Race, ethnicity, prejudice: white Australia policy Essay

I argue that the ideologies behind The Assimilation Policy were evident since the first white settlers had arrived in 1788. Since first contact, Aboriginal people’s values, customs, beliefs and traditional way of life began to erode. From the 1850s onwards, Aboriginal people were forced onto reserves, and then into towns and cities in the mid 20th century . Many people feared that the ‘Australian’ culture was being affected by immigrants. Since the early 1900s, there had been a ‘White Australia’ policy and assimilation was expected upon arrival. However, Aboriginal people did not immigrate, so their policy, dictated by the Australian States and Commonwealth Government was known as The Policy of Assimilation. Assimilation policies were supported by racist assumptions and represented by settler nationalist imperatives . In the 1950s, assimilation policies for Aboriginal people were supported by the

After WW2, the Labour Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, launched Australia’s largest immigration program ever. Along with the program, the catchphrase ‘Populate or Perish’ was widely used to imply that more immigrants, preferably white, were necessary to fight of the steady stream of Asian immigration. As part of Immigration policy, these immigrants were expected to assimilate – meaning that they had to give up their preceding culture and embody Australian customs. This was simple for those who come from Britain but was very much a difficult task for those few immigrants who were not of British descent.

The origins of the white Australia policy can be traced back to the 1950’s when white miners showed resentment towards Chinese diggers which ended in violence at Lambing Flat (New South Wales) and Buckland River (Victoria). The governments then blamed the Chinese, and placed restrictions on any Chinese migration. Even before this time,

“Discuss the key differences between ‘individual racism’ and ‘institutional racism’. Give examples to illustrate your argument”.

It is no secret that aboriginal Australian people have experienced endless racism and significant disadvantage throughout the centuries in Australia. We are often quick to recognise that some of the worst acts of discrimination in history happened in other countries, for example segregation in the U.S, the apartheid in south Africa and the holocaust in Germany, however one of the worst cultural and physical genocides happened right here in Australia, and today many of us choose to ignore the ongoing stereotypes and racial disadvantage that the first Australians faced and continue to face today. It begun with the European settlement that had a devastating impact on indigenous people and their culture, and continues to this day with entrenched

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).

Institutional racism is defined as “a complex pattern of racial advantage built into the structure of society – a system of power and privilege that advantages some groups over others” (Eitzen, Zinn & Smith, 2014, p. 195). Institutional racism happens when a group (minority) is being discriminated against because of their race. Individual racism is when an individual holds their own racist beliefs or behaviors. “Individual Racism is connected to/learned from broader socioeconomic histories and processes and is supported and reinforced by systemic racism” (Calgary Anti-Racism Education, n.d.).

Racism is a global issue that is perpetuated by our ever-globalizing environment. With increased communication technologies cultures from continents that are oceans apart are now able to meet (Hogan 2012). More specifically within Australia racism has been the burden of the Indigenous people of Australia, since the countries discovered by the British. Indigenous Australians have been subject to policies and laws sort to convert them to integrate into the newly pronounced white country (Finlayson, J & Martin, D 2012).

The White Australian policy was Australia’s solution to prevent immigrants migrating into the country’s colonies. The law was enforced so that the Chinese, Africans, and all non-European were not allowed to enter the country, these were the factors that led to the law. The white Australian policy was actually called ‘Immigration restriction act’. Australia’s plan all along was to stay as a white only country that was run under British customs. The White Australian policy also excluded prostitutes and criminals.

Too Much Speculation in Immigration Nation SBS’s newest documentary Immigration Nation presents an unbalanced and sometimes unreliable view on Australia’s immigration history, writes Mary Hutchinson. Commissioned by the SBS and directed by Ben Shakleford, Immigration Nation tells the history of a well contested social issue: immigration. Describing itself as ‘The secret history of us’ it attempts to recount how multicultural Australia was formed against the odds. However, it mostly just rants about why the odds were terrible rather than talking about how said odds were overcame. Shakleford begins telling the tale of the White Australia Policy.

Throughout this course we have learned about many things, one in particular would be Racism. We have learned about many different types of racism along with examples of racism. Before I go into specific examples of racism that I have learn about in this class, I will first define and explain the differences between racism, prejudice or also known as bias, discrimination, race, and racist so there 's a clear understanding of why I picked the specific examples. The definition of racism that we learned in class would be an “Institutionalized system with disproportionate unjust outcomes for a particular race”. Prejudice or also known as bias was defined as “A negative feeling, opinion, or attitude toward a certain category or people” this would be an feeling with no action acted upon, where discrimination is defined as “Action or inaction toward a category of people” which would be acting on the negative feelings or opinions of a certain group. The definition for race is a “Social construct, but a lived reality” while a racist is “Discrimination based on the category of race”. (Disadvantage privilege notes, 2016)

Racism is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others. This trend has been around for a long time, from slaves, to discrimination, etc. Although in many cases, people in the time period

Racism is a socially endured phenomenon that affects a large amount of individuals around the world. It is usually displayed by fear, intolerance, and hatred. Race is a concept that is historically recognized to divide people into groups, by the color of their skin, the texture of their hair, and physical features.

Institutional Racism- This form of racism consists of established laws, customs, and practices that systematically reflect and produce racial inequalities in society, ether or not the individuals maintaining these practices have racist intentions.

Racism is defined as the negative feeling towards people belonging to other races whereby a person firmly believes that to be true based on genetic endowment. Such negative feeling is justified by factors, such as failure, ego, economic setbacks, or resources. Racism is one of the greatest problems mankind faces as the dominant groups holding the notion that their superiority in biological endowment justifies them to mistreat other based on their race. Racism encompasses the simplistic and visual signals of culture and race, for example, skin color, ancestry, religion, national origin, sexual preference, body features, and attire. Such factors make igniting of racism quite easy through very