Is Australia a racist country? Discuss in relation to different theories of race.
...elfare legislation up to the 1970s (Hollinsworth. 1998). Institutional racism is Australia is a far greater issue then the abuse of people by overt racists. Discrimination is perpetuated by social conventions and organisational structures. It institutes norms to certain racial and ethnic groups (Bereson & Matheson. 1993). One example of this is shown by the over representation, relative to their proportion of the population, of Aborigines in Australian prisons. Perhaps as a form of unconscious racism, this over representation occurs structurally because of the high levels of unemployment, poverty and lack of education among the indigenous population (Jureidini & Poole. 2003). There are several theories of racism, stemming from both psychological and sociological perspectives. Firstly, the authoritarian personality theory describes people with this personality type as the cause of prejudice. Theodor Adorno developed this theory with his associates in 1950 whilst a member of the Frankfurt school . As a refugee from Nazi Germany, Adorno was interested in the psychological traits of those people who supported extremist views (van Krieken et al. 2000). As a result of his research Adorno and the Frankfurt school described an authoritarian personality as one, which involved stereotypic thinking, repressed social and sadistic drives, and the worship of power (van Krieken et al. 2000). Adorno believed that those with an authoritarian personality had difficulty understanding others and displayed value patterns that demanded conformity and deference to authority (van Krieken et al. 2000). He stated that the cause for this was a loveless and rigid upbringing (van Krieken et al. 2000). Secondly, and again influenced by Freudian ideas, the frustration-aggression theory was spawned by John Dollard et al in 1957 and sighted early upbringing as the key to explaining the development of racial prejudice (van Krieken et al. 2000). Dollard et al claimed that during the socialisation process parents would force children to suppress natural desires and instincts, which resulted in bottled up frustration. This frustration was then released in the direction of a vulnerable target (van Krieken et al. 2000). Both authoritarian personality theory and frustration-aggression theory have been formed from a psychological approach. Criticisms of these theories include the claim that they are too individualistic and reductionist in nature and they suggest that racism is a trait of a deviant minority of individuals rather than a widespread phenomenon (van Krieken et al. 2000). As previously defined, racism refers to the relationship between social groups and therefore a theory of racism should incorporate broader sociological interactions rather than those confined to the individual. Thus, sociological theories have far more successfully attempted to explain why specific racist beliefs have prospered in contemporary societies such as Australia. For example, Oliver Cox gave a Marxist theory of racism within his 1948 publication Caste, Class and Race (van Krieken et al. 2000). Cox claimed that racism developed in the 15th Century along with the emergence of capitalism and colonialism. In line with Marxist beliefs of class structure as the ruling class and the subject class, the exploiter and the exploited, Cox argued that racist beliefs were developed by exploiters to justify their exploitation. He stated that only the exploiters are capable of racism because they require racist beliefs to justify their actions (van Krieken et al. 2000). The capitalist exploiter, being opportunistic and practical, will utilise any convenience to keep his labour and other resources freely exploitable (as cited in van Krieken et al. 2000). Cox strongly believed that if capitalism had not developed then the world might never have experienced race prejudice (van Krieken et al. 2000). Critics of Cox agreed that the history of racism does have close links to colonialism and capitalism, but these are not the only causes of racism (van Krieken et al. 2000). The history of racism in Australia certainly has close links to colonialism. The colonialists were galvanised into fierce hatred and keeping Australia white became one of the prime reasons for Federation in 1901 (Bereson & Matheson. 1993). In the first year of Federation the White Australia Policy was established with the passing of the Immigration Restriction Act. Then after World War II, in order to attract enough migrants to enhance economic development, Australia introduced a policy of assimilation by which immigrant groups were integrated into the dominant white culture (Abercrombie et al. 2000). Using a more cultural approach Solomos et al believed it was important to examine the role of ethnic minorities in resisting and challenging racism. In addition, importance was also placed on discovering how the white working class came to accept racist beliefs as part of their common sense understanding of the world (van Krieken et al. 2000). Similarly to Marxist beliefs, Solomos et al. accepted that economic conditions are important in producing racism but also stated that a variety of historical and political factors play a part in the formation of racism (van Krieken et al. 2000). Solomos et al also argued that the Britain of the 1970’s and 1980’s gave rise to a new racism which saw the focus shift from the notion of superior and inferior races to cultural differences between ethnic groups being seen as a source of racial problem (van Krieken et al. 2000). It can be argued that this theory of ‘new racism’ is evident in Australia and in far more recent times. For example, the rise of the One Nation party which bases its racist policies on the belief that Australia is being swamped by immigrants who are stealing our jobs and are placing the traditional Anglo-Celtic way of life under threat. One Na...