ipl-logo

Multiculturalism In Australia

1095 Words5 Pages

“As a community, we have become so focused on defining our differences that we have forgotten about the power we have if we work as a collective.” (Nada Kalam, 2017). Many people all around the world experience different levels of racism on a daily basis. Most people say that Australia is lucky to have escaped this problem, but this isn’t the case as racism is still an issue in today’s society. This racism is brought on by cultural ignorance and lack of education. Racism in Australia is not just a social problem, it is also institutionalised. In contradiction to the idea Australia is a multicultural and diverse nation, racism is deeply embedded into the country 's culture and identity, and this can be seen through multiple texts, which are both …show more content…

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics “almost a quarter of Australia’s population was born overseas and [almost half] of people have at least one overseas-born parent.” But, the 2011 national census indicated that “the United Kingdom is the leading country of birth for the overseas-born population” and according to the Huffington Post: “approximately 92 percent of Australia’s inhabitants are of white, European descent.” Of course this white settlement dating back to the late 1700’s has constructed the stereotypical Australian identity, usually thought of as the Anglo-Saxon Australia. The Australian Government Department of Social Services defines Australian multiculturalism as “the way Australians address the challenges and opportunities of cultural diversity. It is a term which recognises and celebrates this diversity.” But Australia does not follow this definition of multiculturalism. Instead of celebrating and accepting diversity, at best, it is only tolerated. An example of this is the White Australia Policy, a series of policies that prevented non-European people from entering Australia from as far back as 1901 with the introduction of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. It took until 1973 for these policies to be completely abolished. Racism, not multiculturalism has been embedded into our nation’s identity …show more content…

An example of this is the movie The Sapphires (2012); a movie about four indigenous Australian women who are discovered by a talent scout, and sing for Australian troops in Vietnam during the war. It is no argument that Indigenous Australians have experiences a tremendous amount of racism and oppression in the past 250 years, and this is shown explicitly in the movie. From the insensitive remarks such as: “can you do it blacker?” to “you’re black, and you’re singing country and western music. It’s just wrong.” A much darker and implicit example of racism is the fact that Kay was taken away by the government to assimilate into white Australia due to her lighter skin tone, relating back to the Stolen Generations. These examples show that racism is not just a contemporary issue, but an issue that has been embedded into the nation’s culture for much of its history, as this movie was based on a true

Show More
Related
644 Words | 3 Pages

How did the White Australia Policy limit the growth of multiculturalism in Australia during the 1900’s? The immigration Act 1901 was an act of the Parliament of Australia which limited immigration, and tried to exclude all non-Europeans from living and working in Australia. The “White Australia” policy was the name given to a group of laws that stopped non-Europeans from coming to live in Australia. As a non-European, to live in Australia you had to pass a dictation test to prove if you could speak the European languages.

Read More
273 Words | 2 Pages

By including this theme, Silvey is highlighting the ongoing issue of racism in Australia and encouraging readers to question their own attitudes

Read More
1102 Words | 5 Pages

Which influenced my understanding of ‘being Australian’ by proving my idea of Australians being humorous, and also showing me that they also take things seriously. Through the reading of Deadly Unna? and watching Summer Heights High, my view on ‘being Australian’ has been slightly changed. At first I thought that ‘being Australian’ meant eating a meat pie with your family down at the beach on a scorching summer’s day, or chugging down a beer at the local pub in your thongs, singlet and boardies while calling the guy who stole your pool table ‘mate’ and the guy who shouted you your beer ‘bastard’. But now I see that ‘being Australian’ means you can be racist, although racism is dying slowly it still floats around, and that humour is also a very large part of ‘being

Read More
613 Words | 3 Pages

Australia had been arguing over the rules that the government is the U.S were making, soon after that they realised that Australia had the same rules in the government which were treating black people without respect or being polite to them. The white people thought they were better than the black people so they had them as slaves and bashed/killing. Australian finally realised that it was unfair that black people weren’t getting treated equally so a man named Charles Perkins changed the law of Australia and equalised the country completely. Charles Perkins is famous soccer player, he was an aboriginal but he to good to not have him on the teams. Charles Perkins had a group of university students that toured in NSW to stop Racial Equality and then later on it happened to the whole

Read More
858 Words | 4 Pages

"The Australian Dream," a thought-provoking documentary directed by Daniel Gordon, skillfully constructs voices that lead viewers to question the values of Australian society. Through the adept use of visual and audio techniques, as well as documentary conventions like interviews and montages, the film exposes the painful realities faced by Indigenous Australians, challenging the widely-held notion of an inclusive Australian Dream. In this essay, we will explore how the construction of voice in "The Australian Dream" has shaped our response to the concept of the Australian Dream and shed light on the deep-rooted racism that continues to plague the nation. By delving into the vulnerability of Indigenous Australians and scrutinizing the role

