tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/racial-discrimination-7897/articlesRacial discrimination – The Conversation2023-12-15T13:22:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2140532023-12-15T13:22:43Z2023-12-15T13:22:43ZRacism produces subtle brain changes that lead to increased disease risk in Black populations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565115/original/file-20231212-21-79wl3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C30%2C6659%2C4436&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coping with everyday affronts comes at a cost and requires a certain level of emotional suppression. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/composite-of-portraits-with-varying-shades-of-skin-royalty-free-image/1249641728?phrase=discrimination&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">RyanJLane/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. is in the midst of a racial reckoning. The COVID-19 pandemic, which took a particularly <a href="https://covidtracking.com/race">heavy toll on Black communities</a>, turned a harsh spotlight on long-standing health disparities that the public could no longer overlook.</p>
<p>Although the health disparities for Black communities have been well known to researchers for decades, the pandemic put real names and faces to these numbers. Compared with white people, Black people are at much greater risk for developing a range of health problems, including <a href="https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/heart-disease-and-african-americans">heart disease</a>, <a href="https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/diabetes-and-african-americans">diabetes</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2018.09.009">dementia</a>. For example, Black people are twice as likely as white people to <a href="https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures.pdf">develop Alzheimer’s disease</a>.</p>
<p>A vast and growing body of research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043750">racism contributes to systems that promote health inequities</a>. Most recently, our team has also learned that racism directly contributes to these inequities on a neurobiological level.</p>
<p>We are <a href="https://www.negarfani.com/">clinical</a> <a href="https://www.mcleanhospital.org/profile/nathaniel-harnett">neuroscientists</a> who study the multifaceted ways in which racism affects how our brains develop and function. We use brain imaging to study how trauma such as sexual assault or racial discrimination can cause stress that leads to mental health disorders like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. </p>
<p>We have studied trauma in the context of a study known as the <a href="https://www.gradytraumaproject.com/">Grady Trauma Project</a>, which has been running for nearly 20 years. This study is largely focused on the trauma and stress of Black people in the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, community.</p>
<h2>How discrimination alters the brain</h2>
<p>Racial discrimination is commonly experienced through subtle indignities: a woman clutching her purse as a Black man walks by on the sidewalk, a shopkeeper keeping close watch on a Black woman shopping in a clothing store, a comment about a Black employee being a “diversity hire.” These slights are often referred to as <a href="https://www.med.unc.edu/inclusion/justice-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-j-e-d-i-toolkit/microaggressions-microaffirmations/#">microaggressions</a>.</p>
<p>Decades of research has shown that the everyday burden of these race-related threats, slights and exclusions in day-to-day life translates into a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043750">real increase in disease risk</a>. But researchers are only beginning to understand how these forms of discrimination affect a person’s biology and overall health.</p>
<p>Our team’s research shows that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.05.004">everyday burden of racism</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.1480">affects the function</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.08.011">structure</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-022-01445-8">of the brain</a>. In turn, these changes play a major role in risk for health problems.</p>
<p>For instance, our studies show that racial discrimination <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.1480">increases the activity of brain regions</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-023-01737-7">such as the prefrontal cortex</a>, that are involved in regulating emotions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Scientist and technologist view brain images." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Negar Fani and a team member view brain images.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick Heagney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This increased activity in prefrontal brain regions occurs because responding to these types of affronts requires high-effort coping strategies, such as suppressing emotions. People who have experienced more racial discrimination also show more activation in brain regions that enable them to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2021.100967">inhibit and suppress anger, shock or sadness</a> so that they can curate a socially acceptable response. </p>
<h2>A cost for overcompensating</h2>
<p>Despite the fact that high-energy coping allows people to manage a constant barrage of threats, this comes at a cost.</p>
<p>The more brain energy you use to suppress, control or manage your feelings, the more energy you take away from the rest of the body. Over time, and without prolonged periods of rest, relief and restoration, this can contribute to other problems, a process that public health researcher <a href="https://psc.isr.umich.edu/news/a-monumental-new-book-weathering-arline-geronimuss-lifes-work/">Arline Geronimus termed “weathering</a>.” Having these brain regions in continual overdrive is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113169">linked with</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs12110-010-9078-0">accelerated biological aging</a>, which can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.ssmph.2018.11.003">create vulnerability for health problems</a> and early death. </p>
<p>In our research, we have found that this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-022-01445-8">weathering process is evident</a> in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.08.011">gradual degradation</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.05.004">of brain structure</a>, particularly in the heavily myelinated axons of the brain, known as “<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002344.htm#">white matter</a>,” which serve as the brain’s information highways. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Computer-generated image of white matter tracts in the brain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Rendering of white matter fibers − shown in color − throughout the brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Negar Fani</span></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002261.htm">Myelin</a> is a protective sheath around nerve fibers that allows for improved communication between brain cells. Similar to highways for vehicles, without sufficient maintenance of the myelin, degradation will occur. </p>
<p>Erosion in these brain pathways can affect self-regulation, making a person more vulnerable to developing unhealthy coping strategies for stress, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2015.15060710">emotional eating or substance use</a>. These behaviors, in turn, can increase one’s risk for a wide variety of health problems. </p>
<p>These racism-related changes in the brain, and their direct effects on coping, may help to explain why Black people are twice as likely to develop brain health problems such as <a href="https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures.pdf">Alzheimer’s disease</a> compared with white people.</p>
<h2>Recognizing racial gaslighting</h2>
<p>In our view, what makes racism particularly insidious and pernicious to the health of Black people is the societal invalidation that accompanies it. This makes racial trauma effectively invisible. Racism, whether it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616659391">originates from people</a> or from institutional systems, is often rationalized, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2020.09.001">excused or dismissed</a>. </p>
<p>Such invalidation leads those who experience racism to second-guess themselves: “Am I just being too sensitive?” People who have the temerity to report racist events are often ridiculed or met with skepticism. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-021-00361-5">extends to</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732220984183">academic spheres</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.009">as well</a>.</p>
<p>This continual questioning and doubting of the circumstances around racist experiences, or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2017.1403934">racial gaslighting</a>, may be part of what depletes the brain of its resources, causing the weathering that ultimately increases vulnerability to brain health problems.</p>
<p>Interrupting this cycle requires that people learn to identify their biases toward people of color and people in marginalized groups more generally, and to understand how those biases may lead to discriminatory words and behavior. We believe that by finding their blind spots, people can see ways in which their actions and behaviors could be viewed as hurtful, exclusionary or offensive. Through recognition of these experiences as racist, people can become allies rather than skeptics. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.institutionalcourage.org/">Institutions can help</a> to create a culture of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20220045">healing, validation and support</a> for people of color. A validating, supportive institutional culture may help people of color normalize their reactions to these stressors, in addition to the connection – and restoration – they may find within their communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Negar Fani receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and Emory University School of Medicine. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathaniel Harnett receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College. </span></em></p>Racial threats and slights take a toll on health, but the continual invalidation and questioning of whether those so-called microaggressions exist has an even more insidious effect, research shows.Negar Fani, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Emory UniversityNathaniel Harnett, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2137202023-10-12T12:30:02Z2023-10-12T12:30:02ZHow Chicana women artists have often used the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe for political messages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553308/original/file-20231011-27-wypna1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C515%2C405&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chicana artist Yolanda Lopez's artwork: 'Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yolanda Lopez</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1975, Chicano artist Amado M. Peña <a href="https://penagallery.com/">depicted police brutality</a> by showing the bloodied head of 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez, whom Dallas police had shot for allegedly stealing $8
from a vending machine. The painting “<a href="https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/aquellos-que-han-muerto-35251">Aquellos que han muerto</a>,” translated as “Those who have died,” further listed the names of other Chicano youth killed by police. </p>
<p>Across the background, Peña included rows of skulls – a gesture that art historian E. Carmen Ramos explains “conjures death and connects with <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-american-art-museum/2021/05/13/protest-and-remembrance-chicanx-artists-confront-police-brutality/">skull imagery frequently used in Mesoamerican religious practices</a> and modern Mexican art.”</p>
<p>Peña’s work was part of what came to be known as the <a href="https://www.mexicanmuseum.org/chicano-movement">Chicano art movement</a>. Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Chicano art powerfully decried the discrimination, inequality and cultural oppression faced by Mexican Americans in the United States. At the same time, many Chicano artists threaded symbols of ancient Mexican and contemporary beliefs throughout their political art. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://icaa.mfah.org/s/en/item/848799#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1673%2C0%2C5895%2C3299">professor of Chicano and Latin American art history</a>, I have focused my research on artists’ use of spiritual and cultural symbols to forge a new sense of community. </p>
<p>In particular, over the past few decades, Chicana artists have used the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe to convey social, cultural and political, though not necessarily religious, messages.</p>
<h2>Chicana art and the Virgin of Guadalupe</h2>
<p>First, it is essential to understand the centurieslong history of changing practices concerning the virgin’s image. </p>
<p>Today considered the protector of marginalized people, the Virgin of Guadalupe has become an icon in Mexican American social and political movements. As a significant spiritual figure, she is <a href="https://virgendeguadalupe.org.mx/en/bibliografia/">often seen as a symbol</a> of faith, protection and hope.</p>
<p>Known as the dark-skinned patroness of Mexico, legend explains that the Virgin of Guadalupe miraculously <a href="https://todayscatholic.org/lady-guadalupe-feast-celebrate-patroness-americas/">appeared to an Indigenous person</a> in Mexico in 1531. Notably, the Virgin Mary took the form of a mestiza, or mixed-race woman, speaking Nahuatl, the language of the recently colonized peoples. Over the centuries, her image came to be associated with vulnerable populations, especially as an advocate for migrants who embark upon uncertain travels.</p>
<p>In the 19th century, Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla sent the call across New Spain, now Mexico, for independence from Spain. Hidalgo carried Guadalupe’s banner as he gathered fighters. Soldiers <a href="https://www.csus.edu/indiv/o/obriene/art111/readings/virgin%20of%20guadalupe.pdf">wore her image in the battles for Mexican independence</a> of 1810 and again in the Mexican civil war of 1910-20.</p>
<p>In the United States, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pilgrimage-and-revolution-how-cesar-chavez-married-faith-and-ideology-in-landmark-farmworkers-march-200043">leaders of the United Farm Workers Union</a>, carried Guadalupe’s image in the <a href="https://ufw.org/1965-1970-delano-grape-strike-boycott/">1960s strikes against the grape-growing companies</a>. National media became riveted by Catholic priests and nuns joining the farm workers who carried crosses and banners of Guadalupe. In this way, organizers within the Chicano Movement affirmed their struggles for <a href="https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/158">economic and racial equity</a> as a spiritual undertaking.</p>
<h2>A symbol of empowerment</h2>
<p>Through the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, feminist and gender perspectives became more prominent in art as Chicana artists explored complex concepts of identity. Artistic representations of women <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292788985/">began to consider</a> intersections of economic class, regional location, gender and sexuality, as well as diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.</p>
<p>Still, many Chicana artists connected interpretations of the virgin with political and cultural change. Guadalupe was <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/2135/Chicana-ArtThe-Politics-of-Spiritual-and-Aesthetic">frequently used to express feminist ideals</a>, such as in the work of artist Yolanda Lopez. In her renowned 1978 “<a href="https://sjmusart.org/exhibition/yolanda-lopez-portrait-artist">Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe</a>,” Lopez appears within the Virgin’s full-body halo. Creating an affirming image of mixed-race women, Lopez modernized the attire by raising the hemline above the knees and adding running shoes. This modern Virgin appears to be vigorously moving forward while boldly clutching a snake as a sign of power and influence.</p>
<p>Chicana artist Ester Hernández also used the Virgin of Guadalupe to symbolize women’s empowerment. In a 1975 print, the artist presented Guadalupe as a karate champion defending the rights of Chicanos. This modern Guadalupe personified the <a href="https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/la-virgen-de-guadalupe-defendiendo-los-derechos-de-los-xicanos-86123">powerful work of women</a> <a href="https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/chicano-graphics/online/la-virgen-de-guadalupe">within the civil rights movement</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Ester Hernández interview.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Protector of the borderlands</h2>
<p>Over the past several decades, many Chicana artists have used Guadalupe to emphasize the need for dialogue, solutions and justice in <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/2135/Chicana-ArtThe-Politics-of-Spiritual-and-Aesthetic">addressing immigration-related issues</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lilianawilson.com/">Liliana Wilson</a>, a Chilean American artist well known for her artworks addressing immigration and human rights issues, has worked within borderland Chicano communities for decades. Her 1987 painting “<a href="https://sanantonioreport.org/liliana-wilsons-gentle-activism/wilson_el-color_rodrigo-rojas/">El Color de la Esperanza,” or “The Color of Hope</a>,” features Guadalupe safeguarding a sleeping youth. He is alone and is deeply vulnerable within a desert landscape marked by the barbed wire border fence at his back.</p>
<p>In my recent telephone interview with Wilson, she explained that “the Aztec sun and the virgin are all that the sleeping youth has in this world; they represent his close connection with nature, Indigenous culture and human hope … Guadalupe travels with them in their hearts.”</p>
<p>In a 2010 print, artist Ester Hernández satirically pictured the Virgin within a fictitious “Wanted” poster. The artist used the image of Guadalupe to critique exclusionary policies that endanger migrants desperate for safe spaces. </p>
<p>The poster ironically accuses the Virgin of Guadalupe of <a href="https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/wanted-86375">committing the crime</a> of “providing limitless aid and comfort” to those who have died attempting to cross the desert regions separating Mexico from the U.S. </p>
<h2>Guadalupe as embracing identities</h2>
<p>Many Chicana artists and writers use Guadalupe’s image to redefine the borderlands’ people as representatives of a new hybrid space. Guadalupe herself is seen to be a hybrid entity; her apparition occurred at the sacred site previously dedicated to the Aztec goddess Tonantzin, also known as Coatlique, or the “Mother of the Gods.” </p>
<p>For Chicanas, the merging of Tonantzin and the Virgin of Guadalupe <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/56110546.pdf">is a form of cultural reclamation</a>. It allows them to assert their mixed-race identities while reinterpreting religious symbols to better reflect their diverse experiences and values. Drawing upon this understanding of Guadalupe as a hybrid entity representing the borderlands, in 1995 artist <a href="https://www.santabarraza.com/">Santa Barraza</a> painted the image of the Virgin on the back of a mestiza (mixed race) migrant and titled the art “<a href="https://www.santabarraza.com/portfolio-item/nepantla/">Nepantla</a>.” </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Santa Barraza discusses her art.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Nepantla, well discussed within Chicano intellectual and artistic circles, expresses a psychological space of uncertainty and loss, especially within the borderlands. This Nahuatl word represents a <a href="https://nacla.org/article/chicana-artists-exploring-nepantla-el-lugar-de-la-frontera">state of transition and change</a>, especially as it relates to cultural mixing. For Barraza, this image of Nepantla also represents a <a href="https://www.tamupress.com/book/9780890969069/santa-barraza-artist-of-the-borderlands/">historical, emotional and spiritual land</a> – between Mexico and Texas, between the real and the celestial, and between present reality and the mythic world of the ancient Aztecs and Mayas.</p>
<p>Mexican American theologian Virgilio Elizondo has written extensively on such varied ways that the Virgin of Guadalupe represents religious and cultural mixing. <a href="https://faithandleadership.com/virgilio-p-elizondo-diversity-sign-the-new-creation">Elizondo affirms this blended knowledge</a> that grows out of the borderlands as “existing at the intersection of two ways of knowing.” </p>
<p>In light of constantly conflicting worldviews and systems of power, writers such as Elizondo and Chicana theorist Gloria Anzaldúa present this notion of Guadalupe as a new mestizo sensibility that <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/hksdigitalbookdisplay/publications/borderlands-la-frontera-new-mestiza">embraces mixed identities</a> as a means of adaptation and survival. </p>
<p>In Elizondo’s and Anzaldúa’s writings, as well as for many within 21st-century Chicano communities, Guadalupe is the “sign of the new creation,” a <a href="https://faithandleadership.com/virgilio-p-elizondo-diversity-sign-the-new-creation">third space that accepts the lived experience of difference</a> and supports the needs of those who suffer from social injustices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judith Huacuja does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over the past decades, many Chicana artists have used Guadalupe to emphasize issues of justice around immigration.Judith Huacuja, Professor of Art History, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2133652023-10-06T00:22:52Z2023-10-06T00:22:52Z‘No safe space in society’: new UN report reveals the extent of systemic racism faced by people of African descent in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552239/original/file-20231005-16-1flnlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C26%2C5815%2C3844&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A special UN working group this week tabled its first-ever <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5467add2-visit-australia-report-working-group-experts-people-african">report</a> on the experiences of people of African descent in Australia to the <a href="https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1j/k1j104fnsk">United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva</a>. </p>
<p>The report documents what people of African descent living in Australia already know: Australia has a racism problem. </p>
<p>In fact, the UN’s <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/wg-african-descent">Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent</a> said in a press release at the end of their visit that people of African descent in Australia are living “<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/12/australia-people-african-descent-living-under-siege-racism-say-un-experts">under siege of racism</a>”. </p>
<p>The new report says people of African descent experience racism in many key areas of life, including health, education and employment. It also highlighted the use of racialised hate speech in political rhetoric, racial profiling in law enforcement, and the highly racialised nature of Australia’s immigration policies. In one section, the report said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some refugees of African descent expressed surprise that settlement was less of a protection tool, and more of a pathway to prison for their communities, stating, “in Africa, we knew what was killing us.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552238/original/file-20231005-19-9bofx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552238/original/file-20231005-19-9bofx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552238/original/file-20231005-19-9bofx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552238/original/file-20231005-19-9bofx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552238/original/file-20231005-19-9bofx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552238/original/file-20231005-19-9bofx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552238/original/file-20231005-19-9bofx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552238/original/file-20231005-19-9bofx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new report examines the experiences of people of African descent in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/growing-up-african-in-australia-racism-resilience-and-the-right-to-belong-113121">Growing Up African in Australia: racism, resilience and the right to belong</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What the working group found</h2>
<p>At the invitation of the Australian government, the working group visited Australia for the first time in December last year.</p>
<p>The group’s task was to evaluate the human rights situation of people of African descent living in Australia. It collected information on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance during visits to Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. It also met with various arms of government (including senior officials of the federal government, the Australian Border Force and Australian Federal Police), non-government stakeholders, academics and human rights defenders. </p>
<p>The working group, supported by the <a href="https://www.africanaustralianadvocacy.org.au/">African Australian Advocacy Centre</a>, also facilitated public consultations across Australia where it heard from individuals and community leaders. And it received formal written submissions during and after the visit.</p>
<p>In its report, the UN working group called attention to how the legacies of British colonisation and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-white-australia-policy-74084">White Australia policy</a> still continue to have harmful impacts on Black people of African descent living in contemporary Australia. </p>
<p>In reference to a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-10-03/andrews-under-fire-for-cutting-african-refugee/688430">2007 assertion</a> by then-Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews that African refugees fail to integrate, the report noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This unsupported statement was never retracted nor repaired, even by subsequent governments. It lives on in the minds of people of African descent who see themselves as contributors to Australia and as African-Australian.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The report also observed the politicised association of youth of African descent with “<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-media-are-to-blame-for-racialising-melbournes-african-gang-problem-100761">African gangs</a>” and criminality. It revealed their experiences of being racially profiled and surveilled by law enforcement.</p>
<p>Across Australia, young people also reported experiencing racism and cultural denial at university. <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-a-day-passes-without-thinking-about-race-what-african-migrants-told-us-about-parenting-in-australia-149167">Children</a> reported similar experiences at school, where they are not presented with positive images of themselves. In fact, many reported being ostracised, subjected to racial slurs and bullied by both classmates and teachers. Their complaints often go unaddressed.</p>
<p>One student told the working group about an incident at school when a football labelled with racial and misogynistic slurs was thrown at her and other Black students in maths class. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Essentially, we have all seen the slow response. We have seen the staff take little to no relevant action – believe it or not, sometimes they do not play by the rules. We have felt lost. Emotionally bruised.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The working group noted children of African descent often feel there are “no safe spaces” for them to <a href="https://theconversation.com/growing-up-african-in-australia-racism-resilience-and-the-right-to-belong-113121">grow up Black</a> in Australian society.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552425/original/file-20231005-31-pspve2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552425/original/file-20231005-31-pspve2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552425/original/file-20231005-31-pspve2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552425/original/file-20231005-31-pspve2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552425/original/file-20231005-31-pspve2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552425/original/file-20231005-31-pspve2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552425/original/file-20231005-31-pspve2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The working group had numerous recommendations for the Australian government to consider.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scholars <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244017720483">Virginia Mapedzahama and Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo</a> have previously written about the burden experienced by people of African descent with black skin living in Australia. </p>
<p>Mapedzahama and Kwansah-Aidoo write that the main issue is not people’s dark skin, but rather how it marks them as inferior, problematic and not belonging in a predominantly white space. </p>
<p>This can result in the diversity of Black Africans being flattened and their presence in Australia being seen in negative terms. Australian leaders have a particular responsibility not to contribute to such deficit-based portrayals of people of African descent. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trauma-racism-and-unrealistic-expectations-mean-african-refugees-are-less-likely-to-get-into-australian-unis-121885">Trauma, racism and unrealistic expectations mean African refugees are less likely to get into Australian unis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Charting a path forward</h2>
<p>The working group’s report makes for difficult reading. </p>
<p>It shows the many compounding ways racism hinders the ability of people of African descents to fully participate in Australian society.</p>
<p>It also draws attention to the fact many felt their experiences of racism had been denied, minimised or ignored.</p>
<p>The report provides 27 recommendations to help guide the Australian government’s future actions to address the working group’s concerns. These include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>people of African descent should be meaningfully included in all decisions that impact their lives</p></li>
<li><p>narratives that feed a “culture of denial” of anti-Black racism should be confronted</p></li>
<li><p>and that the same care and commitment should be devoted to addressing systemic racism in Australian institutions that the government demonstrated in implementing the White Australia policy historically. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Although Australia has much to do, the UN report acknowledges the work the government has already done to guarantee the human rights of people of African descent. This includes the 2012 establishment of the <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/parliamentary-joint-committee-human-rights">Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights</a> and the work of the <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au">Australian Human Rights Commission</a>. </p>
<p>The report also welcomed the federal government’s willingness to engage in the process and take action.</p>
<p>Australia now has the opportunity to take on board the report’s recommendations. Doing so will bring us closer to empowering people of African descent to contribute to – and benefit more fully from – Australia’s prosperity.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The author would like to acknowledge and thank Noël Zihabamwe, chairperson of the African Australian Advocacy Centre, for his contributions to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The author has an ongoing research partnership with the African Australian Advocacy Centre (AAAC). The author is not a AAAC board member and maintains her academic independence. </span></em></p>The UN working group visited Australia for the first time in December last year. Their task was to evaluate the human rights situation of people of African descent living in Australia.Kathleen Openshaw, Lecturer in School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1965052023-10-03T14:08:50Z2023-10-03T14:08:50ZDiscrimination is the biggest career obstacle for women of colour in the NHS – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525092/original/file-20230509-27-vjlzax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/surgical-team-performing-surgery-modern-operation-1932229913">Photoroyalty/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In March 2023, NHS midwife <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p534">Olukemi Akinmeji</a> won an employment tribunal case against the hospital in Kent where, as an employee, she had faced race discrimination and victimisation. </p>
