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Race and ethnicity are two unavoidable facets of society, with the perceptions of these two innate parts of human culture being crucially shaped by personal experiences throughout life. Perceptions of race and ethnicity will change as an individual learns new things, has new experiences and takes in more information as they progress through life. Personally I’ve had many experiences which have shaped who I am today, including my values, beliefs and perceptions of everything within and around me, in particular my experiences have had a significant effect on my perceptions of Aboriginal Australians. I was born to two white Australian parents, and have lived in the wealthy inner-city suburb of Mt Hawthorn my whole life (1). I’ve never experienced …show more content…
financial difficulty and have had a relatively comfortable upbringing with both my parents completing high-level tertiary education and going into fairly high-paying lines of work. This has helped me attain a high-quality education which has moulded my perceptions of Aboriginal Australians. This along with my personal experiences of Aboriginal people on public transport and in public spaces have formed a key part of how my personal perceptions of Aboriginal Australians have changed and developed throughout my life. The first aspect of my life so far that has influenced my perceptions of Aboriginal Australians are my personal experiences with Aboriginal people on public transport.
Throughout my 5 years of high school I caught public transport to school and back every day, with each one-way trip lasting approximately an hour. During this time, I had a number of confronting experiences with Aboriginal people and they led me to develop a negative view of them, which was the first time I remember developing a particular perception of race. One particularly bad experience I had was in Year 9, when I was on the bus home and two Aboriginal women sat behind me and one proceeded to ask if she could borrow my phone. I made a conscious effort to decline very politely stating that I was getting off the bus soon, but she still persisted to argue with me, demanding that I lend her my phone and even reaching over to grab it. I then moved to the front of the bus thinking that she would leave me alone, but she and her friend started, shouting and verbally abusing me, calling me a girl because of the way my hair looked as I walked off the bus. Reflecting on this, it shouldn’t have been something that affected me, but I was going through a fairly self-conscious phase at that time and it did really unsettle me. Not only this but I’ve also seen a fight on the train break out amongst young Aboriginal girls, and plenty of drunk and disorderly Aboriginal men and women boarding public transport and in public
spaces. This led to me feeling uncomfortable when I saw someone looking of Aboriginal descent board a train or bus, or in any public space for that matter, and almost hoping that they don’t come near me. Even though I knew that these judgements were misguided and that the majority of Aboriginal Australians are lovely people I can’t help but be on-edge around them due to my past experiences. What’s unfortunate is that these bad experiences have stuck in my mind, consistent with Rozin and Royzman’s concept of negativity bias, where events of a more negative nature, have a greater emotional effect on a person, than neutral or positive events of an equal intensity (2). This contributes to the sense of anxiousness I feel around Aboriginal people in public places, which is coupled with the fact that although I’ve had some weird experiences with non-Aboriginal people in public spaces, I have no memory of any that were as unsettling as the one’s with Aboriginal people involved. It disappoints me that I have this mentality, and although I feel as though it’s improved recently, these bad experiences still sit in the back of mind warning me to stay aware and be careful around people of Aboriginal descent in public spaces.
Over the years Australia has had many different problems with racism and racism affecting peoples’ lives. Many racial groups have been affected, most significantly the Aboriginals. The end of world war two in 1945 marked a huge change in types of racism. Australia went from the ‘superior’ white Australians dominating over immigrants and aboriginals. To a relatively multicultural and accepting society that is present today.
The Indigenous youth of Australia still face many challenges growing up in a world dominated by white Europeans. This essay will discuss the stereotypes and marginalisation that young Indigenous teenagers must face. After viewing Yolngu Boy and Black Chicks Talking, there will be examples from the two movies on the stereotypes, marginalisation, interdependent and the connection the characters of the movies have with the Aboriginal culture and the dominant white culture.
In 2014 Beyond Blue released a video campaign that illustrated that ‘Discrimination stops with you’ and posted a message that ‘No one should be made to feel like crap just for being who they are’ (Beyond Blue 2014). The campaign dubbed The Invisible Discriminator showed a sequence of events where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience racism and links how these incidents that may seem insignificant to those being unconsciously racist can lead to anxiety and depression.
The Aboriginal Education and Training Policy`s (AETP) (NSW DET 2008) main goal is that “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students will match or better the outcomes of the broader student population” (1.1.2) and includes an explicit focus on developing cultural competencies (NSW DET 2008, p.6). Establishing ‘learning partnerships’ and relationships with Aboriginal communities, including Aboriginal content within the curriculum (NSW BOS 2008, p. 2), and engagement are advocated as necessary elements to achieve this edict. Racism has been proven to be an extremely detreimental factor on all fronts, especially within the education context. To address this intolerance the Anti-Racism Policy (ARP, 2005) is committed to eradicating all forms
The education of Aboriginal people is a challenge that has been a concern for many years and is still an issue. However, it remains the best way young people can climb out of poverty. With the colonialization and the oppression of Aboriginals, there have been many lasting side effects that continue to be affecting the Aboriginal youth today. “While retention and graduation rates have improved among urban Aboriginal population, an educational gap still remains between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in urban settings” (Donovan, 127). Many suffer from a diminished self-worth, as they do not feel valued and feel inferior to their classmates. In this essay I am going to outline the reasons Aboriginals are struggling, discuss what is being done
Cunningham, J. & Paradies, Y.C. 2013, 'Patterns and correlates of self-reported racial discrimination among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, 2008-09: analysis of national survey data', International Journal for Equity in Health, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 47-61.
