoples in Australia is distinct and unique to Australia, and an outcome
of settler colonial history. The globalised forms of travelling racism in
Australia, on the other hand, may have wider dimensions, not necessarily
informed or driven by Australia’s local circumstances.
Travelling racism in other countries may likewise reflect nonlocal influ-
ences. Indeed, racism proliferates by appealing to exclusionary ideologies
and exclusivist forms of solidarity among in-group members. The so-
called new racisms that have grown over the last few decades provide
ample examples of transforming globalisation of racism. Among these
are Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, racism against migrants and far-right
extremism, which have global dimensions and are usually triggered by
translocal social and political circumstances (Vieten & Poynting, 2016).
Racism travels beyond physical boundaries, and whiteness ideology,
among others, can play a vital role as a socio-political adhesive. The
sweeping rise of far-right populism across Europe and the US, particu-
larly over the last decade, is a typical example of how racist ideology can
travel and influence local political discourse (Vieten & Poynting, 2016).
This recent resurgence of nationalism and xenophobia worldwide often
adapts to local contexts. Yet, the global dimension may become a constant
source of inspiration for the reproduction and repackaging of racism. Why
do we see a global resurgence of nationalism? Why is populism, often
accompanied by xenophobia, sweeping to political power across the West
and why do costly ethno-national religious cleavages continue to desta-
bilise many countries in Africa, Asia and Middle East? How can we explain
the recent rallying behind conservative parties in the US, UK, Austria,
Hungary, Israel, Russia, Brazil, India and Australia? Anthony Smith wrote
in Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era that,

at the close of the second millennia, there should be a resurgence of ethnic

conflict and nationalism, at a time when the world is becoming more
unified and interconnected and when the barriers between ethnic groups
and nations are falling away and becoming obsolete. (Smith, 1995, p. 1)
 9 TRAVELLING RACISM: GLOBAL FORCES AND THEIR IMPACT ON RACISM 307

Smith’s prediction proved accurate, with conflicts and tensions of

global significance (such as the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Ethiopia,
Sudan and Yemen) inspiring nationalist sentiments worldwide. In the
West, the reactions to the post-conflict upsurge in immigration and popu-
lation displacements have given rise to xenophobic right-wing populism
coupled with racist rhetoric (Gsttetner, 2016; Macedo & Gounari, 2006;
Vieten & Poynting, 2016). As social and economic conditions harden,
these racist behaviours and discourses are expected to increase. The recent
COVID-19 related surge in racism worldwide is a testament to this
possibility.
Indeed, globalisation does not necessarily have a unidirectional effect
on racism. It can also strengthen anti-racism efforts. The global trans-
mission of racism has an antithesis in the globalisation of anti-racism.
Anti-racism can generate global solidarity by appealing to a universal
call for justice. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Racial Discrimination provides a universal consensus against racism. It
draws global support for anti-racism action and policies. Both concerted
efforts to eradicate racism and spontaneous anti-racism actions can draw
solidarity at a global scale. A recent example for this is the Black Lives
Matter (BLM) movement, which received wide support and following
across the world, with unprecedented symbolic actions being taken across
a range of platforms.

Racism in the Age of COVID-19

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is the most recent global
force that exemplifies the link between travelling (imported) racism and
nationalism. In the wake of the outbreak, racism and xenophobia have
surged across many countries, to some extent triggered by sensationalised
and misinformed headlines (Bavel et al., 2020; Elias et al., 2021; He
et al., 2020; Noel, 2020). However, such a surge has happened in an
environment of rising nationalism, which has become globally ubiquitous
in contemporary societies. In many Western countries such as Australia,
US and UK, the pandemic reinforced old fears about migrants and other
minorities, and emboldened the resurgence of nationalism (Allen et al.,
2020). Scholars argue that the pandemic per se may not be the inevitable
cause of the recent rise in exclusionary nationalism, yet it can reinforce
pre-existing dynamics of resurgent nationalism (Elias et al., 2021). Bieber
(2020) predicts that.
308 A. ELIAS ET AL.

[t]he fear created by the pandemic and the biases that have already been
linked to COVID-19 are likely to be enduring, and they will shape the
post-pandemic world. In the search for scapegoats, minorities and other
vulnerable groups are likely to suffer and become targets of exclusion. In
particular, migrants are vulnerable and have already been instrumentalized
by far-right parties, characterized as carriers of disease. (p. 10)

In Australia, the xenophobic spike from the COVID-19 pandemic is

similar to other Western countries. The global public health and polit-
ical response towards the pandemic likely impacted social perceptions
and reactions. Indeed, fear of infection, frustration over ongoing lock-
down and restrictions and the economic impact of the pandemic are
blamed as the causes of aggressive forms of racism against migrants
(Chin, 2020). COVID-19 related racism has led to a resurgence of anti-
Asian sentiment, which had previously waned to some extent, as the
focus of out-group hostility largely shifted towards Islamophobia in the
post-9/11 era. Between April and June 2020 alone, a survey of Asian
Australians reported 386 racist incidents ranging from abuse to phys-
ical attack (Koslowski, 2020). It is too early to conclude whether this
resurgent anti-immigrant sentiment is indicative of a backpedalling of
Australian multiculturalism, yet, the rising trajectory of an exclusionary
nationalism is indeed a cause for worry (Elias et al., 2021).
While a myriad of factors contributed to COVID-19 racism, the role
of the Internet as a medium clearly stands out. By providing users unreg-
ulated access to disseminate information, the Internet allows racist ideas
and views to spread and mutate both locally and transnationally, with such
ideas affecting the behaviours of individuals and groups at the local level.
The anti-Asian racism that occurred in Australian cities have likely been
influenced by fake news and misinformation in social media (Pennycook
et al., 2020). Research indicates that racism and hate speech spread at
accelerated rates, particularly via social media (Daniels, 2009).

Global Influence of Cyber-Racism

Perhaps the most potent driver of globalisation in contemporary society
has been the Internet. Particularly in relation to ideas, the Internet
has exponentially extended the reach of massive information beyond the
confines of nation state borders. With it, social forces once confined to the
nation state have far-reaching influence through the power of cyberspace.
 9 TRAVELLING RACISM: GLOBAL FORCES AND THEIR IMPACT ON RACISM 309

In addition to ushering in an era of rapid electronic communication,

the advent of the Internet in 1989 has enabled largely unregulated
global interaction while retaining a certain level of anonymity (Norris &
Inglehart, 2009). Racism is one of the social forces that has received an
online space to spread to a worldwide audience.
Today, individuals inhabit a digital microcosm, constantly exposed to
information produced transnationally. Often, this mediated information is
racialised and appeals to particular groups, creating some form of global
solidarity. Groups that had long sought to increase the spread of their
ideas found that the Internet could dramatically increase their exposure
to audiences (Akdeniz, 2009). Those seeking to propagate views that priv-
ileged their own racial identities and denigrated other racially identifiable
groups found it to be of particular value (Akdeniz, 2009; Jakubowicz,
2012). The Internet afforded organised racists a greater opportunity
to broadcast messages that previously would have been narrowcast to
like-minded peers (Daniels, 2009). As such, authors of racist material
have found an ever-widening set of opportunities to promulgate their
ideas, share in the circles associated with other authors of racism and
inject a racist perspective into conversations taking place on social media.
Research also shows that authors of racist online material tend to possess
high levels of skill and a degree of sophistication, which enables them to
generate wider impact (Bluic et al., 2018).
Cyber-racism operates differently to racism in the non-virtual world,
partly because the volume of racist material is so large, and the mass of
users can become inured to a general level of racist discourse. Cyber-
racism has a distinctive but not totally different topology to real-world
racism, as it is heavily shaped by the anonymity and disinhibition allowed
by the Internet. Usually, a small minority of Internet users actively
create material they believe others would see as racist; many more create
or distribute material without necessarily recognising that it could be
received by others as racism (Jakubowicz, 2017). Although people with
racist attitudes are less likely to see Internet activity around them as racist,
production of racist material is positively correlated with racist attitudes
(Jakubowicz, 2017). In effect, the Internet is increasingly saturated by
racist discourses authored by users who do not recognise their activities
as racist. As racism is most likely to be identified by those who are its
targets, and least by its authors, the Internet is not well crafted to protect
such targets.
310 A. ELIAS ET AL.

In Australia, cyber-racism adds a new dimension to prevalent racism,

affecting diverse groups. It has caused mediatised controversies affecting
sports personalities, politicians and others (Matamoros-Fernández, 2017).
Ongoing social media, and mainstream news media have entertained
racialised discourses on migration policy, Muslim Australians, African
refugees, asylum seekers and Asian migrants in relation to COVID-19
(see Chapter 6). Apart from this general online activity, a specific example
of an effective cyber-racist campaign in Australia was the ability of Alt-
Right and racist groups to benefit from the Internet’s self-contradictions
as they pursue their hate speech trolling (Jakubowicz, 2017). A study by
Peucker et al. (2019) indicates that this group mobilizes support from an
amalgamation of people holding anti-Islam, cultural superiority and racial
superiority views.

Global Racism and Social Cohesion

Institutional racism at the global level can impact on social equity and
cohesion at the local level. Many scholars have argued that the prevailing
global social and economic order, that has set the rules governing
the global political economy today, reflect the interests of the global
elite, largely representing the Global North (Macedo & Gounari, 2006;
Thomas & Kamari Clarke, 2013). Established during the post-War era
and reconfigured at the end of the Cold War period, the interna-
tional system remains deeply exclusionary, both racially and culturally.
Studies have shown that globalisation has resulted in disparate economic
outcomes, with some countries and groups gaining while others gain little
or lose (Collier & Dollar, 2002). Thus, the global order proclaimed after
the fall of the Berlin Wall had both inclusive and exclusive dimensions
(Borjas & Castelles, 1997). Bosworth et al. (2008) contend that,

While globalization and its attendant neo-liberal economic model may have
brought unprecedented opportunities and prosperity to some in the glob-
ally connected north, many others in regions that are disconnected from
the global flows are ‘moving from the previous situation of exploitation to
a new form of structural irrelevance.’ (Borjas & Castelles, 1997, p. 265)

For many in the Global South, and minorities in the North, the inter-
national system is inherently racially biased, with international structures
and institutions privileging Western interests. Today, the global system
 9 TRAVELLING RACISM: GLOBAL FORCES AND THEIR IMPACT ON RACISM 311

that benefited the West remains intact, and many countries in the Global
South, as well as global advocacy groups, politicians, academics and
philanthropists worldwide, are challenging the system as racist and unfair.
We can locate much of the global anti-racism efforts within this drive for
changes to the global political order. Whether it is the demands of equality
for black people in the US, Indigenous Peoples in Australia, ethnic and
religious minorities across Africa, India, Myanmar and China or migrants
in Europe, US, Australia, South Africa, Israel, etc., all are intertwined with
the international political landscape. The structural global inequalities and
their local manifestations, exemplified in the reactions to rising levels of
migration, can challenge race relations at the local level, thereby affecting
social cohesion and raising heightened security agendas. Rigney (1999)
argues that racism has usually been an outcome of a social movement
rather than a response to particular situations. Accordingly,

A worldwide racist movement grew up around a series of political struggles

and is informed by a number of emergent themes. Touraine argues that
social movements can be viewed as both structured, organized political
movements and/or movements that are not structured but are based on
a consciousness filled with beliefs and values leading to collective action.
(Rigney, 1999, p. 112)

In an Australian context, global social and political debates can have

an impact on racial dynamics and social cohesion in Australia. This
can be observed by looking at specific global racial issues, including
debates on Indigenous rights, international immigration, Islamophobia
and far-right nationalism. The Indigenous rights movements globally
focus on the recognition of Indigenous land rights and the right to self-
determination (Lightfoot, 2008). This desire is shared by Indigenous
Peoples in Australia, and, as briefly discussed in Chapter 2, the political
struggle of Indigenous activists has had landmark achievements. Globally,
Indigenous rights are considered within legal and human rights frame-
works at national and international levels, and have linkages to a variety
of ethno-racial, linguistic and cultural human rights instruments (Van
Genugten & Perez-Bustillo, 2004).
International migration that has stimulated debates in Europe and
North America can have far-reaching impact in Australians’ attitudes
towards immigrants. Indeed, this goes both ways. For example, right-
wing politicians in the US, UK and Europe saw Australia’s turn back
312 A. ELIAS ET AL.

the boats policy, the policy that returned refugees coming by boats,
as exemplary (Loewenstein, 2018). The cross-national influence of far-
right extremism is another example. For example, in March 2019, the
Christchurch mosque attacker was inspired by the 2011 Norwegian
massacre while the New Zealand attack inspired subsequent terrorist
attacks in the US (Bluic et al., 2020).
The debate on Islamophobia, which has risen following the 9/11,
2001 event, is another socio-political factor that impacts on the racial
dynamics in Australia. The so-called War on Terror that legitimised the
securitisation of various issues and institutions, including immigration,
policing and media across the Global North, is a driving force for security
and social policies in Australia. The rise of Islamophobia within Australian
society, particularly over the last two decades, clearly shows that global
political factors influence social attitudes as much as local social events
(Briskman, 2015; Poynting & Mason, 2007).
We have mentioned above how far-right nationalism stimulates global
solidarity. Far-right nationalism appears to draw support from white
middle-class men who feel disempowered by the perceived threats of
super-diversity and multiculturalism (Kimmel, 2018; Wendling, 2018).2
This global feeling of disenfranchisement, which historically gained trac-
tion in Australia in the 1990s, continues to re-emerge with a global
ambience of anti-minority sentimentalities. Indeed, far-right movements
are generally country-specific in their nature and should be seen in the
context of local socio-political environments (Perry & Scrivens, 2016).
Far-right groups in Australia are diverse and distinct in terms of their
mobilisation strategies. Some of their distinct issues of interest relate to
Indigenous Peoples, immigration, gender diversity, ethnic diversity and
sexual preference (Peucker et al., 2019). Voogt (2017) draws a distinc-
tion “between traditional White supremacist far-right groups and the
increasingly active anti-Muslim groups” (p. 34).
Drawing on a study of 41,831 far-right group posts on Facebook,
Peucker et al. (2019) classify far-right groups in Australia into three broad
groups: anti-Islam, cultural superiority and racial superiority groups.
While Australian far-right groups have their own distinctions, research