<p>That same month, <a href="https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/policies-and-guidance/nurses-racial-discrimination-ruling-will-drive-change-vows-nhs-england-07-03-2023/">Michelle Cox</a>, a healthcare manager and senior nurse, won a case against NHS England and NHS Improvement Commissioning in Manchester. She too had faced racial discrimination. </p>
<p>These cases follow the legal action launched in August 2022 by marketing executive <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nhs-whistleblower-recorded-her-bosses-racist-chat-5sjmldxqt">Melissa Thermidor</a> against the NHS Blood and Transplant service. She provided recordings of conversations between staff members that backed up her claims that she had been subjected to racism.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Workforce-Race-Equality-Standard-report-2021-.pdf">NHS data from 2021</a>, black and minority ethnic women are the most likely of all NHS staff groups to experience discrimination from patients or colleagues. The harms they experience due to <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/meridians/article-abstract/8/2/166/138446/Double-JeopardyTo-Be-Black-and-Female?redirectedFrom=fulltext">sexism</a> in the workplace are compounded by their ethnicity. </p>
<p>My doctoral research looks at the obstacles black and minority ethnic women face in the NHS in terms of career development. In the chapter I recently contributed to the <a href="https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/research-handbook-on-leadership-in-healthcare-9781800886247.html">Research Handbook on Leadership in Healthcare</a> (edited by Naomi Chambers), I show how systemic discrimination is the single biggest impediment to these women being able to advance in their jobs. </p>
<h2>The barriers to career progression</h2>
<p>There is a notable lack of research on the workplace experiences of black and minority ethnic women leaders in healthcare. In 2021 I carried out a literature review to address this. </p>
<p>I identified eight barriers or drivers (often two sides of the same coin) to career progression for this group. These are: systemic discrimination; leadership and organisational cultures; recruitment and talent management; policies; training; monitoring and accountability; work-life balance; and support.</p>
<p>Systemic discrimination, the most pervasive impediment, refers to discrimination embedded in institutional policies, practices or processes, as opposed to the actions of individual people.</p>
<p>Research has long shown systemic discrimination at work in the NHS. In 2016, minority ethnic NHS staff were <a href="https://www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/minority-ethnic-candidate-chances-of-recruitment-in-nhs-fall-back-finds-nhse/7029577.article">1.56 times more likely</a> to enter formal disciplinary processes than white staff. More recently, a 2022 report by the Fawcett Society and the Runnymede Trust charities <a href="https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=72040c36-8cd6-4ae3-93f3-e2ad63a4b4b0">found</a> that women of colour are more likely (27%) to have been described as aggressive compared to white women (17%).</p>
<p>A <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/4/e069846.full.pdf">study</a>, published in April 2023 looked at a large sample (37,971) of people applying for specialist NHS training posts (medical and surgical) between 2021 and 2022. It found that applicants from most of the ethnic minority groups were less successful than their white British counterparts. It pointed to recruitment policies and processes as key factors driving this inequality.</p>
<p>In addition to the racism and sexism often experienced by ethnic minority women more broadly, black women, in particular, also have to contend with anti-blackness. </p>
<p>In 2010, the black feminist scholar Moya Bailey and the writer who goes by the name Trudy coined the term “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323736560_On_misogynoir_citation_erasure_and_plagiarism">misogynoir</a>” – anti-black misogyny – to describe this compounded discrimination. It amounts, as the US legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw <a href="https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf">put it</a> in a landmark paper in 1989, to a form of erasure – being fundamentally overlooked by society. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace">Recent research</a> shows that little has changed. Black women are subject to a wider range of microaggressions in the workplace. They are often the only black woman in any given setting. And they are three times more likely than their peers to think regularly about leaving their jobs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graphic showing racial discrimination against ethnic minority women in healthcare leadership positions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504416/original/file-20230113-20-iy3bue.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504416/original/file-20230113-20-iy3bue.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504416/original/file-20230113-20-iy3bue.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504416/original/file-20230113-20-iy3bue.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504416/original/file-20230113-20-iy3bue.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504416/original/file-20230113-20-iy3bue.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504416/original/file-20230113-20-iy3bue.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barriers and drivers of career progression for black and minority ethnic women leaders in UK healthcare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rakhi Chand</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How discrimination is compounded</h2>
<p>In the UK, this compounded discrimination is further exacerbated by, among other things, being a migrant or having a non-standard British accent. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340784255_The_Workplace_Experiences_of_BAME_Professional_Women_Understanding_Experiences_at_the_Intersection">Accent discrimination</a> can lead to employees receiving poorer pay, having limited access to professional networks, or fewer chances of promotion. Here too, it can see people <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297894255_Investigation_of_nurses'_intention_to_leave_a_study_of_a_sample_of_UK_nurses">more likely</a> to leave their jobs. </p>
<p>This often has a negative impact on an employee’s <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1943-03751-001">mental wellbeing</a> and <a href="https://www.maryseacoletrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Race-Equality-in-the-Workplace-for-publication-Feb-19.pdf">physical health</a> too. The long-term physical problems it can lead to include increased blood pressure and heart rates, higher levels of the primary stress hormone cortisol, and unhealthy behaviours such as drinking alcohol or smoking. </p>
<p>Line managers are uniquely placed to influence an employee’s emotional attachment to an organisation. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297894255_Investigation_of_nurses'_intention_to_leave_a_study_of_a_sample_of_UK_nurses">Research</a> shows that their support – including for training and advancement opportunities – can be pivotal in decisions to leave or, conversely to stay in a role or even the organisation. </p>
<p>However, research has long noted the lack of diversity in healthcare leadership. A <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/equality-analysis-wres-april-16.pdf">2014 report</a> on equality in the NHS workforce found that black and minority ethnic executives were “entirely” absent, and women “disproportionately” absent, from the boards of all key NHS national bodies in 2013. </p>
<p>To remedy this situation, academics and practitioners alike have repeatedly called for better reporting on gender data, broken down by ethnicity, within healthcare management. </p>
<p>Yet, until the publication of the Workforce Race Equality Standard report in 2022, this appears to not have happened within the NHS. Not having access to such data is a problem. <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/edc7-0514.pdf">Research</a> has long shown that when a healthcare workforce does not reflect the population it serves, patients’ health outcomes worsen as a result. </p>
<p>The fact that black and minority ethnic women are under-represented at leadership levels is, of course, <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/bme-women-and-work">not unique</a> to the healthcare sphere. It is also <a href="https://www.mcnz.org.nz/assets/Publications/Workforce-Survey/6be731ea72/Workforce-Survey-Report-2019.pdf">not exclusively a UK problem</a>. </p>
<p>Anyone wanting to improve diversity and inclusion within their workforce must engage with the obstacles that black and ethnic minority women face. Addressing inequality benefits everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196505/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rakhi Chand does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When hospital and GP staff do not reflect the population they serve, patients’ health suffers.Rakhi Chand, Doctoral Researcher, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110422023-08-10T04:20:47Z2023-08-10T04:20:47ZWhy a Queensland court overturned a ban on religious knives in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542058/original/file-20230810-19-8vexkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4484%2C2980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Sikh man wearing a small 'kirpan' blade, one of the five articles of faith Sikhs must carry.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.sclqld.org.au/caselaw/QCA/2023/156">Supreme Court of Queensland</a> last week overturned a law banning children from bringing “knives” to school for religious reasons. This will allow Sikh students, parents, and teachers to carry a ceremonial dagger known as a “kirpan” at schools in Queensland. </p>
<p>Initiated Sikhs must carry a kirpan as one of five articles of faith. Those preparing for initiation, including school aged children, may also carry the five markers of faith. Many kirpans are blunt and worn stitched inside a sheath under a person’s cloths.</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time the issue of kirpans in schools has been raised. In 2021 the New South Wales government <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-religious-symbol-not-a-knife-at-the-heart-of-the-nsw-kirpan-ban-is-a-battle-to-define-secularism-161413">temporarily banned</a> students from wearing kirpans at school following an incident where a 14-year-old boy used one to stab another student. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-13/religious-knives-to-be-allowed-in-nsw-schools-again/100374484">ban was eventually lifted</a> after consultation with the Sikh community, leading to new guidelines. </p>
<p>In 2006 the <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/15/index.do">Canadian Supreme Court</a> found a ban on wearing kirpans in school was a breach of freedom of religion under the Canadian Charter of Rights.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1397722974564782087"}"></div></p>
<p>What made the Queensland law particularly egregious is that not only did it prohibit the freedom of religion of a small and vulnerable minority, it did so deliberately. The only religious or ethnic group in Australia that habitually wears a religious or cultural symbol that resembles a knife are Sikhs. The law was therefore directly targeted at Sikhs.</p>
<p>The Queensland case highlights the needs for Australia’s secular legal system to recognise the adverse impact of law on religious and cultural minorities. </p>
<h2>What did the court say?</h2>
<p>All states and territories have laws prohibiting people from carrying and using knives in public places and schools. However, knives can be used for a range of legitimate activities such as cutting food or whittling wood. Children can carry knives as part of a scout’s uniform, for example. As a result, all states and territories have exemptions that allow people, including children, to carry and use knives where it’s “reasonably necessary”.</p>
<p>In New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory there are also specific exemptions that allow Sikhs to wear a kirpan for religious purposes. In Western Australia and the Northern Territory, Sikhs rely on the general exemption when wearing a kirpan in public places or at schools. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-religion-is-australias-second-largest-religious-group-and-its-having-a-profound-effect-on-our-laws-185697">'No religion' is Australia's second-largest religious group – and it's having a profound effect on our laws</a>
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<hr>
<p>But Queensland’s laws are a little different. Section 51(1) of Queensland’s <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/current/act-1990-071">Weapons Act 1990</a> prohibited carrying knives in a public place or school without a reasonable excuse. As in other states and territories, the act also provides a range of reasons, including religion, for carrying a knife in a public place.</p>
<p>However, section 51(5) specifically states that religion is not a reasonable excuse for carrying a knife at a <em>school</em>.</p>
<p>To be clear, children could still bring a knife to school in Queensland for a range of other reasons, such as to cut up food or as part of their studies. However, Sikh children were specifically banned from carrying a knife for religious reasons.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court found the ban on bringing a knife to school specifically for religious reasons was inconsistent with the Racial Discrimination Act. </p>
<p>As per <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/Constitution/chapter5#chapter-05_109">Australia’s constitution</a>, state laws that are inconsistent with Commonwealth laws are void to the extent of the inconsistency. So, the court found that section 51(5) of the Queensland’s Weapons Act 1990 was void. </p>
<h2>A religion or ethnicity?</h2>
<p>Sikhism originated in the Punjab region in South Asia in the 15th Century. There are around 25-30 million Sikhs worldwide, with about five million living outside the Punjab region.</p>
<p>At the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/2021#data-downloads">2021 census</a> there were 210,400 Sikhs in Australia, roughly 0.8% of the population. </p>
<p>While Sikhism is commonly thought of as a religion, the <a href="http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1982/7.html">courts</a> have recognised Sikhs have a common ethnic origin. As one of the judges explained in the case:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Nearly all Sikhs originate from the Punjab region. Nearly all Sikhs continue to have a link with family in Punjab, practice elements of Punjabi culture and speak the Punjabi language.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a result, Sikhs are considered to be an ethno-religious group for the purposes of the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act. </p>
<h2>A knife or a religious symbol?</h2>
<p>The kirpan is one of the five articles of faith worn by initiated Sikhs and those preparing for initiation. The other four are: a kachera (a special undergarment), kanga (a wooden comb), kara (an iron band) and keshas (unshorn hair). If one of the five items is removed, they’re required to undergo a lengthy absolution (or forgiveness) process. </p>
<p>The Queensland Supreme Court found the kirpan was a knife for the purposes of the Weapons Act 1990. It found that a knife remains a knife no matter how blunt or sharp it is, how it’s worn or how easy it is to access.</p>
<p>To Sikhs, a kirpan is fundamentally <a href="https://www.worldsikh.org/what_is_the_kirpan">a religious symbol</a>. It’s a symbol of dignity and of their obligation to stand up for others. Referring to the kirpan as a knife downplays its important religious significance. But in a secular legal system, defining it in any other way would be unworkable. </p>
<h2>What happens now?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-03/qld-sikhs-allowed-to-carry-ceremonial-kirpan-at-school/102679354">Queensland education department</a> is carefully considering the Supreme Court’s decision.</p>
<p>The court did leave the door open for a complete ban on knives in schools, although this would impact other legitimate uses of knives such as preparing food.</p>
<p>Kirpans are currently worn in schools by students, parents and teachers in other states of Australia, often with strict guidelines. The Queensland education system will likely need to develop similar guidelines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211042/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renae Barker is provides advise to the Anglican Diocese of Bunbury and Anglican Diocese of Perth </span></em></p>Not only did the Queensland law prohibit the freedom of religion of a small vulnerable minority, it did so deliberately.Renae Barker, Senior Lecturer, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2096472023-08-03T12:22:53Z2023-08-03T12:22:53ZEnding affirmative action does nothing to end discrimination against Asian Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540851/original/file-20230802-26048-4myl04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=476%2C325%2C4568%2C3033&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Participants at Harvard marching at a rally protesting the Supreme Court's ruling against affirmative action on July 1, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participants-march-and-chant-slogans-at-a-rally-protesting-news-photo/1426846815?adppopup=true"> Ziyu Julian Zhu/Xinhua via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In two cases challenging the use of race in college admissions, the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">U.S. Supreme Court ruled</a> that the educational benefit of racial diversity is no longer what it once called a “compelling interest.” </p>
<p>These decisions effectively end race-conscious college admissions. In my view, as a legal <a href="https://jerrykang.net">scholar of implicit bias and critical race studies</a>, they do not end discrimination against Asian Americans, which was the advertised goal of the lawsuits. </p>
<p>The cases against Harvard and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were both brought by <a href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/">Students For Fair Admission</a>, an organization created by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/08/us/edward-blum-affirmative-action-race.html">Ed Blum</a>, a California businessman who has successfully challenged many affirmative action and voting rights laws.</p>
<p>In the lawsuits, Blum strategically featured the plight of Asian Americans. </p>
<p>But before he could initiate the lawsuits, he needed people with the standing to sue.</p>
<p>“I needed Asian plaintiffs,” Blum <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiBvo-05JRg">told a group</a> gathered by the Houston Chinese Alliance in 2015.</p>
<p>Why did Blum need Asian Americans? It’s my belief he felt the need because Asian Americans can be depicted as especially sympathetic victims and model minorities cruelly harmed by affirmative action.</p>
<p>It’s not surprising, then, to hear <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-01/shyong-supreme-court-affirmative-action-what-have-we-won">some Asian Americans celebrating</a> the Supreme Court’s decision as striking down discrimination against them.</p>
<p>That’s not what actually happened. </p>
<h2>Discrimination against Asian Americans</h2>
<p>Are Asian Americans discriminated against in college admissions? That’s a hard question to answer, for two reasons. </p>
<p>First, in order to know what counts as discrimination, a baseline is needed for comparison. In other words, you must ask, “As compared to whom?” </p>
<p>For race discrimination, the natural comparison is with white people because historically that race has received the best treatment. This is why important civil rights statutes, passed after the Civil War, explicitly guarantee the same <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1981">contracting</a> and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1982">property rights</a> “as is enjoyed by white citizens.” </p>
<p>Second, in order to uncover subtle discrimination, analysts often need statistical techniques. Both sides in the litigation <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/11/13/admissions-data/">used multiple regression</a>, which selects a specific set of predictor variables – such as test scores, grade-point averages and race – and then calculates how much each variable affects the admissions decision controlling for all the others. </p>
<p>The two sides bickered over which variables should be included in the model. Harvard sought to include far more variables. In contrast, Students For Fair Admission wanted fewer. </p>
<p>It turned out that including more variables, such as personal ratings and legacy status, made race less important to the admissions decision. </p>
<p>That’s partly because personal ratings and legacy status are themselves correlated with race, and adding overlapping variables into the model blurs each variable’s unique impact. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five men and four women are wearing black robes as they pose for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Supreme Court, from left, front row: Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan; and from left, back row: Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-sonia-news-photo/1431388794?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the end, the trial court sided with Harvard’s model, which meant that, in a comparison between an Asian and white applicant with identical test scores, GPAs, personal ratings, legacy status and so forth, the applicant’s race did not matter in the regression. </p>
<p>Thus, the court found no discrimination. </p>
<p>This finding was affirmed on appeal by the <a href="http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/19-2005P-01A.pdf">1st Circuit Court of Appeals</a>, and the Supreme Court did not overturn that finding. </p>
<p>In my view, it’s simply erroneous to think that the Supreme Court struck down discrimination against Asian Americans since none was ever found.</p>
<h2>Ending affirmative action</h2>
<p>Although the lawsuits emphasized the problem of discrimination against Asian Americans, their real target was the use of race in affirmative action programs that benefit underrepresented racial minorities. </p>
<p>Over the past 45 years, the court had <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-2003-supreme-court-decision-upholding-affirmative-action-planted-the-seeds-of-its-overturning-as-justices-then-and-now-thought-racism-an-easily-solved-problem-208807">cobbled together a compromise</a> on affirmative action in higher education.</p>
<p>On the one hand, explicit race-conscious decision-making <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1994/93-1841">must satisfy strict scrutiny</a> under the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">equal protection clause</a>, with a requirement that it further a “compelling interest” through “narrowly tailored” means. <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12391">Strict scrutiny</a> is the most rigorous form of judicial review used to determine the constitutionality of certain laws.</p>
<p>On the other hand, in the rarefied domain of higher education, diversity would count as a “compelling interest.” </p>
<p>This diversity rationale was introduced by Justice Lewis Powell in his concurring opinion in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/regents_of_the_university_of_california_v_bakke_(1978)#:%7E:text=Primary%20tabs-,Regents%20of%20the%20University%20of%20California%20v.,Civil%20Rights%20Act%20of%201964">Regents of the University of California v. Bakke</a> in 1978. </p>
<p>In his analysis, Powell rejected the justification for affirmative action as a way to remedy centuries of past societal discrimination. He considered that justification “an amorphous concept of injury that may be ageless in its reach into the past.” </p>
<p>Instead, Powell settled on the concept of diversity. </p>
<p>Although no other justice joined Powell’s opinion, it broke the tie and decided the case. It’s this understanding of diversity-as-a-compelling-interest that eventually garnered majority support in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/grutter-v-bollinger-et-al">Grutter v. Bollinger</a> and <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/11-345">Fisher v. University of Texas</a> that allowed the use of race in college admissions to continue. </p>
<p>In 2023’s Students For Fair Admission cases, the Supreme Court tore up this delicate truce that enabled race to be used as a factor in college admissions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man dressed in a dark business suit is walking on marbled stairs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A longtime opponent of affirmative action, Edward Blum, walks on the steps of the Supreme Court building in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/edward-blum-a-long-time-opponent-of-affirmative-action-in-news-photo/1437982045">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that the educational benefits of diversity were too unmeasurable to be compelling.</p>
<p>Whether the benefit was framed as training future leaders, better educating students through diversity or preparing engaged and productive citizens, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">Roberts wrote</a> that these interests were “not sufficiently coherent for purposes of strict scrutiny.”</p>
<p>Robert’s opinion effectively ended affirmative action in higher education. </p>
<h2>Does nothing to stop discrimination against Asian Americans</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action was a happy result for <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2023-06-29/republican-presidential-hopefuls-celebrate-supreme-court-ruling-on-affirmative-action">some conservative politicians</a> and horrifying for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/key-civil-rights-groups-blast-supreme-court-sharply-curtailing-affirma-rcna91829">civil rights advocates</a>. </p>
<p>What’s important is to avoid confusion about the reasons why.</p>
<p>It’s my belief that the end of affirmative action does nothing to end discrimination against Asian Americans as compared to whites. </p>
<p>The reason why Asian Americans are treated worse than whites in college admissions is because <a href="https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/12633/legacy-and-athlete-preferences-at-harvard">huge preferences are given to legacy applicants</a>, who are disproportionately white. </p>
<p>Another reason is that huge <a href="https://www.uclalawreview.org/race-and-privilege-misunderstood-athletics-and-selective-college-admissions-in-and-beyond-the-supreme-court-affirmative-action-cases/">preferences are given to athletes</a> in sports that include tennis, lacrosse and fencing. These athletes are also disproportionately white. </p>
<p>Finally, Asian Americans likely <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-study-exposes-racial-preferences-americans-n413371">suffer some discrimination</a> in personal ratings because of implicit biases. </p>
<p>Recommendations and interviews are highly subjective, based on gut-level enthusiasm and reactions. That means they are vulnerable to implicit biases that frame Asians as mathematically competent but cold, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32911985/">foreign</a> and <a href="https://jerrykang.net/research/2010-are-ideal-litigators-white/">unlikable</a>. </p>
<p>If Students For Fair Admission’s true objective were to end discrimination against Asian Americans vis-a-vis whites, it would have asked the court to end legacy and athlete preferences and build procedural guardrails against implicit bias. It did not.</p>
<h2>Zero-sum game</h2>
<p>Of course, the point could be made – as the chief justice did – that “college admissions is a zero-sum game.”</p>
<p>“A benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former group at the expense of the latter,” <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">Roberts wrote</a>. </p>
<p>Under this logic, by ending affirmative action, Asian Americans as a group receive some small benefit in admissions chances. But remember that whites receive the exact same benefit. And legacy status, athletic experience and implicit biases will continue to favor whites over Asian Americans. </p>
<p>Finally, is this tiny benefit worth the cost of decreasing the number of Black, Latinx, Native American and underrepresented Asian and Pacific Islander students at elite colleges and universities? </p>
<p>In my view, the answer is no, but that question merits a hard conversation about the policies and principles underlying a racially just society. </p>
<p>I believe that Americans deserve to have that conversation without being misled into thinking that keeping affirmative action is the same thing as tolerating anti-Asian discrimination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerry Kang lectures on topics including race and implicit bias to various audiences, including judges, government agencies, and firms on a pro bono and paid basis. </span></em></p>In their lawsuits against affirmative action, Students For Fair Admission claimed to want to protect Asian Americans. A law professor explains why the Supreme Court ruling doesn’t achieve that goal.Jerry Kang, Distinguished Professor of Law and (by courtesy) Asian American Studies; Founding Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (2015-20), University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2078672023-07-07T10:17:11Z2023-07-07T10:17:11ZVinícius Júnior: how Spanish law is starting to tackle racism and what else it could do<p>In the weeks since Brazilian footballer and Real Madrid winger Vinícius Júnior was racially abused by Valencia fans during a La Liga match on May 21, <a href="https://www.marca.com/futbol/real-madrid/2023/05/25/646f5c8e22601d431d8b4597.html">international discussions</a> about <a href="https://elpais.com/deportes/2023-05-22/lula-eleva-el-tono-contra-la-pasividad-de-espana-ante-los-ataques-racistas-a-vinicius-jr.html">racism</a> in <a href="https://www.igualdad.gob.es/comunicacion/notasprensa/Paginas/igualdad-espana-brasil-contra-racismo.aspx">Spain</a> have not subsided. There are also <a href="https://theathletic.com/4619386/2023/06/20/vinicius-junior-racist-incident-brazil/">continuing allegations</a> of racist abuse in Spanish football.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1670205332591616001"}"></div></p>
<p>Spain of course is not the only country where <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-015-0078-4">football</a> is plagued by racism. The experiences of players in <a href="https://www.lavanguardia.com/deportes/futbol/20200929/483762983561/patrice-evra-denuncia-racismo-seleccion-francesa.html">France</a>, <a href="https://www.france24.com/es/20180723-ozil-deja-alemania-racismo">Germany</a>, <a href="https://www.elmundo.es/deportes/futbol/2019/04/03/5ca4dfe5fdddff3c628b466c.html">Italy</a>, <a href="https://www.elconfidencial.com/deportes/futbol/2020-02-17/video-escandalo-portugal-marega-insultos-racistas_2458736/">Portugal</a> and <a href="https://www.lavanguardia.com/deportes/futbol/20210712/7594509/saka-rashford-sancho-insultos-racistas-boris-johnson-final-eurocopa-inglaterra.html">the UK</a> show how widespread this is.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-in-italian-football-reflects-the-everyday-migrant-experience-126054">Research</a> has <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-in-football-new-research-shows-media-treats-black-men-differently-to-white-men-160841">shown</a> that racism in football is a reflection of prevailing <a href="https://www.enar-eu.org/structural-racism-in-the-labour-market/">societal attitudes</a>. The question is what the law is doing to stop it. </p>
<h2>Legal sanctions</h2>
<p>EU legislation – specifically Directive 43/2000/EC – applies to <a href="https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law-oeeul/law-oeeul-e27">any racist incident</a> that occurs within employment, self-employment, education, vocational training, social protection and access to goods and services. In sport, this covers publicly accessible competitions as far as they are publicly accessible – that is, if the public can pay to view them live in stadiums or on TV.</p>
<p>Under Spanish law implementing EU legislation (via <a href="https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2022-11589">Law 15/2022</a>, and in sports via <a href="https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2007-13408">Law 19/2007</a>), administrative sanctions can be imposed on organisers (the closure of a stadium, say, for up to two years) and on individual perpetrators, with fines ranging from €150 (£129) to €650,000 (£559,000).</p>