Race, as a general understanding is classifying someone based on how they look rather than who they are. It is based on a number of things but more than anything else it’s based on skin's melanin content. A “race” is a social construction which alters over the course of time due to historical and social pressures. Racial formation is defined as how race shapes and is shaped by social structure, and how racial categories are represented and given meaning in media, language and everyday life. Racial formation is something that we see changing overtime because it is rooted in our history. Racial formation also comes with other factors below it like racial projects. Racial projects seek
In a time rife with class, gender, and racial tensions, it can be easy to lose sight of just how much progress has been made in these relations in recent years. Only ninety-four years ago, women were granted the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. It was only fifty-two years ago that the 1964 Civil Rights Act guaranteed equal rights, such as the right to vote, to black Americans. In particular, perceptions of racial identity have evolved drastically. Throughout time, people’s perception of racial identity has changed as racism developed due to the economic potential of a morally corrupt system, then evolved as the moral implications of slavery were viewed to outweigh the economic benefits, and finally has shifted to a new type of racial identity and racism based on national identity.
Previous research on the health of Aboriginal Australians and the New Zealand Maori have shown that racist discrimination and self-reports of racism are detrimental towards the health of minority individuals. Nazroo (2003) suggested that racism caused social and economic disparities among the health of ethnic people. Racism, viewed from a structuralist explanation, sees poor health situated outside individual control, placing greater stress on social and cultural factors (Julian, 2009). The Weberian and feminist perspective is a particular view that stems from this approach. It is a complex interrelationship between class and ethnicity, specifically affecting the experience of racism among minority groups (Julian, 2009). This gives reason that agency, the ability to have control over your life, is a contributing factor towards reports of racial discrimination as it is not controlled by the individual (Germov, 2009). An ethnic identity is considered...
Racism and social disadvantage being the by-products of Australian colonisation have become reality for Aboriginal people from the early beginnings as well as being prevalent to this day. There exists a complex and strong association between racism and Aboriginal poor health, assisting in the undermining of the emotional and social wellbeing of this Indigenous group. Racism has an adverse and insidious effect upon the psychological and physical health of the Aboriginal people, as it gnaws away on the mental state of the individual, having detrimental consequence upon the standard of acceptable health in today 's modern society. The effects of this discrimination become the catalyst towards the undermining of one 's self esteem which leads to detrimental stress levels, self-negativity and having the potential
In today’s society, it is acknowledgeable to assert that the concepts of race and ethnicity have changed enormously across different countries, cultures, eras, and customs. Even more, they have become less connected and tied with ancestral and familial ties but rather more concerned with superficial physical characteristics. Moreover, a great deal can be discussed the relationship between ethnicity and race. Both race and ethnicity are useful and counterproductive in their ways. To begin, the concept of race is, and its ideas are vital to society because it allows those contemporary nationalist movements which include, racist actions; to become more familiar to members of society. Secondly, it has helped to shape and redefine the meaning of
The first semester of college went by fast. September felt like yesterday it’s hard to believe that we are already in November. The other day I began to think about Thanksgiving and somehow it felt as though Thanksgiving already passed. This first semester was a transition experience from perfect high school to writer to novice writer.
A large problem in America has always been racial issues and still continues to be prevalent in our society today. The United States likes to boast its reputation as a “melting-pot” as many cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds are mixed together, yet the country still continues to isolate individuals based on race. In the constitution, it says that everyone is supposed to have equal rights and liberties, yet after over 200 years, many minorities still struggle to obtain the same respect and equality that their white counterparts have always have. Laws should be created to enforce equality and justice for racial groups.
On the other hand Ethnicity refers to collective social practices, opinions, and modifications that set apart one group of people from another. That is, ethnicity is a communal ethnic inheritance. The most common features distinguishing various ethnic groups are ancestry, a sense of history, language, religion, and forms of dress. Ethnic differences are not inherited; they are learned. In the past we can see that social sciences, ‘race’ and ethnicity were preserved as unlike logical concepts; ‘race ‘ by suggesting nature or understanding though lineage or blood , while ethnicity recommended connection though mutual past and philosophy . This corresponded with ideas of citizenship by genealogical link and those of place of birth. We can see the two terms involve one another and cane related together. For instant ethnicity induces a similar custom, relationship and decline, however ‘race’ and racism do not just force on the physical difference but it also consist of strong cultural similes and assess judgements also justifying negative discriminatory approaches for example a lot of people now use the term ‘Paki’ referring to Asians . (Wade, 2007) state that this is reflected in many modern states recognising both types of claims to citizenship. While in some countries the two concepts citizenship are still challenging to reconcile.
When I read the instructions of this essay I wondered how hard it would be to talk about myself and where I am from. It’s become a topic I don’t like discussing due to past bad experiences. I used to believe that race and ethnicity where the same thing and now that I took this class I understand that race is just a myth even though people believe it is true. Throughout my life I’ve never had any trouble explaining where I was from until I moved to the US and realized how hard it is to explain where I’m from to others. Throughout this essay I will explain my roots, my ethnicity and how it has impacted my life in the US.