Racism is the result of a complex interplay of individual attitudes, social values and institutional practices.
It may be expressed in the actions of individuals and institutions and takes a range of forms.
Racism can take many forms, such as jokes or comments that cause offence or hurt, sometimes unintentionally; name-calling or verbal abuse; harassment or intimidation, or commentary in the media or online that inflames hostility towards certain groups.
At its most serious, racism can result in acts of physical abuse and violence.
Racism can directly or indirectly exclude people from accessing services or participating in employment, education, sport and social activities.
It can also occur at a systemic or institutional level through policies, conditions or practices that disadvantage certain groups.
It often manifests through unconscious bias or prejudice.
On a structural level, racism serves to perpetuate inequalities in access to power, resources and opportunities across racial and ethnic groups.
The belief that a particular race or ethnicity is inferior or superior to others is sometimes used to justify such inequalities.
— Australian Human Rights Commission, National Anti-Racism Strategy, July 2012, page 4
Institutional racism (or systemic racism) describes forms of racism which are structured into political and social institutions.
It occurs when organisations, institutions or governments discriminate, either deliberately or indirectly, against certain groups of people to limit their rights.
This form of racism reflects the cultural assumptions of the dominant group, so that the practices of that group are seen as the norm to which other cultural practices should conform.
It regularly and systematically advantages some ethnic and cultural groups and disadvantages and marginalises others.
Institutional racism is often the most difficult to recognise and counter, particularly when it is perpetrated by institutions and governments who do not view themselves as racist.
When present in a range of social contexts, this form of racism reinforces the disadvantage already experienced by some members of the community. For example, racism experienced by students at school may result in early school dropout and lower educational outcomes. Together with discrimination in employment, this may lead to fewer employment opportunities and higher levels of unemployment for these students when they leave school. In turn, lower income levels combined with discrimination in the provision of goods and services restrict access to housing, health care and life opportunities generally. In this way, institutional racism may be particularly damaging for minority groups and further restrict their access to services and participation in society.
** Language warning **
Unconscious biases are the learned stereotypes about certain groups of people that are formed outside of conscious awareness.
They are automatic, unintentional, deeply engrained in our beliefs, universal and have the ability to affect our behaviour.
Unconscious bias can be favourable or unfavourable attitudes which form the basis of positive or negative impressions of others.
In classroom contexts, unconscious bias may affect curriculum delivery. An example of unconscious bias in an educational setting would be if the curriculum content only included specific cultural perspectives and ignored others which were also relevant and important.
An example of unconscious bias in a social context might be if, when dividing up players for a soccer match, a captain unintentionally only chose players of a racial background similar to their own.
The first step to addressing your unconscious biases is to acknowledge that everyone has them.
It is a good idea to reflect on your actions and decisions and think about what motivated them. Did your actions benefit a particular group of people in an unfair way?
Reducing these unconscious biases will help create a more inclusive and equitable space for everybody.
White privilege is a term that often comes up in discussion about racism. It can be a controversial topic and the purpose of this page is to provide factual information and build an understanding about the term. As the term can be quite broad, we will focus on the definition of White privilege in an Australian context.
The term ‘White’ as it is used in the term ‘White privilege’ also needs clarity. R. Bhopal provides some insight into the term as it is used when discussing race: “The term (White) is usually used to describe people with European ancestral origins who identify, or are identified, as White. The word is capitalised to highlight its specific use.”
When using the term White in Australian contexts and when referring to White Australians, this may refer to the following:
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the term ‘privilege’ refers to “an unearned advantage or entitlement that only one person or group of people has, usually because of their position or because they are rich.” This is often attributed to dominant social groups which refers to groups that control the value systems and rewards in a particular society. It can refer to groups who hold political power in society, as well as groups who are of the ethnic or religious majority in a society.
White privilege is a combination of the terms, ‘white’ and ‘privilege’. White privilege can be defined as the implicit societal advantages afforded to White people relative to those who experience racism.
According to Francis Kendall, “White privilege is an institutional (rather than personal) set of benefits granted to those of us who, by race, resemble the people who dominate the powerful positions in our institutions.” It is the absence of suspicion, prejudice and other negative behaviours that people who are objects of racism experience. Note that this term does not apply in countries where White people do not make the majority of the population or the political power in charge, for example China or Japan.
In order to be more aware of privilege, it is important to think about what it is to see society systemically and structurally instead of only in terms of individuals making individual choices. Once this is realised, it is much easier to identify individuals who, due to their privilege, are granted unearned advantages within this system. When a social political system or institution grants privileges and unearned advantages to people who make up the majority of the population or represent those in political power, this is known as institutional racism.
It is important to note that having white privilege does not automatically make you racist.
It is important to identify these inherent advantages in order to reject them so that they do not continue to reinforce our present hierarchies.