National Conference On Racism In A Global Context Abstracts - Inclusion and Exclusion Session 7 Stream 3, 1.15-3.00pm, ECL3
Bureaucracies, Indigenous Peoples, Migrants, and Refugees: It is not Just Cross-Cultural Miscommunication
Bernard Guerin (University of South Australia)
Pauline Guerin (Flinders University)
Indigenous peoples, migrants, and refugees have high rates of contacting government and non-government bureaucracies but these interactions are often problematic.Based on participatory and ethnographic research, we describe some of the problems and some potential solutions.Two common ideas in this area are challenged: first, that generic cultural awareness-raising workshops can help, and second, that with more contact, bureaucrats will come to understand clients better and will be more sensitive to them. A number of areas of contention between bureaucrats and their clients are raised along with the possibility that each contention might require a unique intervention rather than assuming that a generic intervention will work.These areas of contention include: differences in time orientation, impacts of conducting social relationships with strangers, the role of informal networks and influence, the suppression of diversity, gender differences, the perceived role of money, the influence of individualism, and the English language monopoly.
Session 7, Stream 3
Date & Time: Saturday 10 November (1.15pm)
Location : ECL3
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Everyday Racism in Australia
James Forrest (Macquarie University, Sydney)
Kevin Dunn (University of NSW)
Rogee Pe-Pua (University of NSW)
Everyday racism is the overt expression of attitudes towards minority cultural groups in major immigrant-receiving societies.Drawing on a national telephone survey of respondents' experience of 'everyday' racism in various contexts, conducted in 2006, we examine the incidence, form of experience and context of various forms of discrimination or intolerance, as a basis for an approach to anti-racism initiatives in this aspect of racist behaviour.Results show that between 1 in 10 and 1 in 3 respondents, depending on their background and situation, experience some form of 'everyday' racism.However, this varies spatially to suggest that the experience is 'everywhere different', from which we conclude the need for a similarly geographic base to anti-racism initiatives across Australia.
Session 7, Stream 3
Date & Time: Saturday 10 November (1.35pm)
Location : ECL3
Does neo-liberalism foster racism?
Del Weston, ISTP (Murdoch University)
Western society is underpinned by what has become known as 'neo-liberalism'.This drives Western economic, legal, social and political institutions. It is the ideology of globalising corporate capitalism; it fails to recognise the value of other world views, especially other cultural systems. Over the last 30 years or so, neo-liberalism has become the dominant and seemingly only 'valid' world view.This is illustrated by the increasing dominance globally of Western individualistic consumerist culture, of the English language and of the attendant devaluation of other languages, cultures, legal and economic systems.
While racism is not an explicit part of he foundation of neo-liberal society, it is nurtured by its creation of suspicion of 'the other', especially minority and non mainstream groups. This paper shows how the values underpinning the neo-liberal world are contrary to those needed to develop a more just and inclusive world in which all can live in the security of their own culture, language and race.
The paper explores the structural aspects of neo-liberalism which provide fertile ground for racism and proposes how these forces might be countered in a practical way, both locally in Australia and globally.
Session 7, Stream 3
Date & Time: Saturday 10 November (1.55pm)
Location : ECL3
Falsifying false beliefs: A successful anti racism intervention with regard to Aboriginal Australians
Fiona Kate Barlow (University of Queensland)
Winnifred Louis (University of Queensland)
Anne Pedersen (University of Queensland)
The present study sought to investigate the effects of an anti-racism intervention targeting prejudice towards Aboriginal Australians. Second year social sciences students from a large University in Western Australia (Murdoch University) underwent an anti-racism intervention consisting of a history lesson about Aboriginal-Settler relations in Australia, a video, and information debunking the false beliefs that Aboriginal people a) received more money on welfare than White Australians, b) that Aboriginal people drank more alcohol than White Australians, and c) that Aboriginal people were given a car by the government. Questionnaires were disseminated pre and post-intervention. Results indicated that false beliefs and prejudice towards Aboriginal Australians were significantly lower post-intervention. Moral outrage towards racism was significantly higher post-intervention. Regression analyses indicated that as false beliefs were reduced, so too was racism, and that this relationship was mediated by an increase in moral outrage. The results are discussed, in relation to both the theory concerning the cognitive and emotional independent variables, as well as the successful practical application of an anti-racism intervention.
Session 7, Stream 3
Date & Time: Saturday 10 November (2.15pm)
Location : ECL3
If you need any further information about the conference and associated events and activities, or have any problems with this website, please contact Girish Lala at the Centre for Social and Community research, Murdoch University by email (ncrgc@murdoch.edu.au) or telephone ((61-8) 9360 6969)
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