A review of institutional racism in the Australian society

Introduction

Institutional racism is one of the challenges facing modern society. Unlike the individualized form of racism, it is targeted at all the people of a given racial group. Therefore, it is a social vice that needs urgent attention in order to avoid further consequences that might go beyond human control. However, this is not new in society as it has always been part of human history. In this entry, a review was conducted to assess institutional racism in relation to Australian society. The review is divided into three sections. The first section defined the characteristics of institutional racism after a clear definition of racism and institutional racism. It looks at what causes such racism and its elements. The second section discusses the history of institutional racism in Australia, based on the understanding that a lasting solution to any issue must be based on knowledge of the root cause. The final section looks at how institutional racism is being sustained in Australia in relation to mechanisms being employed in government and general Australian society to sustain the practice of institutional racism.

Characteristics of institutional racism

In its root form, the ideology of racism is racial domination (Wilson, 1999), based on the presumption that one’s biological or cultural elements are superior to those of other groups, and it serves as the justification for social position or inferior treatment of other groups. Through the racialization process, perceived patterns of physical differences—like the color of skin, shape of the eye, and so on—are employed in differentiating different groups of people, in the process, classifying them as "races." It is when racialization involves socially consequential valuation and hierarchy of other racial groups that it becomes racism (Clair & Denis, 2015).

It is vital to state that racism is very distinct from racial inequality and racial discrimination. In terms of racial discrimination, it is all about treating people in an unequal way based on their race, while inequality is focused on unequal outcomes (such as health, income, education, and so on). Although racism is normally implicated in these two processes, one needs to understand that modern forms of racial inequality and discrimination are not always the immediate outcome of modern racism (Pager & Shepherd, 2008). Contemporary approaches to racism are focused on explicating the well-recorded persistence of inequality and discrimination across races in an era when overt forms of racist attitudes seem to be on the decline. However, it has been questioned how one can be able to explain persistent racial inequalities in health, criminal sentencing, wealth, credit markets, housing, persistent racial discrimination in recruitment, and persistent rejection of policies aimed at alleviating racial inequalities; one needs to have a clear understanding of racial domination ideologies to be able to offer such an explanation (Bobo et al., 1997; Fiske, 2010; Massey & Denton, 1993; Pager & Shepherd, 2008).

The definition of institutional racism was offered by Stokely and Hamilton (1967), referring to a particular and general instance of racial inequality, discrimination, domination in the organizational setting, exploitation, or institutional contexts, like within the nation-state or labor market. Although institutional racism can actually occur in an overt form (for instance, a venture that adopts the policy of declining or accepting applications from a particular race), it is more commonly used in explaining cases of disparate effects, where a company or society distributes more resources to a given group than it does to another without being overtly racist in its intent (for instance, a company that has a formal policy of excluding applications it gets from low-income homes or minority groups because of a known reputation for crime). Therefore, institutional racism is characterized by the rules, opportunities, and processes that make it possible for such disparate impacts to be leveled on a given group. Institutional racism is characterized by a form of racism against an entire group of people based on their race, as opposed to the individualized form of racism. Anybody from the affected race becomes a victim, irrespective of whether or not the person demonstrates the reason (such as being a gang member) for justifying such racist action (Clair & Dennis, 2015).

The origin of institutionalized racist practices in Australia

The origin of institutionalized racist practices in Australia can be traced back to the British colonization of the country. At the same time, Captain Cock received an instruction from the British colonizers to take full possession and charge of the great Southern land; and such possession should be based on the content of the people already inhabiting it (native Australians), but if the charge finds itself in a situation where the land is already habituated, such land should be fully possessed (Jagot, 2017). Cock saw numerous Aboriginal people living in Australia when they arrived, but because they came from England, which was already densely populated and overused due to intensive agricultural techniques at the time, the idea of being offered such a permanent base like Australia, where they could permanently continue their agricultural purpose and inhabit was always tempting—and this is how Australia came to be what it is today.

Today, it is widely acknowledged that the perception of a lack of permanent inhabitants and cultivation, which was the justification for colonizing Australia based on the doctrine of terra nullius, was wrong. Archeological records are evidence of the fact that Australian Aboriginals crossed from Papua New Guinea to what is known as Australia today about 70, 000 years ago (Jagot, 2017). Evidence also shows that all parts of the continent were occupied by these Aboriginals. Notwithstanding how inhospitable it was at that time, records also show that all parts of the land were merged into the spiritual, cultural, and social networks of these Aboriginal people; the Aboriginals cultivated these lands and utilized them for grazing their livestock, mining minerals, planting, and other agricultural purposes, including evidence of an extensive trade network. That said, Australia was by no means a "no man’s land", the justification of its colonization, as it was clear being occupied by a certain group of people, united through their cultural and religious beliefs, continued their union uninterrupted for as long as anyone could imagine (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2003).