2 According to Wendling (2018), for example Alt-Right represents a loose coalition of

groups with ideologies around opposing establishment politics, political correctness, Islam,
feminism, Black Lives Matter movement, a vague notions of globalism.
 9 TRAVELLING RACISM: GLOBAL FORCES AND THEIR IMPACT ON RACISM 313

indicates the importation of right-wing extremist contents from Europe

and North America (Bluic et al., 2020; Peucker et al., 2019).
While aspects of the social problems in Australia may have similarities
with other countries, direct importation of responses to Australia’s unique
intercultural issues, such as the consolidation of exclusionary practices and
ideologies does inevitably risk simplifying and exacerbating the problems.
Neither is the McDonaldisation of anti-racism a solution to the locally
grown racism that often arises in reaction to local contexts (Bonnett,
2006). However, this does not mean that local level racism and global
racism are unrelated. As argued throughout this chapter, racism travels
freely across nations partly because of the unregulated nature of the glob-
alisation of ideas and information. However, this free movement cannot
be seen as the sole reason. Primarily, racism is produced locally in a given
country. Its travel across time and space is conditional on its production.
It therefore follows that the laws and structures within the country of its
production determine the possibility of its production and spread. Then,
in theory, racism should be less likely to be produced in a country where
it is less tolerated than in a country where it is condoned or tolerated.
This then raises the potential for addressing it at the local level, while
justifying the need for legislations that discourage racial intolerance and
prohibit racial discrimination. Local actions and legislation that restrict
the production and spread of racism/discrimination can have wider effects
regionally and globally.
Globally, racism is already internationally condemned as a violation of
human dignity. The 1969 international convention against discrimination
that was previously mentioned in this chapter provides a legal framework
to tackle racism at the global level. In particular, the Durban Declara-
tion has highlighted a global agenda towards confronting institutionalised
racism. In 2001, the UN’s Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
(DDPA) was developed at the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance attended by 163
countries (Banton, 2002). In 2014, the UN Office of the High Commis-
sioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a practical guide for
the development of a national anti-racism action plan that serves as “a
basis for the development of a comprehensive public policy against racial
discrimination” (p. vii). The guide was developed in response to requests
from countries that sought to develop national anti-racism plans. Indeed,
a meaningful anti-racism action plan requires active participation and
deliberation of all groups affected by racism/discrimination. Thus, the
314 A. ELIAS ET AL.

guide highlights the significance of ensuring “the participation of indi-

viduals and groups directly affected by racial discrimination participate
during all phases of the process” (OHCHR, 2014, p. vii). In the next
chapter, we delve in more detail into anti-racism both at the local and
international levels, and review advances in anti-racism research.

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 CHAPTER 10

Countering Racism: Challenges and Progress

in Anti-racism Efforts

Conceptualising Anti-racism1
Racism and the opposition to it exist parallel to each other. Groups
affected by racial injustices have always resisted it explicitly or implic-
itly. We see this going back in history to the earliest days of Western
colonisation from at least the fifteenth century. Thus, in a book about
contemporary racism, it is fitting at this stage to discuss the concept and
practice of anti-racism.
Although numerous scholars have studied various aspects of race,
racialisation, and racism, relatively few have centred their work on anti-
racism (Aptheker, 1975; Bonnett, 2000; Gilborn, 1995; Paradies, 2016).
Despite the important contribution of extant scholarship, we still lack a
“shared notion of what is meant by anti-racism – either at the level of
ideology or political practice” (Solomos & Back, 1996, p. 104). Nor
is there yet “a well-developed typology of anti-racist theory and prac-
tice anywhere in the academic world” (O’Brien, 2007, p. 427). Paluck
(2016), for example, asks, “What do social scientists know about reducing
prejudice in the world?” before concluding that we know “very little”
(p. 147).

1 This section and the sections Anti-racism in History and Critique of Anti-Racism
in this chapter are adapted from Paradies (2016).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 319

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_10
320 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Anti-racism, also known as racial equity, equality or justice, has been

minimally defined as “forms of thought and/or practice that seek to
confront, eradicate and/or ameliorate racism” (Bonnett, 2000, p. 4) and
as “ideologies and practices that affirm and seek to enable the equality of
races and ethnic groups” (Bonnett, 2006, p. 1099). Others have defined
anti-racism more broadly as a “vigorous and agonistic intellectual and
political tradition defined by historical awareness, attentiveness to specific
relations of power, commitment to freedom and dignity, and investment
in redefining the meaning of citizenship and political action” (Olson,
2019, p. 672). More broadly, scholars have also described anti-racism as
a situation “in which people can live together in harmony and mutual
respect” (Anthias & Lloyd, 2002, p. 16), or as enabling the creation of
“a more just, humane world” (Essed, 2013, p. 3).
Given the manifold expressions of racism, there is a clear need to recog-
nise the concomitant plurality of anti-racism (O’Brien, 2009). To date,
the largest body of anti-racist scholarship has focused on internalised,
interpersonal and institutional racism through prejudice reduction, coun-
tering stereotypes, and reducing discriminatory behaviour among individ-
uals (Beelmann & Heinemann, 2014; Paluck & Green, 2009; Pettigrew
& Tropp, 2006). Closely related research has centred on race-related
organisational diversity, inclusion and equality (Curtis & Dreachslin,
2008; Kandola, 2008; Oswick & Noon, 2014). Anti-racist collective
action and social change aimed at addressing inequitable power relations,
material disadvantage and/or realising racial justice, ranging from small-
scale bystander action (Nelson et al., 2011) to social marketing (Donovan
& Vlais, 2006; Kwate, 2014), popular movements (Da Costa, 2010;
Farrar, 2004; Lentin, 1997) and anti-racist discourse (van Dijk, 2021),
have also been the focus of seminal scholarship. In addition, conflict
resolution and cosmopolitan approaches to anti-racism have examined
recognition, acknowledgement and understanding of cultural difference
through dialogue, contact, interaction, encounter and exchange as key
to viable, sustainable and legitimate race relations beyond harmony (Al
Ramiah & Hewstone, 2013; Dessel & Rogge, 2008; Elias, 2017; Noble,
2013; Rodríguez et al., 2018).
Hage (2016) details a 6-part typology of anti-racism: (1) reducing
the incidence of racist practices, (2) fostering a non-racist culture, (3)
supporting the victims of racism, (4) empowering racialised subjects,
(5) transforming racist relations and (6) fostering an anti-racist culture.
As Hage (2016) acknowledges, each of these anti-racism types overlap
 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 321

in practice, an observation emphasised by research findings that mutual

reinforcement across various anti-racisms is most effective in combating
racism (Paluck & Green, 2009; Paradies et al., 2009; Pedersen et al.,
2011; Williams & Mohammed, 2013). Given this, it is debatable whether
distinct types of anti-racism can be distinguished or, more importantly, if
there is value in doing so. The task of delineating individual and systemic
anti-racism (O’Brien, 2007) is a case in point, given the close connection
between individual agency and institutional structures (Berard, 2010).
More broadly, Bonnett (2000) argues that anti-racism “cannot be
adequately understood as the inverse of racism” (p. 2) in that one person’s
conception of anti-racism is another’s idea of racism. A historical illus-
tration of this is the social movement that established the West African
nation of Liberia in 1822, a movement that was strongly supported by
the Ku Klux Klan, who welcomed the exodus of blacks from the US
(O’Brien, 2007). Importantly, even when manifestations of racism and
anti-racism are clear, they are often co-constituted within individuals and
locales. For example, neighbourhoods where racism is rife can also be
“characterised by the most profound forms and moments of solidarity”
(Keith, 2013, p. 17). Hage (2014) has even argued for the existence
of racist anti-racism in which individuals protest racism against them-
selves and their group but condone it when directed at other groups in
society. Conversely, it is possible to be an “anti-racist racist” (Leonardo
& Zembylas, 2013, p. 156), whereby individuals recognise and strive
to overcome their own racism. For those who believe that racism is
inherent to contemporary societies and that anti-racist racism is therefore
the only achievable goal, an avowed identity of non-racism only detracts
from ongoing efforts to combat personal racism (Leonardo & Zembylas,
2013). This tension between recognising and overcoming personal racism
has also been explored in concepts such as reflexive anti-racism (Kowal
et al., 2013) and reflexive race cognisance (O’Brien, 2001).
Focusing on anti-racism thought, practice, strategies, interventions,
discourses and movements, this chapter synthesises current anti-racism
research, summarising the diverse debates as well as strategies that have
been proposed to address racism and discrimination, particularly in rela-
tion to Australia. We discuss the key challenges and progress in tackling
racism, evaluate strategies that have been formulated to date, and propose
solutions to invigorate some of the potentially effective strategies. To what
extent anti-racism strategies can be deployed to address these structural
inequalities is an empirical, as well as a practical, question. So far, research
322 A. ELIAS ET AL.

has documented the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of different anti-racism

strategies. However, relative to the amount of anti-racism work underway,
few evaluations have discerned the causal effects of interventions, limiting
our understanding of their effectiveness. Real-world field experiments
with longitudinal bearings (e.g. Paluck & Green, 2009), are especially
well placed to answer questions about the extent and manners by which
racism may be curbed, but remain uncommon.

Anti-racism in History
Although racism appears to be an enduring feature of societies
throughout the world, there is continuing debate about its origins. Some
scholars find evidence of racism throughout recorded history (Bethen-
court, 2014; Isaac, 2004), while others pinpoint its substantive emergence
in medieval Europe (Fredrickson, 2002). The term racism itself was first
coined in the early twentieth century, emerging as a critique of race rela-
tions in Western societies. Outside of academic circles the term was not
in popular usage until the mid-twentieth century, with the concepts of
institutional and internalised racism (discussed later) first appearing in the
1960s (Ture & Hamilton, 1967) and 1970s (Lipsky, 1978), respectively.
Although the term anti-racism was only coined in the mid-twentieth
century (Bonnett, 2000), opposition to racism has existed as long as the
phenomenon itself, adapting to contest its mutating schemas across time
and space (Aptheker, 1992; Lloyd, 1998).
The relative global decline of overtly blatant racism over the last five
decades is an extension of a much long history of anti-racism efforts. In
contemporary times, Enlightenment thoughts and concepts of liberty and
equality provided the seeds that inspired struggles against various injus-
tices. This was evident in the abolitionist anti-slavery campaigns, rebel-
lions and revolutions, which involved a range of cross-racial coalitions
and collaborations (Meer & Du Bois, 2018).
Later, both the widespread repugnance over the gross historical injus-
tices of different social policies (Jim Crow laws, Apartheid, the White
Australia Policy, etc.), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
liberal democracies in Western countries have rendered racism and ethnic
segregation unpalatable as an explicit endeavour, and have relegated it to
a spoiled identity. Nonetheless, other scholars locate the foundations of
both racism and anti-racism in the phenomena of colonialism and capi-
talism and highlight the deeper historical anti-colonial and anti-capitalist
 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 323

movements, which question and critique forms of Enlightenment liber-

alism and democracy, as vital forms of anti-racism in their own right
(Lawrence & Dua, 2005).
Racism has the power to persist. However, equally powerful have been
the anti-racism struggles that resisted racial oppression and injustice that
started two centuries ago. Whether it was the abolitionist struggles led
by Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce in Britain in the early nine-
teenth century, or the works of US abolitionists such as Fredrick Douglass
and Harriet Tubman in the later half of the century; whether it was the
civil rights campaigns of Booker T. Washington, William Monroe Trotter,
and W.E.B Du Bois or that of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr,
Malcolm X, Stokley Carmichael, Nelson Mandela, and Desmond Tutu, or
contemporary social movements such as Black Lives Matter, anti-racism
has been the ongoing work of many peoples who were forcibly subju-
gated under racial oppression or those who were morally inspired to
support their cause (Bhattacharyya et al., 2020). Spearheaded by these
and other leaders, decades of civil rights struggle has inspired effective
global anti-racism, with memorable achievements. Some of the mile-
stones include the abolition of slavery, Jim Crow, Apartheid, and the
White Australia Policy; Black and Indigenous voting rights in the US,
Australia and Canada; the independence of nation states in the Global
South from colonialism; and global anti-racial discrimination legislations
and conventions.

