Whiteness, Invisibility and denial : Race in contemporary Australia Malcolm FialhoEquity and Diversi

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Whiteness, Invisibility and denial Race in
contemporary Australia Malcolm
Fialho Equity and Diversity UWA, 2005
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Race in contemporary Australia

• Still evolving, finding its way, complex
• Need to move from romantic multiculturalism
  (May, 2001) to revolutionary multiculturalism
• Characterised by invisibility and denial
• Need for grass roots education, awareness
  raising and interaction
• Policy development Still race shy

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Perspectives on Race

• Australians seems uncomfortable using the word
  race, preferring culture or ethnicity
  (Australian Psych. Society)
• Race constantly in the news but as
• Mandatory sentencing
• Reconciliation
• Stolen children
• Native title
• Illegal immigration

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• Short on young people? Try mass migration
• But the insularity of this debate betrays how we
  remain biological patriots with an attachment to
  cultural diversity which is only skin-deep. We
  want the spicy food, but not the people who make
  it the world music, but not the people who play
  it the hand woven carpets but not the people who
  make them at least, not in large enough numbers
  to end the birth strike.
• (Rosemary Neil, The Australian 21 June, 2002)

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Internationalisation

• Global university Excellence
• Diversity in Teaching and Learning, governance,
  workforce
• Tapping diverse networks to stimulate innovation
  and new research frontiers
• UWA Graduates as Citizens of the Globe

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building a more inclusive university, which
promotes diversity, has significant benefits for
not only students from diverse backgrounds, but
also for all students, staff and the community at
large. An increasingly multicultural world
requires a new kind of Australian graduate.-
Prof. Deryck Schreuder, Vice-Chancellor, UWA
2000if someone with the authority of, say, a
teacher described the world and you are not in
it .. it is as if you looked in the mirror and
thought you did not exist- Adrienne Rich,
poet
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Racism in Australia

• Old / Colonial Racism Inequality, domination,
  exploitation
• New Racism politics of difference, unity,
  identity Anti-Asian Racism Islamophobia
• Representing a move from biological racism
  towards cultural racism

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Contemporary Models of Multiculturalism

• Canada
• Singapore
• US
• UK
• New Zealand

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Whiteness Studies

• Describes the emerging body of scholarship that
  explores what it means to be white in both a
  country-specific and more global context.
• Emerged in the US in the mid-1990s in response to
  the burgeoning interest in people of colour and
  the notion of diversity.

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2001 UN Conference on Racism and Xenophobia,
Durban, SA

• That the Race and Cultural Diversity Agenda be
  advanced through the fresh and innovative prism
  of Whiteness
• A new way of viewing and approaching the world
  and understanding current socio - political and
  economic arrangements at both a macro- and micro-
  level

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Why shift gaze to whiteness?

• Acknowledges that racism (both individual and
  structural) is not an aberration or marginal, but
  is a central part of Australian federalism
• Provides a platform to examine both individual
  and systemic privilege contextually ie. in
  relation to other people
• Offers liberating opportunities for both Whites
  and people of colour in addressing the challenges
  of racism and white privilege in the community

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Rodriguez, 1999 Delgado, 1999
Whiteness and Higher Ed.

• the majority of students, faculty and
  administrators are oblivious not only to what it
  means to be White, but to the extent to which
  their Whiteness dominates the campus culture,
  making it uncomfortable for many people of colour
• White privilege should be identified and
  examined and the solution is not necessarily
  eliminating privileges or courtesies afforded
  Whites, but rather, expanding them to all human
  beings.

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Racial discourse the deficit approach

• scholarly activity in the race area has tended to
  focus largely on images of non-white groups (eg.
  African-Americans, ethnic minorities from
  non-Anglo backgrounds, Indigenous people) and has
  almost never examined the images of white people.

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Whiteness addressing the gap

• there is something at stake in looking at, or
  continuing to ignore, white racial imagery.
  (Dyer, 1999)
• while race continues to be applied only to
  non-white peoples, whites will be seen as
  normative and the relationship between the two
  will be characterised by inequity, oppression,
  privilege and an imbalance of power.

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Whiteness and Power some facts and figures

• Indigenous Australian life expectancy is 16-20
  years less than non-Indigenous Australians
• AVCC and Group of 8 have no CALD or Indigenous
  representation
• Whitest Parliament in the Western World
• Almost 35 of Australians from CALD backgrounds
  are under-employed
• Cultural diversity is invisible in the
  corporate sphere

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Universality of whiteness benefits

• Complex and fragmented social identity
• All white people benefit from racial privilege,
  albeit unequally its about the white system,
  not skin colour per se
• Sharing unearned benefits as inheritors of a
  racially based system of wealth and privilege

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Key challenges

• How can whiteness studies be integrated into
  every discipline in the traditional curriculum?
• How can an honest and constructive examination of
  white privilege stimulate the development of
  diversity initiatives that contribute to both the
  economic and social bottom line?
• How can a whiteness framework assist in the
  development of initiatives that enhance our
  capacity to broaden and extend the
  Internationalisation, Community Relations and
  Social Responsibility Agenda?

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Interrogating Whiteness Personal reflections

• Reluctance among some white people to accept this
  description - normative
• When the dominant group has to think of itself as
  one of among many potentially equal groups, the
  reality of power relationships becomes painfully
  apparent
• The way things are to the way things have been
  created and maintained

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The Diversity Agenda

• Identity - who am I? what am I what worth?
• Inclusion - do I leave my identity in the car
  park?
• Performance/Achievement - how is merit defined in
  this workplace?
• Cultural Competence - how comfortable am I around
  diversity?
• Community engagement do new and emerging CALD
  groups contribute to University life?

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White Privilege Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

• Racism is systemic, but 'to fail to resist these
  systemic forces is as much an act of dominance as
  face-to -face discrimination'.
• I am responsible for history the past acts
  through me and everyone else in every social
  interaction
• The misfortune of one white man is not evidence
  of injustice in the system
• I am not a bad person because I passively receive
  privilege, but it is a moral and ethical act to
  fail to question and resist that privilege

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Contd

• If there is a problem, those with more power have
  more responsibility
• What I will learn about myself and others is an
  area of growth closed to me unless I accept and
  work with these issues
• The journey is endless. I will always have to
  work with my socialised baggage.
• Most women and minorities do not expect me to
  have finished this work they will usually be
  supportive of the fact that it is occurring at
  all.
• (Jacques, 1997)