Discuss How the Concepts of ‘Race’ and ‘Ethnicity’ Essay Example for Free

Discuss How the Concepts of Race and Ethnicity EssayAustralia is known for its multicultural society, but race and ethnicity are a huge factor of persistent racism and inequality in this farming. The driving force behind this is the toughened belief that some of the population calm down hold against mess who appear assorted to themselves. To gain a clear understanding of this sensitive topic one must look at the origins, forms and effects of racism. This essay ordain look at how the concepts of race and ethnicity perpetuate inequality in our society, a brief history of Australia in relation to racism and how concourse experience these inequalities like a shot in a society that we call multicultural. Modern Australia was established as a region of recent settlement in 1788 which was a small exposit of a larger process of European colonisation (Bessant Watts, 2002, p. 219). They had a set of ideas, values and beliefs and assumed that aborigines had no form of land owne rship, agriculture, animal husbandry. original passel hold up been in Australia for more than 100,000 years (Bessant Watts, 2002, p. 222). The White Australia Policy in the 20th century encouraged in-migration only from Britain, but didnt exit Asians and Non-whites (Economou N, 1998, p.363).By 1950s population from all countries were allowed to migrate into Australia to help post war reconstruction. The colonial immigration saw a mass migration of European people mostly from Britain to Australia. It is said that between 1788 and 1852 approximately 170,000 people moved to Australia, and the gold rush era after 1851 made it a highly desirable landed estate for migrating (Bessant Watts, 2002, p. 231). By end of World War two, as war forced Australia to get closer to other countries, which resulted in the first significant weakening of the insurance policy in 1951.Later in the 1950s and 1960s other parts of the White Australia Policy were gradually dismantled. By the 1970s the f ederal goernment had remote all racial restrictions from its immigration law (Bessant Watts, 2002). Various writers have contradictory approaches and ways of looking at racism, making it a complex topic. It takes many diffe conduct forms, ranging from physical violence to derogatory language. A person or groups belief that their race is superior or inferior, or their moral and sociable traits are predetermined, based on biological differences can be termed racism.A group of people sharing the same skin colour, same values, approach shot from the similar backgrounds may constitute as race. One of the most common forms of racism found today is Institutional racism, which stems from established corporations, and other decent forces in society, thus making it hard to question and faces less public condemnation. Examples include housing, employment, businesses, education, religion and media (Healey, 2002). Typically, the basis of this type of distinction is from irrational fear of people at the receiving end who belong to a different culture or race.Although, there have been ongoing debates about racism all about us for centuries, it is an assault on human rights as it methodically refuses people of different caste, colour, race, sex or their country of origin basic values underlined by Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which states that human rights are everyones birthright and apply to all without difference (Healey, 2002). Common perception of shared origins, culture, lifestyle and traditions amongst a group of people or society is the universal definition of ethnicity (Bessant Watts, 2002).People can share the same nationality but have different ethnicities. A hardly a(prenominal) writers have put forward fascinating explanations of ethnicity. Edward Shils in his primordial approach argues that he believes everyone has a primordial attachment to their motherland, people and religion which brings out strong emotional ties by socialising, whi ch further gives rise to the need to have a separate identity and belonging. Then the Mobilisationist Approach suggests that nothing is predictable or practice about ethnicity.Rather, ethnic identities come into sight and are toughened in political contexts where groups struggle to get access to inadequate and valued resources (Van Krieken et al, 2000, p. 519). The basis of ethnocentrism is a conscious or unconscious belief that ones ethnic group, culture, religion, custom or behaviour is superior to another ethnic group. Politicians boast that Australia is a multicultural, open and classless society. Despite the well known image of Australias everyone have a fair go, the country is still full of two institutional and popular racism.Education has always been very important when it comes to moving up in class and has been very liberating in Australian society. However, indigenous and ethnic groups have been somewhat disadvantaged in opportunities to acquire education. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics only five Indigenous Australians per 1,000 obtain tertiary qualification, compared to 70-80 per 1,000 for Anglo Australians. In the nineties welfare, health care and education support for Aborigines accounted only to 2% of total budget outlay (ABS 200021).In order to receive an education a person requires an income, but to get an income one needs a job, and a job is challenging to find without an appropriate level of education. Therefore an individuals chance of education is influenced by the socio-economic status of ones parents which is a cyclic social inequality hard to break. Migrants and their children often find it challenging to adjust to the Australian school system as they often come from countries that have a poor education system, and even if they have tertiary qualifications they mostly are not recognised, resulting in them taking lower paid and lower status jobs.Working class children often discover schools in working class suburbs where pupils are directed into working-class