Critique of Anti-racism
Against the backdrop of the historical achievements of numerous anti-
racist social and political movements, recent anti-racism efforts have come
under criticism for variety of reasons including alleged ideological inco-
herence. For example, Gilroy (1990) argues that “the commonsense
ideology of anti-racism has … drifted towards a belief in the absolute
nature of ethnic categories and … the insurmountable cultural and expe-
riential divisions [that] are a feature of racial difference” (p. 192). For
Gilroy (1990), this and the alleged excesses of anti-racist activism are
among the main reasons that “its political confidence has been drained
away” (p. 191). Criticisms of anti-racism, particularly from the right, often
allege anti-racism actions as political correctness impinging on freedom of
expression (Lentin, 2000; Singh, 1994).
The primary critique of anti-racism is that it is limited by its inher-
ently oppositional politics. Despite calls to conceptualise anti-racism as
324 A. ELIAS ET AL.

more than simply the inverse or elimination of racism, this is largely how
it is approached as an endeavour. Some critics also consider the focus
on singular-topic identity politics (e.g. race, gender, class, sexuality, etc.)
to be ineffective and distracting from a broader focus on the structural
oppression of capitalism and colonisation (Gilroy, 1987; Gilroy et al.,
2018). This leaves us with the broader question of what anti-racism seeks
to achieve and how it connects to wider struggles such as social justice,
equality, participation, recognition and humanism without race. Is anti-
racism fundamentally about tolerance, respect, admiration, love or even
celebration? And, how does or should the foundational aspirations of anti-
racism shape the contours of practice? Should society strive to eliminate
the trope of race entirely through, for example, colour-blindness, or seek
only to eliminate the adverse side-effects of racial membership (Keith,
2013)?
While some claim that anti-racism as a whole has become neoliberal
(Reed, 2018), others consider the race as racism perspective as co-opted
by neoliberals, resulting in what Goldberg (2009) has termed racism
without race. Similarly, Moussavi et al. (2007) have described colour-
blindness as racism without racists. Within such worldviews, the eliding
of racial injustice is so extreme that anyone invoking the spectre of racism
(or even race) are accused of being racists (Kapoor, 2013).
Anti-racism discourse often involves an equivocal oscillation between
particularism and universalism (Detant, 2005) in which the tension
between difference and equality means that any right to difference could
lead to a difference of rights (Ford, 2013). Borrowing a term deployed
in relation to racism (Hesse, 2004) and whiteness (Ellsworth, 1997),
this constitutes the potentially ineluctable double-bind of anti-racism. This
double-bind compels anti-racist actors to “frame their practices and create
lines of argumentation based upon a scheme identical to that employed
by the racists” (Hušek & Tvrdá, 2016, p. 56), leaving racist hegemony
and oppression unchecked. Fozdar (2012) has also highlighted the trap
of countering racist discourses about the deviant other with anti-racist
depictions of the perfect same, whereby sameness is re-inscribed while
difference is demonised.
In response, recent alter-racist scholarship (Hage, 2012) has sought
to transcend binary dualisms and dissolve ossified distinctions through
alternatives, ranging from the role of white vulnerability and openness
in transforming self-conceptions (Bailey, 2011), to: everyday anti-racism
(Aquino, 2020); everyday anti-racism that utilises strategic assimilation
 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 325

and individualism and slow anti-racism that exploits barely perceptible

non-verbal gestures of individuals (Sharpe & Hynes, 2014).
Utilising Lentin’s (2004) conceptualisation of anti-racism as either
proximal or distant from public political culture, we can also ask if anti-
/alter-racism should oppose the state, operate in parallel to it or seek
to co-opt neoliberal discourses through appeals ranging from the legal
opprobrium of human rights to arguments of economic efficiency. In
other words, to what extent is anti-racism founded on “democracy, the
rule of law, human rights, equality, tolerance” versus “emancipation,
empowerment, resistance and liberation” (Lentin, 2008, p. 314). This
question depends, in part, on whether racism is “becoming intimately
fused with the logic and needs of neo-liberal capitalist accumulation”
(Hage, 2016, p. 126), or, indeed, whether racism existed prior to the
advent of capitalism (Bethencourt, 2014; Isaac, 2004) and how its persis-
tence in communist and post-communist societies can be explained (Law,
2012).
Like racisms without racism, perhaps anti-racisms can be pursued
without anti-racism. This would be an anti-racism subsisting on the ghost-
like presence of non-antiracism (Chouhan & Lee, 2001), striving to reach
beyond racism without explicit reference to it (Hamaz, 2008). Do such
approaches sidestep racism by a sleight of hand or do they instead “allow
the knotty issue of inequalities to slip” by unremarked (Valentine, 2008,
p. 333)? While some scholars maintain that “the equalisation of the mate-
rial conditions … is the best hope for a just society, without racism” (Sian
et al., 2013, p. 128), the persistence of anti-Semitism without group-level
Jewish disadvantage suggests otherwise. This is, of course, the “redis-
tribution-recognition dilemma” identified by Fraser (1997, p. 13) that
prompts questions like: Does distribution flow from recognition (Butler,
1997) and to what extent are sociocultural and material disadvantage
intertwined?
Clearly, there are a range of conceptual and theoretical questions
pertaining to the nature and pursuit of anti-racism in societies around the
world. Beyond these, however, we can ask more straightforward questions
such as when, where and under what conditions does anti-racism work?
This empirical and pragmatic question is the focus of the next section.
326 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Effective Anti-racism Strategies2

Approaches to Anti-racism
Anti-racism approaches are highly diverse, spanning everything from prej-
udice reduction to conflict resolution to collective social action (Paradies,
2016), and from reducing the incidence of racism to empowering
racialised subjects to fostering a radical indifference to race (Hage, 2015).
This includes examples such as virtual reality experiments (Banakou et al.,
2016) and participatory theatre projects (Sonn et al., 2015). Here we
focus on some of the most commonly used anti-racism approaches and
their effectiveness in addressing racism, namely: (1) intergroup contact,
(2) training and education, (3) communications and media campaigns
and (4) organisational development. These approaches sometimes overlap
or can be used in combination to reinforce one another. Organisational
development may, for instance, feature a component of diversity training,
while diversity training and media campaigns may involve a degree of
intergroup contact.

Intergroup Contact
Ethnically and culturally diverse societies have social environment for
complex intergroup relations. In the literature, two theories have emerged
suggesting divergent views on interethnic relations: the conflict and
contact theories. According to conflict theory, ethnic diversity as repre-
sented by the concentration of minorities increases racial antagonism and
intolerance (Valenty & Sylvia, 2004) by reducing trust and social capital
(Putnam, 2007). On the contrary, the intergroup contact theory main-
tains that interethnic contact can foster positive attitudes, support for
integration and reduce hostile attitudes (Valenty & Sylvia, 2004). Contact
can play an important role in anti-racism efforts by ensuring positive
intergroup experience.
Intergroup contact is a broad anti-racism approach that has been
extensively implemented and studied, and has arguably become the
most important approach for reducing prejudice (Paluck et al., 2018).
Grounded in Gordon Allport’s (1954/1979) intergroup contact theory,
it is predicated on five optimal contact conditions for successfully reducing
intergroup conflict and increasing harmony: (1) equal status between

2 This section is based on Ben et al. (2020).

 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 327

interacting groups; (2) common goals between groups; (3) intergroup

cooperation; (4) support from authorities, law or custom and (5) situ-
ations that allow for developing personal acquaintance and friendships
through meaningful, repeated contact (Al Ramiah & Hewstone, 2013;
Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Contact may take direct (face-to-face) or indi-
rect forms (i.e. as imagined, extended, vicarious or virtual) that can both
be effective in reducing prejudice (Brown & Paterson, 2016). Educational
settings like schools and universities are the most popular sites for inter-
group contact interventions, followed by workplaces and organisations,
and a host of other settings (Kalinoski, et al., 2013; Pettigrew & Tropp,
2006).
Intergroup contact reduces prejudice through various
programmes/mechanisms. Some of the best-studied and most important
mechanisms include affective processes that decrease intergroup threat,
anxiety and symbolic threat (i.e. anticipating harmful consequences),
enhance self-disclosure, increase empathy and perspective taking and
alter group norms and social categorisations (Dovidio et al., 2017).
The impact of intergroup contact on attitudes can generalise beyond
the individual out-group members encountered and extend onto their
greater group (Lemmer & Wagner, 2015; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006).
The extent to which the individuals encountered (whether directly or
indirectly) are perceived as typical members of the out-group makes
generalisation more likely (Al Ramiah & Hewstone, 2013; Brown &
Paterson, 2016; Dovidio et al., 2017). Meta-analyses have shown that
programme effects can persist after the programme has ended (Beelmann
& Heinemann, 2014; Lemmer & Wagner, 2015).
Research demonstrates that the quality/favourability of contact has
a stronger effect on attitudes than contact quantity, while the duration
of contact also matters, with sustained contact becoming more positive
over time, up to a point of diminishing returns (Dovidio et al., 2017).
A balanced ratio of majority to minority group members in contact
situations makes contact more effective in reducing prejudice, as it can
maximise opportunities for interaction and reduce perceived intergroup
threat (Al Ramiah & Hewstone, 2013). As to participants, college-aged
students are influenced more strongly than adults (Pettigrew & Tropp,
2006), and participants who are highly prejudiced and/or for whom
contact experiences are relatively novel may be more strongly impacted
as they have ample room for attitudinal change (Al Ramiah & Hewstone,
2013). While meeting Allport’s conditions for optimal contact is associ-
ated with greater prejudice reduction, not all conditions may be required
328 A. ELIAS ET AL.

to reduce prejudice, and contact may not always lead to positive attitudes.
Negative intergroup contact may have stronger effect on prejudice than
positive contact does on its reduction (Barlow et al., 2012). Yet, the atti-
tudes of majority group members towards minority group members are
often more strongly affected than vice versa (e.g. Dovidio et al., 2017;
Pedersen et al., 2011; Ülger et al., 2017).

Anti-racism Training and Education

Various anti-racism initiatives use forms of education and training to
enhance cultural competency or challenge discrimination, often at work-
places and schools (Pedersen & Barlow, 2011). The most common
intervention is diversity training, which draws on programmes that aim to
increase positive intergroup behaviours and decrease prejudice or discrim-
ination towards (perceived) out-group members (Pendry et al., 2007,
p. 29). Training can decrease discriminatory attitudes and beliefs among
most participants, but disturbingly can also increase them for a small, yet
sizeable group (Paradies et al., 2009).
A meta-analysis of curricular and co-curricular diversity-related activ-
ities found these diversity trainings had moderate effect in reducing
racial bias, where effects were stronger for white students compared with
non-white students (Denson, 2009). Another meta-analysis of diversity
training programmes, of which over a third focused on race, ethnicity,
culture and/or religion, found considerable effects on cognitive-based
and skill-based outcomes, and somewhat smaller effects on affective-based
outcomes (Kalinoski et al., 2013). Other reviews have been less supportive
of diversity training. A recent review suggests that diversity training “can
lead to both positive and negative social justice outcomes”, including
studies that find that training can both reduce and increase discrimination
(Alhejji et al., 2016, p. 5). A review of the impact of diversity training on
management composition in private organisations found that it was gener-
ally ineffective in increasing the share of Black American managers (Kalev
et al., 2006).
Discussing effective manners of training and education, several studies
stress the importance of explicitly discussing racism, within a safe space
for open and frank dialogue (Paradies et al., 2009; Pedersen et al.,
2011). Bezrukova et al. (2012) point to effective aspects of diversity
training such as using multiple instruction methods, and integrating
training as part of systematic, planned organisational development rather
than as standalone components. Focusing on participants from a range
 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 329

of racial/ethnic/cultural/religious backgrounds was deemed more effec-

tive than focusing on a specific group (Bezrukova et al., 2012; Paradies
et al., 2009). In workplaces, engaging managers in promoting diversity,
propelling them to increase their contact with members of different out-
groups and encouraging their accountability are effective in reducing bias
and increasing workplace diversity (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016). Both volun-
tary and compulsory training may be effective under certain situations;
although both have been subject to critique, for example for preaching to
the converted when voluntary, or for inducing resistance when mandatory
(Bezrukova et al., 2012; Dobbin & Kalev, 2016).
To be effective, training should be neutral and informal, and provide
accurate information about out-groups based on multiple disciplines,
preferably using multiple instruction methods (e.g., readings audio-
visuals, small group discussion and role plays) (Pedersen et al., 2011;
Torino, 2015). Training should be tailored to each organisation, linked
to operational goals, and specifically address behaviour, while trainers
should engage participants respectfully and interactively, build and invoke
social norms, enhance awareness, attitudes and skills and encourage inter-
group contact where appropriate. They preferably should be insiders,
from various racial/ethnic/cultural backgrounds, and with experience
and/or qualifications in organisational change (Paradies et al., 2009).

Communications and Media Campaigns

Communications and media campaigns against racism usually consist of
large-scale initiatives drawing on various media forms and platforms,
sometimes using social marketing techniques, and frequently assessed
via experiments (naturalistic and lab-based). Media and communica-
tions can aggravate stereotyping, prejudice and discriminatory behaviour
towards different racial/ethnic groups (Willard et al., 2015), but they
can also raise awareness of race-based discrimination, impact attitudes and
behaviours and help develop or strengthen positive social norms (Paluck
& Green, 2009; Paradies et al., 2009).
Although many real-life campaigns exist, their impact has rarely seen
rigorous assessment (Donovan & Vlais, 2006). A review of 13 media
interventions addressing different forms of prejudice that used field exper-
iments, noted that interventions were mostly conducted in schools and
showed suggestive impacts on empathy, perspective taking and social
norms, as well as on using narratives for persuasive purposes (Paluck &
Green, 2009). Other reviews have portrayed a similarly mixed picture
330 A. ELIAS ET AL.

of the effectiveness of anti-racism campaigns using communications and

social marketing approaches to reduce discrimination and support diver-
sity (Aboud et al., 2012; Donovan & Vlais, 2006; Rankine, 2014).
Popular racism-reduction methods that rely on audio-visual media
(e.g. television and film) are vicarious and imagined intergroup contact
(i.e., observing or imagining other people in intergroup contact situa-
tions) (Cadenas et al., 2018; Murrar & Brauer, 2018). Vicarious contact
may produce constructive perceptions of the out-group and positive
emotional responses towards them. It may capitalise on exposure to
typical, favourable and salient counter-stereotypical media exemplars, and
on identification with in-group characters that engage in positive contact.
Other initiatives provide new information to challenge existing stereo-
types and norms, or invoke emotions that are conducive to tackling
prejudice (e.g. empathy). Studies assessing the impact of such media
forms, often in laboratory contexts demonstrate mixed findings (e.g.
Castelli et al., 2012; Igartua & Frutos, 2017; Vittrup & Holden, 2011).
Communications campaigns have stronger effects when they address
specific negative beliefs rather than focus on generating positive feel-
ings, and when focusing on various individuals from one ethnic/racial
group at the time rather than promoting broad purposes like diver-
sity and multiculturalism (Donovan & Vlais, 2006). To increase their
effectiveness, campaigns should identify beliefs that underlie expressions
of racism, challenge racism and promote anti-racism as a prescriptive
norm, and highlight perceived, appreciated similarities between groups,
especially where negative beliefs are based on ignoring such similarities
(Donovan & Vlais, 2006). Campaigns should involve the affected group
as a visible part of the campaign, engage media personnel to change media
representations, use advocacy and activism to generate wider support and
impact policy, provide opportunities for discussion and interaction across
groups and aim to pre-emptively address counterarguments (Donovan &
Vlais, 2006). Finally, lab experiments suggest that non-verbal behaviours
(in audio-visual representations) carry strong impact and need to be
considered (Castelli et al., 2012), and that messages’ content should be
explicated (Vittrup & Holden, 2011).