<p>Yet La Liga, which has now reportedly lodged <a href="https://theathletic.com/4619386/2023/06/20/vinicius-junior-racist-incident-brazil/?redirected=1">ten complaints</a> against fans, regarding racism experienced by Vinícius Júnior, cannot impose sanctions itself. </p>
<p>It is up to the Spanish Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sports <a href="https://www.csd.gob.es/es/csd/organos-colegiados/comision-estatal-contra-la-violencia-el-racismo-la-xenofobia-y-la-intolerancia-en-el-deporte">to propose</a> administrative sanctions and the <a href="https://fcylf.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/codigo_disciplinario_temporada_actualizado.pdf">Spanish Football Federation</a> to then impose any. </p>
<p>But very few such administrative sanctions are <a href="https://www.csd.gob.es/sites/default/files/media/files/2023-03/CEVRXID-datos-temporada-2021-2022_0.pdf">proposed</a> and fewer still are actually imposed. <a href="https://www.csd.gob.es/sites/default/files/media/files/2023-03/CEVRXID-datos-temporada-2021-2022_0.pdf">According</a> to the Commission against Violence and Racism in Sports, in 2021-22, administrative sanctions were proposed for 1,608 spectators and 59 clubs. </p>
<p>However, only eight were very serious sanctions, and only 28 were linked to racism or xenophobia. This latter figure represents a considerable increase from 2018-19, when only three sanctions linked to racism and xenophobia were proposed. </p>
<p>Reasons cited include the difficulty in <a href="https://es.euronews.com/2021/04/05/un-caso-de-racismo-en-el-futbol-espanol-o-un-malentendido">identifying the perpetrators</a> or proving their racist intent.</p>
<p>In response to recent events, on July 3 2023, Secretary of State Rafael Pérez <a href="https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/serviciosdeprensa/notasprensa/interior/Paginas/2023/030723-suspension-eventos-deportivos-racismo.aspx">granted</a> the police, via Instruction 8/2023, the possibility to suspend sporting events and evict fans if a racist incident occurs.</p>
<p>Spain is not the only country that has struggled to take action against racism. This is also an issue in other European countries, including <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/IT/ItalyMissionReport.pdf">Italy</a> and the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/01/uk-discrimination-against-people-african-descent-structural-institutional">UK</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32008F0913">EU law</a> (which <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=8302899">applies in Spain</a> through the <a href="https://www.boe.es/biblioteca_juridica/codigos/abrir_pdf.php?fich=038_Codigo_Penal_y_legislacion_complementaria.pdf">criminal code</a>) also demands that member states have penal sanctions in place for very serious cases of incitement to racial hatred. </p>
<p>In the past ten years, the number of racist, xenophobic or intolerant acts in sport that have been prosecuted in Spain has, however, remained relatively stable: <a href="https://www.interior.gob.es/opencms/pdf/prensa/balances-e-informes/2013/Informe-sobre-los-delitos-de-odio-en-Espana-2013.pdf">83 in 2013</a> compared to <a href="https://www.interior.gob.es/opencms/pdf/servicios-al-ciudadano/delitos-de-odio/estadisticas/INFORME-EVOLUCION-DELITOS-DE-ODIO-VDEF.pdf">79 in 2021</a>. It is unclear if this is due to the number of racist incidents remaining stable or to the ineffectiveness of criminal law. What is clear is that what happens on the football pitch and in stadiums is indicative of wider societal problems.</p>
<h2>Denial of racism</h2>
<p>Within Spanish football, <a href="https://as.com/futbol/2021/04/25/fotorrelato/1619303547_000586.html">many other players</a> have reported suffering <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=822487">discrimination</a>. Racial abuse has also been <a href="https://www.niusdiario.es/espana/catalunya/20230306/denunciado-insultos-racistas-infantil-nino-partido-futbol-barcelona_18_08915214.html">reported</a> at grassroots level football. Players in a multi-ethnic football team based in Lavapiés, Madrid, have reportedly <a href="https://www.eldiario.es/desalambre/racismo-futbol-base-estrellas-deje-entrenar-sufria_1_10235111.html">experienced</a> racial profiling and racial abuse in sports facilities and during matches.</p>
<p>Shortly after the May 21 match, La Liga president Javier Tebas <a href="https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37721993/laliga-chief-tebas-apologises-misinterpreted-vinicius-tweet">apologised</a> for a tweet in which he had said that La Liga and Spain were <a href="https://www.diariodenavarra.es/noticias/deportes/futbol/2023/05/22/tebas-defiende-espana-laliga-son-racistas-569428-1022.html">“not racist”</a> and had chastised Vinícius Júnior. Research shows, however, that many Spaniards <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/1/13">would actually agree</a> with his erstwhile summation. A 2019 EU survey <a href="https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2251">found</a> that 43% of Spanish respondents said they considered racial or ethnic origin discrimination to be rare or non-existent in Spain. </p>
<p>Public discourse – from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/24/its-not-just-in-football-young-players-families-on-racism-in-spain">politicians</a>, <a href="https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/spain-not-racist-diego-simeone-reacts-vinicius-junior-abuse-diego-costa-discrimination/bltff7afd68aaf140bd">sports people</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/vinicius-junior-la-liga-and-the-spanish-media-must-both-accept-responsibility-for-the-racism-that-shames-football-206448">media pundits</a> – also tends to deny that there is racism, while at the same time, blaming ethnic minorities for not contributing enough economically and <a href="https://www.nadiesinfuturo.org/IMG/pdf/document.pdf">abusing</a> the healthcare and social security systems, despite the lack of evidence. Constitutional law scholar Fernando Rey Martínez calls this <a href="https://www.gitanos.org/informeanual/2014/igualdad/racismo-liquido.html">“liquid racism”</a>. </p>
<p>Most black and ethnic minority people in Spain, meanwhile, feel they are <a href="https://igualdadynodiscriminacion.igualdad.gob.es/destacados/pdf/08-PERCEPCION_DISCRIMINACION_RACIAL_NAV.pdf">negatively perceived</a> by their white compatriots. A <a href="https://igualdadynodiscriminacion.igualdad.gob.es/destacados/pdf/08-PERCEPCION_DISCRIMINACION_RACIAL_NAV.pdf">2021 survey</a> by the Spanish Council against Racial or Ethnic Discrimination found most respondents perceived that Spaniards don’t want to work with, live near or send their children to school with Roma or migrants. Anti-racism charity SOS Racismo has shown racism to be present in <a href="https://sosracismo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20221229-Informe-2022.-Resumen-ejecutivo-1.pdf">all areas of Spanish life</a>.</p>
<p>To deal with racism within football, Spain could look for inspiration from initiatives including the Europe-wide <a href="https://farenet.org/">Fare network</a> and the <a href="https://www.feyenoord.nl/maatschappelijk">Feyenoord is for All</a> campaign in the Netherlands. Though only time will tell if preemptive solutions are more effective than coercive ones. </p>
<p>One thing is clear. Legal sanctions are not preventing racism in football. And racism is not limited to pitches and stadiums.</p>
<p><em>Correction: The headline has been changed from “EU law” to “Spanish law”, and to reflect a new legal development. Incorrect comments made about EU legislation have also been removed.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Benedi Lahuerta has received funding from the ESRC (2018-19).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rafael Valencia Candalija does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Racism in football is a reflection of prevailing societal attitudes. When a prominent footballer is racially abused, the impact reaches far beyond the individual.Sara Benedi Lahuerta, Assistant Professor in Law, University College DublinRafael Valencia Candalija, Profesor Titular de Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado, Universidad de SevillaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2064482023-06-08T12:01:19Z2023-06-08T12:01:19ZVinícius Júnior: La Liga and the Spanish media must both accept responsibility for the racism that shames football<p>During a recent La Liga football match between Real Madrid and Valencia, Vinícius Júnior <a href="https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37715998/real-madrid-vinicius-junior-suspended-red-card-vs-valencia">threatened to leave the pitch</a> after being racially abused by Valencia fans. This was <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/25/football/racist-abuse-vinicius-jr-could-prove-costly-la-liga-spt-intl/index.html">the tenth incident</a> of racist abuse levelled at the Real Madrid winger to have been reported since 2021. </p>
<p>Vinícius subsequently tweeted a video showing what he has been up against in different stadiums across the country:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1660743682461519872"}"></div></p>
<p>In just 24 hours, this video attracted more than 30 million views. Around the world, players, former footballers, pundits and even the Brazilian president, Ignacio Lula de Silva, expressed their support. </p>
<p>Later in the match, following an altercation with the Valencia forward Hugo Duro, Vinícius himself was sent off. His suspension has since been <a href="https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12890417/vinicius-jr-racism-spanish-fa-reduce-valencia-fine-and-partial-stadium-closure-on-appeal">rescinded</a> and Valencia was punished with a partial closure of its stadium for future games. </p>
<p>However, straight after the match, La Liga president Javier Tebas’s response was to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/la-liga-chief-apologises-rant-about-vinicius-jrs-racism-complaint-2023-05-24/">criticise Vinícius</a> while also casting blame on the Spanish legal system for hampering La Liga’s efforts to combat racism. He later <a href="https://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/liga/2022-2023/vinicius-junior-javier-tebas-insists-intent-was-not-to-attack-with-tweet-claims-league-could-end-rac_sto9621760/story.shtml">apologised</a>. Valencia’s fine and the length of its stadium ban, meanwhile, was reduced on appeal.</p>
<p>Racism in European football has been a problem for many years. But the responses from national governing bodies have been remarkably different <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315745886-16/racism-european-football-mark-doidge">across the continent</a>. In Spain, both the legal system and, as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/21674795221123799">our research shows</a>, the media discourse around football present significant obstacles to eradicating it from the game. </p>
<h2>A history of racism</h2>
<p>Spanish football has long been plagued by racially abusive behaviour – in the stands, on the pitches and in the media. In 1997, the Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2023/feb/28/vinicius-junior-real-madrid-racism-fans-la-liga">faced</a> racist chants and actions from Barcelona fans, and even <a href="https://tribuna.com/en/news/realmadrid-2020-06-19-that-man-talks-too-much-how-pep-guardiola-responded-to-roberto-carlos-complains-over-raci/">criticism</a> from Spanish football manager Pep Guardiola (then a player for Barcelona) for speaking out about it. </p>
<p>In the early 2000s, the Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o – who would go on <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/africa/7383851.stm">to break the record</a> for most La Liga games played by an African footballer – was also outspoken about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/feb/14/newsstory.sport2">the abuse</a> he faced. In 2005, <a href="https://www.skysports.com/football/news/2327029/etoo-fires-racism-warning">he said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I used to think that these racist shouts were just a phase, but more and more people are getting involved and it is regrettable. Sometimes I think: “Is something going to happen to my daughter in school?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Racism, of course, is not just a football issue. And this has often been used as a justification by La Liga for not taking the kind of action regularly taken in other countries – <a href="https://www.laliga.com/en-GB/news/laliga-calls-for-sanctioning-powers-to-fight-racism-more-effectively">claiming</a> it does not have the authority to sanction clubs for the behaviour of their fans. The league <a href="https://www.laliga.com/en-GB/news/laliga-calls-for-sanctioning-powers-to-fight-racism-more-effectively">has now called</a> for more sanctioning powers. </p>
<p>While La Liga has reported racist insults to the public prosecutor’s office, the first trial against a fan accused of racial abuse is expected <a href="https://english.elpais.com/sports/2023-05-23/seven-people-arrested-in-spain-linked-to-racial-abuse-cases-against-vinicius-junior.html">to take place</a> at some point in 2023. This case involves an Espanyol fan who, in January 2020, allegedly abused Athletic Bilbao forward Iñaki Williams. </p>
<h2>Official inaction</h2>
<p>The Spanish football federation (RFEF), particularly its competition committee, could have taken measures – but until now has not. As sports journalist Jonathan Liew <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2023/feb/28/vinicius-junior-real-madrid-racism-fans-la-liga">put it</a> in February 2023: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>While the individual incidents continue to gain coverage in the Spanish media, there seems to be precious little sense of the broader picture, precious little of the anger and urgency and introspection that could drive change.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, journalists have <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/sport/football/spain-takes-action-against-racism-after-vin%C3%ADcius-case-but-punishing-fans-remains-a-challenge/article66896525.ece">highlighted</a> that this time round, things have been a little different. </p>
<p>In 2012, for example, then RFEF president <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2215783/Racism-Spanish-football-does-exist-says-RFEF-chief-executive-Llona.htm">Angel Villar Llona</a> flat-out denied the existence of racism in Spanish football. But, in response to the abuse Vinícius most recently suffered, current president Luis Rubiales <a href="https://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/spanish-football-federation-president-luis-rubiales-says-la-liga-has-racism-problem-after-vinicius-jr-abuse_vid1917079/video.shtml">finally acknowledged</a>: “We need to realise we have a problem as a country.” </p>
<p>Three Valencia fans have been arrested, and Spanish police also detained four Atletico Madrid fans for racist incidents against Vinicius that had occurred months earlier. And the Spain’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consejo_Superior_de_Deportes#:%7E:text=The%20National%20Sports%20Council%2C%20also,the%20coordination%20and%20support%20to">national sports council</a>, together with the RFEF and La Liga, have launched a <a href="https://www.laliga.com/en-GB/news/united-against-racism">new campaign</a> against racism. </p>
<p>But this mostly only highlights how inactive the Spanish football authorities have been to date, in comparison with other countries. In Germany, during the 2021/22 season, more than 900 matches were suspended due to violent behaviour, racism or discrimination <a href="https://www.dfb.de/news/detail/aytekin-und-rafalski-starten-aufruf-schiris-gegen-diskriminierung-250120/?no_cache=1&cHash=bbc1b4ff30d94f17c5212273cd3de773">across all categories, including amateur football</a>.</p>
<p>In France, in January 2022, Toulouse was sanctioned by deducting one league point due to <a href="https://europe-cities.com/2022/01/12/racist-remarks-during-toulouse-rodez-the-tfc-sanctioned-with-a-withdrawal-of-one-point-suspended/">xenophobic attacks</a>. </p>
<p>And in Italy – a country where racism in football <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1113793">is often discussed</a> in the context of migration – the past few years have seen a number of Serie A games temporarily suspended because of abusive behaviour by fans towards <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2323498/Mario-Balotelli-racism-AC-Milan-v-Roma-suspended-monkey-chants.html">black players</a>.</p>
<p>Some Italian clubs have been fined and forced to play in empty venues. In December 2018, <a href="https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37568027/inter-milan-given-two-match-stadium-closure-koulibaly-monkey-chants">Inter Milan</a> was forced to play two games without any spectators at all, after Inter fans abused Kalidou Koulibaly, then a centre-back at Napoli, during a Boxing Day game. And in January 2020, a Verona fan was handed a five-year stadium ban after being found guilty of directing racial abuse at the Italian striker Mario Balotelli.</p>
<h2>A sensationalist media</h2>
<p>Our research shows the media in Spain bears some responsibility. <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003007104-9/hypermasculinity-racist-discourses-spanish-media-max-mauro-ra%C3%BAl-mart%C3%ADnez-corcuer">Football commentary</a> is highly sensationalist and divisive, more so than in other countries. It tends to normalise misogynistic, xenophobic and racist sentiments. </p>
<p>Commentators regularly downplay and excuse abusive insults and behaviour. In September 2022, a TV pundit on the popular El Chiringuito football programme argued that Vinícius should stop “dancing like a monkey” after scoring a goal. And after the recent match against Valencia, TV analyst Toni Padilla acknowledged the abuse directed at the player, but claimed he is “no angel” and that he <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/vinicius-jr-racist-abuse-commentator-toni-padilla-b2343330.html">“provokes” opposition teams</a>, a claim <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12124509/Pepe-Reina-tells-Vinicius-Jnr-mature-amid-Real-Madrid-stars-racism-storm.html">others</a> have echoed. </p>
<p>Others have argued that Spanish fans aren’t being racist, they’re just trying to <a href="https://theconversation.com/como-erradicar-el-racismo-de-los-campos-de-futbol-131069">distract the player</a> – or that if they are racist, they’re “only” a minority. And others still have shown a “whataboutist” attitude, claiming racism is <a href="https://www.institutocoordenadas.com/es/analisis/futbol-espanol-menos-comportamientos-racistas-grandes-ligas-europeas_20213_102.html">worse in other countries</a>.</p>
<p>Further, the media perpetuates rivalry between teams. After Vinícius’s suspension was lifted, on May 24 2023, the front page of the popular sports daily AS <a href="https://www.superdeporte.es/valencia-cf/2023/05/24/as-vinicius-inocente-mestalla-culpable-87817156.html">ran with the headline</a>: “Vinícius innocent. Mestalla guilty.” This framing makes the story an “us versus them” confrontation, when actually, it was about tackling the racism the player has suffered. </p>
<p>The global visibility afforded La Liga means the Spanish football authorities now have the opportunity to make a real difference in the fight against racism. The actions these powerful institutions take, and the way the Spanish media tackles its own issues with hate speech and discriminatory discourse, are critical to whether Spain can address its global tag as a “<a href="https://www.besoccer.com/new/spain-is-not-a-racist-country-but-there-are-idiots-like-in-brazil-1257551">racist country</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The extent of the abuse suffered by Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior shows how enduringly unresponsive the country’s legal system, sporting officials and media have been.Max Mauro, Lecturer - Department of Communication and Journalism, Bournemouth UniversityRaúl Martínez-Corcuera, Lecturer, Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de CatalunyaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2020922023-05-17T16:42:56Z2023-05-17T16:42:56ZVenice architecture biennale: how pioneering Ghanaian architects reckoned with tropical modernism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525853/original/file-20230512-15-xb83ft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Owusu Addo Residence by John Owusu Addo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kuukuwa Manful</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As curator of the 2023 <a href="https://theconversation.com/venice-biennale-an-exhausting-beautiful-attempt-to-relinquish-architecture-60789">Venice architecture biennale</a>, the Ghanaian-Scottish architect, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10464883.2022.2097495">Lesley Lokko</a>, has chosen to highlight the African continent as <a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/2023/18th-exhibition">“the laboratory of the future”</a>. </p>
<p>But as well as looking at the future of architecture on the continent, visitors will also be able to explore its history, through an exhibition at the Arsenale, entitled Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Power in West Africa.</p>
<p>Early 20th-century modernism in Europe saw architects using large expanses of unshaded glass and flat roofs. Practitioners in warmer, humid climates, such as in Africa and Asia, meanwhile, had to adapt their designs to withstand heavier rainfall and warmer temperatures. In late colonial Africa and during the independence era, this style became known as <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248524118_Modernist_architecture_and_'the_tropical'_in_West_Africa_The_tropical_architecture_movement_in_West_Africa_1948-1970">“tropical modernism”</a> or “tropical architecture”. </p>
<p>In the African context, this is possibly the best researched and well-documented architectural movement. When people discuss it further afield, however, it is mostly through a white lens. The focus is on what European architects practising in these regions were doing – African architects of the same era are largely overlooked. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large building of brick and plaster." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525682/original/file-20230511-11356-ilmz1k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525682/original/file-20230511-11356-ilmz1k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525682/original/file-20230511-11356-ilmz1k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525682/original/file-20230511-11356-ilmz1k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525682/original/file-20230511-11356-ilmz1k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525682/original/file-20230511-11356-ilmz1k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525682/original/file-20230511-11356-ilmz1k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Museum of Science Technology in Accra, designed by Daniel Sydney Kpodo-Tay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Ghana_Museum_of_Science_%26_Technology.jpg">Mun85/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Putting Europe at the centre of African stories is a choice that echoes the very colonial histories it seeks to elucidate, where European architects operated as though the continent were a blank slate, devoid of pre-existing architecture worthy of note.</p>
<p><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f721c2997606a73ba692c14/t/60ddd58250288d718f236667/1625150868282/Early+Ghanaian+Architects_Kuukuwa+Manful.pdf">My research</a> shows how architects in Ghana in particular aligned with, adapted, or rejected Western colonial ideas. They created modernist buildings that reflected their visions for their nation, their experiences and their global outlook. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1637906863705432068"}"></div></p>
<h2>Ghanaian expertise</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.design233.com/articles/john-owusu-addo">John Owusu Addo</a>, the first black head of department of Ghana’s first architecture school, and <a href="https://www.design233.com/articles/samuel-opare-larbi">Samuel Opare Larbi</a>, another prominent educator and architect, embodied what I term the dominant Ghanaian tropical modernism. Their practice was most similar to, and aligned with, the practice of the white British tropical modernists. </p>
<p>The former Department of Tropical Architecture was <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/abe/9215?lang=en">established</a> at the Architectural Association (AA) in London in 1954 by the British wife and husband duo Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry, and James Cubbitt. Although Fry described the city of Kano, in present day Nigeria, as a “complete realisation of urban harmony”, he and Drew nonetheless declared having “invented” architecture in West Africa. Their work was coloured by the imperial, racist and sexist notions of the time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An archival photograph of an ancient city." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525710/original/file-20230511-21-svxysc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525710/original/file-20230511-21-svxysc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525710/original/file-20230511-21-svxysc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525710/original/file-20230511-21-svxysc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525710/original/file-20230511-21-svxysc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525710/original/file-20230511-21-svxysc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525710/original/file-20230511-21-svxysc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kano city, Nigeria, in 1911.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-8674-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99">Digital Collections, The New York Public Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Owusu Addo and Larbi both trained at the AA. They counted among their contemporaries the German architect <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/abe/696">Otto Koenisberger</a> and the Australian-born British architect <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352841025_Campus_Planning_and_Architecture_A_comparative_Study_of_Kwame_Nkrumah_University_of_Science_and_Technology_KNUST_and_University_of_Ghana_LEGON">Kenneth Mackensie Scott</a>. Although they faced racial discrimination in Europe and back home, their UK education put them in a position of relative privilege in Ghana. </p>
<p>From the outside, many of the institutional and corporate buildings they designed, including Cedi House in Accra (a high-rise tower that now houses the Ghana Stock Exchange) featured elements of tropical modernism: solar shading devices, rhythmic facades, breeze blocks, cross ventilation and east-west orientation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A high-rise building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525674/original/file-20230511-29-bjz76q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525674/original/file-20230511-29-bjz76q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525674/original/file-20230511-29-bjz76q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525674/original/file-20230511-29-bjz76q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525674/original/file-20230511-29-bjz76q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525674/original/file-20230511-29-bjz76q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525674/original/file-20230511-29-bjz76q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cedi House in Accra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Cedi_House_-_panoramio.jpg">Simon Ontoyin/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But it is in the interiors of their domestic architecture that their keen understanding of the people for whom they were designing becomes most apparent. When I interviewed Owusu Addo and Larbi in 2015, they recounted how they took Ghanaian societies into account. And they spoke of the pride they felt at being African architects. </p>
<p>For the <a href="https://www.arc.gov.gh/portfolios/unity-hall-of-the-kwame-nkrumah-university-of-science-and-technology/">Unity Hall</a> student accommodation at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, <a href="https://vebuka.com/print/200703151424-f3106f891ce976c8b2f12ac60cf427ad/Professor_John_Owusu_Addo_Modernization_of_The_Ghanaian_Tropics_KNUST_">Owusu Addo created</a> shaded outdoor space, with courtyards and verandas. As he put it: “Rarely do we stay in our rooms in the daytime. If in the daytime anyone was in the room, then he was sick.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A building with boys playing in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525672/original/file-20230511-33794-5201jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525672/original/file-20230511-33794-5201jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525672/original/file-20230511-33794-5201jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525672/original/file-20230511-33794-5201jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525672/original/file-20230511-33794-5201jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525672/original/file-20230511-33794-5201jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525672/original/file-20230511-33794-5201jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unity Hall, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336407932_Cold_War_History_beyond_the_Cold_War_Discourse_A_Conversation_with_Lukasz_Stanek">Łukasz Stanek</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Creative dissent</h2>
<p>Other architects sought to establish an aesthetic that was visually distinct from European-driven tropical modernism. They accepted the climatic control and other technological and material aspects of the style. However, in the aesthetics they pursued, they were decidedly expressive. </p>
<p>Anyako-born architect Daniel Sydney Kpodo-Tay’s confidence was grounded in his centuries-long family history of building design and construction. Together with his anti-colonial politics and a desire for recognition, this informed an approach that the Ghana Institute of Architects termed “revolutionary”, upon his death in 2018. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1031835755306536960"}"></div></p>
<p>Kpodo-Tay was fascinated by symbolism. His designs rejected ornamentation. Instead, he sought to make the buildings themselves sculptural. His projects that were built were often not as bold as his proposals – a compromise he put down to the limited finances and conservatism of clients in Ghana.</p>
<p>When a competition was held, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to design the headquarters for the Economic Community of West African States organisation, Kpodo-Tay’s proposal drew on the form of a bowl as symbolic of communality and unity. His design for the complex, which was to house offices, a bank and a conference venue, featured bold inverted conical forms with internal spaces arrayed radially. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A drawing of an architectural proposal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525676/original/file-20230511-35403-jsfze1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525676/original/file-20230511-35403-jsfze1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525676/original/file-20230511-35403-jsfze1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525676/original/file-20230511-35403-jsfze1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525676/original/file-20230511-35403-jsfze1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525676/original/file-20230511-35403-jsfze1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525676/original/file-20230511-35403-jsfze1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daniel Sydney Kpodo-Tay’s proposal for the ECOWAS headquarters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kuukuwa Manful</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Owusu Addo, Kpodo-Tay, and Larbi are not the only Ghanaian architects of their generations whose practice was informed by tropical modernism. Many stories are yet to be brought to light, especially those of the women. </p>
<p>Only a few women were trained at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science’s architecture school. Sexism in the industry saw some leave. But others, including the late <a href="https://contemporaryand.com/magazines/worldforming-by-ghanaian-women-in-architecture/">Alero Olympio</a> who designed Accra’s <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/kokrobitey-institute-sustainable-design">Kokrobitey Institute</a>, struck out in bold new ways. These visionaries challenged the Euro-centric assumptions of what tropical modernism was, in particular through their use of materials. </p>
<p>As scholars, practitioners and visitors from around the world turn to architecture on the African continent, they must be careful not to treat it as a blank slate in the way previous generations did. Africans have been creating, studying, teaching, and documenting architecture in Africa since time immemorial. Their work matters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kuukuwa Manful's PhD at SOAS, University of London was part of the African State Architecture project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 772070).
