Race, ethnicity, prejudice: white Australia policy Essay

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.

One of the first acts of the Commonwealth Government of Australia was the implementation of the White Australia Policy. This shows that the newly federated nation was built on fear and racism. The White Australia policy was a law that changed Australia and has shaped the way it is today. This essay will reflect how the policy was implemented, how it affected the nation as a whole, why the Australians feared the Chinese and how Australia was viewed from other federated nations, as a result of implementation of the policy.

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.

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,

Cultural or “new” racism according to Marger (2009, p.23) “emphasises individual and group shortcomings rather than a social system that, through subtle discrimination prevents minority groups from attaining the economic and social parity with the dominant group”. While similar in many aspects to classical racism, cultural racism differs in that biological inferiority or superiority are not discussed. Institutional racism on the other hand refers to the “covert effects of complex social structures” (Hollinsworth, 2006 p.47). In other words, political and social institutions, not necessarily intentional, discriminates and applies implicit biasness against groups of people, either directly or

When the immigration policies were revised in 1967 and the ‘white Australia policy’ removed migrants from many other background started coming into Australia. This marked a change in the Australian religious makeup from a predominantly Christian

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).

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

The Australian identity is progressively constructed through political and societal ideologies that have shaped views on morality, race, character, values and religion (Cousins, 2005). The genesis of an Australian identity dates back to the white settlement, where culture was dominantly influenced and controlled by an Anglo-Saxon heritage and harsh circumstances due to terrain and climate (Moran, 2011). Thus, physical rigorousness, mateship and the capability to endure hardship were foundational in the development of identity (Baum & Butler, 2014). Mono-racialism in mainstream media has become a paramount realisation amongst minority groups in society (Aquilia, 2001). ABC program, ‘The Drum’, demonstrated the lack of non Anglo-Saxon actors

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).

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)

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

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.