Organisational Development
Organisational development has been the least reviewed of the approaches
we discuss here. Its projects typically use development and change
processes to assess or audit organisational functions in order to address
 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 331

discrimination and endorse diversity (Paradies et al., 2009). Such

projects may implement new organisational policies, plans or operational
processes, model and enforce non-discriminatory standards and work to
impact social norms and wider societal change. They may use the three
aforementioned approaches, as well as develop resources (e.g. teacher
professional development, journalist guides), draw on organisational lead-
ership and deploy conflict resolution approaches (Paradies et al., 2009).
Multiple studies have documented the effects of individual initiatives,
suggesting promising results in relation to organisations in areas such as
healthcare (Weech-Maldonado et al., 2018), education (Hagopian et al.,
2018) and workplaces (Ferdinand et al., 2017; Trenerry et al., 2012).
Practices considered effective include development of a shared organ-
isational vision, clear goals, measurable outcomes and organisational
accountability, as well as customisation based on local social, political and
other contexts (Paradies et al., 2009; Trenerry et al., 2012). Initiatives
are more impactful when cultivating transparency, trust and the exchange
of information (Ferdinand et al., 2017; Paradies et al., 2009). Organisa-
tional development tends to involve multiple layers and elements, and
large-scale public institutions. Although such complexity is important,
it may introduce inherent challenges to organisational development that
must be unpacked (Ferdinand et al., 2017; Spaaij et al., 2016). Using
a whole of organisation approach (Trenerry et al., 2012), and a detailed
strategic plan addressing multiple aspects of organisational functioning are
also considered effective practices (Trenerry et al., 2012; see discussion in
Abramovich & Blitz, 2015).

Effective Practice Across Approaches

Various practices have demonstrated effectiveness across two or more
of the approaches we discussed. At the outset, interventions should be
carefully planned, mapped and well developed, attending to areas like
their objectives and materials, while involving a management group and
various stakeholders (Donovan & Vlais, 2006; Paradies et al., 2009).
Interventions that are theory-driven or based on solid theoretical founda-
tions are considered more effective in curbing prejudice (Aboud et al.,
2012; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). The significant place of evaluation
research throughout the lifespan of interventions has been reiterated
across approaches such as the: use of formative research, and preliminary
testing of objectives and methods (Aboud et al., 2012; Donovan & Vlais,
2006), allocation of sufficient resources for planning and implementation
332 A. ELIAS ET AL.

(Paradies et al., 2009; Rankine, 2014) and use of evaluations consisting

of pre- and post- testing, randomisation and delayed outcome measures
(Paradies et al., 2009; Pedersen et al., 2011).
Strong support from organisational leaders and champions is consid-
ered crucial for programme effectiveness (Paradies et al., 2009; Trenerry
et al., 2012). There is usually an advantage to longer programmes and
to programmes that consist of multiple sessions (Aboud et al., 2012;
Kalinoski et al., 2013; Paradies et al., 2009; Pedersen et al., 2011). Addi-
tionally, there is wide support for programmes that emphasise invoking
empathy (Donovan & Vlais, 2006; Mazziotta et al., 2011; Paluck &
Green, 2009; Pedersen et al., 2011). Furthermore, some have recom-
mended that these approaches work best when they are combined, and
that initiatives are more impactful when collaborating with other organisa-
tions involved in anti-racism work (Bezrukova et al., 2012; Paradies et al.,
2009). The use of multiple, multi-level (e.g. state authorities, organisa-
tions), reinforcing approaches, can render interventions more effective
(Paradies et al., 2009; and see Ferdinand et al., 2017; Johnson et al.,
2009; Weech-Maldonado et al., 2018).
Within the scope of this chapter, we are unable to discuss in detail
real-world examples of practices that embody many of the approaches
recommended above. For further reading, refer to exemplary work on
intergroup dialogue (Rodríguez et al., 2018), training (Johnson et al.,
2009), organisational development (Weech-Maldonado et al., 2018) and
media campaigns (Paluck, 2009, 2010).

Backlash Effects
Anti-racism practice can have unintended consequences that may impede
its effectiveness. The possibility of such backlash should be considered and
pre-empted. Backlash towards anti-racism programmes, policies or prac-
tices, denotes forms of resistance that have the potential to strengthen
prejudiced attitudes and negative relations between in-groups and out-
groups. It can occur everywhere, from small-scale training to national
populations, in relation, for example, to multicultural policies (Hewitt,
2005). Backlash works in ways that range from affective-based measures
such as negative emotions, to cognitive forms such as attitudes and
perceptions, and is expressed in behaviours that negatively affect the
outcomes of programmes, policies or practices (Kidder et al., 2004).
Anticipating backlash can itself become a form of backlash, by precluding
 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 333

the initiation or implementation of anti-racism initiatives, which can mani-

fest as a refusal or withdrawal of basic resources and services (Bakan &
Kobayashi, 2004, 2007a, 2007b).
Research on perspective taking demonstrates that imagining one’s
self increases the potential to negatively evaluate oneself, which can
entrench racial prejudice (Vorauer & Sasaki, 2014). Perceived threat to
notions of self in interpersonal contexts (e.g. because of high dissimi-
larity with others) may also provoke backlash effects (Sassenrath et al.,
2016). Backlash is always a risk in intergroup encounters that confront
negative behaviours (Focella et al., 2015). Some studies have explored
how intergroup encounters, where minority groups seek to reduce harm
and prejudice by confronting perpetrators, can produce backlash effects
that increase prejudiced attitudes (Vorauer & Sasaki, 2009). Studies on
confronting prejudice report various forms of backlash, including dislike
for the person and their perceived in-group (Czopp et al., 2006), while
racial discrimination reported by African American participants in educa-
tional settings resulted in their stigmatisation as complainers (Kaiser
& Miller, 2001). Other studies found that out-group members who
confronted discriminatory behaviour were more likely to be negatively
assessed (or have negative attitudes of them reinforced) by in-group
members who were being discriminatory (Gulker et al., 2013; Rasinski &
Czopp, 2010). This is especially true when persons who hold strong views
of meritocracy are confronted, where evaluations of the confronter are
particularly negative (Schultz & Maddox, 2013), and likewise for those
who adopt a colour-blind perspective (Zou & Dickter, 2013).
Forms of framing in anti-racist interventions play a significant role in
manifestations of backlash. Framing diversity as good within organisations
(and not as fair) may broaden definitions of diversity to include axes
of difference beyond race, which can lead, unintentionally, to depriori-
tising hiring applicants from racial minority backgrounds (Trawalter et al.,
2016). The colour-blind approach may often be seen as remedy to such
paradoxical framings, although it can reinforce exclusive institutions that
maintain unequal power structures in society (Smith & Mayorga-Gallo,
2017). In institutions where cultural diversity is widespread, multicul-
tural policies are generally likely to reduce stereotyping and prejudice,
whereas colour-blind practices and policies (ignoring or avoiding race
and racial categories) may enhance stereotyping and prejudice, and may
leave discrimination undetected (Plaut, 2014). Also, while a focus on
multiculturalist frameworks produces a higher rate of success in reducing
334 A. ELIAS ET AL.

biases than colour-blind frameworks, negative outcomes routinely occur,

and multiculturalist frameworks can ironically produce higher instances
of racialised essentialism, reproducing beliefs that race is biologically
determined and fixed (Wilton et al., 2019).
When diversity inclusion frameworks are imposed upon organisa-
tions, or driven from the top down, research has also found paradoxical
outcomes. Dobbin et al. (2015) examined the effects of workplace inno-
vations, like training, on managerial diversity in 816 US workplaces
over 30 years. Accountability in the implementation of such innova-
tions, such as monitoring the impact of hiring reforms through diversity
managers, improved outcomes and reduced the potential for workplace
backlash. However, compulsory accountability frameworks often back-
fired, suggesting that, in these contexts, frameworks should be willingly
implemented. Using data on approximately 500 high-profile employment
discrimination lawsuits resolved in US federal courts between 1996 and
2008, Hirsh and Cha (2017) found that court-mandated policy changes
to reduce bias expanded opportunities for white women but not for other
demographic groups, while policies to increase awareness of rights were
associated with declines in managerial diversity. According to the study,
“employment discrimination settlements and verdicts tended to empha-
size monetary penalties at the expense of policy reforms”, and the most
costly monetary pay-outs did not expand managerial diversity compared
to more modest pay-outs (Hirsh & Cha, 2017, p. 44).
Rutchick and Eccleston (2010) show that when minority groups
invoke shared identity characteristics with the majority group during
diversity training, this may lead to negative outcomes. The level of back-
lash exhibited in these experimental studies is predominantly determined
by the strength of relationship and identification that groups have with
a (perceived) larger homogenous whole, like the nation. The extent to
which groups identify as being emblematic of such an overarching whole
determines the degree to which messages that invoke dominant group
diversity will be received as intended (Falomir-Pichastor & Frederic,
2013; Steffens et al., 2017).
 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 335

Whither Anti-racism?3
Assessments of intergroup contact, training and education, communica-
tions and media campaigns and organisational development have varied
in their approaches and conclusions. Intergroup contact interventions
have been frequently evaluated, resulting in a broad evidence base that
suggests that contact can reduce racism, especially prejudice. Training
and education initiatives, and particularly cultural diversity/competence
programmes, have been widespread. Yet little is known about how much,
and under what circumstances, these interventions effectively address
racism. Concerns about null and adverse effects have made diversity
training a particularly contentious area, as suggested by several study titles,
like “why diversity programs fail” (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016) and “point-
less diversity training” (Noon, 2018). Other areas of anti-racism practice
have seen far less evaluation. Communications and media campaigns
show promise but also mixed findings, and have scarcely been evalu-
ated outside the lab. Organisational development initiatives have been
discussed individually (or as part of education/training initiatives), but to
our knowledge have yet to be collectively reviewed or assessed regarding
their effects.
Anti-racism’s limited evidence base calls for further comprehensive,
fine-grained analysis. Field experiments are clearly a priority in this field
because of the dynamic, real-life nature of many anti-racism initiatives
and the change they seek to instigate. In addition to using randomisation
and control, there remains a strong need for assessments to go beyond
pre- and immediate post-test measures. Given that intervention effects
may transform post-intervention (for example diminish, or show delayed
improvement) it is crucial that we develop better understanding of what
happens long after initiatives end. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses
of the relationship between training, communications and organisational
development initiatives (and initiative components) and the reduction of
racial prejudice, discrimination and contingent outcomes pertaining to
racism are also much needed.
Recently, several studies have emerged that constitute promising future
directions in anti-racism practice and research. Examples of innovative
and effective methodologies include reading popular books (e.g. Harry

3 This section is based on Ben et al. (2020).

336 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Potter) to reduce prejudice that capitalises on processes such as identifica-

tion and perspective taking (Vezzali et al., 2015); embodiment of another
racial/ethnic group’s (e.g., Black) virtual body to reduce implicit racial
bias (Banakou et al., 2016; Peck et al., 2013); and exposure to extreme
racist audio-visual content, which can, paradoxically, lead individuals to
reassess their current (less extreme) racist attitudes and beliefs (Hameiri
et al., 2014, 2016, 2019). The role of humour in anti-racist discourse has
also been reconsidered in recent research (Borgella et al., 2020; Hylton,
2018; Rossing, 2016).
Based on available research, anti-racism initiatives are particularly
effective when they are carefully developed, theory- and evidence-
based, longer-term, draw on clear objectives and explicit messages, and
include rigorous, ongoing evaluation research (e.g. Paluck, 2009, 2010;
Rodríguez et al., 2018; Weech-Maldonado et al., 2018). Reviews also
repeatedly stress, and successful initiatives demonstrate, the significance
of ongoing collaboration and engagement with and between stakeholders,
from institutional leadership to affected groups. There are indications that
the integration of various approaches, initiative components, methods and
materials is effective in addressing racism. Emerging scholarship cautions
us against ways in which anti-racism initiatives may do more harm than
good and have led to efforts to understand how we can best avoid back-
lash. Key suggestions include avoiding negations, given that injunctions
do not create unintended associations between subjects (Gawronski et al.,
2008), enhancing participants’ self-affirmation (Stone et al., 2011; Watt
et al., 2009), and being wary of framing diversity within an overriding
identity category (e.g. the nation) over which the dominant in-group is
protective (Falomir-Pichastor & Frederic, 2013; Steffens et al., 2017).