She is the president of docomomo (International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement) Accra, and has been interviewed by journalists, researchers, and curators (including the curators of 'Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Power in Africa) as an expert on modernism and tropical modernism.
</span></em></p>Too often, in discussions about tropical modernism, what African architects working in Africa were doing is overlooked. Their work matters.Kuukuwa Manful, Postdoctoral Researcher in Politics of Architecture, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2027932023-04-17T10:43:02Z2023-04-17T10:43:02ZCasey review: how the Met police needs to accept that it is institutionally racist and deal with failures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518223/original/file-20230329-1565-lblkzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/british-metropolitan-police-officer-hivisibility-uniform-1279370110">Carrie Gomez/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Louise Casey’s <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/met/about-us/baroness-casey-review/update-march-2023/baroness-casey-review-march-2023.pdf">review</a> of the standards of behaviour and internal culture at the Metropolitan police makes for uncomfortable reading. It was commissioned following the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, who was a serving Met officer at the time. </p>
<p>Casey highlights the prevalence of sexism and homophobia. Crucially, in considering police culture she draws different conclusions on the existence of institutional racism than <a href="https://theconversation.com/race-commission-report-the-rights-and-wrongs-158316">the position</a> taken in 2021 by Boris Johnson’s government on race.</p>
<p><a href="https://irr.org.uk/article/what-is-institutional-racism/">Institutional racism</a> is defined as racial discrimination in process, attitude and behaviour. It results from prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness or racist stereotyping. And it adversely affects people from minority ethnic communities. </p>
<p>In 1999, already, the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf">Macpherson report</a> found the force guilty of institutional racism. The recent cases of Met officers accused of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54466254">racially profiling</a> the athletes Bianca Williams and Ricardo dos Santos and the two Met officers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/26/mother-of-murdered-sisters-bibaa-henry-nicole-smallman-met-police-apology">dismissed for</a> sharing photographs and making inappropriate comments about Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, the sisters murdered in 2020, have highlighted, however, how little has been done about it. </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/28/metropolitan-police-safeguarding-risk-black-children-schools-strip-search-child-q">commentators</a> have grave <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/26/race-disparity-police-strip-searches-of-children-england-and-wales">concerns</a> about how black communities in the UK are disproportionately and unfairly policed. In 2020 the House of Lords <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/accusations-of-racism-in-the-metropolitan-police-service/&data=05%7C01%7Cangus.nurse@ntu.ac.uk%7C18829195b93740f3f6b608db2a227120%7C8acbc2c5c8ed42c78169ba438a0dbe2f%7C1%7C0%7C638150099632125799%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0=%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3WsQ7HZxf90pJZGM71coe48RjZEiz1tmeIEKIAik4f0=&reserved=0">reported</a> on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-and-search-new-data-shows-continued-ethnic-disproportionality-172260#:%7E:text=Racial%20disproportionality%20in%20stop%20and%20search%20has%20been,associated%20legislation%20%28the%20most%20frequently%20used%20stop-and-search%20powers%29.">disproportionate use</a> of stop and search against black Londoners. <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/mopac-publications/action-plan-transparency-accountability-and-trust-policing">Research shows</a> that people from black and mixed ethnic groups have lower trust and confidence in the Met.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/casey-review-key-steps-the-met-police-must-take-to-address-its-institutional-racism-and-sexism-202255">challenge</a> for the force, then, is whether it will accept this institutional failure. In figuring out how to deal with it, it should, among other things, examine how complaints are dealt with, how staff members are able to raise issues themselves, and how performance monitoring uncovers problems. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Several police officers in uniform on police motorbikes by a street curb." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Met is not representative of the people it serves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-03-19-2022-line-2140461621">RobertoBarcellona/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The scale of the task</h2>
<p>Casey does not simply highlight the problems with how black citizens are policed, and the crimes perpetrated against them dealt with. She says the Met is unrepresentative of Londoners, noting that “Met officers are 82% white and 71% male” and that “the Met does not look like the majority of Londoners”. </p>
<p>She acknowledges that the force has improved the ethnic diversity of its workforce. However, she states that black communities in London are “under-protected – disproportionately the victims of homicides and domestic abuse; and over-policed – facing disproportionate use of stop and search and use of force by the Met”. </p>
<p>The Met’s response to scandals, the review says, often involves “playing them down, denial, obfuscation, and digging in to defend officers without seeming to understand their wider significance”. Casey also points to what many regard as a “hostile culture” within the force, with evidence of systematic racial bias against black, Asian, and ethnic minority staff. </p>
<p>Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, responded to Casey’s findings acknowledging that the racism, among other ills, is systemic. However, he <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/met-police-chief-sir-mark-rowley-again-rejects-use-of-term-institutional-to-describe-forces-problems-after-damning-report-12840225">rejected</a> the term “institutional”. To his mind, it is a political term, unhelpful because it is ill-defined. Instead, he emphasised the need to root out <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/met-police-chief-embarrassed-by-review-but-wont-use-term-institutionally-racist-12839225">“toxic individuals”</a>. </p>
<p>Individual offenders seeking to justify their actions will sometimes use what sociologists and criminologists call “<a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0140.xml">neutralisation techniques</a>” to minimise their guilt. Organisations also routinely deploy them, to underplay the seriousness of the allegations made against them. </p>
<p>This is because denial deflects from the need to act. Appealing to higher loyalties protects the profession or the organisation by asserting its value. </p>
<p>When organisations are faced with accusations of racism, the institutional response often emphasises that the fault lies with individual rotten apples, as opposed to the barrel itself. The institution thus avoids facing up to the reality of the situation and embracing meaningful and effective change, even when senior leadership displays willingness to do so.</p>
<p>Conversely, responses that are system led and process driven but ineffective are just as fruitless. Casey says the Met has often responded to problems by effectively just ticking boxes. A complaints system or procedure might provide a mechanism that allows people (or groups) to raise complaints. But the process (that is, the response) is taken up with logging the level and number of complaints and defending an organisational position. </p>
<p>Instead, organisations need to take their cues from what research and data tell them about the existence of institutional racism and discrimination. They need to identify the nature of issues and then implement thorough organisational changes.</p>
<p>When it comes to identifying misconduct, Casey suggests introducing a new misconduct system and overhauling the vetting processes for new recruits and for specialist units. She also recommends that the commissioner be granted greater powers to better enforce the misconduct standards and remove officers whose conduct falls short of the required standards. </p>
<p>On race, however, her recommendations fall short. The Macpherson report had 70 recommendations. They included implementing a code of conduct that would “ensure that racist words or acts proved to have been spoken or done by police officers should lead to disciplinary proceedings”. </p>
<p>And yet, 24 years on from that report, the Casey review is still recommending training and codes of practice. This suggests that Macpherson’s recommendations were not efficiently implemented. </p>
<p>Like many large institutions, the Met risks remaining in denial about the scale of its racism problem. It has failed to appropriately challenge discriminatory <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23303131.2016.1249584?casa_token=oKd7Odi9FfcAAAAA%3A4yRqis0UZf54Dq5eI2c0hNBFp6IoAQ4YxpKbxvz0ZFtPdPTc_I5ZVdHNFBYwsk1-76Gt9FdxZZ-1">attitudes</a> and behaviour. Inaction or ineffective action will only further enable those who hold racist attitudes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angus Nurse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Like many large institutions, the Met remains in denial about the scale of its racism problem. The Casey review falls short in its recommendations for how to address it.Angus Nurse, Head of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1993732023-04-10T12:06:06Z2023-04-10T12:06:06ZFor Black social workers, anxiety and depression are on the rise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518821/original/file-20230331-20-x5ogxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=553%2C79%2C3216%2C2430&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman raises her fist during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Queens, New York. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protester-wearing-a-mask-and-goggles-in-case-of-police-news-photo/1263275679?adppopup=true"> Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When George Floyd was brutally murdered in the summer of 2020, a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-floyd-black-lives-matter-impact/">wave of activism</a> spread throughout the country. </p>
<p>People protested. <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2020/06/10/anti-racist-books-dominate-best-seller-list-white-fragility-how-to-be-an-antiracist-ta-nehisi-coates/5331188002/">Anti-racism books</a> became bestsellers. Diversity, equity and inclusion jobs <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/diversity-roles-disappear-three-years-george-floyd-protests-inspired-rcna72026">increased by 55%</a>, and the top 50 U.S. public companies pledged $49.5 billion to tackle <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2021/george-floyd-corporate-america-racial-justice/">racial justice issues</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time of this racial reckoning, COVID-19 was disproportionately affecting communities of color in the number of cases, hospitalizations <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0003134820973356">and deaths</a>. In addition, anxiety and depression rates were rising rapidly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/06/12/mental-health-george-floyd-census/">among Black people</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://faculty.utk.edu/Carmen.Foster">an assistant professor</a> of practice in social work and the executive director of the nonprofit <a href="https://www.csw.utk.edu/coalition-of-black-social-workers/">Coalition of Black Social Workers</a>, I felt it was necessary to assess how Black social workers were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened racial tensions. </p>
<p>As social workers, we are trained mental health professionals who prioritize social justice. </p>
<p>But how do we cope when faced with the collective trauma of a global pandemic and the mental and emotional effects of racism? </p>
<h2>A lack of empathy</h2>
<p>My research team <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2022.2155285">conducted a study</a> to assess social workers’ symptoms of depression, anxiety, discrimination-related trauma and quality of life in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the systemic racism that led up to 2020.</p>
<p>The results showed that there was a significant increase in depression and anxiety among the 113 Black social work professionals we surveyed.</p>
<p>Arguably, a more surprising finding was that 85% of Black social workers were deeply disappointed in the lack of empathy shown to them from their white social work colleagues.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women are sitting at a table and one of them is using a pencil to take take notes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518819/original/file-20230331-18-ohzuti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518819/original/file-20230331-18-ohzuti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518819/original/file-20230331-18-ohzuti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518819/original/file-20230331-18-ohzuti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518819/original/file-20230331-18-ohzuti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518819/original/file-20230331-18-ohzuti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518819/original/file-20230331-18-ohzuti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A Black social worker listens to a client.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/social-worker-meeting-a-client-royalty-free-image/532120326?phrase=black%20social%20workers&adppopup=true">Silvia Jansen/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>One Black respondent discussed having a conversation with a white colleague about the racial protests and reported that the colleague was nonchalant and dismissive.</p>
<p>Another Black respondent recalled that their white social work supervisor did not offer any type of mental health support.</p>
<p>Black social workers expected compassion and empathy from their peers, but instead, their issues were met with minimization and dismissiveness. The results showed that they were disappointed and hurt by their colleagues’ lack of understanding. </p>
<h2>The limits of diversity efforts</h2>
<p>The inauthentic behavior of some social workers to appear supportive and engaged in social justice issues – when they are not – is known as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carmenmorris/2020/11/26/performative-allyship-what-are-the-signs-and-why-leaders-get-exposed/?sh=74b5afe222ec">performative allyship</a>.</p>
<p>In my view, this is akin to checking items off a list for the appearance of progress when the reality is far different.</p>
<p>Instead of Black social workers finding genuine support at their workplaces, our research found that many reported feeling disappointed and exhausted and chose to limit their workplace interactions with their white colleagues in order to protect themselves from further pain.</p>
<p>Where most Black social workers found the most support for their well-being and mental health is not surprising. Throughout 2020, 95% reported that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2022.2155285">family and close friends</a> were critical to their well-being. </p>
<h2>The limits of mere words</h2>
<p>Since the 2020 racial reckoning, social workers have prided ourselves on working to eliminate social justice disparities.</p>
<p>“Eliminating Racism,” for instance, became an <a href="https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Eliminate-Racism-Concept-Paper.pdf">official grand challenge</a> of social work in 2020. For its part, the National Association of Social Workers published two volumes of “<a href="https://www.socialworkers.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=29AYH9qAdXc%3D&portalid=0">Undoing Racism in Social Work</a>.” In addition, the <a href="https://www.cswe.org/centers-initiatives/center-for-diversity/">Council of Social Work Education’s</a>, anti-racism standards became a part of the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards.</p>
<p>But as a profession, the use of terms such as anti-racism in book titles and standards alone means very little if Black social workers reported that they still feel neglected by their white colleagues. </p>
<p>When social work leaders are concerned more about writing statements of solidarity on social media or joining an anti-racism book club or checking another diversity box, Black social workers feel unseen, unheard and, worse, not important.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199373/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carmen Reese Foster is affiliated with the Coalition of Black Social Workers. I am the executive director of this non-profit. </span></em></p>In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the George Floyd murder, in 2020, Black social workers are finding they are alone in coping with their trauma.Carmen Reese Foster, Interim Online MSSW Program Director, Assistant Professor of Practice, Director of Alumni Affairs, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1942772023-01-27T10:25:31Z2023-01-27T10:25:31ZArtificial intelligence in South Africa comes with special dilemmas – plus the usual risks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503376/original/file-20230106-13-750vf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">3rdtimeluckystudio/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When people think about artificial intelligence (AI), they may have visions of the future. But AI is already here. At its base, it is the recreation of aspects of human intelligence in computerised form. Like human intelligence, it has wide application. </p>
<p>Voice-operated personal assistants like <a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-has-a-gender-bias-problem-just-ask-siri-123937">Siri</a>, self-driving cars, and <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/">text</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/text-to-image-ai-powerful-easy-to-use-technology-for-making-art-and-fakes-195517">image</a> generators all use AI. It also curates our social media feeds. It helps companies to detect <a href="https://researchberg.com/index.php/rrst/article/view/37">fraud</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-022-00166-4">hire employees</a>. It’s used to manage <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652621041251">livestock</a>, <a href="https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/AE571">enhance crop yields</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-40850-3_2">aid medical diagnoses</a>.</p>
<p>Alongside its growing power and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14108-y">its potential</a>, AI raises <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-022-05060-x">moral and ethical questions</a>. The technology has already been at the centre of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election">multiple scandals</a>: the <a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-carries-a-huge-upside-but-potential-harms-need-to-be-managed-173073">infringement of laws and rights</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing">racial</a> and <a href="https://ainowinstitute.org/AI_Now_2018_Report.pdf">gender</a> discrimination. In short, it comes with a litany of ethical risks and dilemmas.</p>
<p>But what exactly are these risks? And how do they differ among countries? To find out, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4240356">I undertook</a> a thematic review of literature from wealthier countries to identify six high-level, universal ethical risk themes. I then interviewed experts involved in or associated with the AI industry in South Africa and assessed how their perceptions of AI risk differed from or resonated with those themes.</p>
<p>The findings reflect marked similarities in AI risks between the global north and South Africa as an example of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/developing-countries-are-being-left-behind-in-the-ai-race-and-thats-a-problem-for-all-of-us-180218">global south nation</a>. But there were some important differences. These reflect South Africa’s <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/03/09/new-world-bank-report-assesses-sources-of-inequality-in-five-countries-in-southern-africa#:%7E:text=South%20Africa%2C%20the%20largest%20country,World%20Bank%27s%20global%20poverty%20database.">unequal society</a> and the fact that it is on the periphery of AI development, utilisation and regulation.</p>
<p>Other developing countries that share similar features – a vast <a href="https://mg.co.za/opinion/2022-11-10-south-africa-must-bridge-digital-divide-to-best-benefit-from-4ir/">digital divide</a>, high <a href="https://time.com/6087699/south-africa-wealth-gap-unchanged-since-apartheid/">inequality</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-29/south-africa-jobless-rate-drops-to-third-highest-in-the-world?leadSource=uverify%20wall">unemployment</a> and <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/03/01/Struggling-to-Make-the-Grade-A-Review-of-the-Causes-and-Consequences-of-the-Weak-Outcomes-of-46644">low quality</a> education – likely have a similar risk profile to South Africa. </p>
<p>Knowing what ethical risks may play out at a country level is important because it can help policymakers and organisations to adjust their risk management policies and practices accordingly.</p>
<h2>Universal themes</h2>
<p>The six universal ethical risk themes I drew from reviewing global north literature were: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Accountability</strong>: It is unclear who is accountable for the outputs of AI models and systems.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Bias</strong>: Shortcomings of algorithms, data or both entrench bias.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Transparency</strong>: AI systems operate as a “black box”. Developers and end users have a limited ability to understand or verify the output.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Autonomy</strong>: Humans lose the power to make their own decisions.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Socio-economic risks</strong>: AI may result in job losses and worsen inequality.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Maleficence</strong>: It could be used by criminals, terrorists and repressive state machinery.</p></li>
</ul>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-world-first-south-africa-grants-patent-to-an-artificial-intelligence-system-165623">In a world first, South Africa grants patent to an artificial intelligence system</a>
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<p>Then I interviewed 16 experts involved in or associated with South Africa’s AI industry. They included academics, researchers, designers of AI-related products, and people who straddled the categories. For the most part, the six themes I’d already identified resonated with them. </p>
<h2>South African concerns</h2>
<p>But the participants also identified five ethical risks that reflected South Africa’s country-level features. These were:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Foreign data and models</strong>: Parachuting data and AI models in from elsewhere.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Data limitations</strong>: Scarcity of data sets that represent, reflect local conditions.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Exacerbating inequality</strong>: AI could deepen and entrench existing socio-economic inequalities.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Uninformed stakeholders</strong>: Most of the public and policymakers have only a crude understanding of AI.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Absence of policy and regulation</strong>: There are currently no specific legal requirements or overarching government positions on AI in South Africa.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What it all means</h2>
<p>So, what do these findings tell us?</p>
<p>Firstly, the universal risks are mostly technical. They are linked to the features of AI and have technical solutions. For instance, bias can be <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44206-022-00017-z">mitigated</a> by more accurate models and comprehensive data sets. </p>
<p>Most of the South African-specific risks are more socio-technical, manifesting the country’s environment. An absence of policy and regulation, for example, is not an inherent feature of AI. It is a symptom of the country being on the periphery of technology development and related policy formulation. </p>
<p>South African organisations and policymakers should therefore not just focus on technical solutions but also closely consider AI’s socio-economic dimensions.</p>
<p>Secondly, the <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2022-01/Global-opinions-and-expectations-about-AI-2022.pdf">low levels of awareness</a> among the population suggest there is little pressure on South African organisations to demonstrate a commitment to ethical AI. In contrast, organisations in the global north have to show cognisance of AI ethics, because their <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-021-00068-x">stakeholders</a> are more attuned to their rights vis-à-vis digital products and services.</p>
<p>Finally, whereas the <a href="https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/614b70a71b9f71c9c240c7a7/62fbe1c37eff7d304f0803ac_Brussels_Effect_GovAI.pdf">EU</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sets-out-proposals-for-new-ai-rulebook-to-unleash-innovation-and-boost-public-trust-in-the-technology">UK</a> and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/what-is-the-blueprint-for-an-ai-bill-of-rights/">US</a> have nascent rules and regulations around AI, South Africa has no regulation and <a href="https://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/28134/thesis_jogi_aa.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">limited laws</a> relevant to AI. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-carries-a-huge-upside-but-potential-harms-need-to-be-managed-173073">Artificial intelligence carries a huge upside. But potential harms need to be managed</a>
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<p>The South African government has also <a href="https://www.orfonline.org/research/g20-ai-national-strategies-global-ambitions/">failed</a> to give much recognition to AI’s broader impact and ethical implications. This differs even from <a href="https://www.orfonline.org/research/g20-ai-national-strategies-global-ambitions/">other emerging markets</a> such as Brazil, <a href="https://ai.altadvisory.africa/wp-content/uploads/AI-Governance-in-Africa-2022.pdf">Egypt</a>, India and <a href="https://ai.altadvisory.africa/wp-content/uploads/AI-Governance-in-Africa-2022.pdf">Mauritius</a>, which have national policies and strategies that encourage the responsible use of AI.</p>
<h2>Moving forward</h2>
<p>AI may, for now, seem far removed from South Africa’s prevailing socio-economic challenges. But it will become pervasive in the coming years. South African organisations and policymakers should proactively govern AI ethics risks. </p>
<p>This starts with acknowledging that AI presents threats <a href="https://theconversation.com/defining-whats-ethical-in-artificial-intelligence-needs-input-from-africans-171837">that are distinct from those in the global north</a>, and that need to be managed. Governing boards should add AI ethics to their agendas, and policymakers and members of governing boards should become educated on the technology. </p>
<p>Additionally, AI ethics risks should be added to corporate and government risk management strategies – similar to <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/272d85c3-en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/272d85c3-en">climate change</a>, which received scant attention 15 or 20 years ago but now features prominently. </p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, the government should build on the recent <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/news/south-africas-new-national-artificial-intelligence-institute-can-help-transform-our-economy/">launch</a> of the Artificial Intelligence Institute of South Africa, and introduce a tailored national strategy and appropriate regulation to ensure the ethical use of AI.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emile Ormond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Artificial Intelligence comes with a litany of ethical risks and dilemmas. Some are universal, but some are unique to particular countries, like South Africa.Emile Ormond, PhD on AI Ethics, Governance, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975152023-01-23T13:23:09Z2023-01-23T13:23:09ZOnline racial harassment leads to lower academic confidence for Black and Hispanic students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505447/original/file-20230119-13-j3f6us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C108%2C5961%2C3899&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students of color become less confident in their academic abilities when they encounter racially demeaning content online.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teenager-sending-email-from-smart-phone-in-his-bed-royalty-free-image/537461694?phrase=online%20harassment&adppopup=true">ljubaphoto / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Online racial discrimination or harassment has a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01689-z">negative effect on the academic and emotional well-being</a> of students of color. That is the key finding from a study I published recently in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.</p>
<p>For the study, I surveyed 356 Black and Hispanic teens across the U.S. I analyzed their responses to questions about their social media use and experiences. I also asked about their mental health and beliefs about their academic potential. The adolescents were 16 years old on average.</p>
<p>Girls in this study had on average one to three more social media accounts than boys. Girls reported depression levels that were four points higher than those of boys. This suggests more depressive symptoms among girls. Black teens reported social media activity that was three points greater than that of Hispanic teens. They also reported more online experiences of discrimination – almost 10% more – than their Hispanic counterparts.</p>
<p>Black and Hispanic teens who used social media more were more likely than not to encounter online racial harassment or discrimination, whether as direct victims or observing their racial group or another racial group being demeaned or discredited. <a href="https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/4237/3282">Brendesha Tynes</a>, a researcher at the University of Southern California, describes online discrimination as “disparaging remarks, symbols, images, behaviors that inflict harm through the use of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices.”</p>
<p>Additionally, students who observed more online racial harassment or discrimination suffered more depression and anxiety than those with fewer of these negative online experiences. Higher levels of depression and anxiety undermined Black and Hispanic adolescents’ confidence in their academic abilities. </p>
<p>Students didn’t experience more depression and anxiety only when they personally, or members of their own racial or ethnic group, were targeted. They also experienced more depression and anxiety when they observed other people and racial or ethnic groups being targeted.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>When teens encountered online discrimination during their social media use, they had fewer positive beliefs about their academic skills. This is noteworthy, because if it weren’t for this discrimination, teens who use social media often had more positive perceptions of their academic skills and abilities than those who used less social media.</p>
<p>Online racial discrimination and harassment represents a unique risk for teenagers of color. Not only are they <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/08/15/blacks-more-likely-than-whites-to-see-and-post-race-related-content-on-social-media/">more likely to see and post more race-related content</a>, but when this race-related content is negative it has <a href="https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2015/12/online-racial-discrimination">harmful effects on their mental health, academics and overall behavior</a>.</p>
<p>If society has a better understanding of how online racial discrimination and harassment affects teenagers’ mental health and academic well-being, then schools, parents and youth agencies could be better able to help reduce the harm.</p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>My lab and other researchers are conducting studies to determine other effects that online harassment may have on young people of color. For instance, I am currently exploring whether these negative online experiences may influence young people to engage in social and political activism. This includes protests, voting, canvassing, writing to legislators and community organizing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197515/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alvin Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Depression and anxiety often follow when teenagers see or experience racial hostilities online.Alvin Thomas, Assistant Professor, Phyllis Northway Faculty Fellow, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1936942022-11-07T13:35:05Z2022-11-07T13:35:05ZWhat is affirmative action, anyway? 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493356/original/file-20221103-13-ektkq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C5964%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court is deciding a case on whether, and how, universities may consider an applicant's race when making admissions decisions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtAffirmativeAction/fbd3e6c1fd874e8abdfda436c87b422a/photo">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions could soon be a thing of the past. At least that’s the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/30/affirmative-action-supreme-court-harvard-unc">impression many observers got</a> after listening to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/supreme-court-affirmative-action-cases-college-admissions-north-carolina-harvard/">oral arguments about the practice</a> before the U.S Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Scholars writing for The Conversation U.S. have taken a closer look at affirmative action and how it has been seen and used in the realm of higher education.</p>
