Nelson’s Denial of
Racism and its Implications for Social Action explores the way in which the
denial of racism can be positioned as a
“modern” racism with a call for “public acknowledgement of racism” in order to
“facilitate” local “anti-racism action” (89-90). Nelson specifically explores a current
literature review of racism racism denial as stiutated within local and
institutional uses of four discourses of race denia which is “used to avoid,
minimize or defend local areas from being labeled as racist spaces” (90).
Nelson pairs this review with two case study research in which these discourses
are apparent.
Nelson’s literature review presents VanDijk’s 1992 discussion
of individual race denial as: “act denial, control-denial, intentional-denial
and goal-denial” (qtd in Nelson 91). Further,
Nelson also points to both to Van Dijk (1992) and Augoustinos and Every (2007) studies
to present the following concepts of
race denial: creating a concept of
“Other” while speaking of race, use of “hedging or minimizing”, “justifications,
excuses and blaming the victim” (90).
Nelson points to regulatory issue that frame or control
discussion about race. Here, Nelson refers to Dunn and Nelson (2011) who point out “dominant
discourses that attempt to proscribe and prescribe what is said about racism
and privilege” (91). It is here that Nelson moves the research review to an
exploration of race denial discourse as
controlled by larger groups ::
In
public life, institutional or systemic racism is commonly denied (Van Dijk,
1992). This serves an ideological
function, making public debate about racism seemingly unnecessary, allowing
problematic public opinion to
continue unchallenged, and indicating there is no need to disrupt existing
power relations (Essed, 1991). (91)
Nelson
gives several examples of this in Austrialia, concluding that “denial of racism
was the dominant political response.” (92). Nelson points out Arguments center
around Dunn’s work characterizing
Indians as a “weak target” – inviting attack, and increasing numbers merely a result
of increasing numbers of Indians overall in Australia. (92). Shift when economic interests were under
attack Dunn notes “They argue that although some acknowledgement of racism was
eventually made, in the case of Indian students, political leaders oscillated
back and forth between acknowledgement and denial.” (92).
Look
at Kobayashi’s (2009) discussions of
racism in Christchurch, New Zealand. denial, small group and significant issue
“Locating
the problem of racism in ordinary, non-elite, often socioeconomically
disadvantaged, white people can also be considered a form of denial.
Attributing racism to a small minority of individuals contributes to a ‘myth
of tolerance’ (Essed, 1991) in many western countries, including Australia. The
implication of shifting responsibility for racism onto this group is that white
privilege broadly remains unquestioned and protected.” (92)
Call
to revisit issues of racism since Van Dijk’s works on self-denial to focus on
“Twenty
years on from Van Dijk’s research, it is necessary to revisit discourses of
denial, particularly denial of racism on a societal scale. Nelson et al. (2011)
argued that denial operates through a number of different discourses and
tropes, and the current article builds on that work.”
Racism
is not stuck in some colonial past.(92). Apology – indigenous groups, something
housed in older generations, something that happens more often in other
countries (93) (positioning Maori as “better off” (93) – Fozdar (2008)
“The
‘myth of tolerance’ that Essed (1991) argues pervades public discourse in many
western nations could be referred to as a spatial deflection at the national
level. Australia as a tolerant nation is a spatial deflection used time and
again by politicians and the media (Ang and Stratton, 1998; Castles and Vasta,
1996; Hage, 1998; Saxton, 2006).” (93)
“A
third denial discourse positions racism as a deviancy associated with only a
handful of ineffectual ‘old racists’ (Van Dijk, 2000), which some South African
scholars have labelled as a ‘transfer’ discourse (De Wet, 2001: 106). The final
denial discourse is one of absence, or the assertion that there is no racism.