Contemporary Anti-racism in Australia

In Australia, the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act offered a legislative
framework for anti-racism efforts and the Race Discrimination Commis-
sioner has overseen national efforts that countered racism and racial
discrimination over the last three decades. Over this period, Australian
society has shown growing support for cultural diversity, although
some monocultural sentiment remains. Although anti-racism efforts have
targeted everyday racism in a range of settings including in schools, public
spaces, sports settings and workplaces, structural inequalities that are
construed as manifestations of underlying institutional racism persist.
 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 337

Anti-racism in Australia has been nested within broader multicultural

policy (Jakubowicz & Ho, 2014). This was vital in that it led to the aban-
donment of the White Australia Policy and the subsequent reframing of
the country as a culturally diverse nation. However, multicultural poli-
cies in Australia have been criticised for not putting anti-racism at “the
forefront of multiculturalism” (Berman & Paradies, 2008, p. 2; also
Jakubowicz & Ho, 2014). Prior to the 1990s, anti-racism as a policy
and practice was limited (Chambers & Pettman, 1986). In the 1980s,
the need for campaigns to raise public awareness was flagged, although
it received little attention (Paradies, 2005). Anti-racism efforts remained
politically contested, with the Labour Party preferring legislative options
to tackle racism while the Coalition focused on changing public atti-
tudes and behaviour instead of criminalising racist hatred (Jakubowicz,
2014; Millbank, 1998). Upon the Coalition’s electoral victory in 1996,
the Australian government conducted successive anti-racism campaigns
with the stated goal of creating awareness and educating the public. This
culminated in the announcement of Harmony Day in 1997. Worldwide,
this day is known as the International Day for the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination (OHCHR, 2014). Consistent with its
stand on racial issues, the government abstained from a reference to racial
discrimination. This emphasis on harmony and cohesion largely obscured
anti-racism efforts. It has been suggested that a lack of firm anti-racist
action in an environment of political polarisation left racism unbridled
(Jakubowicz, 2014). The persistence and resurgence of racism (Gray &
Winter, 1997), that saw the rise of One Nation and its racist rhetoric, can
be viewed within this context (Jakubowicz, 2014).
Anti-racism discourse in the following decade was impacted by the
prevailing global reaction to the September 11, 2001 events in the USA.
The 2002 Bali bombings of Australian tourists also brought home intense
focus on Australia’s Muslim communities. In response to these events,
the National Action Plan (NAP) was launched in 2005 with the purpose
of reinforcing “social cohesion, harmony and support [for] the national
security imperative in Australia by addressing extremism, the promo-
tion of violence and intolerance” (Ministerial Council on Immigration
and Multicultural Affairs, 2006, p. 6). Yet, a focus on social cohesion
has not seen a decline in the prevalence of racism as documented by
national surveys (e.g. Challenging Racism Project and the Mapping Social
Cohesion survey). Rather, the decade since then has seen a doubling in
338 A. ELIAS ET AL.

experiences of racism according to some sources (Markus, 2019). The

Cronulla Riots in Sydney in the summer of 2005 exposed the racism that
was lurking, and belied the government’s focus on social harmony that
failed to directly confront racial intolerance. A review released under the
Rudd Government concluded that a stronger focus on racial intolerance
was required to overcome prevalent racism (Department of Immigration
and Citizenship, 2009; Jakubowicz & Ho, 2014).
Since the late 2000s, anti-racism efforts gained more impetus from
research evidence. The 2008 Racism Makes Me Sick campaign is an
example. Research linking racism and health outcomes for racial minori-
ties enabled people to visualise how racist acts and behaviours can cause
real harm to people. By drawing public support and wider community
partnership, combatting racism could be made more effective. In this
vein, in 2012, the Australian Human Rights Commission launched a
multi-partner programme—the National Anti-racism Strategy—to “raise
awareness of racism and its effects”, “promote … initiatives that prevent
and reduce racism”, and “empower communities … to take action to
prevent and reduce racism” (Australian Human Rights Commission,
2012, 2019, p. 5).
Acknowledgements of racism and its deleterious effects is the first step
to anti-racism. The Challenging Racism Project (2001–2008) highlights
the extent Australians acknowledge racism and Anglo-Celtic cultural priv-
ilege (Dunn & Nelson, 2011). Raising public awareness about issues
affecting Indigenous Peoples was vital to dispel long-held misconcep-
tions (Jackson & Ward, 1999). Within the broader anti-racism agenda, a
process of reconciliation was recommended, following a Royal Commis-
sion Inquiry into Indigenous death in custody (Cunneen, 2001). Later,
Reconciliation Australia launched an initiative to start a reconciliation
process between Indigenous Peoples and the rest of Australian society.
The process of reconciliation in the country is evaluated via Reconcilia-
tion Action Plans, using measures based on five interrelated dimensions:
historical acceptance, race relations, equality and equity, institutional
integrity and unity (Reconciliation Australia, 2018). These are premised
on the notion that reconciliation is a multidimensional process achieved
by addressing all facets affecting Indigenous Peoples across time and
space.
Anti-racism initiatives by All Together Now, the Challenging Racism
Project, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and
the Australian Human Rights Commission are among the more recent
 10 COUNTERING RACISM: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS … 339

efforts that have targeted racism through multi-partner collaborations

involving activists, community organisations and academics. Currently,
such anti-racism efforts focus on prevention, with emphasis that successful
anti-racism should go beyond tolerance and aim towards acceptance
of cultural diversity. This notion was considered in a collaborative
programme by VicHealth and the University of Melbourne, the Localities
Embracing and Accepting Diversity (LEAD), which applied a locality-
based approach to anti-racism, piloting in the towns of Whittlesea and
Shepparton (Ferdinand et al., 2017). The project “was implemented as
a place-based intervention between July 2009 and July 2013, with [the]
two councils being the primary implementing partners” (Ferdinand et al.,
2017, p. 2). LEAD emphasised prevention as the key objective of anti-
racism, and demonstrated the effectiveness of interventions that are well
planned, have a high-quality evidence base and involve well-coordinated
partnership and collaboration (Ferdinand et al., 2017).
An effective anti-racism strategy should focus on addressing the preva-
lence of racism in society while it seeks to redress disadvantages caused by
past experiences of everyday and institutional racism (Berman & Paradies,
2008). Racism in Australia has been characterised as being everywhere
different, thus requiring nuanced and localised approaches to anti-racism
(Nelson & Dunn, 2017). Both combatting racism by targeting attitudes
and behaviours, and empowering racial minorities by tackling disadvan-
tage should go as parallel features of an anti-racism policy and practice
(Nissim, 2014).
In conclusion, anti-racism, which is rooted in social movements dating
back to the earliest days of colonisation, represents an ongoing effort
to challenge racism and foster fairness and equity. Broadly, it is synony-
mous with racial equity, equality or justice, and specifically involves
forms of thought or practice aimed at confronting, reducing or eradi-
cating racism as an ideology, behaviour, action or system. Historically,
various anti-racism initiatives and strategies have successfully confronted
racist policies and systems in many countries. As a result, we have
witnessed a relative global decline of overtly blatant racism over the last
five decades. However, racism persists in various forms, particularly in
attitudes, behaviours and underlying institutional structures.
Various anti-racism approaches proposed in the literature have varying
degrees of effectiveness. In this chapter, we have considered four of these:
intergroup contact, training and education, communications and media
campaigns and organisational development. Each approach requires
340 A. ELIAS ET AL.

necessary conditions for its effectiveness. Within this context, back-

lash remains one of the main unintended consequences of anti-racism.
Anti-racism can stimulate silence or opposition, which can undermine
its effectiveness. The possibility of such backlash should, therefore, be
considered and pre-empted for anti-racism to have the desired effect.
In Australia, anti-racism as a social action was initially nested within
broader multicultural policy. For the most part, emphasis on social cohe-
sion and harmony foreshadowed direct efforts to combat racism. It
is only over the last two decades that anti-racism has involved more
focused initiatives. One of these initiatives is Reconciliation Australia’s
efforts to improve relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Australians.
Anti-racism should not be understood as separate atomised efforts
among individual actors. Its success in any country requires the partner-
ship and collaboration of diverse individuals, groups and organisations.
Moreover, the task of confronting racism can be mentally and intellectu-
ally draining for anti-racist activists (Gorski, 2019; Smith & Redington,
2010). Thus, the continuation of the fight against racism at all levels of
society should be accompanied by strong support for those activists at the
forefront of the struggle for racial justice.

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 CHAPTER 11

Conclusion

Like many socially constructed beliefs, racism has a far-reaching impact

on a culturally and racially diverse society. As a system of inequity
that categorises people based on physical and cultural characteristics,
racism has caused significant historical and ongoing trauma for minorities
across societies. Racism nowadays is ubiquitous, increasingly recognised
in everyday activities, practices, conversations, across workplaces, schools,
media, political debates, and even within academic settings. Indeed, over
time it has undergone substantial transformations in its manifestation and
degree of influence on social policies. As a result, there have been major
transformations over the last three decades in the theoretical and empir-
ical fields of research examining the nature and prevalence of racism. Early
theorisations of racism, which focused mainly on blatant and unsophis-
ticated racism, were inadequate to explain the more subtle, unwitting
and less overt manifestations of racism. Recognising this theoretical shift,
researchers have attempted to measure both overt and subtle forms of
racism across countries. Studies that integrate old and new forms of
racism indicate that racism remains very prevalent in modern multicultural
societies (see Introduction).
In Australia, the emergence of racism and its traumatic impact goes
back to the country’s colonial history, with race and racial discourse
embedded within national identity since British colonisation. Although
Australia has undergone major changes, being a multicultural society

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 353

Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_11
354 A. ELIAS ET AL.

today, racial injustice and inequity remain enduring issues, with unwit-
ting racism existing alongside unsanctioned institutional racism, limiting
the human rights of racial minorities. Persistent inequities exist, with
unfair distribution of social, economic and political power permeating
the nation, as a large section of Indigenous Peoples remain marginalised
and experience acute structural inequity and ongoing colonial violence.
As we have documented in the book, considerable research has proven
the widespread prevalence of subtle and insidious racisms alongside overt
racism in Western societies, including Australia. Yet, many white people
including politicians, journalists and those running powerful organisa-
tions, who reject daily episodes and cumulative research evidence, have
often denied racism as a societal concern. Thus, denial has become
another form of new racism whereby contemporary racism blocks the
struggle for racial equality of coloured people. This makes racism an
urgent social problem requiring adequate attention, as it sustains avoid-
able social harm on many Australians, with deleterious effect on the
society overall.
The issues and research findings covered in this book contribute to the
contemporary debate on racism and its multifaceted impacts across diverse
domains. The chapters have synthesised a significant volume of the litera-
ture and analysed current Australian data, presenting afresh the evidence
on the prevalence as well as the socioeconomic and health burdens of
racism on racial minorities in Australia. The main aspects of race relations
have been situated in a global context, examining how racist episodes else-
where affect racial discourse in Australia. The book also synthesised the
experiences of racial minorities across countries to draw lessons and impli-
cations for Australia. We examined dominant and emerging anti-racism
strategies drawing on national and international evidence, policy and
practice. In this final chapter, we summarise the key points and current
knowledge on racism in Australia that have been discussed throughout
the book, and highlight some of the main elements of contestation within
racism research. We conclude by reflecting on the emerging frontiers
in racism research, highlighting possible directions for future research
agenda.
 11 CONCLUSION 355

Key Points and Current Knowledge

We conceive of racism as an ideology of racial hierarchy imbued with
privilege, power and domination of one group by another (Elias, 2015).
It has existed for centuries, although when and where it originated is
contested among historians, with some authors holding the view that
racism was already rooted in the cultural and religious beliefs of Euro-
peans in the fifteenth century (Boxer, 1963; Sweet, 1997). Some scholars
argue that racism is a universal human behaviour that can be traced farther
back to the early classical period while others reject that racism is an
innate phenomenon shared by all human beings (Bethencourt, 2014;
Isaac, 2004). For many, racism emerged in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, growing in scale and nature during the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries with the advent of the growing capitalist demand for free
labour (Baron, 2000; Eltis & Richardson, 2008; Fredrickson, 2015).1
These historians hold the view that racism originated with the European
discovery of the New World and argue that the economic condition of the
Americas necessitated racism as a justification for the required slave labour
(Baron, 2000; Sweet, 1997). They contend that racism was developed as
a justification for the Atlantic slave trade and dispute the argument that
it pre-dated this institution (Klein, 1986; Sweet, 1997). In time, the two
social constructs, racism and racial discrimination, became instrumental in
the continuation of the institution of slavery as the latter played a signifi-
cant role in economic development (Baron, 2000). With slavery emerging
as one of the essential features of economic activity in the New World,
racism served as its ideological base.
The origin debate aside, modern racism was crystallised in the late
eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century when race was pseudo-
scientifically formalised as a biological construct (Fredrickson, 2015;
Sweet, 1997). Later, Nazi anti-Semitism and White supremacism that
produced Jim Crow laws in the US South exploited the scientific notion
of categorising people into superior and inferior groups based on their
race or skin colour and craniofacial features. In the post-war periods,

1 The demand for labour drove the Atlantic slave trade to a record forced migration
of more than eight million slaves, who were taken from Africa to the Americas between
1626 and 1850 according to data from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (Eltis &
Richardson, 2008). This indeed excludes those who have perished en route to the New
World. The total number of those captured and shipped exceeds 10 million Africans (Eltis
& Richardson, 2008).
356 A. ELIAS ET AL.