<h2>1. Even some supporters don’t know how it works</h2>
<p>When <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DMreKvQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">OiYan Poon</a>, a race and education scholar at Colorado State University, traveled across the nation to ask Asian Americans what they knew about affirmative action, they found that even people who were part of organizations that publicly supported or opposed it didn’t quite understand how affirmative action works.</p>
<p>For instance, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-colleges-use-affirmative-action-even-some-activists-dont-understand-105453">30 out of 36 presented outdated myths</a>” about affirmative action, she wrote. “These 30 included 13 affirmative action supporters and 17 opponents,” who talked about ideas such as “‘racial quotas,’ which were declared unconstitutional in [1978]. They also thought it involved ‘racial bonus points’ for Black and Latino applicants,” Poon found.</p>
<p>In fact, Poon wrote, “race-conscious admissions is now practiced through holistic review of individual applicants. Such individualized review is meant to recognize, in a limited way, how race and racism might have shaped each applicant’s perspectives and educational opportunities.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-colleges-use-affirmative-action-even-some-activists-dont-understand-105453">How do colleges use affirmative action? Even some activists don't understand</a>
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<h2>2. Banning affirmative action has clear effects</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5923%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black woman wearing a black graduation cap and gown is seated in between two white male college graduates." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5923%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Some researchers say graduation is less likely for Black, Hispanic and Native American students when affirmative action is outlawed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/students-at-commencement-ceremony-royalty-free-image/88170494?adppopup=true">Andy Sacks via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>It’s possible to predict what could happen if the Supreme Court rules against affirmative action. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SE2WERAAAAAJ&hl=en">Natasha Warikoo</a>, a Tufts University professor who studies racial equity in education, pointed out: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/affirmative-action-bans-make-selective-colleges-less-diverse-a-national-ban-will-do-the-same-189214">Since nine states already have bans on affirmative action</a>, it’s easy to know what will happen if affirmative action is outlawed. Studies of college enrollment in those states show that enrollment of Black, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate students will decline in the long term.”</p>
<p>“Undergraduate enrollment is not the only area of higher education that will be affected. A ban on affirmative action will ultimately lead to fewer graduate degrees earned by Black, Hispanic and Native American students,” she wrote.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/affirmative-action-bans-make-selective-colleges-less-diverse-a-national-ban-will-do-the-same-189214">Affirmative action bans make selective colleges less diverse – a national ban will do the same</a>
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<h2>3. The difference is big</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4538%2C3263&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two female students walk on the campus of UCLA." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4538%2C3263&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Public universities in California cannot consider race in admissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-walk-through-the-campus-of-the-ucla-college-in-news-photo/1205520367?adppopup=true">Mark Ralston/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lK3kzlYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Vinay Harpalani</a>, a scholar of discrimination at the University of New Mexico, delivered some numbers: After California banned affirmative action at its state universities, “[t]he enrollment of Black, Latino and Native American students dropped dramatically in the University of California system. For example, at UCLA, the percentage of underrepresented minorities dropped from 28% to 14% between 1995 and 1998. There was a similar drop at UC Berkeley.”</p>
<p>In more recent years, he reported, “The enrollment numbers have recovered, largely due to increased Latino enrollment. Currently at UCLA, 22% of the undergraduate student body is Latino and 3% is Black. But it is also important to note that the number of Latino high school graduates has more than tripled since 1997.”</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-california-vote-to-keep-the-ban-on-affirmative-action-means-for-higher-education-149508">What the California vote to keep the ban on affirmative action means for higher education</a>
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<h2>4. A military case for affirmative action</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A wounded white soldier is carried by a Black soldier during the Vietnam War." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A wounded soldier is carried by members of the 1st Cavalry Division near the Cambodian border during the Vietnam War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/wounded-soldier-is-carried-by-members-of-the-1st-calvary-news-photo/514870008?phrase=vietnam%20war%20black%20soldiers&adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
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<p>In an article explaining the point of view of 35 military officers who have asked the Supreme Court to continue to allow affirmative action, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/travis-knoll-1377873">Travis Knoll</a>, a historian at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, looked to the nation’s – and the military’s – racial experience during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>“[I]n 1962, when U.S. involvement was starting to grow in Vietnam, <a href="https://theconversation.com/conservative-us-supreme-court-reconsidering-affirmative-action-leaving-the-use-of-race-in-college-admissions-on-the-brink-of-extinction-190313">Black commissioned officers</a> represented only 1.6% of the officers corps,” he wrote. “Military academies remained virtually segregated, with Black people making up less than 1% of enrollees. As a result, the number of Black officers didn’t grow much.”</p>
<p>That led to unrest in the ranks: “Over the next five years, the number of Black soldiers fighting and dying on the front lines grew to about 25%. Racial tensions between white and Black soldiers led to at least 300 fights in a two-year-period that resulted in 71 deaths,” Knoll wrote. “Fueling those fights was the belief among Black soldiers that the largely white officers didn’t care about their lives.”</p>
<p>That experience, Knoll explained, drove home to the military the idea that diversity in leadership was extremely important. “It also began the military’s use of affirmative action, including race-conscious admissions policies at service academies and in ROTC programs.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/conservative-us-supreme-court-reconsidering-affirmative-action-leaving-the-use-of-race-in-college-admissions-on-the-brink-of-extinction-190313">Conservative US Supreme Court reconsidering affirmative action, leaving the use of race in college admissions on the brink of extinction</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Scholars explain what affirmative action is – and isn’t – as well as what its effects are, and why, among others, the military has supported it for decades.Jeff Inglis, Politics + Society Editor, The Conversation USJamaal Abdul-Alim, Education Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1893652022-09-01T12:25:12Z2022-09-01T12:25:12Z50 years after landmark death penalty case, Supreme Court’s ruling continues to guide execution debate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482104/original/file-20220831-4904-nyopg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3462%2C2184&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The execution chamber inside Oklahoma State Penitentiary</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DeathPenaltyOklahoma/cbf64b4cb0af4222a53b90da28d68f08/photo?Query=death%20penalty%20Oklahoma&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=220&currentItemNo=29">AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The state of Oklahoma <a href="https://apnews.com/article/executions-oklahoma-mcalester-albert-hale-207f11efd600ce46c00315c9c077c321?taid=630797576450cd0001573de5&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter">put James Coddington to death</a> on Aug. 25, 2022, for the 1997 murder of a 73-year-old friend who refused to give him money to buy drugs.</p>
<p>It marks the beginning of a busy period at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary’s execution chamber. Last month, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/us/oklahoma-executions-scheduled.html">state announced plans</a> to carry out the death sentence of 25 people over the next couple of years. </p>
<p>As a scholar who has long <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691102610/when-the-state-kills">followed the capital punishment debate</a> in the U.S., I know that Oklahoma’s plan runs against the grain of the death penalty’s recent history. Over the past several years both the number of death sentences imposed and executions carried out across the U.S. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/30/22187578/death-penalty-united-states-executions-decline-gregg-georgia-bucklew-precythe">has declined sharply</a>. </p>
<p>Since 2007 more states have <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state">abolished the death penalty</a> than in any comparable 15-year period in American history. And in November 2020 America elected its <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/biden-death-penalty-agenda.html">first president ever to openly oppose capital punishment</a>.</p>
<p>Today, fewer jurisdictions are using the death penalty, but some – like Oklahoma – seem to be doubling down. America’s death penalty is now defined, as the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/dpic-reports/dpic-year-end-reports/the-death-penalty-in-2021-year-end-report">noted</a> in a 2021 report, “by two competing forces: the continuing long-term erosion of capital punishment across most of the country, and extreme conduct by a dwindling number of outlier jurisdictions to continue to pursue death sentences and executions.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A video screen shows death row inmate James Coddington dressed in prison clothes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482118/original/file-20220831-8166-wmmp7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482118/original/file-20220831-8166-wmmp7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482118/original/file-20220831-8166-wmmp7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482118/original/file-20220831-8166-wmmp7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482118/original/file-20220831-8166-wmmp7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482118/original/file-20220831-8166-wmmp7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482118/original/file-20220831-8166-wmmp7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The execution of James Coddington was the first of 25 planned executions to be carried out over a 28-month period in Oklahoma.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/OklahomaExecutionCoddingtonClemency/064e4bdeae794b5db0f0a067f719164b/photo?Query=death%20penalty%20Oklahoma&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=220&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki</a></span>
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<p>That “extreme conduct” includes imposing death sentences arbitrarily and sometimes <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/sentenced-to-death-but-innocent-these-are-stories-of-justice-gone-wrong">sentencing innocent people to death</a>. Moreover, it includes <a href="https://harvardcrcl.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/07.30.2020-Phillips-Marceau-For-Website.pdf">carrying out executions</a> in a racially discriminatory way. </p>
<p>Looked at as a whole, capital punishment in the United States, as Amnesty International <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/the-death-penalty-your-questions-answered/">puts it</a>, is used “against the most vulnerable in society, including the poor, ethnic and religious minorities, and people with mental disabilities.”</p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7616&context=jclc">framing the argument against the death penalty</a> in ways that appeal to American’s sense of procedural fairness and equal treatment has been a tactic of death penalty abolitionists for decades – and may help explain the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1606/death-penalty.aspx">gradual decline in popular support for executions</a> since the early 1990s.</p>
<p>Yet the U.S. appears to be at something of a <a href="https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol62/iss1/2/">stalemate</a> when it comes to the death penalty – the country is seemingly unable to either achieve fairness in capital sentencing or to abolish the death penalty once and for all.</p>
<p>My research on capital punishment <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814762189/the-road-to-abolition/">suggests</a> that both <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1192427">the arguments of today’s abolitionists</a> and the current stalemate can be traced back half a century to the Supreme Court’s 1972 decision in a landmark death penalty case: <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/69-5030">Furman v. Georgia</a>. For a time, that decision <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-1711-1.html">stopped the death penalty in its tracks</a> and offered a stinging critique of its unfairness. Yet it left the door open for states to implement or reform their own laws – and some chose to preserve capital punishment.</p>
<h2>The Furman framework</h2>
<p>The Furman litigation was the culmination of a campaign <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/cruel-and-unusual-supreme-court-and-capital-punishment">conducted</a> by a group of lawyers under the auspices of the <a href="https://www.naacpldf.org/">NAACP Legal Defense Fund</a>. They hoped the Supreme Court would strike down the death penalty because of its demonstrated racial discrimination and other inequities.</p>
<p>What they got instead was something less.</p>
<p>The court <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/408/238/">issued a cryptic and unusual “per curiam” decision</a> – one which is a <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/per_curiam">given in the name of the court rather than any specific judges</a>.</p>
<p>It read: “The Court holds that the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty in these cases constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.” The ruling was narrow in scope. It set out that if a death sentence was handed out in a capricious or discriminatory nature, then it would be unconstitutional.</p>
<p>But the NAACP lawyers <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/A-Wild-Justice/">were unable</a> to get a majority of the court to agree on a set of reasons for this judgment. In fact, five justices each wrote separate opinions concurring in the judgment of the court. The other four justices each wrote separate dissenting opinions.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.oyez.org/justices/william_o_douglas">Justice William Douglas</a>, who <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/justice-douglas-and-death-penalty-demanding-view-due-process">did not think the death penalty was always unconstitutional</a>, used his opinion to condemn the arbitrary and discriminatory way in which death sentences were imposed under laws that gave complete discretion to the sentencing judge or jury.</p>
<p>Because judges or juries rarely handed down death sentences, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/justices/potter_stewart">Justice Potter Stewart</a> wrote that any particular capital defendant would have to be very unlucky to get one. It was, Stewart said, like “being struck by lightning.” <a href="https://www.oyez.org/justices/byron_r_white">Justice Byron White</a> agreed and concluded that, because they were rarely imposed, they could serve no legitimate punitive purpose.</p>
<p>Justices <a href="https://www.oyez.org/justices/william_j_brennan_jr">William Brennan</a> and <a href="https://www.oyez.org/justices/thurgood_marshall">Thurgood Marshall</a> both <a href="https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1432&context=ndjlepp">announced that the death penalty was, in their view, always unconstitutional</a>.</p>
<p>The dissenters were similarly split in their views, though they generally agreed that the question of whether the death penalty should be ended was a legislative and not a judicial question.</p>
<p>The Furman decision <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0098261X.2008.10767891">was both</a> a remarkable achievement for the NAACP lawyers and a disappointment for those seeking to abolish capital punishment in this country. </p>
<p>It was remarkable because, for the first time in American history, the court <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/A-Wild-Justice/">insisted</a> that if the U.S. were going to use death as a punishment, the government had to take extraordinary steps to ensure that it was administered fairly. It was a disappointment because the court did not say, once and for all, that capital punishment could not be squared with the Constitution.</p>
<h2>The return of capital punishment</h2>
<p>Reaction to the Furman decision <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/books/review/a-wild-justice-by-evan-j-mandery.html">was swift</a>. Death penalty states <a href="https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=hastings_journal_crime_punishment">worked hard to discern</a> its meaning and to ascertain what they could do to restore capital punishment. </p>
<p>Some states, such as Louisiana and North Carolina, enacted mandatory death penalty statutes, eliminating discretion entirely from the death penalty system. Others – Georgia, Florida and Texas – chose a different path, retaining the punishment but guiding discretion by narrowing and specifying the class of death-eligible crimes. </p>
<p>Four years after Furman, the death penalty was back before the Supreme Court. The question was whether either of those approaches adequately addressed the concerns expressed by the justices who concurred with the Furman decision.</p>
<p>This time the court’s verdict was less equivocal, though no less divided. In a 5-4 decision, it <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/428/280/#tab-opinion-1951897">struck down</a> mandatory death sentencing statutes. In addition, a seven-justice majority <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/428/153/#tab-opinion-1951891">found</a> guided discretion statutes to be constitutional.</p>
<p>Despite compelling evidence that narrowing and specifying the class of death-eligible defendants did not cure the problems of unfairness identified in Furman, the Supreme Court <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/481/279/#tab-opinion-1957081">again upheld the death penalty</a> in 1987. In <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1986/84-6811">McCleskey v. Kemp</a>, it ruled that statistical evidence could not be used to prove that racial discrimination persisted even after the implementation of the Furman-inspired reforms.</p>
<h2>Furman’s legacy</h2>
<p>Fifty years after Furman, arbitrariness and discrimination remain <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/racial-gap-death-penalty.html">persistent features of America’s death penalty system</a>. Today Americans <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/02/most-americans-favor-the-death-penalty-despite-concerns-about-its-administration/#:%7E:text=Yet%20%22%22">are still arguing about fairness in that system</a>. And the case against the death penalty continues to be made on the terms that Furman’s concurring opinions articulated.</p>
<p>But Furman also initiated a process that <a href="https://www.ncsc.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/17474/give-him-a-fair-trial-then-hang-him.pdf">lent a veneer of legal respectability</a> to the death penalty system. It has allowed states such as Oklahoma to keep the machinery of death running by making procedural changes rather than addressing the injustices that continue to plague capital punishment in the United States. </p>
<p>Sociologist and law professor <a href="https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.overview&personid=19938">David Garland</a> <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674066106">rightly observed</a> that Furman and the court decisions that took up its mantle have served “to enhance the perceived lawfulness and legitimacy of capital punishment” and acted “as a force for its conservation.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Austin Sarat does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1972, justices handed down a decision that attacked discriminatory and capricious death sentences. But it left the door ajar for states to continue the practice.Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880242022-08-08T15:47:07Z2022-08-08T15:47:07ZEthnic minority workers earn much less than white counterparts within the same firm – new findings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476923/original/file-20220801-13716-poy2ea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Same role, different wage. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/bfK1Y0X-84U">AllGo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ethnic minorities make up an ever larger share of the UK workforce. Where <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusbyethnicgroupa09">just over 6%</a> of all workers were from minority backgrounds 20 years ago, now it’s nearly 14%. </p>
<p>Yet employees from non-white ethnic groups still tend to earn less than similarly qualified white employees. The overall gap in median wages was 2% in 2019, <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/ethnicitypaygapsingreatbritain/2019">according to the latest figures</a> from the UK’s Office for National Statistics. However, after taking account of other differences, such as age and education, the current gap widens to around 10%. A recent <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2020/understanding-pay-gaps">Bank of England study</a> estimated the gap to be 10% for men and 9% for women. </p>
<p><strong>Ethnic minorities’ share of all UK jobs 2002-22</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476897/original/file-20220801-77599-5dvq9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476897/original/file-20220801-77599-5dvq9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476897/original/file-20220801-77599-5dvq9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476897/original/file-20220801-77599-5dvq9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476897/original/file-20220801-77599-5dvq9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476897/original/file-20220801-77599-5dvq9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476897/original/file-20220801-77599-5dvq9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476897/original/file-20220801-77599-5dvq9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusbyethnicgroupa09">ONS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One possible explanation for this gap could be that ethnic minority workers tend to be employed by firms that pay lower wages. But <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjir.12696">our new study</a>, which has just been published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, demonstrates for the first time that the wage gap has existed between workers in the same organisations. </p>
<p>Our study analyses data on employees in the British Workplace Employment Relations Surveys from 1998, 2004 and 2011, when the study was most recently published. The surveys may be from a few years ago, but the data are unique in Britain in linking employees to their workplaces. </p>
<p>This allows researchers like us to establish the extent to which the ethnic wage gap is due to where people work. The data also makes it possible to account for many other potential differences – such as education – which could explain the wage gap.</p>
<p>Many people think the answer to this problem is mandatory pay reporting, which would require firms to publicly disclose certain earnings data about different ethnic groups. The UK government takes a different view, stipulating that pay reporting <a href="https://www.bdbf.co.uk/government-confirms-ethnicity-pay-reporting-will-remain-voluntary-but-announces-new-measures-to-tackle-race-inequality/">should only be</a> voluntary.</p>
<p>Our research indicates that leaving employers to monitor pay rates is unlikely to lead to progress, unless it also leads to changes in how companies actually set wages. </p>
<h2>More than segregated workplaces</h2>
<p>We found that Britain’s workplaces were highly segregated in the period covered by the data. Around one third of employees had no co-workers from a non-white ethnic group. Equally, when ethnic minority employees were present, they often accounted for a relatively high share of all workers.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, we were able to show that this segregation did not contribute to the ethnic wage gap. We found that male employees from non-white ethnic minority backgrounds earned around 11% less on average in our data than equivalent white co-workers, while for women the gap was around 7%. </p>
<p>The gap varied by ethnic group but we found that ethnic minority employees earned less than white co-workers across all main ethnic groups. We didn’t break down different areas of the economy or compare the public and private sectors, although <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265248323_Ethnic_Penalties_in_the_Labour_Market_Employers_and_Discrimination">previous findings</a> have suggested that the gap is narrower in the public sector. </p>
<h2>Making sense of the gap</h2>
<p>One interpretation of the gap around wages is that non-white employees are being treated unfairly. This is hard to prove, but we did examine alternative explanations in our research. </p>
<p>Perhaps, for example, ethnic minority workers accept lower wages because the work offers other rewards that they value. If so, they might be less pushy about pay rises and consequently don’t earn as much. </p>
<p>Yet according to the data in our study, these workers were less satisfied with their pay than white peers who receive the same wages and other rewards. This explanation therefore seems unlikely. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476924/original/file-20220801-13622-uy137m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four employees of different races gathered together" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476924/original/file-20220801-13622-uy137m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476924/original/file-20220801-13622-uy137m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476924/original/file-20220801-13622-uy137m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476924/original/file-20220801-13622-uy137m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476924/original/file-20220801-13622-uy137m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476924/original/file-20220801-13622-uy137m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476924/original/file-20220801-13622-uy137m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The gap can’t be explained by differences in other rewards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/attractive-serious-businesswoman-wearing-eyeglasses-blue-417200845">Ground Picture</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our analysis also accounts for differences in qualifications and years of experience between white and non-white workers. Indeed, in the years covered by our study, ethnic minorities were more likely than white employees to feel over-skilled in their role. </p>
<p>In light of such findings, the broad picture is therefore consistent with ethnic minority employees being paid unfairly. We can’t be categorical that there is discrimination, although it is worth pointing out that its existence in the recruitment process is well established <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-4446.12676">in the UK</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/qje/qjac024/6605934?redirectedFrom=fulltext">other countries</a>. </p>
<h2>What can be done</h2>
<p>The UK government opted to back voluntary pay reporting in March after rejecting <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1061421/Inclusive-Britain-government-response-to-the-Commission-on-Race-and-Ethnic-Disparities.pdf">a recommendation</a> from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities that it should be mandatory. The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is now planning to publish guidance to employers on voluntary ethnicity pay reporting. </p>
<p>This is despite the fact that a requirement for all UK firms with 250 or more employees to report on their gender wage gap has been found to reduce it <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3584259">by 15% to 20%</a>. </p>
<p>Our new study looks specifically at the effect of pay monitoring on the ethnic wage gap. Many large employers are now <a href="https://www.bitc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/bitc-race-report-raceatworkcharteroneeyearon-oct2019.pdf">monitoring data on pay and ethnicity</a>. In 2011, only 3% of all employers were reviewing relative pay rates by ethnicity. We found that the gap was no smaller in these workplaces than in workplaces that were not.</p>
<p>What else can be done to address the problem? To encourage fairer pay and a more transparent pay structure, our study identifies the importance of job evaluation. This is used to systematically assess the relative value (or comparable worth) of a job in relation to other jobs within the workplace. </p>
<p>Our study found that the average ethnic wage gap in workplaces with a job evaluation scheme was one-third smaller than in workplaces without such a scheme. The increased transparency that such schemes can engender is one route, it seems, towards fairness in wage setting. The ethnic wage penalty was also one-third smaller in workplaces with a recognised trade union.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Forth receives funding from various government and non-government organizations for his academic research. However, he received no funding for the study on which this blog is based.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Bryson receives funding from various government and non-government organizations for his academic research. However, he received no funding for the study on which this blog is based.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nikolaos Theodoropoulos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new paper discusses the causes of, and potential solutions to, the ethnic pay gap in British workplaces.John Forth, Senior Lecturer of Human Resources Management, City, University of LondonAlex Bryson, Professor of Quantitative Social Science, UCLNikolaos Theodoropoulos, Associate Professor of Economics, University of CyprusLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1812282022-04-22T12:09:31Z2022-04-22T12:09:31ZPeople of color have been missing in the disability rights movement – looking through history may help explain why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457777/original/file-20220412-13-9ufn9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C0%2C6824%2C4535&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Building a more inclusive future means understanding why certain groups were absent in history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-on-wheelchair-with-her-collegue-at-office-royalty-free-image/1314933629">kyotokushige/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://polisci.richmond.edu/faculty/jerkulwa/">Jennifer Erkulwater</a> is a professor of political science at the University of Richmond. Her scholarship focuses on the politics of poverty, Social Security and disability rights. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZHMxsrOqvL4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jennifer Erkulwater speaks on her research about people of color and the disability rights movement.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>What is your research focused on?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Erkulwater:</strong> My current work involves trying to understand why people of color seem to be missing in debates about disability rights. </p>