While it is now considered to have been wrongly applied in Australia, the doctrine of terra nullius dictated (and to some extent still does today) the treatment of the Aboriginal Australians until it was declared inapplicable by the Australian High Court in 1992. Based on this doctrine, the law of Australia could not and did not recognize the laws and customs of the Aboriginal people, and this is the root of institutional racism in the country. The doctrine was merged and blended into Australian law, which was based on and adopted from the English law of the colonizers (Shepherd, 2018; Haebich, 2015; Crotty, 2018; Van Der Walle, 2018; Wright, 2017). Therefore, while the Aboriginal people owned the land, such a declaration was against Australian law until 1992, in the Mabo decision, it was deemed inapplicable. Therefore, since history, down to 1992, the doctrine governed ownership of land and it denied the Aboriginal people any form of ownership of their own original land, such a level of institutional racism would be difficult to match in any part of the world today. The doctrine, together with other supporting laws, caused vast damage and harm to Australian society, and its impact can still be felt today, even when it was declared applicable by the Australian High Court 20 years ago (Shepherd, 2018; Haebich, 2015; Crotty, 2018; Van Der Walle, 2018; Wright, 2017).

Australia's institutionalized racist practices are sustained by a mechanism.

In history, silence was used to sustain institutional racist practices. It is acknowledged in Australia today, even more so among the non-Aboriginals, that the history of the Aboriginal people is wrapped in silence (Crotty, 2018). There existed a constant desire and a program by the government to have the Aboriginal people entirely erased from the history of Australia. This history hides the fact that the Aboriginal people were used as serfs in the pastoral industry and also hides the fact that they were not allowed the benefit of partaking in the general enfranchisement that all the Commonwealth states enjoyed during voting until 1963, as well as the fact that the Aboriginals were not considered to be citizens of Australia down to the 1967 Constitution referendum (Pascoe, 2018).

Today, institutional racism is still very much visible and applicable in the Australian context. There is ample evidence to support such a claim and different mechanisms are being used by the government to sustain institutionalized racist practices in the country. Funding inequality is one mechanism used to sustain such practices, as the overall funding of healthcare services for the Aboriginal healthcare system is not commensurate with their extra needs (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2001). There is no doubt that the health of Aboriginals in Australia is both poor and much worse than what is obtainable in the case of non-Aboriginals, with their life expectancy at birth standing at 21 years less for men and 19 years less for women. It is also established that 6.8% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males die in infancy, and it cannot be compared to the 1% of similar deaths in the rest of the population. Females require 6.7% (Aboriginals) and 0.8% (other population) of what is required (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2003).Therefore, the fact that the government is aware of these issues and still funds the health care services of the Aboriginal people far below what is applicable to the rest of the population (even when their funding should naturally be higher in order to address these issues) is a clear suggestion of a mechanism used to sustain institutional racist practices in the country.

Other mechanisms employed by the government today to institutionalize racist practices in the country include: different performance criteria for black and white people at work (Wilkes et al., 2002); different treatment in health and other social amenities (McGuire et al., 1998); and inequalities in education, primary healthcare, and social infrastructure (Wakerman et al., 1999).

Conclusion

Unlike the individual form of racism targeted at a particular person, institutional racism is directed at the entire population of a given race, and this could be considered as the reason why it is more pronounced in terms of the harm and damage it causes. This is because it denies people access to different opportunities (like recruitment) even when they deserve it (meet the requirements). Therefore, a child born in innocency into the affected race is welcomed into a world with so much division. This article reviewed institutional racism in Australia and evidence showed that it did not start today, as it has been part of Australian history. The Aboriginals, who were the original owners of the Australian land, were ostracized by the British colonizers, who subjected them to different forms of harm and even denied them citizenship of their own country. It was just in 1992 that they could regain freedom in relation to terra nullius being considered applicable. However, these Aboriginal people are still subjected to institutional racism in the form of: a) poor health care funding; poor provision of social and health care facilities; unequal opportunities in jobs, politics, and other aspects of life; and b) poor recognition of their cultural values and laws. Thus, institutional racism in Australia is far from over as a lot of work still needs to be put in place if it is to be eradicated.

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