They seemed like good enough guys. They bought me a beer and gave me a ride home from the game. Then on the way they stuck their head out the window to yell racial slurs at Asian pedestrians as unconsciously as I would take a breath. They were good at what they did too—hardly a target slipped by without being called a ‘PowerPoint’ or a ‘dink.’ I saw the look on a young Asian man’s face turn from hope to despair when we roared by. He turned around to see a friend and got a face full of insult instead.
Why do people stick their heads out of screaming cars to insult a soul they’ll never know? Senior Lecturer Kevin Dunn from the University of New South Wales set out to find out in a study called ‘Racism in New South Wales’. In the 2003 study, 83 per cent of Australians polled recognised the problem of racism in Australia and 12 per cent admitted to racist ways themselves. According to the study, 45 per cent of Sydney respondents said that Australia was weakened by people of different ethnic origins ‘sticking to their old ways’.
One of the causes of increased racism is a shift in migrant movement. Newcomers can tend to stick to their old ways while they settle in and begin to adapt. Since 1961, most immigration has stemmed from the UK and Ireland. With the percentage of settlers from non-English speaking countries on the rise, tensions are set to flare up in coming years. Racism is typically a fear based response people have when what they view as natural is challenged by people that look and act different.
Sociologist Dr. Williams from the University of Michigan teaches us that ‘there is more genetic variation within races than between them.’ (‘The Concept of Race Study’). This suggests that racism acts on categories that are made by cultures rather than by genetics. Dr. Williams’ research team believes that racism has to do with popular ideas created by the media and traditional opinions about what a nation looks like and who is a legitimate member. Cultures form a consensus about what a real member looks like and deviations from that idea are filed under ‘other’. Once you’re an ‘other’, you’re in trouble. To look at examples of racist Aussies interacting with perceived ‘others’, we only have to look a few years back to the Cronulla riots.
The 2005 riots saw Caucasian Australians clash with Lebanese immigrants on the white sands of Cronulla under the hot December sun and exposed dormant racist attitudes that had been seething for years. In a candid ABC interview following the riots, a Caucasian male who participated spoke anonymously, ‘They [the Lebanese] forget that they moved here and they brought their culture with them. And they've got to adapt to our culture.’
What this bitter young man has forgotten is that Australia has a rich history stitched together by the labour of migrants. Without migrant movement and the gradual melding of culture, Australia wouldn’t be the diverse and vibrant community that it is today. Imagine an Australia without fired up barbeques, beer, cricket, and meat pies: all iconic Australian things coming from other countries. If he wants to adapt to the original Australian culture, maybe he should pick up a didgeridoo.
If you think Australian culture has changed since the riots and racism is no longer a problem, consider this—in February this year, the Parramatta debut of ‘The Combination’, a critically acclaimed movie about the riots featuring real footage, had to be shut down. Why? Violence broke out on two consecutive nights. A security guard was attacked the first night while a four person fight followed the night after. The riots may be over, but the tensions that fueled those punches years ago are still lurking.
What does a racist look like? Take a look in the mirror and ask yourself if the following applies to you. A racist is someone who has forgotten his own history, who neglects the struggles of others, and who can’t be bothered to step out of himself, if only for a moment. A moment is all it takes to realise the fundamental blunder of prejudice: fear isn’t knowledge, its cowardice. Next time you hear someone being racist, don’t just sit there. Say something. As British statesmen, Edmund Burke, once said, ’All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’
How Do I Know This?
Dunn, Kevin N. “Racism in Australia: findings of a survey on racist attitudes and experiences of racism.” Paper presented to conference entitled The Challenges of Immigration and Integration in the European Union and Australia, 18-20 February 2003, University of Sydney, http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/Racism%20In%20Australia%20%20%20%20Find%20Of%20A%20Sur%20On%20Racist%20Att%20And%20Exp%20Of%20Racism.pdf
Australian Bureau of Statistics. 4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 1994. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/e0a8b4f57a46da56ca2570ec007853c9!OpenDocument.The Concept of Race. Dr. Williams. February 1994. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1402239.
Liz Jackson’s ABC Report “Riot and Revenge” Transcript. March 13, 2009. class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="MARGIN: auto auto 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: justify; mso-add-space: auto">http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1590953.htm.
Local film pulled from cinemas after brawls. March 1, 2009. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/01/2504194.htm.
