--A Reflection of Casual Racism in Education
The Australian population is becoming more
ethnically and culturally diverse than at any time in history. The majority of Australian
citizens have a reputation of tolerance and acceptance of people of different skin
colours. Generally speaking, Australia is a place where people can be proud of
and comfortable in their own skin. However, racism has always been a sensitive issue
that stirs up heated debates across the nation.
I have been in Australia for about three
years. I came here as an international student, and my experience at the
University of New South Wales has been overall pleasant in terms of racism
issues. There hasn’t been any severe or direct racial abuse that I have personally
witnessed or encountered on campus. Most people I have met here are educated
and open-minded. They embrace and appreciate diversities, and they get along
with people regardless of their racial background. However prejudice can covertly
manifest itself in the form of casual racism which people often dismiss. Casual
racism rarely includes violence or malicious comments and they are not usually used
as an attack. However, there could be prejudice and discrimination against
people of another colour embedded in the words, either with or without
intention. For example, racial jokes are quite common among university students
and they are often seemed as “harmless”. The person who makes the joke and
whoever laughs at it don’t necessarily have to dislike the people of the target
racial group, but they would think it is socially acceptable to make fun of
them without realising they are being racist and ignorant.However, even if the
acts of racism are unintentional, they can still cause harm as words carry the
significant power (Minikel-Lacocque, 2013, p.454).
A survey was conducted on the racism
experiences of both domestic and international students of the University of
Newcastle. The result shows that responses vary vastly from individual to
individual (Rigney, 3 September 2013). Some claim that they never experienced
or witnessed incidents of racism of any kind, whilst others report extreme
racist harassments in which victims were physically attacked because of their
skin colour. The huge variation might be because people judge the severity of
racism differently. Instances of overt racism are usually easily recognised,
yet the judgment of covert racism is heavily subject to objectivity. For
example, if someone says to me that you Asians are good at maths, I would
consider it slightly racist, but somebody else might not mind, or even take it
as a compliment. Therefore I argue that as no
one can be completely unbiased and objective, thus there is no accurate or
right way of reflecting the severity of racism in education. However, one thing we can be sure about is incidents
of racism in any forms would largely affect students’ sense of belonging in a university.
Both overt and covert racism should be tackled and the negative impacts it has
on students are to be realized. Furthermore, both universities and students should
keep working towards an environment where nobody is discriminated against.
References
Minikel-Lacocque, J. (2013). Racism, college, and the
power of words: Racial microaggressions reconsidered. American Educational
Research Journal, 50(3), 432-465. doi: 10.3102/0002831212468048
The words ‘casual racist’ caught my attention very quickly as I browsed through the group blog. This may be because racism, especially overt forms of it, is something I have experienced personally in more than one occasion, and thus evokes a great degree of passion within me. The idea of people being ‘casually’ racist however, (perhaps even myself included), is something that is rarely acknowledged in Australia’s ‘multiculturally-friendly society’.
ReplyDeleteIn relation to ‘casual racism’, I want to draw attention to the ways people may respond to such a situation. From a teacher’s point of view, Dolan (2012) explores the issue of casual racism within a classroom environment and draws particular attention to her “failure as an instructor to address it head-on in the moment”. Dolan’s (2012) definition of ‘casual racism’ corresponds to Jiawei’s description, as “moments of injurious speech that are thrust into conversation with no intent to be malicious, and with no awareness that it may be perceived as offensive”. As such, in an incident when a student identifies African Americans as ‘them’, and “proceeded to mouth derogatory stereotypes as truths”, Dolan (2012) realizes that the student’s shameless remarks were expressed with “no idea that her speech was offensive”. Nonetheless, instead of gently pointing out to the student that the remarks were stereotypical generalizations, Dolan “squirms quietly and uncomfortably, humiliated that racism had entered the discussion”.
Is racism, even casual, covert forms of it, something we are honestly unprepared for in daily life? Does silence constitute as an expression of racism? Hopefully these self-reflexive questions challenge and offer new strategies for thinking about our performances as citizens in the community of the classroom. In my opinion, our response to racism, covert or overt, is just as important as the act of racism itself.
References:
Dolan, J. (2012). Casual Racism and Stuttering Failures: An ethics for classroom
engagement. Performance Research, Vol. 17, No. 1, pages 38-46