even though this old-fashioned biologically constructed racism became

less popular, de jure racial discrimination continued to prevail, largely in
Apartheid South Africa and a few US states (Fredrickson, 2015). The
abolition of explicitly state sanctioned discrimination in the form of segre-
gation laws and voting rights restrictions did not occur until the 1960s
in the US while racist laws persisted in South Africa until the downfall of
Apartheid in 1994. Today, although de jure racial discrimination is illegal
in countries that signed the UN Charter for the Elimination of All Forms
of Racial Discrimination, de facto racial discrimination persists, including
by the nation state.
Racism in Australia is a colonial legacy associated with colonial and
ongoing laws, practices and policies that instituted structures of inequity
between white colonists and Indigenous Peoples as well as non-white
migrants. Within this unequal political economy, Australia emerged as
a white settler colonial country that embedded racism as a state policy
to preclude non-white people from holding social power. Race relations
in this context evolved in two distinct but interconnected aspects of
Australian racial history, relations between settler-invaders and Indige-
nous Australians, and the White Australia Policy that racially restricted
immigration, particularly from Asian countries. Frontier wars, disposses-
sion and colonial expansion that unleashed the full force of racial violence
were critical in the establishment and realisation of settler colonialism as
an enduring project (Paradies, 2016a). Faced with potential threats of
migrant diversity, white Australians have sustained racist and exclusionary
colonial projects by ensuring a continued dominance of Anglo-Celtic
whites for more than two centuries. This had a long-term adverse impact
on Indigenous Peoples who endured violence and other racist policies
that denied them equal rights, forcibly removed their children and under-
mined their human dignity. There is now vast interdisciplinary research
documenting the deleterious effects of racism on the historical and
contemporary life of Indigenous Peoples (Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson,
2016; Lahn, 2018; Macedo et al., 2019; Moodie et al., 2019; Mukandi
& Bond, 2019; O’Donnell et al., 2019; Papalia et al., 2019; Paradies,
2018; Temple et al., 2020).
While settler colonial expansion and associated racism have long subju-
gated the Indigenous Peoples, the enactment of White Australia Policy
ensured the exclusion of Asian and non-white immigration for decades.
This policy was introduced to ensure Australia remained exclusively
Anglo-Celtic, and notoriously established the Commonwealth of Australia
 11 CONCLUSION 357

as a racial society partly to appease growing anti-Chinese sentiments

informed by a deep-rooted fear of a demographic domination. Scholars
have argued that this and subsequent segregationist and assimilationist
policies institutionalised racism in Australia, and have helped maintain
Anglo-Celtic domination (Armillei & Mascitelli, 2017).
Despite the above-mentioned social attitudes, economic realism often
had the final say in Australian racial history, albeit not always. For
example, post-War skilled and unskilled labour needs played a key role in
affecting immigration policy in the country, and led to the arrival of non-
British migrants from Europe. As Australia’s demography kept changing
as a result of diverse migration patterns, the racially motivated assimila-
tionist project gradually faltered. The White Australia Policy was abolished
in the 1960s, as international pressure increased, raising threats in inter-
national trade against exclusionary policies in settler colonial societies.
The 1967 referendum was also crucial in allowing Indigenous Peoples
to be counted in the national Census and giving the Australian govern-
ment powers to pass laws concerning Indigenous Peoples. In 1973,
the Australian government recognised the multiracial context, officially
acknowledging multiculturalism as an Australian reality.
Over the decades that followed, non-British migration to Australia
has continued to grow, although the majority of new immigrants, until
1984 remained Europeans.2 There is a strong argument that Australian
multiculturalism unequally positions different ethnic groups and privileges
Anglo-Celtic heritage within the national framework, including in insti-
tutional power and in political leadership (Armillei & Mascitelli, 2017;
Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018; Hage, 2002). In addition,
despite the acknowledgement of multiculturalism, studies indicate both
interpersonal and institutional racism remain entrenched as evidenced
in everyday racism, anti-migrant sentiments, high levels of Indigenous
Peoples incarceration and so on (Dunn et al., 2004; Henry et al., 2004;
Mellor, 2003).
Institutional racism is one of the most intractable problems in racial
dynamics across the world. As we have detailed in Chapter 3, anti-
discrimination legislations have been incremental, and inadequate for

2 For example, in 1982–1983, migrants from the UK accounted for more than 28% of
arrivals, with seven European countries comprising more than half of the overall arrivals;
by 2002–2003, arrivals of migrants from UK dropped to 13%, and the European share
of arrivals was 23% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2005).
358 A. ELIAS ET AL.

eradicating longstanding systemic structures that perpetuate exclusion

and racial inequality. That chapter highlighted some of the structural
and systemic barriers in Australia precluding racial and ethnic minorities
from attaining racial equality across multiple domains, in addition to crit-
ically examining the policy environment that has shaped the discourse of
race relations in Australia. The historical interplay between the politics
of identity and the racial socioeconomic and political reality is particu-
larly significant in understanding institutional racism in Australia. On the
surface, institutional racism officially ended decades ago with the abolition
of the laws that promulgated a White Australia Policy; yet, the persistent
racial disparities, and the absence of diversity across critical economic and
political platforms point to structural barriers to racial equity.
While Australia is often designated as a multicultural society, with
legislations prohibiting racial discrimination, the society remains largely
dominated by the Anglo-Celtic population. Racial minorities frequently
experience disadvantage, discrimination, social exclusion and less repre-
sentation, socially, politically and economically. A widely held view among
researchers and practitioners postulates that the socioeconomic circum-
stances and political underrepresentation of minority groups point to
ongoing systematic and structural racial inequality and injustice. Whether
the prevalence of racial inequalities in Australia indicates race/ethnicity
still determines one’s place in Australian society, is a heavily debated issue
across public policy spheres and academic discourse. Therefore, in addi-
tion to depicting the structural processes that perpetuate unequal and
disparate outcomes for minority racial/ethnic groups, we have demon-
strated how Australia’s various institutional structures continue to privi-
lege white people, while at the same time excluding racial minorities. To
understand this intractable reality, we need to ask ourselves why racism
has been allowed to endure, or what factors determine its continued
prevalence.
This fundamental question was addressed in Chapter 4, which
discussed the economic causes of racism. Building on a summary of the
historical roots of racism provided in Chapter 3, we looked at the tradi-
tional rational theory explanations of racism, and the interpretation of
racial discrimination as a cost minimising and profit maximising choice
of economic agents that results in inequalities. We showed how various
schools of thought (Marxism, neoclassical economics, and others) have
used the connections between race, class, nation and power to explain
the determinants of racism. Marxist scholars noted that racism is directly
 11 CONCLUSION 359

connected with class, whereby capitalists deploy race relations to divide

the working class to compete within itself, thereby allowing the capital-
ists to extract more profits (Cox, 1948/1959; Reich, 2017). Neoclassical
economics conceives racism as an irrational outcome of prejudice-based
unconscious bias that is ultimately eliminated by market forces. This
theorisation of racism variously is depicted in the concepts of taste-
discrimination (Becker, 1957/2010), statistical discrimination (Arrow,
1971) and occupational segregation (Bergmann, 1974). While racism
research in economics has documented statistical evidence of discrimi-
nation, it was inadequate in explaining the persistent racism engrained in
societal systems as highlighted in critical race scholarship (Reich, 2017;
Sidanius & Pratto, 2001).
Alternatively, social stratification and intersectionality research has
attempted to understand relationships among multiple contours of
inequalities (e.g. race, gender, class), and locate the economic dynamics
of racism (Darity et al., 2015; Walby et al., 2012). The structural inequal-
ities literature helps understand how race, gender and class interact with
social, economic and political structures to benefit particular groups in
society while excluding racial minorities. It can be argued that unless
racism benefited powerful sections of society (mainly white people), it
would not have been allowed to remain today. The recent protest move-
ments (e.g. Black Lives Matter) that are calling for the radical overhauling
of various institutions indicate that many have recognised the problem of
racism as a problem of institutional structures that have been erected to
maintain the interests of the dominant racial group. Some scholars go
further in contending that racism (along with other forms of oppression)
is an inherent aspect of colonial modernity rather than a fixable aspect
of contemporary societies (Paradies, 2020). To show this with supportive
evidence, we returned, in Chapter 5, to contemporary data on racism in
Australia.
Chapter 5 analysed and reviewed contemporary cross-sectional and
longitudinal data, mapping the current state of racism in Australian
society. The data indicate that the majority of Australians detest racism
and support cultural diversity; yet many deny racism at the interpersonal
and societal levels, based on a very specific view of what constitutes racism.
This understanding of racism is often justified by claims that no state
sanctioned laws exist that discriminate against racial minorities. Addition-
ally, some make the highly contestable claim that overtly racist violence
360 A. ELIAS ET AL.

is absent or infrequent. According to the first claim, racism must be

overt or legally coded to have adverse impact on racial/ethnic minori-
ties. However, research indicates new forms of racism that are unwitting
and covert are widely prevalent, with alarming levels of racism in various
onsite and online settings. The insidious nature of these new racisms is
that their victimising effect requires no legal codes or blatantly racist
policies. In contemporary Australia, racism takes the form of denial of
Indigenous disadvantage; strong anti-Muslim sentiments and stereotypic
views of Asian, South Sudanese and other migrants. All these may fall
short of the far-right influence in Europe. Yet, contemporary racism is
not trivial in Australia when, since the Cronulla Riots in 2005, a fifth of
Australians experience racial discrimination every year (see Dunn, 2012),
and over-policing, including police violence, against Indigenous Peoples
and some other non-white migrants remains rife. Such heightened preva-
lence of racism and its impact can be shown across domains, and perhaps
one of the most visible is the media.
For decades, and perhaps centuries, the media has occasionally served
as conduit for racist propaganda. Mediatised racism has been widely
reported in Australia, with Indigenous Peoples and various migrant
cohorts subjected to racialised coverage and sensationalist reporting.
Chapter 6 has critically examined the role of media in the production,
propagation and enactment of racism in contemporary Australia. While
the vital role of the media for the protection of modern democracy is
beyond dispute, its role in propagating racist discourse has been detri-
mental to social cohesion and racial equity. This shows that, like any other
public institution, media can be used and abused for various purposes that
perpetuate unfair structural inequities. In Australia, the concentration of
media ownership emerges as one of the key drivers of mediatised racism,
with News Corp Australia controlling nearly 57% of the market share for
newspapers. The effect is a particular ideology controlling news reporting
and coverage of racial minorities. While the media often depicts sensation-
alised stories of racist episodes, and public reactions towards high-profile
events, the everyday effects of racism on racial minorities rarely make
headlines. Yet, the social and economic impacts of racism are far more
consequential, and are rarely understood or publicised.
Chapter 7 provided documented evidence of empirical findings from
cross-disciplinary research on racism. The national surveys presented
depict the pervasiveness of interpersonal racism across Australian schools,
workplaces and other settings, while studies indicate that the diverse forms
 11 CONCLUSION 361

of racism affecting different groups in different localities (Local Govern-

ment Areas, LGAs) depict the everywhere different nature of racism in
Australia (Dunn & Forrest, 2004). Ethnic minorities, including migrants
from non-Anglo-Celtic and European backgrounds and the Indigenous
population, are adversely impacted by racism across diverse domains
including the labour market, health, education, sport and the criminal
justice system, including through racial profiling, sentencing and incar-
ceration. Building on this and the wide body of research documenting
the socioeconomic impact of racism, we have shown how racism imposes
significant health economic costs onto society overall. That racism is a
stressor for racial minorities has been well established in the literature.
Experiences of racism have strong associations with mental and physical
health, labour market and educational outcomes, socioeconomic status,
and economic inequalities. For Australians, this translates into substantial
economic cost as a result of racism being a public health burden causing
depression, anxiety, PTSD and psychological disorders (Paradies et al.,
2015).
The prevalence and impact of racism has intersectional dimensions. As
shown in Chapter 8, young people, particularly Indigenous, migrant and
other ethnic minority youth experience substantial levels of racism across
schools and the wider society. Exposures to racism among these groups
often significantly affected their health and wellbeing. The data analysed
and further empirical findings reviewed for this chapter, corroborate the
arguments advanced in relation to the structural processes that constitute
institutional racism detailed in Chapter 3. The experiences of racial and
religious minorities also indicates that racism in Australia is not an isolated
social force. Both local and global factors contribute to its prevalence and
impacts across multiple sociocultural domains.
The global dynamics of racism, and the role of global forces in shaping
race relations in Australia, was examined in Chapter 9. We argued that the
often localised aspect of racism that reflects internal national structures
of social inequities no longer explains transnational forms of racism that
travels across time and space. In Australia, racism that is a colonial legacy
permeating institutional structures, today has a global dimension with
wider episodes of racial injustices influencing race relations in Australia
and vice versa. The Internet has been a critical factor in this dynamic, with
cyberspace becoming an ever-growing domain of intercultural encounter.
Racism today is a global phenomenon, and racially conscious groups
such as White supremacists have gained greater access to global audiences.
362 A. ELIAS ET AL.