Lentin (2008) refers to this absence discourse as ‘post-anti-racism’ (p. 326),
where anti-racism is not necessary because of the reduced magnitude of racism”
(93)
temporal deflection: minorities
today experience less racism than in the past;
•
spatial deflection: racism is
worse in other countries, including those where immigrants come from; or a
more localised deflection, where racism is not a problem ‘around here’;
•
deflection from the mainstream:
racism is not an overwhelming problem, just with a small cohort of individuals;
•
absence discourse: outright
dismissal that there is racism.
Applications
to case studies
methodology
(94)
lays
out city – immigration “challenging Racism Prject”
“Turning
now to Central Western Sydney, NSW, a broad examination of Table 3 suggests
that reported experiences of racism were more prevalent in the Sydney SD than
the Adelaide SD.”
“Experiences
of racism appear to be even more common when looking specifically at the SSD of
Central Western Sydney.”
geographic
comparisons
denial
discourse (98)
absence
discourse (modalized statements “I don’t know” – Collin (99)
temporal
deflection – separate person from racisim (Camille) (99)
“Camille
talked about interethnic clashes as young people’s issues, but associated with
an aberrant minority, a minority recognised as racialised by researchers. In
terms of the denial discourses, Camille’s view could also be characterised as
a ‘deflection from the mainstream’, where a racialised aberrant minority is
responsible for interethnic conflict, when it has occurred.” (100)
special
defelction – Robert – “Implicit in Robert’s statement is that racism, or
interethnic conflict, is far more serious in Indonesia than Australia, and as a
result of the time he has spent there, he has a heightened sensitivity to it:
‘I think I’d identify if there was any’. Robert positioned himself as having
expertise based on his work in Indonesia and used this status to bolster his
claim that racism is not a problem in Port Adelaide Enfield. Fozdar (2008)
refers to this as credentialising.”
Karla
“This
process served to demonstrate the absence of ‘overt’ racism in the South
Australian case study area. Karla constructed the situation in a way that
deflected attention away from racism; claims to racism were constructed as
misunderstandings.”
102
Check
this out!
While the interview
participants were geographically distant, the quotations included above were
discursively linked. Minimising the presence of racism was a feature of discourse
across participants in both case study areas. The four denial discourses –
absence, spatial deflection, temporal deflection and deflection from the
mainstream – were present in participant accounts. The strategies used by
participants to manage these deflections, for example using a combination of
modalized and assertive statements, drawing on personal experience and
credentialising, have been discussed. Minimising the presence of racism had
ideological effects. For example, looking at the way participants acknowledged
‘pockets’ of racism, this parallels Wetherell and Potter’s (1992) ‘prejudice
problematic’, where the dominant group points to ‘racist’ people as the source
of the problem. The issue of racism is projected away from the mainstream,
allowing the discourses of the dominant to be seen as objective, neutral,
unprejudiced and factual. The ideological implication of minimising racism in
this way is that it serves to protect white privilege, and to defend the status
quo of white dominance in Australia.
driving
by local and non local factors – place defending role, AND
In
Australia’s recent history, there has been a fundamental lack of
acknowledgement of racism at the federal level. The federal government official
retreat from multiculturalism from the mid-1990s until 2011 (Koleth, 2010), and
avoidance of the term racism (Ho and Dreher, 2006), may have impacted upon the
way local participants perceived racism and the need for anti-racism.
acknowledgement
(103)
“The
quotation cited earlier from Safiya, where she expressed uncertainty about
whether an event could be described as racism, was an example of a non-Anglo
Australian being cautious about making claims of racism.”
104
Yasmin:
Yasmin
argued that Australia cannot claim multiculturalism without acknowledging and
addressing the issue of racism. She was critical of the current silence around
racism. The use of reported speech in anti-racist talk has also been reported
by Benwell (2012).
Pejna
– racism – transit
Lorraine
– institutional racism – Americans – racism as individual rather than
institutional
reasons
this might be so – not tied to local and new federal multicultural policy
(after)
reflections
and implications
Survey data (p. 94) enough to get at this? Complications of
data collection
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