Watch films and read books by artists who don’t look like you. Question if your university course on Australian literature omits Aboriginal authors. When individuals and groups point out systemic injustices and inequities, the dominant culture is made accountable.įind out if your children’s school curriculum engages with Indigenous and multicultural perspectives. When systemic injustices remain unspoken or accepted, an unethical white privilege is fostered. When white people scoop all the awards, it reinforces a message that other cultures are just not quite good enough. It damages the ethical society we aspire to create. Systemic racism damages lives, restricting access and capacity for contribution. In Australia, Indigenous people make up 2% of the Australian population, but 28% of the adult prison population.Īs Indigenous incarceration rates keep rising, justice reinvestment offers a solutionĪ study into how systemic racism impacts this over-representation in Victoria named factors such as over-policing in Aboriginal communities, the financial hardship of bail, and increased rates of drug and alcohol use.Īustralia’s literature, theatres and art galleries are all disproportionately white, with less than 10% of artistic directors from culturally diverse backgrounds.Īustralia's art institutions don't reflect our diversity: it's time to change that

Systemic racism shows itself in who is disproportionately impacted by our justice system.

And 21% of Asian candidates got interview offers with whitened resumes, up from 11.5%. Only 10% of black candidates got interview offers when their race could be implied by their resume, but 25% got offers when their resumes were whitened. A Harvard study found job candidates were more likely to get an interview when they “whitened” their name. In employment, names can influence employment opportunities. Under systemic racism, systems of education, government and the media celebrate and reward some cultures over others. The statements highlight taken-for-granted privileges, and enable people to understand how people of colour may experience society differently.

I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

The quiz asks you to count how many statements you agree with, for items such as: Individuals may not see themselves as racist, but they can still benefit from systems that privilege white faces and voices.Īnti-racism activist Peggy McIntosh popularised the understanding of the systemic nature of racism with her famous “ invisible knapsack” quiz looking at white privilege. One most obvious example is apartheid, but even with anti-discrimination laws, systemic racism continues. The assumption of superiority can pervade thinking consciously and unconsciously. Systemic racism assumes white superiority individually, ideologically and institutionally. The society either pretends it does not know of this latter situation, or is in fact incapable of doing anything meaningful about it.

But it is institutional racism that keeps black people locked in dilapidated slum tenements, subject to the daily prey of exploitative slumlords, merchants, loan sharks and discriminatory real estate agents. When a black family moves into a home in a white neighborhood and is stoned, burned or routed out, they are victims of an overt act of individual racism which most people will condemn. Hamilton first wrote about the concept in their 1967 book Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. In the case of Phoenix at the BAFTAs, he isn’t calling out the racist actions of individuals, but rather the way white is considered the default at every level of the film industry. Systemic racism can stem from education, hiring practices or access. These systems can include laws and regulations, but also unquestioned social systems. “Systemic racism”, or “institutional racism”, refers to how ideas of white superiority are captured in everyday thinking at a systems level: taking in the big picture of how society operates, rather than looking at one-on-one interactions.

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