<p>People of color, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/materials/infographic-disabilities-ethnicity-race.html">especially African Americans</a>, are more likely to report medical impairments than whites, and yet popular media tends to showcase largely white people with disabilities. It’s an absence that’s been critiqued on social media with the hashtag #DisabilityTooWhite.</p>
<p>I think about this from a political angle. The history of the U.S. disability rights movement is almost exclusively a history of white people. Political debates about disability rarely focus on the distinctive ways that people of color experience disability. I’ve tried to understand that silence. My work has looked largely at the role that public policy, namely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898588X18000172">the Social Security Act</a>, has played in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030618000143">defining disability as white</a>, as well as the strategies of disability organizations to create a coherent social movement of people with disabilities.</p>
<p><strong>What would people find surprising about your work?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Erkulwater:</strong> It’s not that the absence of people of color among people with disabilities was surprising because I kind of knew that just studying the politics of poverty. <a href="https://www.nationaldisabilityinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/disability-race-poverty-in-america.pdf">People of color and people with disabilities</a> are much more likely to experience spells of poverty, rely on income support and struggle with unemployment than the general population. But I also knew political debates about access and employment for people with disabilities tend to center on the needs and experiences <a href="https://medium.com/national-center-for-institutional-diversity/re-producing-white-privilege-through-disability-accommodations-4c16a746c0dc">of whites</a>. I wanted to figure out why that was the case.</p>
<p>I think that it was surprising, going back through the history and the politics of it, that absence is continual. And even in the 1960s and 1970s with some of the grassroots groups that came about to advocate for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030618000143">civil rights</a> of people with disabilities, they would say we should really get more people of color.</p>
<p>But not only would it not happen, there was also a sense that advocating for people of color within the disability rights movement competed with trying to build a coherent disability identity. </p>
<p>Not only did activists in the 1970s fear that assertions of racial identity would divide people with disabilities from one another, but throughout the 1980s activists posed disability rights as the antithesis of welfare, at a time when the term “welfare” became deeply racialized. One of the arguments activists and members of Congress made for the Americans with Disabilities Act in the late 1980s was that if the government banned discrimination against the disabled, then people with disabilities could get a job rather than having to depend on welfare to make ends meet. </p>
<p>*<em>What motivates you to keep doing the research that you’re doing today?</em></p>
<p><strong>Erkulwater:</strong> I just find it really interesting that you have a puzzle. Nobody’s ever thought about it before. I want to know the answer to it.</p>
<p>So some of the things that I’ve researched reach all the way back to the 1930s, the 1940s – but the politics are still relevant today.</p>
<p>How do you be inclusive? How do you as an activist in a social movement try to encompass the diversity of people you claim to speak for? I think a lot about the ways in which policies and laws frame some groups, like people with disabilities, as people whose needs we should respond to, but others, like “the poor” or people on welfare, as undeserving of social assistance. </p>
<p><strong>What’s the one thing you would want people to take away from your research?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Erkulwater:</strong> It is really hard to be inclusive. Like really, really, really hard.</p>
<p>White activists with disabilities sometimes argued that Blacks had to sit at the back of the bus, but the disabled couldn’t even get on the bus. That argument erases Black people with disabilities, whose exclusion is the result of both racism and ableism. When advocating for human rights, it’s important to recognize that our movements include people of marginalized identities, and there is value in centering those experiences and perspectives. </p>
<p>So many contemporary movements draw inspiration from the Black civil rights movement. That is rightly so, but these comparisons can end up excluding African Americans. Drawing parallels with the Black civil rights movement is useful if the purpose is to show points of affinity and build common cause, (but) less so if the purpose is to compare suffering. Comparing the oppression of white people with disabilities to that of African Americans under Jim Crow inherently excludes people of color with disabilities and engages in a competition over who is more deserving.</p>
<p>I don’t know that I find that to be a really productive way of building coalitions and trying to encompass the range of experiences and struggles that people go through. And so trying to listen to that, to be thoughtful, to constantly be mindful of that and to act on it in a way that’s ethical – I think that that’s a challenge. And I think that it’s important to recognize that. And it’s OK to make mistakes as long as you try to fix it.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150K">Join the list today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181228/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Erkulwater does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A political scientist speaks about the questions that have driven her research on disability rights and history.Jennifer Erkulwater, Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1762562022-03-03T19:10:40Z2022-03-03T19:10:40ZFriday essay: ‘fair game’, racial shame and the women who demanded more<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449681/original/file-20220303-19-34usfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club last month.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sexual politics is difficult terrain for young people to navigate. Desire, threat and insecurity are a powerful combination in the most benign circumstances, even before teenagers were drenched in social media harassment and ubiquitous porn. </p>
<p>Outside the privileged cloister where we tested the limits, my generation of assertive young women were surprised to realise we represented a visceral threat to
those men who chose to remain unmoved by the new politics that took the personal seriously.</p>
<p>The chilling reality of this confronted me not long after I arrived in Cairns in 1975, on the first leg of my journey to interview the bush poets scribbling away in Far North Queensland. </p>
<p>As I stood waiting for my brand new suitcase to appear on the baggage trolley towed from the plane, I fell into easy banter with a cowboy from central casting. He didn’t offer to carry my luggage but followed me to the hire car desk. His insistent attention put me on alert. I brushed him off, then made my way to the car park and onto the highway to town. Phew.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There were six unsolved murders on the Bruce Highway ‘horror stretch’ in six years. Image: Bruce Highway, Brisbane – Gympie, Queensland State Archives.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The threat had felt real. I had absorbed the reports of the Bruce Highway horror stretch a little further south. Six unsolved murders in six years, and another two just months earlier. I locked all the doors of the little Mazda, wound the windows up tight, and kept an eye on the rear-vision mirror until I pulled into the motel, checked into my room and drew the curtains. </p>
<p>Then the cowboy’s harassment really started. First a phone call, then a knock on the door, angry pacing outside the room, another call and banging on the window. I rang reception to complain and was told to get over it. No one was sent up the stairs to tell him to get lost or that they would call the police.</p>
<p>The message was clear: women were fair game. It seemed like hours before he gave up. I was exhausted. In the morning, I gobbled the cardboard cereal and white toast pushed through the breakfast hatch, drank the pot of Robur tea, paid the bill and dashed to the car park. Then I locked myself in the car. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I was a bundle of nervous energy. It scarcely dissipated on the hour-long journey through the stifling heat of the pre–wet season, down the palm-fringed tropical coast to Innisfail. I was too afraid to stop, though I desperately wanted to have a swim, even in crocodile- and stinger-infested waters. I worried that if I did, the angry cowboy – or some of his mates – might reappear. I had read enough newspaper reports to know that young women disappeared on remote country roads.</p>
<p>There was nothing exceptional about my experience. Everyone I knew had a similar story, or worse. The legacy of <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-course-australia-was-invaded-massacres-happened-here-less-than-90-years-ago-55377">a violent frontier</a> could not be wished away and did not just evaporate. It echoed through the generations, finding new targets. Modern Queensland was still pumped up with the testosterone-fuelled aggression that had marked its founding.</p>
<p>After I returned from my road trip, a friend told me she had seen brutal violence against women in some towns in Far North Queensland – assaults that were organised and condoned, the perpetrators beyond the reach of the law. </p>
<p>It was, we would now say, structural. Not just a few bad eggs, but a system that treated young women as chattels. In her town, not far from my uncomfortable experience, gangs of men and boys routinely identified a female target at a public event and enticed her outside. They called the gang rape a “train” and convinced themselves, and the police, that the woman was “asking for it”. The traumatised victims were <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1259316">rarely believed</a>, the legal system seemingly designed to humiliate, shame and silence them.</p>
<p>When we helped journalists from the National Times with the research they needed to travel to the town and report what was going on, an ancient mechanism of control in new garb was fully revealed. </p>
<p>Within no time at all, similar stories bubbled up out of other country towns. After the horror of these organised attacks was reported, the campaign to ensure that the victims of <a href="https://theconversation.com/rape-sexual-assault-and-sexual-harassment-whats-the-difference-93411">sexual assault</a> were treated with respect in Queensland gained new momentum. One of the only two women in the state parliament made it an issue.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Julianne Schultz in the 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rosemary Kyburz was a Liberal MP who would do all she could to ensure these assaults did not go unpunished. Within a couple of years, the law changed a little. </p>
<p>Inquiries, reports, submissions and debates followed, and changes continued to be made for decades as the legacy of <a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-misogyny-and-why-mens-aggression-to-women-is-so-often-expressed-through-sex-157680">embedded misogyny</a> revealed itself over and over. Sexual abuse could no longer be dismissed with the mocking laugh that had once accompanied it. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, nearly 50 years on, the law still works against female victims. The suppressed anger that many women carry burst to the surface of public life when another generation of young women, led by Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins and <a href="https://theconversation.com/shes-a-slut-sexual-bullying-among-girls-contributes-to-cultural-misogyny-we-need-to-take-it-seriously-157421">Chanel Contos</a>, declared Enough is enough. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-change-making-history-making-noise-brittany-higgins-and-grace-tame-at-the-national-press-club-176252">Making change, making history, making noise: Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A few weeks after International Women’s Day 2021, in cities and towns around Australia, women and men, many who hadn’t marched for decades, <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-sex-power-and-anger-a-history-of-feminist-protests-in-australia-157402">took to the streets</a> in response to the revelations of sexual abuse in Parliament House. The echo of past protests reverberated around the nation. It had not taken long for the 800,000 women who had been added to the electoral roll in 1903 to become a wellspring of conservative votes for decades, but the polls suggested they would be no longer. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">International Women’s Day protests 2021, Melbourne.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthrkac/">Matthrkac/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A right, not a gift</h2>
<p>The animating idea of the women’s movement – that equality was a right, not a gift or a political deal – transformed interpersonal relations, and crept into workplaces and schools. Language changed, expectations were recalibrated, and before long, behaviour followed. But it did not happen overnight and did not happen without a struggle. The ban on married women working in the public service <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/the-long-slow-demise-of-the-marriage-bar/">had been lifted</a>
only two years before I started high school.</p>
<p>At that time, women were still the exception in the professions, paid one-third less than men and denied access to superannuation. In 1973, a few million dollars was made available by the federal government for the first time to support childcare and some support for women’s refuges followed. It was tiny by today’s standards but it transformed lives.</p>
<p>Four years later, the editor of the Courier-Mail drew my first serious job interview to a halt: “What it is with you girls, why do you all want to be journalists, what’s wrong with teaching and nursing?” I didn’t bother to turn up for the second interview after the editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin, which still featured women in bikinis on the front page, said, “If you’re a pretty girl, come on down; if not, don’t bother.” </p>
<p>Soon the patter became more sophisticated. As Max Walsh, the editor at the Australian Financial Review, had told me at my job interview – in a pub – women would work twice as hard for half the money as men, and he thought they’d be more able to extract secrets from businessmen than male journalists. </p>
<p>A few years later, in the early 1980s, when I was armed with a clipping-book full of front-page stories and some experience in television, the head of current affairs at ABC TV baited me for an hour before dismissing me, asking, “What makes you think you are pretty enough to be on television?” Belittling and shaming were
still ready tools of choice to put women in their place.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4188%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman sits on bench, wrapped in coat and scarf, and stares at statue" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4188%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author in Geneva, 1980.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The year before my experience at the ABC’s Gore Hill headquarters, the High Court had ruled that Ansett Airlines could not discriminate against a woman who was otherwise qualified to be a pilot. I had reported on <a href="https://timeline.awava.org.au/archives/397">Deborah Wardley’s case</a> for years as her prospective employer invented one excuse after another to block her – women weren’t strong enough; unions would object; menstrual cycles, pregnancy and childbirth would jeopardise safety and increase costs. The court ruled on technicalities, not on principle. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1980 advertisement for Ansett airlines. In March 1980, Reginald Ansett lost his High Court appeal against pilot Deborah Wardley’s discrimination case, using the then-new Victorian Equal Opportunity Act 1977.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When a group of older mentors urged me to make a complaint about my treatment at the ABC, the cost seemed higher than any possible reward. I kept my notes and moved on; revenge, as they say, is a dish best served cold.</p>
<p>It took until 1983 for Australia to sign <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cedaw.aspx">the 1979 United Nations convention</a> designed to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. Legislation followed in 1984, but its principal proponent, the Labor senator Susan Ryan, was subjected to bitter personal and public attacks. </p>
<p>At the big rallies in Canberra, anxious and angry Women Who Want to be Women pushed to the front to protest the changes. Some 80,000 people signed petitions opposing the relatively modest sex discrimination bill. Although key Liberal leaders supported it, the right wing of the party was bitterly opposed. It <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/sex-discrimination-uncertain-times">marked the beginning of a split</a> that would dog the party for decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Senator Susan Ryan, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christine Fernon/National Museum of Australia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-sex-power-and-anger-a-history-of-feminist-protests-in-australia-157402">Friday essay: Sex, power and anger — a history of feminist protests in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Susan Ryan was a feisty campaigner, so the vicious onslaughts only increased her resolve. Women’s rights were on the way to becoming human rights, talent was no longer sifted by sex, but the extent of the opposition stunned her. </p>
<p>The Australian legislation passed with the support of some Liberal members of parliament who defied their party and crossed the floor to vote with the government. </p>
<p>Women did not have a secure footing in the dominant political party, as deputy Liberal leader and foreign minister Julie Bishop and Liberal MP Julia Banks found in the internal party confrontation that ousted Malcolm Turnbull and replaced him with Scott Morrison. As <a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/power-play-by-julia-banks/9781743797204">Julia Banks declared</a> in the House of Representatives, as she prepared to leave in 2018, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Often when good women call out or are subjected to bad behaviours, the reprisals, backlash and commentary portrays them as the bad ones: the liar, the troublemaker, the emotionally unstable or weak, or someone who should be silenced.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Tell us the story again about the newspaper job interview in the pub,” my teenaged daughter and her friends would say, at the turn of the century, each time we drove down Broadway past the old Fairfax building towards Sydney University. “Can you believe it?” the girls would chuckle. </p>
<p>Then they too entered the workforce and realised that the more subtle but deadening hand of sexual discrimination was still doing its evil work, now hidden behind laws and lofty rhetoric. Change rarely proceeds in a linear manner, but the trend was clear.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-madness-of-julia-banks-why-narratives-about-hysterical-women-are-so-toxic-163963">The 'madness' of Julia Banks — why narratives about 'hysterical' women are so toxic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Assertive women, brutal political attacks</h2>
<p>When Wayne Goss appointed Canadian-born Leneen Forde as Queensland’s governor in 1992, she was only the second woman governor in Australian history. She had fallen in love with the son of former Australian prime minister Frank Forde and, like countless young brides, moved to Australia full of hope and expectation. She was shocked by what she discovered. Brisbane in the mid-1950s was a poor country town. The appliances she had taken for granted were considered luxury mod cons. A woman’s place was in the home. But when her husband died 11 years later, this was no longer an option for her. </p>
<p>With five young children to support, she began studying law and five years after her husband’s death started work as a solicitor, eventually becoming the queen’s representative in a state named for another. </p>
<p>Queensland, despite the gender of its name, was a place where men prevailed and women were meant to know their place. Matt Foley challenged this when, as the state’s attorney-general, he decided that merit, not gender, would determine judicial appointments. </p>
<p>My former English teacher, Roslyn Atkinson, by then a distinguished barrister who had been the inaugural president of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal and deputy chair of the state’s Law Reform Commission, despite outraged protests from the old guard, became one of Foley’s first Supreme Court appointments in 1998.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roslyn Atkinson, inaugural president of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal and deputy chair of the state’s Law Reform Commission.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within a few years, despite bitter heckling from those who were still convinced that “merit” meant “men”, seven of the state’s 24 Supreme Court judges were women, and a woman was president of the Queensland Court of Appeal. Years later it was still driving the press mad. The Courier-Mail would roll out articles anonymously reporting lawyers who knew women were just not up to it. These eminently well-qualified women were derided as “Matt’s Girls”.</p>
<p>In September 2015, Justice Catherine Holmes became the state’s first female chief justice. This was a change that would not easily slide back. The reaction to these newly assertive women was no less brutal in politics. </p>
<p>When Labor’s Anna Bligh became the first popularly elected female premier in Australia in 2009, the misogyny that later blighted Julia Gillard’s prime ministership had an off-Broadway tryout in Brisbane. Bligh’s resolute leadership during the 2011 floods, like Gillard’s ability to navigate a hung parliament, counted for little. Her determination to privatise ports, roads, trains and coal terminals was not welcomed by traditional Labor voters. Union-sponsored billboards on major thoroughfares mocked her, the press despised her, and a vicious whispering campaign prevailed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anna Bligh became the first popularly elected female premier in Australia in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/djackmanson/">David Jackmanson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 2012 election was a disaster for Labor: the party went from holding 51 seats to seven. Electoral tides in Queensland are often more dramatic than normal swings on the carefully calibrated Australian electoral pendulum. It was a relatively short-lived win for the blokes who had felt they were born to run the state. It lasted just one term. </p>
<h2>A female perspective</h2>
<p>In 2020, the victorious Annastacia Palaszczuk became the first woman to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-wins-queensland-election-as-greens-could-win-up-to-four-seats-148715">re-elected premier for a third time</a>. Under her administration, women occupied an unprecedented number of positions of power in what was once the most macho state. It was a long way from the 1970s. </p>
<p>In 2021, most of the ministers in her cabinet were women, as were the governor, chief justice, police commissioner, chief medical officer, head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and six of the state’s seven university vice-chancellors.</p>
<p>Second-wave feminists had sometimes wondered, in the abstract, what would happen as occupations were dominated by women. Would that mean the profession had lost status? Was equality realised when mediocre women exercised as much achieved power as mediocre men had always done? </p>
<p>But as Palaszczuk’s legislation to introduce a Queensland bill of rights, legalise abortion, outlaw coercive control, enable voluntary euthanasia and better define consent laws showed in a few short years, a female perspective could change the agenda. </p>
<p>And it could drive some men mad. This was a profound cultural and political change that had nothing to do with detachment from the “mother country”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-our-utopia-careful-what-you-wish-for-165314">Friday essay: Our utopia ... careful what you wish for</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Fault lines</h2>
<p>Race and gender discrimination are inextricably linked and have long been defining Australian fault lines. Female convicts – “whores”, in the view of some commanders and male prisoners – were outnumbered at least three to one and were shared among the men in what <a href="http://juliemccrossin.com/afr1.pdf">Anne Summers has described</a> as “imposed sexual slavery”. But <a href="https://bookshop.nla.gov.au/book/defiant-voices-how-australias-female-convicts-challenged-authority-1788-1853.do">many were</a> fiercely independent battlers who wanted a better life for themselves and their children and were prepared to challenge authority.</p>
<p>Similarly, the Cammeraygal woman <a href="https://www.barangaroo.com/about/the-place/history/barangaroo-the-woman">Barangaroo</a>, who became Bennelong’s wife after her first husband died from smallpox, set the bar high. She was an independent woman, a fierce hunter and provider who saw little reason to compromise with the new arrivals. She once famously attended an official dinner at Government House in traditional garb, her naked body painted in white clay, a bone through her nose. </p>
<p>She died in 1790, so was spared the distress of witnessing the brutal and demeaning treatment of her sisters and generations of others as the fight over the bodies of Aboriginal women became a recurring metaphor of settlement. Some formed loving relationships with settlers, others became leaders, but many were treated as chattels, emotionally destroyed as their children were taken away, their men emasculated.</p>
<p>Australia was and is a deeply male society. For those with enough determination and a strong sense of self-worth, frontier life encouraged a certain female fearlessness that is still evident. </p>
<p>It is clear in the stars that shine abroad: writers and thinkers like Germaine Greer, Geraldine Brooks, Anne Summers and Kate Manne; scientists like the Nobel-winning Elizabeth Blackburn; actors like Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Rachel Griffiths and Margot Robbie, who luminously fill the world’s screens; educators including Jill Ker Conway and Patricia Davidson; and anthropologists Genevieve Bell and Marcia Langton.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="woman smiling, holding newspapers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Germaine Greer holding newspapers, 1988.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Hennessy/NLA nla.gov.au/nla.obj-149859225</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ever since pastoralists recruited single men, not wanting to be encumbered by the additional expense of providing for families, the political economy of Australia has been built on the primacy of male labour, male power and male control. The native-born and immigrant populations grew in the 19th century, but it took the
deaths of more than 60,000 men in the first world war for women to become the majority, although the generational loss reverberated for decades. </p>
<p>Women remained, in Anne Summers’ famous phrase, either “damned whores or God’s police”. Sexualised taunting was and still is the bedrock of abuse likely to rain down on Australian women who speak their mind, provide professional advice, demand more and expect R.E.S.P.E.C.T., as Aretha Franklin sang. Still, nothing fires up the angry Twitterati quite like women making otherwise unremarkable comments about their rights and expectations.</p>
<h2>‘One of the most racist towns in the country’</h2>
<p>The intersection of these discriminations was on proud, unapologetic display when, in 1977, I flew three hours west of Brisbane to Cunnamulla. </p>
<p>Peter Manning, then the editor of Nation Review, had commissioned me to report on a community that had been characterised as one of the most racist towns in the country for the independent newspaper. As I had learned from my weeks on the road talking to bush poets, travelling alone on this assignment would have been foolhardy, so I accompanied two of my friends. Wayne Goss and Matt Foley were working for the Aboriginal Legal Service at the time, and they had a slate full of meetings and court hearings.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shops on a street, in a isolated town" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jane Street, Cunnamulla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland State Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the time, Cunnamulla was home to 1500 people (about, according to the signpost), seven pubs and seven draperies, and unemployment was officially running at 25%. Eight of every ten Aboriginal people were without work. It was a town where grog ruled, dozens of children were malnourished, and the grief from scores of infant deaths each year was overwhelming. </p>
<p>As the plane touched down, the local man sitting next to me asked where I was staying. The Club, I said. He spoke in the leering, patronising way I had come to expect in my travels through the state, setting the tone for the following week. As we left the plane he reassured me that I would be safe: “They don’t let the darkies into the Club Hotel.”</p>
<p>Cunnamulla is one of a handful of outback Australian towns that has a grim, larger-than-life reputation. Wilcannia, in the far west of New South Wales, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-in-wilcannia-a-national-disgrace-we-all-saw-coming-167348">briefly won national attention during the pandemic</a>, is another. Both towns had had their reputations unfairly tarnished, as the requests of their leaders were persistently ignored and dismissed. It has long been easy to ignore those who live beyond the Great Dividing Range.</p>
<p>Not long after William Landsborough described the potential of the land he observed around what became Cunnamulla – as he crossed the continent from north to south in search of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills – the south-west of Queensland was rapidly divided into vast stations. </p>
<p>Squatters soon claimed the mulga-clad countryside and murderous incursions became the norm. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-unearthing-queenslands-native-police-camps-gives-us-a-window-onto-colonial-violence-100814">Native Police</a> were stationed in the Cunnamulla township. Reports of the killings in the 1860s were so shocking that they provoked the Anglican bishop of Sydney to establish a mission. He had been outraged by a squatter’s jape that if he had “known how useful they might be he wouldn’t have killed so many blackfellows”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-unearthing-queenslands-native-police-camps-gives-us-a-window-onto-colonial-violence-100814">How unearthing Queensland's 'native police' camps gives us a window onto colonial violence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="row of uniformed men in horses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police riot squad and mounted Native Police, circa 1890s, Queensland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland State Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The unprepossessing settlement on the banks of the Warrego River about 800 kilometres due west of Brisbane is an unlikely entry in the compendium of noteworthy places. Its murderous history was conveniently forgotten and replaced with a pastoral fantasy. Maybe the mouth-pleasing ring of the name helped. Henry Lawson thought it suggested pumpkin pies. He immortalised the Cobb & Co. coach
stop in his story <a href="https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C239056">The Hypnotised Township</a>, but described the town as a place of “troubled slumbers”. </p>
<p>Years later the Aboriginal poet <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/authors/herb-wharton">Herb Wharton</a>, who was born near Cunnamulla, won international acclaim when he broke the hypnotic silence. He turned the settler stories on their heads and told the droving tales of Murri stockmen and women. He and his sister Hazel McKellar then recorded the tales of massacres, including the one their grandmother had survived. </p>
<p>Still, the “Cunnamulla Fella”, who lived on damper and wallaby stew and was conjured by country singer Slim Dusty, is the figure who endures as a statue in the town. A selfie with the “Fella” is a tick on the roaming grey-nomad bucket list.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poster created by the supporters of Aboriginal human rights justice during the period prior to the parliamentary reform of the Australian Constitution in 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felix Farley</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An ugly reality</h2>
<p>Dark histories haunt places and often recur in other uncanny manifestations. Some may consider the Cunnamulla Fella a charming artefact of a bygone age, but there was nothing charming about <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/out-of-sight-out-of-mind---1969/2833724">Out of Sight, Out of Mind</a>, the depiction of the town by ABC’s Four Corners program in 1969. </p>