jobs. A high number of students leave school early and the expectation that they will attend university is low. In comparison, upper-class children attend private schools, and the expectation that they will attend university is high. Migrants and ethnic groups are often at a lower end of the socioeconomic scale (Aspin, 1996, p. 87) Migrants arrive with little money and few skills.Already at a disadvantage with language barriers, migrants and ethnic groups are also faced with racism and discrimination in their search for employment. In 1996, One Nation political party leader Pauline Hanson made a speech that claimed that Australia was being overwhelmed by Asians and feared that Asians were taking over jobs. The fact is that Asians at the time only accounted for 5% of total population and there is little evidence to support the claim that high rates of immigration cause unemployment or cause Australians to lose their jobs (Bessant, 2002, p . 219).Indigenous people had a 24. 3% unemployment rate according to 1996 census (ABS 200023). Indigenous people are usually poorer than most non-indigenous Australians and receive a lower income on average than the total population. The household income for Aborigines in 1994 was $158 compared to $310 for white Australians (ABS 2000C23) This also reflects the fact the there is a higher reliance by the Aboriginal population on social security payments (ABS 1996b 122-4) Socioeconomic status is a major determinant of inequality as it influences access an individual has to the economic resources of a society.L. J. Aspin (1996) explains that white Australian-born males have a better chance of obtaining access to the resources of society. Inequality is also reflected in the differential access to housing and health services. For people who are paying rent and on a low income, it is almost impossible to save for a deposit on a house at the same time. Aborigines and migrants suffer discrim ination in rental accommodation, where landlords preferring a two-parent, white, Anglo-Saxon families. Only 10% of Aborigines own housing compared to 70% of white Australia population (Aspin, 1996, p.87). Most Aborigines live in pastoral and provincial Australia (Bessant, 2002, p. 226) far from big cities where there are more jobs, higher paid jobs, better education, better housing, good water and sanitation services, hospital medical examination services and other community amenities. Some ethnic backgrounds are still not accepted in our society and are treated differently and unequally. We tell and hear about them on a day to day basis. In recent months the Indian community in Australia, especially students have become a vulnerable target for attacks, whether racist or not.On 31 May 2009 in Melbourne, about 5000 students marched through the streets of Melbourne protesting against these attacks on Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students. 25-year-old Sravan Kumar Theerthala wa s in a serious condition in intensive care after being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver one week earlier (Bolton Peterson, 2009). In an oblige in The Age newspaper on February 19 Victorian police claimed that these attacks are not racially motivated, but opportunistic where Indian students are over representing themselves as victims and can be looked upon as soft targets.The police also advised them not to speak in their native language loudly or display signs of wealth. Attacks on Indians arent the only allegation Australia has faced over the years. It seems that anyone in power, including police, politicians or the media has had the tendency to somehow flare these attacks. In the Herald sunshine on 11 June 2009, 3AWs Neil Mitchell said Australians are also bashed and die in India, which does not provoke parades of chanting ocker backpackers in the streets of Mumbai.In 2007, the then immigration minister Kevin Andrews referred to the Sudanese community when he said Some gro ups dont seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope. A spate of violent attacks were then unleashed against Sudanese migrants, and one was bashed to death by a group of white men (Bolton Peterson, 2009). As Australia continues to argue that it is a just, tolerant, open and classless society, there is still evidence of race and inequality among us and affecting the many lives of migrants and Indigenous people.It is interesting to demarcation that the very determinants of class power, money, education, family background, occupation, health and general way of life are also the same factors where others experience inequalities. Race and ethnicity perpetuate inequality, and in any country including Australia, one would find that there are always some people with very strong values of racism, and media outlets which help in manipulating the views of general public. There still needs to be a massive drive by communities and governments on racism and inequality and it will be long before we will be a happy multicultural Australia.Bibliography Aspin, L J 1996, Social stratification and inequality, Focus on Australian society, 2nd edn, Longman, Melbourne. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2009, Australian Bureau of Statistics, viewed 28 November 2009, http//www. abs. gov. au/ . Bessant, J Watts, R 2002, Neighbours and nations ethnic identity and multiculturalism, Sociology Australia, 2nd edn, Allen Unwin, St Leonards, NSW. Bolton, S Peterson, C 2009, Indian students speak Stop the racist attacks , viewed 28 November 2009, http//www.greenleft. org. au/2009/798/41083.Economou, N 1998, The Politics of Citizenship identity, ethnicity and race, in Alan Fenna, Introduction to Australian Public Policy, Vol 1, Addison Wesley Longman, Melbourne. Healey, J 2002, Racism Beyond Tolerance, A Fair Go, Racism in Australia, Vol 180, The Spinney Press, Rozelle, NSW. Van Krieken, R, Smith, P, Hobbis, D McDonald, K 2000, Migration , ethnicity and Australian Aboriginality, Sociology themes and perspectives, 2nd edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, NSW.