Physical contact is no longer a requisite factor for the spread of racism, nor
is racism necessarily confined to local episodes or circumstances. Groups
and individuals with racist ideologies may vicariously import racist hatred,
targeting local minorities. International forces are now having greater
influence on race relations in the contemporary Australian nation state.
Racial strife abroad, for example racially motivated police shootings in the
US, can have significant effect on Australian racial politics. Our discussion
has highlighted the connectedness of locally produced and reproduced
racism and those racisms that have travelled in space and time in a transna-
tional context. By so doing, we have posited the challenge that these
spatio-temporal dynamics pose for struggles against racism.
The penultimate chapter of this book outlines strategies for countering
racism. A range of anti-racism strategies and interventions with various
levels of effectiveness are proposed in the literature. Generally, anti-
racism has been conceptualised as racial equity, equality or justice, while
it has also been defined as thoughts and practices seeking to confront,
eradicate or mitigate racism. Anti-racism approaches implemented across
countries are highly variable, and range from prejudice reduction to
conflict resolution to collective social action. The chapter detailed four
main approaches to anti-racism: intergroup contact, anti-racism training
and education, communications and media campaigns and organisa-
tional development. Each of these anti-racism strategies have experienced
varying degrees of success. However, it is worth noting that there is no
single anti-racism strategy that can address racism everywhere, and that a
successful anti-racism effort should incorporate a combination of strate-
gies depending on the local context. In Australia, anti-racism strategies
are nested within broader multicultural policy, which have led to the
enactment of various anti-discrimination legislations. Recent anti-racism
efforts encompass research driven initiatives with multi-partner collabo-
rations, and across wide-ranging settings including schools, city councils
and workplaces. Finally, effective anti-racism should aim to address preva-
lence in society and redress disadvantages caused by past experiences
of everyday and institutional racism. Further, more research is needed
to tackle emerging forms of racism that have transnational and global
dimensions.
 11 CONCLUSION 363

Contestation Within Racism Research

While a considerable body of research across disciplinary domains has
enabled us to understand racism at many levels, manifesting in a variety
of forms, contestations remain both in racism theory and empirics.
This begins with the definition of racism. While some researchers focus
on a narrow definition of racism, conceptualising it in reference to
perceived physical differences, others have a broader view of racism, some-
times preferring the notion of racisms, which reflect social categories
including ethnicity, culture, ancestry, religion and national origin. There
is also debate about who can perpetrate and experience racism, with
some consensus that racism can be perpetrated by non-whites, but more
debate about whether whites can experience racism, with whites being a
heterogeneous classification (Nelson et al., 2018; Sharples & Blair, 2020).
One of the main sources of contention regarding racism revolves
around the origin and causes. As we have argued in Chapter 4, racism is
a complicated social construction that emerged within Western tradition,
largely assumed its structural dimension within the Atlantic Slave Trade,
and evolved across time taking specific national characteristics in Western
societies. Some scholars contend that racism has been part of many other
civilisations while others focus on the nineteenth century pseudo-scientific
theories as the origin of racist ideologies.
Another source of debate in racism research is related to empirics
and measurement. A substantial body of research has been produced
over decades, conceptualising and measuring various forms of racism.
Depending on the diverse measures, scholars have reached various conclu-
sions, with the most debated perhaps being whether the significance of
race has declined or increased over time. Some argue that overt or blatant
forms of racism have declined while more subtle and new forms of racism
becoming more common. Yet, others have argued that racism whether
subtle or overt remains very much alive, as is particularly manifested
in the online environment. We have shown, with some evidence, how
various forms of racism continue to permeate Australian society. Likewise,
racism remains a problem within many societies, as has been evidenced in
the current climate of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Forms
of racism that have existed in previous decades have re-emerged, stir-
ring ferocious sentiments within many Western societies. This shows how
racism remains a threat to the wellbeing of individuals and groups, and
to the overall social harmony.
364 A. ELIAS ET AL.

A relatively neglected dimension in racism research relates to ethics.

We have argued that racism is primarily an ethical issue that strikes at
the core of human dignity. It should be obvious that its existence in
the twenty-first century contradicts human ingenuity and progress across
many spheres. Yet, racism continues to be one of the most persistent
issues in economically and politically advanced societies. This truth has
challenged scholars including philosophers, economists, sociologists and
psychologists. So much so that the study of racism has now become a
multidisciplinary subject of inquiry, decades after the pioneering works of
Du Bois (1903/2015), Myrdal (1944/1996) and Becker (1957/2010).

Australian Context
In Australia, research over the last few decades has revealed the extent to
which settler colonialism has exacted enduring racial injustice. However,
a contestation has emerged over the denial and neglect of both historical
and ongoing racism. Scholars argue a high level of intolerance towards
some racial and religious minorities exist in Australia, indicating that
mainstream attitudes of white privilege are reflected in the way many
Australians see themselves as being non-racist while holding opinions and
attitudes based on notions of white privilege (Hage, 1998). Thus, they
merely end up patronising the other in the community, while very few
white people are aware of their white privilege.
Thus white Australia’s paranoia, which surfaces as a form of concern,
control and worrying about the racial mix, is portrayed as a white fantasy
(Hage, 1998), while the Australian government’s obsession with border
control exhibits racial and spatial anxieties (Ang, 1999). White Australia’s
white fantasy is embedded in the discourse of whiteness, which is “con-
stitutive of the epistemology of the West; it is an invisible regime of
power that secures hegemony through discourse and has material effects
in everyday life” (Moreton-Robinson, 2005, p. 75). Whiteness posi-
tions Indigenous and migrant groups as “perpetual foreigners within the
Australian state” who play a “dual legitimating and anxiety-relieving role”
as “others” that result in “the onto-pathology of white Australian subjec-
tivity” (Nicolacopoulos & Vassilacopoulos, 2004, p. 32). As demonstrated
throughout this book, these racist tendencies and their implied structural
white privilege pose a serious challenge, not only to social cohesion and
intercultural harmony, but also to the health and wellbeing of its victims.
 11 CONCLUSION 365

Along similar lines, another study (Dunn & Forrest, 2004) reported
that the majority of Australians recognise there is a problem with racism,
highlighting the need to further develop anti-racist policies. As reported
in this book, many Australians deny racism while holding beliefs that are
based on racist notions and ideas of racial supremacy, and perceive cultural
diversity to be deleterious to a strong and harmonious society (Dunn
& Forrest, 2004). Studies also have reported a salience of racist atti-
tudes and prejudice against particular racial groups, including antipathy
towards Muslims and Indigenous Australians, particularly among older
Australians relative to younger Australians (Dunn & Forrest, 2004).
Younger people appear to be less intolerant and far less likely to disap-
prove of inter-racial marriages; similarly, young Australians seem to have
less assimilationist views towards ethnic minorities compared to older
Australians (Paradies et al., 2009). Yet, there is some evidence that, in
some instances, young people hold less positive attitudes to reconciliation
with Indigenous Peoples (Paradies, 2016b).
A notable finding in the Australian context relates to the rising levels
of Islamophobia across the board (Briskman, 2015; Poynting & Mason,
2007). Partly, the disproportionately high level of prejudice towards
Muslim Australians can be explained by global geopolitics and as an indi-
cation of the “dynamic and socially constructed nature of intolerance”
(Dunn & Forrest, 2004, p. 426). Along with the spike in COVID-
19 related anti-Asian racism, and the recent mediatised racism towards
African migrants, Islamophobia remains a contentious source of debate
about racism in Australia.

Emerging Frontiers in Racism Research

This book has raised and discussed some of the burning issues in racism
research summarised above. Indeed, racism remains an enduring social
problem while research continues to debate the nature, origin, signifi-
cance and prevalence of racism(s). Some of the chapters presented the
theoretical underpinnings of historical and current understanding around
racism while others provided empirical evidence corroborating underlying
theoretical arguments. Drawing on these discussions, we now outline and
highlight some key policy implications and agenda for future research.
While research on racism should continue to explore racism across
societal domains and levels for better understanding of its nature and
dynamics in society, there are practical and policy oriented issues that
require multi-partner interventions towards countering racism (Ben et al.,
366 A. ELIAS ET AL.

2020). Thus to increase the likelihood of interventions being effective, we

propose that interventions should:

• be carefully planned and theory-driven,

• allocate sufficient resources for planning and implementation,
• unfold over reasonably long periods,
• receive strong support from organisational leaders,
• work across multiple levels (e.g. state authorities, organisations),
• work in collaboration with other organisations and use reinforcing
approaches, and
• be supported by collaboration between researchers and policy-
makers.

Our research has drawn on current advances in racism research across

disciplinary traditions. We have also located some emerging frontiers that
future research should pursue and develop in Australia and globally, to
better understand the complexity and nature of longstanding and new
forms of racism(s). With this in mind, we highlight the following non-
exhaustive research areas that will need greater scholarly attention:

1. Theoretical focus

• Better theorisation of the sociology of racism in Australia: intersec-

tionality, life course and intergenerational impact.
• Resurgent far-right nationalism as a new form of racism.

2. Methodology

• An integrated approach combining in-depth analyses of internalised,

interpersonal and institutional racism across various sociocultural,
economic and political domains, with a focus on impact and
outcomes.

3. Data collection and measurement

• More nuanced data collection, particularly on whiteness, racial

minorities and intersectionality.
 11 CONCLUSION 367

• Cross-national comparative data on racism—At the global level there

is a critical gap in the measurement of racism. There is no adequate
benchmark data on global racism based on methodological rigour
(except an entry in the World Values Survey), despite numerous
measures at the national level, particularly in some countries from
the Global North.
• Measurement of racism during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of these areas of research—e.g., intersectionality—have received

wide scholarly attention, yet not every aspect of intersecting identities
has gained equal attention (e.g. religious, ethnic or age group). Future
research, focusing on gaps identified above could advance our knowl-
edge of racism while providing better understanding towards developing
tailored strategies for anti-racism. In conclusion, this book has attempted
to cover the most pressing issues in racism research. However, it has
left some aspects unexplored, which require further examination. These
include important topics such as relationships between racism and reli-
gion, racism and culture, racism in non-Western contexts, racism and
contemporary forms of colonisation, racism and economic development
and so on. A thorough treatment of these topics is beyond the scope of
a volume focusing on the Australian context, although we acknowledge
the significance of these and similar topics for a complete understanding
of racism.

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 Index

A B
Aboriginal, 3, 5, 35–37, 49, 51–54, Bennelong, 45
67, 69, 71, 75, 78, 81–83, 104, Biological construction, 3
157, 158, 292 Black, 22, 43, 48, 51, 98, 99, 101,
Africa, 12, 22, 67, 74, 76, 77, 106, 102, 107, 109, 114, 125, 127,
109, 128, 145, 154, 155, 158, 134, 137–139, 143, 147–152,
160, 171, 192, 193, 224, 232, 154–156, 173, 174, 214, 215,
299, 300, 302, 306, 311, 355, 218, 220, 227, 231, 248, 275,
356 299, 300, 302, 307, 311, 312,
Anglo-privilege, 186, 189, 190, 199 321, 323, 328, 336, 359
Anthropology, 3, 6, 16 Blackbirding , 63
Anti-Chinese sentiment, 62, 357 Blatant racism, 12, 22, 211, 322, 339
Anti-Semitism, 8, 114, 142, 170, 306, Botany Bay, 35, 42, 44, 49
325, 355 Burden of disease (BoD), 107, 246,
Anxiety, 243, 246–248, 250–253, 247, 249, 264
256–260, 262, 264, 265, 276,
277, 279, 284, 327, 361, 364
Apartheid, 8, 12, 22, 74, 77, 96, 101, C
103, 114, 154, 157, 160, 172, Capitalism, 13, 21, 34, 96, 127, 132,
300, 302, 303, 322, 323, 356 133, 135–139, 141–143, 145,
Atlantic slave trade, 2, 96, 147, 155, 156, 158, 304, 322, 324, 325
215, 303, 355, 363 Captain Cook, 35, 42, 44, 49, 53
Attributable fraction, 254–256 Challenging Racism Project (CRP),
Aversive racism, 114, 174 178–181, 183, 184, 186, 188,

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive 371
license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Elias et al., Racism in Australia Today,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6
372 INDEX

189, 191, 193–197, 199, 250, 223–226, 228, 229, 231, 232,
300, 337, 338 283, 301, 302, 305–307, 309,
Chinese, 17, 36, 38, 60–63, 73, 230 310, 320, 321, 324, 325, 336,
Civil right, 3, 22, 75, 77, 100, 103, 337, 353, 354, 358, 360, 364
156, 172, 243, 300, 323 Dispossession, 13, 17, 34, 37, 38, 40,
Colonisation, 13, 17, 34, 41, 47, 49, 45, 47, 51, 52, 54, 66, 100, 105,
50, 52, 53, 55, 56, 69, 71, 72, 155, 158, 159, 213, 356
81, 82, 96, 100, 123, 127, 155, Diversity, 3, 20, 76, 79, 111, 147,
158–160, 212, 319, 324, 339, 178, 179, 185, 186, 189, 190,
353, 367 192, 197, 202, 216, 217, 219–
Communication, 16, 21, 79, 84, 110, 222, 277, 281, 282, 284, 288,
211, 213, 224, 232, 281, 282, 293, 312, 320, 326, 328–331,
287, 299, 305, 309, 326, 329, 333–336, 339, 356, 358
330, 335, 339, 362 Domination, 7, 66, 67, 104, 123,
COVID-19, 20, 214, 215, 218, 132, 144, 153–155, 157, 304,
229–230, 232, 300, 307, 308, 355, 357
310, 363, 365, 367 Dreaming, 40
Cronulla, 37, 83, 170, 172, 338, 360
Cultural category, 6
Cultural diversity, 5, 6, 13, 78, 79, E
106, 177–179, 266, 282, 283, Economic causes, 15, 19, 358
293, 333, 335, 336, 339, 359, Education, 10, 18, 70, 73, 79, 97,
365 99, 101, 109, 110, 115, 129,
Cultural imperialism, 302 130, 143, 180, 183, 187, 188,
Cyber racism, 169, 228, 293, 190, 194–196, 198, 241, 242,
308–310 245, 264, 275, 280–283, 292,
293, 326, 328, 331, 335, 339,
361, 362
D Egalitarianism, 7, 65
DALYs, 247, 249, 253–255, 257–264 Employment, 18, 60, 61, 63, 64, 70,
Denial, 1, 5, 6, 14, 33, 35, 45, 51, 72–74, 79, 97, 99, 110, 130,
52, 57, 84, 103, 105, 106, 171, 135, 149, 153, 247, 248, 265,
174, 185, 186, 188–193, 199, 275, 285, 334
212, 213, 243, 354, 360, 364 Enlightenment, 3, 22, 45, 142, 322,
Depression, 68, 72, 246–253, 255– 323
260, 262, 264, 265, 276, 277, Ethical, 19, 33, 96, 107, 111, 112,
279, 361 114, 115, 232, 364
Disability weight, 251, 254, 263, 264 Ethics, 112, 364
Discourse, 1, 3, 4, 6–9, 13, 15, Ethnicity, 6, 8, 9, 18, 46, 105, 111,
16, 18–20, 22, 23, 33, 45, 53, 112, 126, 141, 184, 198, 218,
55, 77, 81, 96, 97, 105, 112, 292, 328, 358, 363
141–144, 160, 171, 172, 174, Exclusion, 5–7, 9, 18, 50, 52, 55, 62,
178, 192, 199, 211–218, 220, 65–67, 74, 78, 95, 100, 105,
 INDEX 373