<p>This film, broadcast just two years after the referendum that brought First Nations people into the mainstream, was one of those moments when current affairs television excelled. It brought the shameful reality of life in fringe camps into middle-class loungerooms. </p>
<p>The pale, well-spoken journalist was doing a good job, but looked like a creature from another planet, dropped in to share his outrage. It was an excoriating portrayal of the wrongful conviction of an Aboriginal woman, and of the shocking conditions in the two town camps that were home to descendants of the Kunja people who had once been shot and poisoned by graziers.</p>
<p>Audiences around the country reacted with fury. “I’m praying for [mayor] Jack Tonkin’s soul in purgatory,” one wrote, “but I don’t like my chances.” ABC management prohibited the sale of the program to the BBC; the picture it painted was too ugly for international consumption.</p>
<p>The broadcast prompted an immediate political response: money suddenly became available to build 26 fibro houses scattered through the town. When I visited eight years later, the houses were built and only the remnants of the camps remained. The community links that had given life in the settlement its own coherence had dissipated; drunkenness had become the destructive norm. </p>
<p>The angry racism that once fuelled the frontier wars still had full-throated voice. Like so many outback towns, Cunnamulla seemed to be dying. “You have to blame it on something, what better than the boongs,” one angry newcomer told me.</p>
<p>Those I met on that short trip felt no need to hide their fury. The media had destroyed their town. “We were doing the right thing by the blacks until Four Corners came along,” one self-appointed spokesman berated me when I attended a dinner organised by the Rotary Club. </p>
<h2>‘I just want a fair go for the white fella’</h2>
<p>The anger in the room bubbled up as they listened to social worker Matt Foley’s talk. When it came time for questions, the local solicitor chairing the meeting passed around handwritten notes: “tone it down”, “no aggressive questions”, “calm down”. The back and forth continued until well after midnight. Then, like a storm that had passed, the tone changed. “We’re still friends, aren’t we?” the man who had most aggressively blamed the media at the start of the evening asked as he wandered off to his car. He should not have been driving.</p>
<p>In the morning a taxi driver who had been part of the angry group the night before nearly ran me over and then demanded I get into his car for a tour of the camps and the new houses. He knew who to blame. As we drove along the uncurbed streets he pointed to one rundown house after another:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Black house, white house, black house … I hope you are going to give those bastards heaps … I just want a fair go
for the white fella. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the previous six months there had been nearly 300 convictions for drunkenness: 163 Aboriginal men and 58 women; 55 white men and two women. “You can’t live here without drinking,” my not-so-friendly taxi driver declared.</p>
<p>Four of the women I met stood out and have remained with me ever since. One was the doctor’s elderly receptionist. When I knocked, she answered the door to the surgery armed with a paper knife. “You learn to expect anything, and prepare yourself,” she said as she put the blade in a drawer. </p>
<p>Another was a tough, damaged woman who owned one of the three pubs that served Aboriginal people. She had installed a metal cage along the bar. “I don’t know why the blacks drink here. I like them, but I’ve lost control. I don’t care how much I lose, I’m selling this place,” she told me. </p>
<p>Outside her pub a young woman, who looked at least 20 years older than she was, grabbed my arm and repeated, over and over,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m just a black mongrel bastard. I got no one, I got nowhere to go, I’m just a black mongrel bastard.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/non-indigenous-australians-shouldnt-fear-a-first-nations-voice-to-parliament-176675">Non-Indigenous Australians shouldn't fear a First Nations Voice to Parliament</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Hazel McKellar’s reforming energy</h2>
<p>The most outstanding person in the town was <a href="https://www.magabala.com/collections/hazel-mckellar">Hazel McKellar</a>. She was the antithesis of what <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4305785-the-spectre-of-truganini-1980-boyer-lectures">Bernard Smith would later describe</a> as the “tragic muse” of Australian arts, the “old Aboriginal woman surviving precariously as a fringe dweller in some unknown country town”. She was a handsome, intelligent woman who, since returning to Cunnamulla after working as a housemaid on stations, had devoted herself to holding her community together as external and internal forces conspired to pull it apart.</p>
<p>Even in progressive circles, the prevailing image of Aboriginal people in the late 1970s was as victims – people with little agency or authority, people who had been damaged or destroyed. </p>
<p>Hazel McKellar did not fit this stereotype. She had big ideas and was prepared to pull whatever levers she could to realise them. She wanted a different school curriculum so children could learn about their culture, something the local school’s principal thought “might be helpful for slow learners”. </p>
<p>Two-thirds of the 440 students at the primary school were Aboriginal, but the experience of their forebears was not evident in the curriculum. In Year 5 social studies, as the principal helpfully explained, “We teach the kiddies about explorers and the opening up of Australia.”</p>
<p>Hazel McKellar’s advocacy for including cultural knowledge was ahead of the zeitgeist. Within a few years she was writing books that captured this knowledge. Her brother Herb Wharton had put the old brigade on notice through his poetry, which they celebrated; they may not have liked what he said, but they understood his language. </p>
<p>During those intense few days in 1977, Hazel and I talked about the immediate past, but not the longer past that had shaped it. Her focus was on the future. She campaigned relentlessly for improvements to health, housing and education, and for a cultural and community centre. </p>
<p>“It’s the little things that niggle, like knowing there is only one white family in town whose kids will come to an Aboriginal kid’s party,” she told me. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve just learnt to not go where I am not wanted. It used to make me angry, and I still resent it at times, but you have to accept it, I guess. But it’s only us who are keeping this place going.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘Settled in the Dreamtime’</h2>
<p>By 2019, the map of south-west Queensland was closer to what it would have looked like about 170 years earlier, when Thomas Mitchell had swept through the region identifying land suitable for cattle. The aerial view of the region from the National Native Title Tribunal’s map now shows a vast patchwork of native title lands, and many places of significant cultural heritage. To the west and south of Cunnamulla, 200,000 square kilometres of land has been returned to traditional
owners.</p>
<p>When Hazel McKellar told me in 1977 that it was only her people who would keep the area going, neither of us could have anticipated this transformation. By 2021, the sign at the entrance declared Cunnamulla a “Heritage Town”, “Settled in the Dreamtime”. </p>
<p>The ancient stories of the land and its people, once a cause of such embarrassment and shame, had become a source of pride and inspiration. Anonymous trolls may rage on Twitter, but no one would say out loud the things that they had once said to me, notebook in hand, spellchecking names as I jotted down their comments.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/read-listen-understand-why-non-indigenous-australians-should-read-first-nations-writing-78925">Alexis Wright</a> is a Waanyi woman who grew up in Cloncurry, more than 1000 kilometres north-west of Cunnamulla, at the other end of the Channel Country that regulates the cycles of life in the vast inland. It is the town where Scott Morrison tramped through the cemetery looking for his great-great-aunt Dame Mary Gilmore’s graveyard. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alexis Wright.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Victor Long</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In 2007, Wright became the second First Nations writer to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award for her magisterial novel <a href="https://giramondopublishing.com/books/carpentaria/">Carpentaria</a>, then won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for fiction – the first Aboriginal author to do so. It was recognition that would have been inconceivable 30 years earlier. </p>
<p>The celebration of her remarkable book was, inevitably, tinged by politics. On the eve of her win in June 2007, the Howard government launched its Northern Territory
Intervention, when troops and public servants were sent into remote First Nations communities. The softly spoken author was asked about the intervention and replied with passionate denunciation: there were real problems of abuse in some communities, but a unilateral intervention without consultation could not be the solution. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-years-on-its-time-we-learned-the-lessons-from-the-failed-northern-territory-intervention-79198">Ten years on, it's time we learned the lessons from the failed Northern Territory Intervention</a>
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<p>The gestation of Carpentaria had taken many years, as Wright had tried to bring to the page the stories and ways of being she had heard from the old people. Every major publisher rejected the opus before Ivor Indyk at Giramondo Press recognised the novel’s unique brilliance. </p>
<p>In an astonishingly original way, Wright tells hitherto invisible stories and captures the spirit of a different way of storytelling. Her stories wove back on themselves, rich with magic, symbolism, grit and determination; they turned time and place and the conventions of English literature inside out and made her a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. </p>
<p>The profound change embodied in the accolades she continues to receive, and the insights she shares about the idea of Australia, have very little to do with anxiety about detachment from Britain. Her novels, like many others, better answer the question Who are we? than any politician has for decades. As has happened before and will happen again, by making the political personal and turning it into culture, Wright encourages a new, fit-for-purpose understanding to emerge.</p>
<h2>Culture changes</h2>
<p>In 1890, another Queensland novelist, Arthur Vogan, wrote <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59771/59771-h/59771-h.htm">The Black Police</a> about the massacres in the state’s Channel Country and his shocked reactions to the way they were applauded by settlers. </p>
<p>It was a surprising popular success. Although local newspapers bristled with reports of deaths from incursions, it was a contentious subject, and one that made for a challenging novel. The critics were scathing, but it struck a nerve and was reprinted several times. </p>
<p>Arthur Vogan lost his job as a journalist, just as Carl Feilberg had done a decade before following his campaign against the Native Police in The Queenslander. Like Feilberg, Vogan also realised he was on a blacklist and had to leave. He moved as far away as he could—to Perth—and gave up writing for some time.</p>
<p>He was one of many authors punished for writing an “anti-Australian” novel. This was a smear that would be spread thickly for decades. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ruth Park.</span>
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<p>In 1947, Ruth Park was subjected to an organised campaign of threats and vilification for the life she portrayed in Surry Hills in <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/harp-south-ruth-park/">The Harp in the South</a>, which had won a competition run by the Sydney Morning Herald. Subscription cancellations and letters <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460713501/books-that-made-us/">poured in to the editor</a>, all asking different versions of the same question: “Why should Australia, with all her beauty to choose from, have to go to the sewer for her literature?”</p>
<p>Ruth Park also retreated. She left the country amid a chorus of criticism and only returned years later. Now her novels are on school reading lists, Wikipedia lists the dozens of prizes she won, and in 2006 she was recognised in The Bulletin’s list
of the hundred most influential Australians. Culture changes, and as it does, once unpalatable truths can be said out loud and challenge and correct ill-informed angry outbursts.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/politics-government/The-Idea-of-Australia-Julianne-Schultz-9781760879303">The Idea of Australia</a> by Julianne Schultz (Allen & Unwin)</em></p>
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<p><em>Julianne Schultz will talk about The Idea of Australia, in conversation with Peter Mares, <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-idea-of-australia-julianne-schultz-peter-mares-in-conversation/">at ACMI on Friday 11 March</a> at 6pm. Free, bookings required. The event will be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm8C4iP3fuQ">livestreamed online</a> via ACMI’s YouTube channel. She will also be <a href="https://linktr.ee/julianneschultz">speaking at various events</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176256/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julianne Schultz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s political economy was built on the primacy of (white) male labor, male power and male control, writes Julianne Schultz. Women have changed this culture - but still risk abuse when speaking out.Julianne Schultz, Professor of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1730012022-01-06T17:21:53Z2022-01-06T17:21:53ZMultiracism: why we need to pay attention to the world’s many racisms<p>Racism is being called out across the world – and not just in the usual places. The word “racism” has been taken up by <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/world-left-yazidis-to-suffer-says-nobel-winner-nadia-murad-5fr7h2lfl/">Yazidis in Syria</a>, <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/people-will-rise-up-uyghur-exile-foresees-end-of-chinas-ruthless-rule/">Uyghurs in China</a>, and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/16/black-lives-matter-papua-indonesia/">Papuans in Indonesia</a> and used to describe their experience of discrimination. </p>
<p>Expressed very simply, racism is prejudice and discrimination by a more powerful in-group against a minority group or individual based on their ethnic background. Yet in both public and academic debate in the west, racism is routinely represented as uniquely western, European and white. It’s a chain of association that reflects the history and power of western racism. </p>
<p>Racism in the west is an enduring and shameful problem. But in a multi-polar world, where the relationship between power and prejudice is shifting, a more universal approach is needed, too. Racism has a diverse history with multiple roots – and needs to be called out <em>wherever</em> it is encountered.</p>
<p>The past 20 years have witnessed numerous acts of mass racist violence. The recent conviction of an Islamic State fighter in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/yazidi-genocide-landmark-guilty-verdict-for-is-jihadi-could-transform-how-atrocities-are-brought-to-justice-173043">German court for genocide</a> was welcomed by Yazidi rights advocate and Nobel peace prize winner Nadia Murad, who <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/world-left-yazidis-to-suffer-says-nobel-winner-nadia-murad-5fr7h2lfl">tells us</a> that her community has been “subjected to ethnic cleansing, racism and identity change in plain sight of the international community”. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yazidi-genocide-landmark-guilty-verdict-for-is-jihadi-could-transform-how-atrocities-are-brought-to-justice-173043">Yazidi genocide: landmark guilty verdict for IS jihadi could transform how atrocities are brought to justice</a>
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<p>Reports of one million Muslims <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-rights-un-idUSKBN1KV1SU">held in “re-education camps”</a> in Xinjiang province in China appear credible. And in 2019, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24187&LangID=E">UN human rights experts</a>, detailed “the deeply entrenched discrimination and racism that indigenous Papuans face” in West Papua from the Indonesian police and army, pointing to “numerous cases of alleged killings, unlawful arrests, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”.</p>
<p>There are many such cases. We might add the bloody pogroms targeting <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26918077?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">Muslims in India</a> and <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/hazaras-afghan-state/">Hazaras in Afghanistan</a> and the widespread maltreatment of black Africans in North Africa. In 2017, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2017/11/13/libya-migrant-slave-auction-lon-orig-md-ejk.cnn">CNN aired footage</a> of black African migrants auctioned as slave labour for as little as US$400 (£300) in a clandestine market outside Tripoli.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">CNN report on migrants being sold as slaves in Libya.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The facts are there: the racism is stark and ongoing. Yet these examples rarely feature in journals in the academic field of ethnic and racial studies. It is a typical oversight that serves the interests of those who wish to bury discussion of the topic and deny the existence of racism in their country.</p>
<h2>Growing debate</h2>
<p>A new generation of activists and many scholars across Asia and Africa don’t want to forget or be silent. In part, their choice to use the term “racism” comes from the knowledge that this is a word the international community listens to. But mostly it stems from the fact that racism is an accurate description of the hatred they have witnessed. It’s a hatred that leads to ethnic and racial minorities facing attack, eviction, impoverishment and – sometimes – enslavement and genocide.</p>
<p>In my book <a href="https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=multiracism-rethinking-racism-in-global-context--9781509537310">Multiracism</a> I draw on these new voices to understand the diversity of racism and make the case that the modern world cannot continue to view racism in the traditional, rather monolithic, way.</p>
<p>Thus, for example, in <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-05357-4">Discourses of Race and Rising China</a>, Yinghong Cheng depicts racism in China as “an independent variation rather than an imitation or reflection of western racism”. In <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=8250">Ethnic Nationalism in Korea</a> Gi-Wook Shin writes that “nationalism based on common blood and shared ancestry” has been “a key feature of Korean modernity”.</p>
<p>Critical studies from many different sources are opening up the question of who gets to define racism. The Indian activist for the rights of the Dalit or “Untouchable” caste, <a href="https://www.rawatbooks.com/sc-st/caste-race-and-discrimination-discourses-in-international-context">Teesta Setalvad</a>, asks: “is it not time that we fill and feed such terminology with our own histories and thereby deepen their meanings?” She goes onto explain: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Within political science and sociology circles, racism has come to typify and describe systems of inequality and discrimination. The condition of the 160 million Dalits more than fulfils the description of the conditions used to describe racism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A caste is something that one is born into and, for many, it defines pretty much all aspects of their lives. The social exclusion of Dalits in India has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/dec/28/india.mainsection">depicted as a form of apartheid</a>. The Indian government has no sympathy for this kind of conceptual expansion and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/17/india.caste/">points out</a> that Dalits are defined by caste – not ethnicity or race. But “racism” is not a fixed signifier – it is being adopted but also adapted. It is being put to work in fast-changing societies in new ways that help people organise and resist discrimination.</p>
<h2>Speaking out</h2>
<p>In many countries, writing about racism can result in harassment, imprisonment or worse. Disappearances of activists and scholars critical of discrimination are common, while other researchers are forced into exile. The Eritrean social critic <a href="https://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/978-3-643-90332-7">Abdulkader Mohammad</a>, writing in exile, explains that “speaking about ethnicity and ethnic conflicts has been a risky issue and a taboo” in his country.</p>
<p>The topic of racism is held by numerous governments to be a direct political challenge and an unpatriotic affront. Even in democratic countries such as India, Turkey and Malaysia, research is increasingly difficult and risky. <a href="https://merip.org/2018/12/turkeys-purge-of-critical-academia/">Anti-racist scholarship can be dangerous</a> but it is happening anyway and, despite the risks, academics and activists are asking the world to listen and learn.</p>
<p>If we do, we will hear a profound challenge to the idea that the history of racism can be framed solely or simply in terms of western action and non-western reaction. Chouki El Hamel in his groundbreaking <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/african-history/black-morocco-history-slavery-race-and-islam?format=PB&isbn=9781107651777">Black Morocco</a> shows that North African patterns of racism do not simply mirror Euro-American racism.</p>
<p>El Hamel’s intervention, along with others, takes issue with the defensiveness and evasion that has marked debate in the past, in which the severity or importance of anti-black racism in North Africa was downplayed or simply ignored. The telling title of a report published in 2020 by the Arab Reform Initiative on anti-black racism in Morocco is <a href="https://www.arab-reform.net/publication/ending-denial-anti-black-racism-in-morocco/">Ending Denial</a>.</p>
<p>There is a nascent debate on racism in Morocco. It is a debate that demands to be acknowledged and taken seriously, along with those many other voices from beyond the west that are today studying, challenging, and reimagining racism. Yet a final point must be made. For this is a topic where silence and denial can be more telling than public controversy. The fact that racism is now being talked about in some circles in Morocco does not mean that Morocco is “where the problem is”. </p>
<p>Far from it – it is where the silence endures, where it is impossible to speak out, that racism is likely to be taking its heaviest toll.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173001/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alastair Bonnett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The west has long defined racism as a function of colonial domination and discrimination. But in a changing world this definition must be challenged.Alastair Bonnett, Professor of Geography, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1704692021-11-11T14:44:44Z2021-11-11T14:44:44ZSouth Africa’s apartheid regime manipulated borders. Today, the effects linger<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428766/original/file-20211027-23-1mpzjqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elizabeth Dlamini at her curio stall in the Ezulwini Valley near Mbabane, eSwatini. The kingdom's economy is dependent on its larger neightbour, South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/John Hrusha</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The issue of land, especially its redistribution, remains <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/05/land-reform-south-africa-election/586900/">contentious</a> in South Africa 27 years after the formal end of apartheid. Land redistribution was promised at the end of apartheid. The failure of the African National Congress (ANC) government to do so is emblematic of its failure to fundamentally transform the country. </p>
<p>Yet, dispossession of land is a historically rooted problem. The <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/natives-land-act-1913">Land Act of 1913</a> forbade black ownership of land in roughly 93% of the country (amended in 1936 to 87%). In the 1960s and 1970s, the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> regime forcibly removed millions of black South Africans from their homes, dumping them in squalid conditions in the so-called <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands">bantustans</a>. </p>
<p>The apartheid-created bantustans, or “homelands”, were 10 undeveloped territories the regime carved out for particular ethnic groups. These territories’ internal borders have disappeared from the map. But, for people living in them, the lack of opportunities that typified their lives during apartheid remains largely the same today.</p>
<p>In addition to the bantustans, two micro-states existed within the borders of South Africa: <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/lesotho">Lesotho</a> and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/eswatini-formerly-swaziland">Swaziland</a> (today called eSwatini). The coexistence of these “legitimate” states – they were <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/growth-in-un-membership">recognised</a> by the United Nations – cheek by jowl with the bantustans challenged the meanings of state recognition and sovereignty.</p>
<p>Today, the governments and residents of both Lesotho and eSwatini still lay claim to some of South Africa’s land. What residents of former “homelands” and the two states have in common are limited government services and few job prospects. This has happened because residents of all these places have historically been denied the freedom to seek employment in South Africa’s best jobs. This was done through <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23271564">job reservation for whites</a>, passport requirements and pass laws that restricted the movement of black people. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2021.1982264?journalCode=cjss20">journal article</a> examined the history of border claims by Lesotho and Swaziland, as well as internal boundary changes the South African apartheid government made as it tried to implement the bantustan system. This showed how policymakers during apartheid attempted to manipulate these borders for strategic gain.</p>
<p>Borders are a socially constructed phenomenon. They are hardly immutable, as the <a href="https://merip.org/2012/03/the-sudan-split/">splitting of Sudan in 2011</a> showed. But, to the residents of what used to be South Africa’s “homelands”, as well as Lesotho and eSwatini, former borders still stand as a barrier. Passports are required for citizens of the two countries. Former homelands residents have built lives and own houses in these distant and under-serviced places. Residents remain trapped: both by decisions taken during apartheid and by the inflexibility of modern states and decision makers.</p>
<p>This research builds on the literature of the last decade that has finally started to tackle the continuing legacy of the bantustans on the lives of millions of South Africans. Additionally, we want to help refocus attention on Lesotho and eSwatini, which have been relatively ignored by scholars since the fall of apartheid. </p>
<p>By studying literature on these sites, scholars will be able to examine southern Africa as an interconnected regional economy, rather than a series of discrete national economies. This will highlight the historical roots of continued regional inequities.</p>
<h2>Strategic choices</h2>
<p>Our article examines the possibility of territorial transfer and border adjustments in the 1970s and 1980s. Then, South Africa was pushing for international recognition for the bantustans in order to generate a sense of legitimacy for the apartheid project.</p>
<p>It focused on getting its most vulnerable regional neighbours – Lesotho and Swaziland – to recognise the bantustans, whether formally via diplomatic recognition or in everyday relations on mundane matters like border control. </p>
<p>In trying to force its neighbours’ hands, South Africa proposed the possibility of making good on claims on South African land made by Lesotho and Swaziland dating back to the 19th century. Proposals to transfer land caused leaders on all sides to make difficult decisions that pitted national interests against global geopolitics. All too often, borderlands residents paid the price for disputes over sovereignty. This position of vulnerability continues today.</p>
<p>We examined a variety of records, including South African and United Kingdom archival sources, as well as contemporary reports on potential land transfers. </p>
<p>We focused on the ideas of land transfer and border adjustments because they are emotive issues for residents. They also signal state priorities. The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305707042000215383">transfer</a> of Glen Grey and Herschel districts from the Ciskei to the Transkei “homelands” in 1975, for instance, shows that the apartheid regime made land concessions to further strategic goals.</p>
<p>South Africa approved the transfer to convince Transkei’s leader <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/kaiser-daliwonga-matanzima">Kaiser Matanzima</a> to declare “independence”. On the other hand, while demanding back the “conquered territory” (portions of South Africa’s Free State province taken by Afrikaner settlers in the 19th century), the leaders of Lesotho were unwilling to take on the Basotho bantustan of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Qwaqwa">Qwaqwa</a> (offered by South Africa) because it was not the whole conquered territory, and it would have meant recognising apartheid.</p>
<p>Lesotho’s leaders also calculated that international aid received from its status as a “front line state” – neighbouring states <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/chapter-3-historical-lesotho">harbouring South Africans fighting against apartheid</a> – was more valuable than a <a href="https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/4134/1/John_Bardill_-_Destabilization%2C_The_Lesotho_case.pdf">partial return</a> of the conquered territory.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/king-sobhuza-ii-1899-1982">Swaziland’s King Sobhuza II</a>, meanwhile, signed a deal in 1982 that would have enlarged the Swazi kingdom by incorporating <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/kangwane">KaNgwane</a>, the area that had been designated as a bantustan for Swazi-speaking South Africans. In exchange, Sobhuza and the Swazi state would take on as citizens every Swazi-speaking person in South Africa. And, in a secret pact, they would expel the then-banned liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), from its forward bases in the kingdom.</p>
<p>KaNgwane leaders rejected the deal. The KwaZulu administration, which would have lost its Ingwavuma District as well under the deal, sued in court to have it declared void. And so, the deal gradually fell apart and was never consummated.</p>
<p>These examples show that while international borders may seem fixed, they were negotiable for the right price in southern Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. It’s also clear that Lesotho would not, and Swaziland could not, take the apartheid state’s border deals. This shows the important role internal pressure and international aid played in influencing border changes. </p>
<h2>Continued disadvantages</h2>
<p>These cases also show how residents of the bantustans and small regional states paid the price for border and boundary disputes. Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana all faced an increased <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/south-african-defence-force-sadf-raid-maseru-effort-kill-suspected-members-african">military threat</a> from the apartheid regime.</p>
<p>Even after the fall of apartheid in 1994, borderlands occupants continue to face greater difficulty in crossing borders to access <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2021/03/border-wars">work</a>, <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-02-14-swazi-parents-in-matric-panic/">school</a> and <a href="https://samponline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Acrobat26.pdf">services</a>. </p>
<p>The challenge for the region is better integration to allow for a more just and humane border policy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170469/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>International borders were negotiable for the right price. What residents of former ‘homelands’ and of Lesotho and eSwatini have in common now are limited government services and few job prospects.John Aerni-Flessner, Associate Professor of African History, Michigan State UniversityChitja Twala, Associate Professor of History, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1683632021-11-04T12:27:38Z2021-11-04T12:27:38ZRacial discrimination is linked to suicidal thoughts in Black adults and children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426017/original/file-20211012-17-1b7su46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C29%2C6437%2C4874&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers are exploring the impacts that racial discrimination is having on Black Americans' emotional and psychological health.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/let-me-help-you-royalty-free-image/939030782?adppopup=true">PeopleImages via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Frederick Douglass is regarded as one of the most prominent abolitionists the world has ever seen. Alongside his extraordinary contributions as an influential <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/coretexts/_files/resources/texts/c/1852%20Douglass%20July%204.pdf">speaker</a>, <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass55/douglass55.html">writer</a>
