Racist attitudes, out‐groups and the Australian experience

Abstract

Australia today is a culturally diverse nation with people from over 190 different countries claiming 300 different ancestries. But despite an official commitment to diversity, contemporary Australian society continues to experience tensions between multicultural policies and a legacy of Anglo privilege and cultural dominance. To assess this, the Challenging Racism Project conducted a national survey, commissioned by the Special Broadcasting Service, to gauge the nature and extent of racist attitudes and experience of racism across Australia during July–August 2015 and November 2015. Results show that sociodemographic characteristics show little contemporary relationship to racist attitudes. Age, once associated with “old” racist attitudes, is no longer significant. On the other hand, Anglo privilege is empirically linked to racism through notions of social dominance. We conclude that it is to the media, and to public discourse generally, to which future research attention, using critical discourse analysis, should turn in efforts to make Australia a fairer, more tolerant, multicultural society.

Characterising Australians who have high levels of anger towards Islam and Muslims

“…Only one causal recipe for above-average anger towards Islam or Muslims contained a left-leaning political identification, with identification with the right or centre of politics in Australia almost a necessary condition for anger. Given the political rhetoric and positioning discussed earlier (Forrest et al, 2020;Reid, 2019), and research findings that describe how people's attitudes towards out-groups are not only solidified and emboldened when they feel they are part of an in-group, but also predictive of anger and willingness to take offensive action (Mackie et al, 2000), political orientation may be the most useful identifying factor and policy target for Australians who wish to promote unity and avoid conflict. People's levels of anger towards Muslims are important because they both influence policy and affect public debates about the presence of specific groups and the extent to which those groups belong in particular societies.…”

“…In recent decades a number of factors have contributed to a re-emergence of anti-Muslim sentiments in Australia. There has been a rise in right-wing extremism (Miller, 2017), the re-emergence of the One Nation political party with its anti-Islam platform, and the willingness of other politicians to capitalise on anti-Muslim sentiment (Forrest et al, 2020; Reid, 2019). Anti-Muslim sentiment in Australia is characterised by racism and hostility towards those who are perceived as being outsiders (Aly, 2007) and the increasing presence of anti-Islam groups on social media (Miller, 2017).…”

“…Despite this rich and varied history, Muslims continue to be portrayed in public and news media discourse as problematic (Ewart & O'Donnell, 2018) and as a threat to Australian society (Miller, 2017). Some Australian politicians promote fear of Muslims and position them as outsiders who are at odds with Australian values (Forrest et al, 2020; Reid, 2019). In this context Ganter (2008, p. 481) argues ‘Muslims have become the most widely debated and feared segment of the Australian community’.…”

Understanding conviviality in Australian suburbs with high Muslim concentrations: A qualitative case study in Melbourne

“…The geographical context is often the focus of research on Islamophobia (Forrest et al, 2021; Najib & Teeple Hopkins, 2020). Context clearly affects the ways in which people interact in suburbs (Nelson & Dunn, 2017).…”

Exploring the Influence of News Consumption on Non-Muslim Australians’ Attitudes towards Muslims

“…In Australia, some politicians gained popularity on a platform that promotes fear of Muslims and positions them as outsiders who do not possess or subscribe to Australian values (Reid 2019;Forrest et al 2020). The One Nation political party, with its anti-Islam platform, added significantly to the increase in anti-Muslim sentiment in Australia (Poynting 2004), while Muslims are presented by some political parties (Aly 2007) and extreme groups (Miller 2017) as a political and cultural threat.…”