Contemporary Racism in Australia: The Experiences of Aborigines

Introduction

Contemporary racism describes the modern types of racism activities that are inexistent and experienced by certain groups of people in the society today. Racism denotes the fight on superiority complex in which one race may consider itself more superior than the other based on certain set of cultural beliefs. Racism in several aspects manifests in the forms of discrimination, gender violence, and inequalities among different races. Therefore, this is a report focusing on the contemporary racism in Australia with much of the attention to the experiences of the Aborigines. In particular, the report investigates the experience of the racism among thirty-four Aboriginal Australians as realized in a session of semi- structured open-ended interviews (Mellor, 2003). Plausible revelation is the finding that the common types of racism experiences among the Aboriginals are more of old fashioned as compared to subtle and contemporary aspects of racism.

Summary of the Research

The research seeks to investigate the contemporary extremes of racism in Australia with a focus on the experience of the Aborigines. As such, the research serves as an expansion of the investigative findings concerning the phenomenon of racism. The method employed to accomplish the set tasks of the research is a qualitative method of research, which conducts an investigation on the originals of the Australian populace. The research respondents are the Aborigines interviewed in an open-end interview. The Aboriginals are preferred in the study for the fact that they constitute the indigenous inhabitants of Australia. Moreover, they are today the group among Australian communities considered as the outsiders by a large number in the Australian society.

The findings of the research based on the data collected repeatedly, in the end, reveal certain aspects of racism as experienced by the Aborigines to include threats, remarks, segregation patronization, and name calling among others. Thus, it is established that racism among the respondents is common and frequent. Several experiences of racism, therefore, are old-fashioned as compared to the modern types of racism. The social psychologist's ideologies of contemporary racism were readily adopted (Mellor, 2003).

Concluding remarks of the research pay attention to the contemporary consensus in which the political views, as well as the social science ideologies regarding contemporary racism, are considered to be incorrect. A distinction is made on dividing the racism into two categories in categories such as blatant and subtle results into resorting to contemporary racism being a milder form of racism. Basic ground of argument is to have in mind that the above concluding remarks are based on the arguments emanating for the perpetrator's experiences that are up-to-date impinged by the complex experiences.

Critical Analysis (Method and Sample)

The respondents were all supplied with consent forms upon which they only gave consent to participate willingly in the interviews. Ethically, they were assured not to be mentioned in part of the report and instead, nouns were to be used instead of quoting the respondents names. The qualitative method of study was used to accomplish the research tasks being suitable to be applied in the field as in interviews as well as this method also met the needs when it came to reaching voluminous literature works related to the topic of study.

For specificity and achievement of the research set goals, the respondents were a subgroup of the Aboriginals of the Koori people constituting the Melbourne population. Sampling techniques, incorporated probability sampling methods in which snowballing was applied to recruit respondents. However, the sample size was redundant to allow collection of a repeated data until certain forms of consistencies were established. A semi-structured interview session was used to extract information from 18 women and 16 men summing up to 34 respondents. In order to make sure that the respondents were aware of what the task was and informed of what they were responsible for, the research methodology made sure to involve respondents not less than 18 years. As such, the respondents’ ages were in the range of 18 to 58.Moreover, a mean of 36.6 years suggests that majority of the respondents were 36 years and over while a standard deviation of 12.8 typifies 36 years as the standard age among the participants.

The methodology procedure in regards to specific findings concentrated on the how the individuals experienced racism and the various ways responded to such form of racism. The qualitative nature of the research design provided an insight into looking at the primary taking into account that the investigation prompting then research was a derivative of narratives conducted through interviews. Therefore, in order to collect all the necessary and essential data, the respondents were each afforded opportunity and adequate time to describe in detail their experiences, justify why they thought such acts were of racism, and finally be elaborate on their responses.

Critical Analysis (Other Uses)

The objective for conducting the interviews on the respondents was of some significance. First, the procedure assured the respondents of their safety. The majority of people feel safe when they are within their borders or rather close to supporting hence; they participated with no fear of being subjected to other forms of oppressions. Second was that the interviews were taped. The interviewer in avoiding direct records of what the participants were saying or revealing about their experiences assured them of no ill intentions.

 Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to talk in a relaxed mode as tension is deleterious to effective interviews. However, it is for the opinion and arguably that audiotaping was contrary and a breach of the privacy. Procedurally, the ability to audio tape provides an opportunity for reviews as well as the determination of levels of respondent’s honesty when the same questions are asked repeatedly to avoid redundancy. As such, data collected was a true and clear reflection of the racism phenomena typified in events, the locations, perpetrators, and the victim’s responses. The need to subdivide the research into blatant and subtle categories offers insights into efforts to understand the contemporary racism. In such aspects, the contemporary consensus within political and social views related to the old –fashioned manifestations of racism.

Conclusion

According to the research findings, racism is a thorn in the flesh experienced everywhere in today’s societal set-ups. It is observed and experienced by the minority people in various communities in everyday aspects of life including schools, public events such as sports, employment fields not limited to areas in which entertainment is offered. The Australian Aborigines are far from being close to Australians due to racism. By the virtue of association, those who are in position including teachers, government officials, and the police, close associates benefit theoretically and enjoy similar advantages as those in such positions for simply originating from the same race and sharing sets of beliefs.

In believing and disregarding contemporary racism and accommodating the old-fashioned types of racism, there must be ways to harmonize the contemporary and overt manifestations. Justifying this concept is that the respondent is victims of circumstance hence, could be by all means moved by emotions and urge to air the grievances and discomforts experienced. Trustworthy in the method of collection, as well as the data interpretation, are subject to several questioning. Redundancy data collection does not present reliable and verifiable data on topical issues such as this. The fact that victims of racism were the respondents is an indicator of the data collected being of biased nature. Compared to other forms of data collection such as the use of questionnaires that show transparency, redundant data questions the integrity of the data as well as the source intention.

The theoretical arguments of the social psychologist of contemporary racism cannot be sidelined. It should be noted that the arguments as realized in the interview of the participants only find applicability in situations where the perpetrators of racism are the focus of the study. Aborigines, therefore, are perfect for describing the old-fashioned forms of racism, which they were earlier experiencing. Additionally, the study only relies on the accounts of the victims in which the findings are subject to scrutiny. It is on such basis that generalization has been made that contemporary racism does not affect the Aboriginals as compared to obverted manifestations.