Essay about Divine Wind - Racism

Throughout the course of history it is apparent that racism is present in most societies. During times of war people of a certain race may choose to segregate themselves in order to become the leading power in their society. In his book, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War published in New York by Pantheon books and copyrighted in 1986, John W. Dower presents arguments for both the United States and Japan which constitute similarities in the belief of a superior race as well as illustrates contradictions on how each side viewed the war.

The story is set in Australia and this gave me a sense of similarity and even fondness to the novel. I could feel the places, sounds and scenes of Australia. Living in Australia, it is interesting to see how Omed and other characters perceive our country.

Since World War 2 and the Vietnam War, Australia has become a multicultural country. Before the Vietnam War, though, the Australian government tried their best to keep Australia ‘white’. After the fear of communism from Vietnam, the government thought it would be in the country’s best interest to try and build up the population in Australia, but only allowing ‘white’ Europeans and British people to come. What is included in this report, is to discover how and why the migrants from non-European countries manage to change the face of modern Australia.

Disher demonstrates isolation of the ethnic groups and the regional and urban divide present in The Divine Wind through the beliefs, experiences, and values of the Killian family and Hartley Penrose. Both culturally and geographically isolated from the rest of Australia, the people of Northern and Central Australia, specifically Broome felt ignored, misunderstood, and misconstrued by the urban South. This is an ongoing theme in Australia. They resented interference from the federal government. The North feared invasion from Japanese and argued that Australia would perish if the North and the Centre were not populated and developed. Racism was intrinsic, with the Aborigines seen either as treacherous or lazy or as childlike and in need of protection. White Australians were the minority and their high statuses were a scant consolation when they were vastly outnumbered by a diverse range of cultures, the Japanese, Malays, and other South East Asians. Although, the minority, the white residents felt as if they had a power of the other ethnicities. Therefore, opening segregated cinemas, a Register of Aliens, and a clear but unofficial racial hierarchy. Their geographical isolation led to specific cultures, views, and beliefs on race. The regional and urban divide was evident when Jaimie Kilian’s wealthy urban family arrived in Broome. Jaimie felt entitled as his father was the new magistrate in town, he was arrogant and opinionated towards the regional community. When Hart offered his friendship, Kilian responded by saying “I don’t need any friends. “He walked as if he had owned the town.” Jamie enjoyed having an edge over Hart, he felt entitled as he was an urban elite. “Jamie was competitive. In almost everything you could name, Jamie was better than me…We were opposites.” Hart displayed what many felt about the new family from the Urban South. “I envied him, I was jealous, I pitied myself.”

Similarly, the notions of discovery are conveyed in the text “1112” which draws attention to the uncertainties faced by the refugees who have been detained upon arrival in Australia. Moore explores the hardships and struggles faced by Anhar and her family. This is demonstrated through the harsh dialogue used by the AGM guards, “stop yelling ya little bitch… if you’re going to yell, yell in Australian ya friggin dago” the use of colloquial demanding language illustrates negative words used for Anhar and her family. This is further reinforced through Hannah’s personal anecdote in which she recounts the experiences of Anhar. Their worth are reassessed over time, looking from past and present which also differs for individuals as Hannah is different to someone who is not a refugee, having Anhar’s world being in the detention centre.

The novel ‘Deadly, Unna?’ and the movie ‘Australian Rules’ by Phillip Gwynne are based on racism. The main characters in the novel and film are Gary Black who is white and Dumby Red who is Black. They become friends while playing football for Port, where Blacky live but Dumby has to travel as he lives in Point an Aboriginal Mission. There is a lot of conflict in the book and movie through racism, from both Point people (Nunga’s) and Port people (Goonya’s).

Tom Wright demonstrated through his play ‘Black Diggers’ the harsh reality of the treatment of indigenous Australian during the time of World War 1.’Black Diggers’ captured the exclusion, the violence and loss of opportunities faced by the Indigenous Australians. Australia 100 years on still shows similar hostilities towards Aboriginal individuals, some movement has been may towards Aboriginals being equal but still not much meaningful change has occurred.

The immigration policy of Australia has been in a constant state of flux ever since Federation in 1901, when the first legislative piece, the Immigration Restriction Act, was introduced. The Immigration Restriction Act has become infamous in Australian history and throughout the world, more nefariously as the ‘White Australia Policy’. The White Australia Policy was Australia’s seemingly indestructible way of ensuring a White Australia. However, the immigration of European refugees after World War II, which aimed to defend the nation from Japanese invasion, challenged this policy. From 1901, Australia held a strong belief that coloured people, specifically Asians, were inferior and detrimental to the Australian way of life, and did all in it’s

     The main theme of Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee is taking a

The national identity of Australians has been one of the most debated issues among the country. Since the British's attack in 1788, the Anglo-Saxon legacy had unavoidably prompted the creation of "Britishness" and "whiteness" as one of the focal points for national identity of Australians. Robinson explains that “whiteness” isn't a fundamental protest that was socially developed. Rather the idea 'white' signifies simply skin color. It is the Indigenous 'other' who is the concentration of rationalization and its effects (Robinson 2008).

Religion and Racism Racism is prejudice against people of another race or ethnic group. Prejudice means pre-judging: making up your mind about someone or something when you have not considered the facts or the evidence. Racism has been around for a very long time, one of the first times that it happened on a major scale was when the Jews moved to Egypt, but were put into slavery because the Egyptians thought of them as inferior because their skin colour and religious beliefs. People are, or can be racist due to three main points, the first is that they were brought up by parents who were racist, and they automatically adopted the views of them because that was all they knew as right.

This paper is divided into two parts. In the first part the concepts or race, ethnicity, prejudice and racism are defined and how they are connected is discussed. Part 2 of the paper looks at the ‘White Australia’ policy and why it was introduced. The impact of such a racist immigration history on contemporary Australia is also discussed in terms of attitudes and behaviours of the population.

Ver on Ah Kee's works all prove a point or statement most frequently to do with the automatic placement of jobs and placement in the social hierarchy, although the Indigenous Australians had been here for centuries before the English all white first fleet arrived, no respect or acknowledgement that the aboriginals was shown. This attitude has been still carried on to modern day life, many white Australians are still oblivious to the occurrence of this let alone other

There are many theories that attempt to identify the precise origins of racism. The three articles that were designated for reading each try to answer the question of what are the sources of racism. Of the three, I found that both Loewenbergs and Allports arguments combined best explain where racism stems from. By using the aforementioned articles I will assert my opinion of the subject, and use past and current class readings to support my argument. In doing so, some light may be shed upon what are the actual derivations of racism.

In the beginning of the article, Wall talks about the categorisations of racialised discourse. She mentions different justifications of stereotypes, and how they relate to what is referred to as the construction of the ‘new world’. Wall believes that as well as the ‘traditional’ old racisms, there is also a ‘new racism’ which is spoken about by Barker in 1981. She uses the example of Maori as the unemployable/unemployed, which has became one of the main stereotypes, that construct the identity of specific Maori.