106, 109, 110, 115, 139, 143, I

144, 155, 222, 223, 227, 245, Identity, 6, 7, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20,
250, 263, 305, 308, 356, 358 23, 33, 34, 39, 64, 66, 67, 69,
Experiences of racism, 6, 9, 21, 169, 77, 79, 80, 83, 95, 97, 106,
172, 175, 176, 181, 185, 199, 124–126, 130, 132, 133, 141,
220, 242, 244, 277, 278, 283, 143, 144, 150, 153, 177, 193,
287, 289, 291, 292, 338, 361 198, 213, 225, 231, 232, 277,
Explorer, 41–44, 51, 55 281, 287, 288, 309, 321, 322,
324, 334, 336, 353, 358, 367
Ideology, 1, 2, 4, 7–9, 22, 33, 55,
F 65, 67, 84, 104, 112, 132, 133,
Federation, 35, 37, 49, 58, 63–65, 135, 140, 141, 144–147, 149,
69, 71, 76, 79, 102, 104, 105, 152, 155, 159, 160, 170, 173,
143, 149 213, 221, 301–303, 306, 312,
First Fleet, 35, 44, 45, 48, 52, 65 313, 319, 320, 323, 339, 355,
First Peoples, 3, 35 360, 362, 363
Immigrants, 12, 37, 47, 58, 60–65,
68, 72–77, 199, 223, 278, 311,
357
G
Genocide, 45, 46, 57, 71, 136, 214 Immigration, 13, 17, 20, 37, 38,
58–64, 67, 68, 72–80, 82, 83,
Globalization, 310
101, 102, 149, 158, 225, 226,
Gold Rush, 35, 58–60, 65
229, 281, 305, 307, 311, 312,
337, 338, 356, 357
Immigration Restriction Act, 35, 38,
H 67
History, 2, 4–8, 13, 15–17, 22, 33, Imperialism, 13, 42, 136, 212, 304
34, 37, 39, 40, 42–46, 49, 51,
Imported racism, 301, 302
53, 58, 66, 69, 75, 80, 96, 100,
103, 104, 106, 109, 123, 124, Incarceration, 18, 38, 107, 108, 171,
128, 133, 146, 155, 158, 160, 220, 357, 361
175, 211, 214, 222, 225, 230, Indian, 13, 63, 136, 230
241, 242, 279, 300, 306, 319, Inequity, 3, 4, 84, 96–98, 101,
322, 353, 356, 357 102, 104, 108, 111–114, 150,
Holocaust, 22, 76, 101 154, 155, 173, 211, 212, 241,
Human rights, 3, 12, 22, 23, 36, 45, 244–246, 264, 278, 279, 302,
57, 69, 80, 96, 105–107, 111, 303, 353, 354, 356, 360, 361
143, 215, 219, 230, 276, 277, Injustice, 5, 18, 19, 22, 33, 45, 46,
311, 313, 322, 325, 338, 354, 51, 57, 66, 97–100, 103–105,
357 112, 114, 115, 131, 150, 173,
374 INDEX

212, 220, 242, 244, 278, 319, 310, 311, 356, 357, 360, 361,
322–324, 354, 358, 361, 364 364, 365
Institutional racism, 18–21, 23, Modern racism, 114, 134, 355
38, 58, 81, 95–101, 103–111, Monoculture, 23, 336
113–115, 150, 153, 156, 170, Multiculturalism, 5, 17, 18, 37, 38,
213, 228, 242, 246, 278, 279, 78, 79, 83, 84, 100, 106, 179,
310, 320, 336, 339, 354, 357, 180, 223, 225, 281, 282, 288,
358, 361, 362, 366 293, 308, 312, 337, 357
Intercultural relations, 283, 284, 287, Multicultural policy, 18, 36, 79, 81,
300, 305 82, 332, 333, 337, 340, 362
Intergroup contact, 326–330, 335, Multi-racial identity, 17
339, 362 Muslims, 83, 107, 133, 177, 188,
Internalised, 9, 10, 101, 111, 244, 189, 191–193, 198, 199, 217,
320, 322, 366 222–225, 275, 277, 280, 301,
Internet, 14, 21, 22, 299, 300, 304, 310, 337, 365
308–310, 361 Myall Creek massacre, 35, 54
Intersectionality, 6, 19, 130, 175,
213, 275, 359, 366, 367
Invasion, 23, 49, 52, 54, 221 N
Islamophobia, 3, 8, 83, 114, 170, Nationalism, 83, 106, 126, 132, 133,
199, 214, 218, 225, 229, 300, 141, 143, 144, 156, 171, 217,
306, 308, 311, 312, 365 225, 228, 299, 300, 305–308,
311, 312, 366
Naturalization Act, 67
J Nazi, 3, 12, 103, 145, 355
Jim Crow laws, 22, 96, 322, 355 Neoclassical economics, 124, 129,
Justice, 1, 12, 23, 34, 97, 99, 102, 132, 147, 358, 359
104, 106, 108, 109, 112, 113, Neoliberal, 126, 304, 305, 324, 325
115, 232, 242, 280, 307, 320, New racism, 84, 143, 170, 171, 179,
339, 340, 361, 362 185, 186, 188–190, 192, 193,
198, 199, 241, 244, 360

M
Massacre, 34, 44, 46, 49, 51, 52, O
54–56, 66, 84, 158, 312 Occupational segregation, 19, 129,
Methodology, 335, 366 359
Migrants, 11, 14, 17, 18, 21, 38, Old racism, 102, 170, 179, 185, 186,
58, 60, 61, 64, 68, 69, 72, 73, 189, 190, 198, 199
76–80, 83, 106, 109, 111, 171, Oppression, 5–7, 34, 40, 41, 44–46,
173, 177, 193, 199, 213, 214, 57, 58, 97, 103, 105, 123, 126,
220, 225–227, 230, 232, 242, 134, 137, 150, 155, 156, 173,
275, 277, 279, 280, 283, 285, 175, 213, 214, 279, 302, 305,
286, 288, 292, 300, 304–308, 323, 324, 359
 INDEX 375

Organizations, 53, 98, 108, 304 R

Orientalist, 40, 83, 222, 223, 225, Racial discrimination, 7, 11, 18, 19,
303 23, 55, 58, 67, 77, 78, 83, 98,
Overt racism, 4, 11, 12, 14, 62, 63, 99, 102, 105–107, 124, 125,
65, 79, 97, 101, 170, 354 129–132, 145, 146, 148, 149,
154, 172, 174, 177, 178, 180,
182, 185, 193, 197, 198, 200,
216, 230, 246, 247, 249, 253,
P 256, 258, 259, 262–266, 291,
Pemulwuy, 37, 54 292, 307, 313, 314, 323, 333,
Phillip, Arthur, 44, 53 336, 337, 355, 356, 358, 360
Population, 18, 21, 23, 33, 34, Racial Discrimination Act, 18, 23, 36,
37, 42, 43, 47–50, 54, 56–58, 82, 105, 216, 336
62–66, 68, 70, 72, 73, 76, Racial hierarchy, 1, 7, 9, 15, 84, 109,
105, 110, 124, 134, 147, 154, 147, 150, 151, 154, 160, 179,
160, 173, 176, 187, 190, 221, 214, 355
253–256, 265, 266, 276, 281, Racialisation, 2, 12, 134, 138, 192,
282, 307, 332, 358, 361 214, 215, 302, 319
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Racist attitude, 13, 51, 102, 112,
246, 247, 250–252, 256–260, 113, 169, 173–175, 177–179,
262, 264, 265, 361 181–186, 188–193, 195–202,
Prejudice, 12, 37, 46, 73, 77, 84, 231, 275, 277, 279, 283, 293,
95, 99, 101, 103, 123, 125, 309, 336, 365
132–138, 141, 145, 147, 151, Recognition, 12, 13, 19, 34, 74,
154, 155, 159, 178, 179, 185, 77–79, 82, 104, 106, 159, 311,
188, 191–193, 213, 277, 301, 320, 324, 325
319, 320, 326–331, 333, 335, Redfern Riots, 221
336, 359, 362, 365 Redistribution, 19, 104, 325
Prevalence of racism, 1, 5, 11, 14, 15, Referendum, 36, 75, 357
127, 172, 175, 183, 185, 199, Representation, 9, 18, 55, 79, 83, 97,
219, 243, 283–285, 291, 337, 115, 142, 143, 213, 215, 216,
339, 353, 360, 365 222–226, 232, 302, 330, 358
Privilege, 2, 5, 7, 9, 14, 17, 38, 96,
98–101, 103, 105, 107, 112,
124, 126, 128, 149–154, 157, S
160, 179, 188, 192, 193, 245, Segregation, 4, 7, 9, 23, 96, 100,
283, 304, 338, 355, 357, 358 101, 109, 134, 146, 150, 154,
Propaganda, 20, 211, 360 155, 174, 245, 322, 356
Psychological disorder, 247, 250, 252, Settler colonialism, 17, 34, 38–40, 49,
256–260, 262–265, 361 50, 57, 65, 69, 82, 356, 364
Psychology, 3, 10, 12, 16, 126, 130, Slavery, 13, 54, 63, 84, 96, 100, 101,
140 105, 123, 127, 133, 134, 136,
376 INDEX

139, 140, 150, 153, 154, 160, U

301, 323, 355 United Kingdom (UK), 58, 83, 98,
Slave trade, 2 102, 103, 143, 145, 150, 217,
Social cohesion, 3, 15, 79, 171, 181, 218, 281, 306, 307, 311, 357
242, 250, 266, 281, 310, 311, United Nations (UN), 36, 77, 83,
337, 340, 360, 364 145, 183, 193, 307, 313, 356
Social construction, 95, 144, 363 United States (US), 7, 22, 46, 58, 60,
Social Darwinism, 7, 13 72, 98, 99, 101–103, 107–110,
Social inclusion, 130 124, 128, 132, 144–146,
Social justice, 77, 79, 219, 324, 328 149–151, 153–156, 170, 176,
South Sea islander, 67 214, 217–219, 248, 257, 265,
Statistical discrimination, 19, 129, 359 276, 281, 299–302, 306, 307,
Stereotype, 112, 130, 142, 172, 173, 311, 312, 321, 323, 334, 337,
177, 219, 222, 225, 228, 320, 355, 356, 362
330
Strategy, 9, 22–24, 54, 137, 148,
155, 156, 172, 183, 184, 199, V
200, 217, 266, 293, 312, 321, Value of statistical life (VSL), 249,
322, 326, 338, 339, 354, 362, 254, 255, 257, 259, 261, 262
367 Victoria, 37, 57, 58, 61, 79, 178,
Stratification, 19, 108, 124, 130, 131, 179, 227, 291, 292
135, 146, 151, 152, 156, 160,
359
Stratification economics, 130, 132 W
Structural inequalities, 5, 19, 23, 59, Western, 3, 7, 14, 21, 23, 41–45,
321, 336, 359 51, 56, 59, 64, 66–68, 72, 77,
Structural racism, 2, 9, 18, 19, 97, 83, 84, 96, 97, 100, 101, 103,
113, 127, 128, 246, 279 113, 123, 127, 128, 136, 139,
Subtle racism, 12, 14, 114 141, 145, 146, 149–156, 159,
Super-diversity, 160, 303, 312 169, 171, 173, 174, 178, 194,
Superiority, 2, 8, 13, 60–62, 133, 196, 211–213, 215, 218, 222,
153, 310, 312 224, 230, 243, 244, 281, 301,
Systemic racism, 101, 107, 109, 150, 303–305, 307, 308, 310, 319,
220 322, 354, 363
White Australia Policy, 11, 17, 18, 22,
37, 38, 65, 68, 73, 75, 80, 96,
T 100–102, 105, 172, 300, 302,
Tampa, 224 322, 323, 337, 356–358
Taste discrimination, 19, 129, 359 Whiteness, 84, 96, 137, 149–151,
Terra nullius , 13, 34, 36, 52, 53, 82, 153, 154, 301, 303, 304, 306,
104 324, 364, 366
Trauma, 71, 220, 221, 287, 353 White privilege, 5, 65, 114, 132,
Travelling racism, 299, 301, 306 149–156, 219, 231, 283, 364
 INDEX 377

White supremacism, 160, 170, 174, Y

355 Young people, 20, 21, 170, 225–228,
Whitlam, Gough, 77, 78 275, 276, 278, 279, 283, 288,
291–293, 361, 365
Youth, 97, 220, 225–227, 275–280,
X
283, 361
Xenophobia, 3, 8, 81, 144, 228, 230,
305–307, 313