Read More
652 Words | 3 Pages

This article discusses the speech given by an Indigenous journalist, Stan Grant who participated in a debate where he spoke for the motion “Racism is destroying the Australian Dream’’. Hence, the main points of this article are mostly evidence given by Grant in his debate to support his idea that the Australian Dream is indeed rooted in racism. One of the main points is that the indigenous Australians are often excluded and disregarded as non-Australians simply due to their race and skin colour. Grant pointed out the incident where AFL player Adam Goodes was publicly jeered and told that he did not belong to his country as he was not an Australian despite the fact that Australia indeed is the land of his ancestors.

Read More
974 Words | 4 Pages

But what about every other Australian? What about the Indigenous population and the multicultural population? Both of these groups which make up and help define who we are as Australians, so I ask you all this morning to consider why is it that we find these groups constantly being marginalised, discriminated against and not being offered equal opportunity? Ladies, gentlemen and prestigious guests, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak here

Read More
2221 Words | 9 Pages

Australia has a long ugly history of racism and xenophobia that date back to the early beginnings of colonisation and forced biological and cultural assimilation of indigenous peoples to the white/Anglo British culture. Historically colonization was justified for saving primitive cultures

Read More
1190 Words | 5 Pages

Abstract Being an aborigine in a white dominated society is a complicated identity. Australia, one of the white governed nations, also owns many aboriginal tribes. They lived harmonious lives in the early period. But European colonization has made a profound effect on the lives of Aboriginals in Australia, which led to the total demolition of their native culture, identity and history. As a result the new generation Aboriginals have lost their Aboriginal heritage and have been accepted neither by Aboriginals nor by whites.

Read More
416 Words | 2 Pages

However, due to the ongoing issue of prejudice and ethnocentrism, it can be harder for them to achieve this. In Australia, it is believed that Australians have held overwhelmingly negative

Read More
1861 Words | 8 Pages

Australia is known as a country of freedom and fairness, however many groups such as youth, the unemployed, aged, and ethnic groups tend to become marginalised because of their minority status. Certain groups are marginalised because they are perceived as being different or undeserving of equality in society. This is called stereotyping and it leads to prejudice and discrimination. This essay explores three marginalised groups and discusses some of the reasons why they are marginalised and the effects on those within these groups. Exclusion from areas such as employment and other services and opportunities that other Australian 's take for granted, is a result of the marginality of indigenous Australian 's, woman, and those with

Read More
976 Words | 4 Pages

From the 1970’s Australians have been viewed as bush people as they were seeming as heroic and brave. Never the less, internationally, Australians have been showcased as vulgar, racist that have strong pride for their country. Consequently, Australia has also been viewed as an alcoholic nation as companies continuously push the stereotype to market their products. In turn, Australian’s collective identity is made up of multiple other stereotypes that have been fed into. Despite being incorrectly portrayed; the Australian identity has a positive effect on Australian culture.

Read More
1753 Words | 8 Pages

For fifty years, scholars have debated the importance of the political, legal, and social actions that occurred during the 1930s and 1940s. The debate centers on whether these actions contributed to the overall success of the civil rights movement. The dominant narrative presented by scholars asserts the actual significant period of the movement occurred with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and ended following the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Their reasoning for this assertion, the non-violent protest movements of boycotts, sit-ins, and marches occurring from the mid-to-late 50s and early 60s resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The passage of these Acts corrected the wrongs created by the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which ended the influence of Jim Crow Laws and segregation in the South. Since the dominant narrative focuses primarily on the 1960s for the successes achieved by the movement, is there enough historiographical analysis supporting

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

Thus, by the uses of different type of information about racism in Australia society, it clear that some people are being racist through social media. In conclusion, it is clear that racism has affected many people, like a contagious disease, following people where ever they go. Racism has been and still is a prolific evil in Australian society. It’s disgusting that people believe there is a different between them and treat each other differently only due to their culture and colour of skin.

Read More
2174 Words | 9 Pages

How are the Socio-Cultural Issues of Social Disadvantage and Cultural Diversity Understood and Represented in the Australian Education System? Issues of social disadvantage, particularly those associated with socio-economic and cultural diversity, are still not adequately understood or represented in the Australian education system. A short investigation into this issue indicates that not only are students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and certain cultural backgrounds experiencing education inequity and struggling to achieve success, but that in addition the current education system may even be perpetuating this situation, and contributing to the alienation of these students (Ewing, 2013. p.73).

Read More

More about Multiculturalism In Australia

Related Topics

Open Document