and human rights advocate, Douglass – who was born into slavery and gained freedom in <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/douglass.html">September 1838</a> – also wrote openly about his struggles with suicidal thoughts. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/frederick-douglass-papers/about-this-collection/">Douglass’ writings</a> are both revolutionary and transformative, particularly when considering that he lived during a time when several anti-literacy laws prevented enslaved Black persons from learning to read and write. </p>
<p>Douglass published his <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/douglass.html">first autobiography</a> – “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” – in 1845. In it, he boldly shared, “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed.” </p>
<p>It’s not hard to imagine why formerly enslaved persons like Douglass would consider ending their own lives. It may, however, be harder for some to understand the links between racism, discrimination and thoughts of suicide among Black Americans today. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Portrait photograph of Frederick Douglass." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427295/original/file-20211019-27-1awg672.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427295/original/file-20211019-27-1awg672.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427295/original/file-20211019-27-1awg672.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427295/original/file-20211019-27-1awg672.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427295/original/file-20211019-27-1awg672.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427295/original/file-20211019-27-1awg672.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427295/original/file-20211019-27-1awg672.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frederick Douglass described how his feelings of despair were countered by his hope of becoming free.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery-item.htm?pg=2813693&id=3020EE0B-1DD8-B71C-075CB26DC2D69D44&gid=3020ED03-1DD8-B71C-07C2C1EA7AD31EF7">Frederick Douglass National Historic Site/NPS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The United States abolished chattel slavery through the <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/CivilWarAmendments.htm">13th Amendment</a> in 1865. However, Black Americans are still grappling with the effects of both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj7779">structural</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1XA5DQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=philomena+everyday+racism&ots=afTXYfxkGI&sig=McgPlpVf3dOf5BPJcEUdk9RoaEQ#v=onepage&q=philomena%20everyday%20racism&f=false">everyday </a> forms of racism that permeate U.S. customs, culture and laws. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://neubauerassistantprofessors.uchicago.edu/faculty/janelle-goodwill/">researcher and assistant professor</a> at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice, I <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Z5Ihr7IAAAAJ&hl=en">explore how factors</a> like discrimination, stigma and depression contribute to suicide risk in Black Americans. I also assess how positive psychological forces – like having a sense of life purpose or receiving social support from others – may improve an individual’s mental health outcomes. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032814-112728">Several studies</a> have reported that exposure to discrimination is related to negative mental and physical health outcomes in Black Americans. These can include increased rates of depression, hypertension and sleep disturbance. Fewer studies have explored how racial discrimination is related to suicidal risk.</p>
<p>Therefore, in 2019 I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2019.1660287">led a study</a> that examined whether racial discrimination was linked to depression and suicidal thoughts in adult Black men. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/pain-of-police-killings-ripples-outward-to-traumatize-black-people-and-communities-across-us-159624">events that have unfolded</a> since this study was published underscore the need for this line of research.</p>
<p>My work, along with research done by a host of other scholars, affirms that any attempt to systematically address inequitable treatment of Black Americans – such as the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/10/19/executive-order-on-white-house-initiative-on-advancing-educational-equity-excellence-and-economic-opportunity-for-black-americans/">recent White House executive order</a> on advancing educational equity and economic opportunity – should also account for the ways in which racial discrimination has impacted mental health outcomes among this particular population. </p>
<h2>Racial discrimination and mental health</h2>
<p>My co-authors and I analyzed survey responses from more than 1,200 African American men ages 18 to 93 who resided in different states across the U.S. Data was originally collected from 2001 to 2003 through the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mpr.177">National Survey of American Life</a>. This project was led by the late social psychologist James S. Jackson, <a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/james-jackson-tribute">whose groundbreaking career</a> shifted the way that Black Americans were represented and studied in research. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR20240.v8">This survey</a> is one of the few nationally representative data sources that uses probability – or random – sampling to explicitly address the mental health experiences of Black adolescents and adults. </p>
<p>We decided to focus our study on Black men because historically, Black males have been four to six times <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1049731517702745">more likely to die by suicide</a> compared to Black females. </p>
<p>Participants in this national survey were asked to indicate how frequently they encountered discrimination in their everyday lives. The experiences surveyed ranged from being treated with less courtesy or respect to being harassed and followed in stores, along with being perceived as dishonest, not smart or not as good as others. </p>
<p>We analyzed men’s responses with a series of statistical tests that measured whether different forms of discrimination were related to negative mental health outcomes. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2019.1660287">We found that</a> Black men who reported more frequent encounters with racial discrimination were more likely to experience depression symptoms and thoughts of suicide at some point during their lifetime. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2019.1660287">findings suggest</a> that experiences of discrimination do not have to be overt or extreme in order to be harmful. Rather, regularly occurring acts of racial discrimination that may initially seem minor can become increasingly stressful over time.</p>
<p>When interpreting these results, it is important to note that we analyzed findings from a cross-sectional study. This means that surveys were administered to participants at only one point in time. Therefore, we were able to establish associations among the variables, but cannot use this data to confirm that racial discrimination caused subsequent thoughts of suicide. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, our findings still offer an important step forward by establishing that links between racial discrimination, depression symptoms and lifetime suicidal thoughts do exist. </p>
<h2>Mental health of Black children and youth</h2>
<p>Our study builds on other research that has also identified links between racial discrimination and suicidal thoughts in Black Americans. </p>
<p>For example, University of Houston clinical psychologist Rheeda Walker and her colleagues <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12251">found that among 722 Black children</a>, experiences of racial discrimination were linked to more depression and greater odds of suicidal thoughts two years later. Members of the research team contacted participants two times and asked the same survey questions - once at age 10 and again at age 12. </p>
<p>Findings generated from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12251">their 2017 study</a> are particularly meaningful because the authors analyzed data over time, which allowed them to confirm that racial discrimination significantly predicts an increase in suicidal thoughts, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12251">not the other way around</a>. </p>
<p>Since then, clinicians, researchers and organizational leaders have partnered with members of the <a href="https://cbc.house.gov/">Congressional Black Caucus</a> to call attention to the urgent mental health needs of Black youth. In 2019, this group created an emergency task force and released a <a href="https://watsoncoleman.house.gov/uploadedfiles/full_taskforce_report.pdf">powerful report</a> that carefully describes the current state of suicide among Black youth. </p>
<p>As detailed in various studies, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.0399">Black children ages 5 to 12 </a>
were two times more likely to die by suicide relative to white children, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.0465">young Black boys</a> being particularly vulnerable to suicide risk. Notably, rates of suicide have also significantly increased among Black teenage girls in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2021.08.021">recent years</a>. </p>
<p>In response to these concerns, leaders at the National Institutes of Health have <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/messages/2020/addressing-the-crisis-of-black-youth-suicide">allocated research funds and invited applications</a> for projects promoting suicide prevention among Black youth. </p>
<p>Researchers have also begun to explore the links between structural forms of racism and suicide risk. For instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.11.128">a study published in 2020</a> found that being unfairly fired from a job and experiencing abuse from the police were linked to suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts among Black adults.</p>
<p>Despite these advances in research, it remains unclear whether any existing suicide prevention interventions account for the specific ways that racial discrimination impacts Black Americans’ psychological and emotional well-being. </p>
<p>Therefore, it will be essential for researchers, clinicians and community members to work together in promoting the mental health needs of Black children and adults, while simultaneously encouraging Black Americans to hold on to the hope that Frederick Douglass professed more than 175 years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janelle R. Goodwill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The evidence is growing that experiencing both systemic and everyday race-based discrimination may lead some Black Americans to become depressed and think about suicide.Janelle R. Goodwill, Assistant Professor of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1655112021-09-15T12:15:15Z2021-09-15T12:15:15ZBrain scans of Black women who experience racism show trauma-like effects, putting them at higher risk for future health problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417239/original/file-20210820-27-ph2m0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5184%2C3430&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your experiences affect your brain – and your brain affects your health.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hundreds-of-demonstrators-walk-to-gracie-mansion-the-news-photo/1219619719">John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Black women who have experienced more racism throughout their lives have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.1480">stronger brain responses to threat</a>, which may hurt their long-term health, according to a new study I conducted with clinical neuropsychologist <a href="https://psychiatry.emory.edu/faculty/fani_negar.html">Negar Fani</a> and other colleagues.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RbBF5IgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I am part of a</a> <a href="http://gradytraumaproject.com/">research team</a> that for more than 15 years has studied the ways stress related to trauma exposure can affect the mind and body. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.1480">our recent study</a>, we took a closer look at a stressor that Black Americans disproportionately face in the U.S.: racism.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I completed research with 55 Black women who reported how much they’d been exposed to traumatic experiences, such as childhood abuse and physical or sexual violence, and to racial discrimination, experiencing unfair treatment due to race or ethnicity.</p>
<p>We asked them to focus on a task that required attention while simultaneously looking at stressful images. We used <a href="https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/functional-mri-imaging-the-brain">functional MRI</a> to observe their brain activity during that time.</p>
<p>We found that Black women who reported more experiences of racial discrimination had more response activity in brain regions that are associated with vigilance and watching out for threat – that is, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/middle-occipital-gyrus">middle occipital cortex</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/ventromedial-prefrontal-cortex">ventromedial prefrontal cortex</a>. Their reactions were above and beyond the response caused by traumatic experiences not related to racism. Our research suggests that racism had a traumalike effect on Black women’s health; being regularly attuned to the threat of racism can tax important body-regulation tools and worsen brain health.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2020.113331">Other trauma research shows</a> that this kind of continuous response to threat can increase the risk of mental health disorders and additional future brain health problems.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Black Americans continue to suffer from health disparities, including being at disproportionately <a href="https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=28">greater risk for stroke</a>, cognitive decline and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2013.1353">neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease</a>, compared with white Americans. Although research has consistently demonstrated that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579416000894">chronic stress of racism</a> can get under the skin and leave a biological residue of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000788">enduring health consequences</a> for Black Americans over time, little research has explored the impact of racism on brain function and health. </p>
<p>There is a large and well-established history of research connecting traumatic experiences, such as childhood maltreatment, physical assault and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2018.05.013">changes in brain functioning</a> that lead to negative health outcomes. Our study is one of the first to consider how the brain might respond to experiences of racial discrimination above and beyond other traumatic stressors.</p>
<p>Black women may be particularly vigilant about threats within their environment because they have had to adapt to living in societal spaces that perpetuate racism. Knowing this could be a step forward in research and advocacy efforts aimed at reducing health inequity.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Our research findings demonstrate that Black people’s experiences of racism can influence how the brain responds and adapts, which deserves greater research attention. My colleagues and I believe that neurobiology research is just beginning to appropriately investigate the effect that racism has on the health disparities seen in this population. Our study provides a preliminary glimpse into the need to consider the traumatic nature of racism in Black lives.</p>
<p>More research is needed across all stages of life, including in childhood, to understand how and when some Black people develop highly elevated vigilance to threats related to racial discrimination, and how that affects their health.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>I plan to do more research inspired by the results from this study. </p>
<p>Fear puts strain on the body, but it also can serve a protective purpose. I hope to get a better understanding of the costs and benefits of fear to threats in a context of chronic oppression for some Black Americans. </p>
<p>I’m also interested in how Black people describe, experience and address potential threats when the threat originates from individuals in positions of power who are expected to protect and serve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165511/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sierra Carter receives funding from the National Cancer Institute (R01CA220254-02S1). Additional funding for the completion of this study included funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health (MH101380, MH119603, HD071982, MH-071537 and MH094757). </span></em></p>New research points to a biological way that racism can lead to health disparities.Sierra Carter, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1666832021-09-13T14:55:57Z2021-09-13T14:55:57ZWhite privilege: what it is, what it means and why understanding it matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419597/original/file-20210906-21-1dtiawm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A protest against racial injustice and police violence in Spain.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Josep LAGO / AFP) (Photo by JOSEP LAGO/AFP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A prestigious, private school in Pretoria, South Africa, recently became a site of protest. Black learners and parents <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2021/08/05/some-parents-accuse-cornwall-hill-college-of-rejecting-transformation-calls">accused</a> Cornwall Hill College of rejecting calls to make its whites-only board more representative of its diverse learner body.</p>
<p>In response, a right wing South African youth group called <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news/anti-transformation-protest-at-cornwall-hill-college-7ad93368-6509-46f6-93e6-0e09ec7b78dd">Bittereinders</a> (the Bitter Enders), held an <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/cornwall-hill-college/">anti-transformation protest</a>.“Unhappy? build your own schools,” was the response from one member.</p>
<p>Why is racial inequality perceivably so resistant to transformation? Some say it is because of a failure to acknowledge and confront white privilege. </p>
<p>The police killing of <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-floyd-killed-by-police-officer">George Floyd</a> in the US city of Minneapolis in 2020 ignited a wave of protests across the globe and intense discussions of anti-black racism. </p>
<p>From France to Columbia and South Africa, demonstrators used the term ‘white privilege’ as a means of challenging people to confront the racial disparities evident in their own countries. </p>
<p>Amid the demonstrations, a group of international scholars brought together at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in 2020 began discussing whether the concept of ‘white privilege’ is useful for addressing systemic racial inequalities across national contexts. </p>
<p>Although it is clear that the term has become popular across diverse contexts, some have argued against it. They say that the term ‘white privilege’ reinforces stereotypes, reifies conceptualisations of race, antagonises potential allies and creates even greater <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-perils-of-associating-white-with-privilege-in-the-classroom-143933">resistance to change</a>.</p>
<p>As movements for racial justice have become more global in scope, the term has circulated across national boundaries. However, it does not always translate well to these new contexts. </p>
<h2>A history</h2>
<p>The term white privilege <a href="https://qz.com/728812/how-much-white-privilege-do-you-have-a-checklist-from-1988-is-still-relevant-today/">originated in the US in the 1980s</a>, referring to both the obvious and the hidden advantages afforded to white people by systemic forms of racial injustice. Unlike terms such as “racial injustice” and “systemic racial bias”, the idea of privilege centres the discussion around individuals. </p>
<p>Focusing the discussion on the individual is especially effective for the purposes of anti-racist teaching and advocacy. Unpacking how whiteness operates to bestow privilege may allow us to understand how ‘others’ are systematically denied those same rights.</p>
<p>By the mid-2000s, the term white privilege had been adopted by many educators and activists in the US. They were seeking to call attention to the myriad ways in which whites, regardless of their class, benefit from white supremacy and are, therefore, implicated in maintaining the system. For whites in the US, where many live in <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/poll-race-religion-politics-americans-social-networks/">racially homogeneous communities</a>, the concept of white privilege could spark individual self-reflection and motivate individual political action.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-n-word-a-volcano-kept-active-by-the-flickering-embers-of-racism-159928">The N-Word: a volcano kept active by the flickering embers of racism</a>
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<p>While scholars in some other countries have recently used the term to elucidate systemic patterns of inequality in their own societies, in other countries scholars have been more dubious about the concept. </p>
<p>In South Africa, white privilege is the legacy of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a>, which subjugated and devalued anyone whose skin colour was not white. Despite the political dismantling of apartheid, white privilege persists. Calls to transform racialised organisations are viewed as threats by white people who, correctly, hear demands for racial justice as an end to white privilege. </p>
<p>In France, use of the term white privilege is relatively recent, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/world/europe/france-threat-american-universities.html">introduced</a> in the late 2000s by social scientists. The concept is particularly accurate to describe the legacies of slavery and colonial politics. And it captures the experience of structural racism many inhabitants of France’s social-housing neighbourhoods have shared.</p>
<p>Yet, with growing acceptance of the concept, there has also been <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2021/03/31/racise-privilege-blanc-intersectionnalite-le-lexique-pour-comprendre-le-debat-autour-des-reunions-non-mixtes_6075153_4355770.html">resistance</a>. Some decry “white privilege” as creeping Americanisation, ill-fit to France’s liberal tradition and universalism. </p>
<p>Others, echoing critics in the US, argue that a sole focus on racial inequity may entrench, rather than repair, racial divisions in the country. For example, the use of ‘white privilege’ can backfire when it fails to resonate with whites disadvantaged by class, gender or religion. Consequently, the term can, at times, elicit defensive reactions and increased denial of racial disparities. </p>
<h2>Race as a political category</h2>
<p>Constructions of whiteness and its associated privileges are shaped by different – sometimes contradictory – histories of racial discrimination and racial justice activism. This is because understandings of race and racial categories, as socially constructed categories, remain inconsistent and unequally salient across space and time. </p>
<p>For example, a person from North Africa, from the Indian sub-continent or from Oceania could be considered ‘white’ – in spite of a dark complexion – in many contexts. </p>
<p>Race as a political category is loaded with the histories of racial extermination and racist politics in some places and less so in others. In France ‘white privilege’ could be perceived as provocative because it challenges the French universalist narrative and the modern conception of citizenship and a common will. </p>
<p>Thus, discussions of the material consequences of ‘race’ as a category may occur more openly outside of Western Europe, in Africa and the Americas where native populations were exterminated, enslaved and subjected to various forms of social and political exclusion. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-unpack-the-word-race-and-find-new-language-138379">We need to unpack the word 'race' and find new language</a>
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<p>Still, the question of who counts as ‘white’, ‘coloured’, ‘black’, or indigenous remains deeply contested across the globe. As do the explanations for the disparate outcomes and treatment of people in these socially, and sometimes legally, constructed categories. Hence whiteness, and the privileges associated with membership in such a category, remains contextually <a href="https://www.behavioralcorner.com/ep-40-wendy-roth">defined</a>. </p>
<p>For example, an individual of European descent may be treated differently based on where they are in the world. But, this does not negate the fact that someone of Black African origin will often be treated worse than a similarly situated person of European origin in many countries. White privilege persists, even in the absence of any universal definition of “white”.</p>
<h2>Toward a goal of racial justice</h2>
<p>There have been countless moves to maintain the status quo, such as the Cornwall Hill College anti-transformation protest, <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/westerford-high-school-addresses-racism-discrimination-raised-on-you-silence-we-amplify-49262352">You Silence We Amplify</a>, and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/01/12/what-the-capitol-insurgency-reveals-about-white-supremacy-and-law-enforcement/">the U.S. capital insurgency</a>. </p>
<p>Privilege is directly contingent on disfranchisement, measured in terms of who does and does not have access and opportunity. In countries with histories of white supremacy, the meaning of white privilege may seem self-evident to many. But for others there and in other <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/poll-race-religion-politics-americans-social-networks/">countries</a>, the term may prompt new questions and challenges. </p>
<p>Although the concept of ‘white privilege’ has proved valuable to people advocating for social change in different national contexts, there is also resistance in many countries to the notion that white people are uniquely ‘privileged’ by their race. Some critics seem unwilling to dismantle white supremacy whereas others point to the limitations of ‘white privilege’ to capture the full range of inequalities that shape people’s lives.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-dimensions-of-human-inequality-affect-who-and-what-we-are-137296">How the dimensions of human inequality affect who and what we are</a>
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<p>A transnational movement for racial justice requires a shared commitment to ending racial inequality across national boundaries. It also requires a sensitivity to the specific, local conditions in which race and racism touch the everyday lives of people. </p>
<p>The concept of ‘white privilege’ remains useful when presented in ways that both resonate with individuals and shed light on structural causes of racial inequality. Then, it has the potential to motivate those with advantages to combat injustices. It can undermine movements for racial justice, however, when it fails to raise awareness of the historical, structural, and political forces that confer some groups advantages over others based on skin colour, phenotype, hair texture and other physical characteristics attributed to ‘race.’ </p>
<p>What is clear is that, as a tool for advocacy, 'white privilege’ cannot be an end but rather a beginning, one of many concepts that can lead individuals toward a critique of systemic racism and global anti-blackness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166683/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magali Della Sudda receives funding from Agence nationale de la recherche GILETSJAUNES 2020-2024. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vivian Zayas receives funding from National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karolyn Tyson, Kevin Driscoll, Nuraan Davids, and Veronica Terriquez do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A transnational movement for racial justice requires a sensitivity to the specific, local conditions in which race and racism touch the everyday lives of people.Nuraan Davids, Professor of Philosophy of Education, Stellenbosch UniversityKarolyn Tyson, Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillKevin Driscoll, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, University of VirginiaMagali Della Sudda, Research scientist, Sciences Po BordeauxVeronica Terriquez, Associate professor, UCLA Luskin School of Public AffairsVivian Zayas, Professor of Psychology, Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1642692021-08-27T12:30:37Z2021-08-27T12:30:37ZAssassinations and invasions – how the US and France shaped Haiti’s long history of political turmoil<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417449/original/file-20210823-26-3aeejz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C14%2C1334%2C1023&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Police patrol outside the Embassy of Taiwan in Port-au-Prince on July 9, 2021, after 11 suspected assassins of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse broke into its embassy in an attempt to flee.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-patrol-outside-the-embassy-of-taiwan-in-port-au-news-photo/1233890654?adppopup=true">Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-recent-political-instability-affect-haitis-earthquake-response-we-ask-an-expert-166224">powerful earthquake</a> that struck Haiti on Aug. 14, 2021, followed a long series of natural and human-caused disasters to rock the country. Unfortunately, if history offers any clues, earthquake relief efforts will be complicated by the nation’s recent political unrest.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/08/haiti-president-killed-what-we-know-jovenel-moises-murder/7893850002/">President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated</a> less than six weeks earlier, on July 7. Many Haitians felt hatred for the controversial president who, while running for office, was <a href="https://haitiantimes.com/2021/07/16/haitians-can-no-longer-hide-behind-the-caste-system-killing-our-country/">bribed by the oligarchy</a> that has run Haiti’s economy since the 19th century.</p>
<p>Moïse campaigned on a promise to feed the starving population. But he <a href="https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/assassination-haitian-president-jovenel-moise-what-know">failed to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth</a>. He soon became an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/world/americas/haiti-president-jovenel-moise-assassination.html">unpopular president</a> who increasingly ruled as an autocrat. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/centers/hsi/executive-committee/saint-paul.php">sociology professor</a> who has <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/747670">written extensively</a> on Haitian politics, I predicted Moïse’s assassination. </p>
<p>That’s because Moïse remained defiant in the face of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/daily-protests-are-paralyzing-haiti-heres-why/2019/10/14/aba02aba-ee9f-11e9-bb7e-d2026ee0c199_story.html">mass protests in 2019</a>, refusing to heed calls for his resignation amid fuel shortages and spiraling inflation. </p>
<p>There was also a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jovenel-moise-courts-democracy-elections-latin-america-491e2d3b3ec2beab0674e5021d2ccb28">palpable split</a> between Moïse and powerful <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/assassinated-haitian-president-jovenel-moise-clashed-with-some-business-magnates-11626899784">business magnates</a> as the country’s economic crisis worsened.</p>
<h2>Presidential assassinations in Haiti</h2>
<p>Moïse is the latest of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/07/09/haiti-jean-jacques-dessalines-assassination-moise/">five</a> Haitian <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/the-king-of-haiti-and-the-dilemmas-of-freedom-in-a-colonised-world">presidents</a> to be <a href="https://haitiantimes.com/2021/07/11/a-brief-history-of-presidential-deaths-in-haiti/">killed in office</a> since the country’s founding in 1804.</p>
<p>Power struggles and strong economic interests, both local and with other nations – mainly the United States – have motivated those assassinations. Throughout Haitian history, the U.S. has been actively engaged in <a href="https://cepr.net/undermining-haiti/">undermining the legitimacy of Haitian leaders</a> who refused to bow to American imperialism. </p>
<p>Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haiti’s founding father, proclaimed the country’s independence from France on Jan. 1, 1804, after a 12-year war. </p>
<p>One of his first executive orders was intended to prevent the abuse of land ownership. It called for a fair distribution of land among racial groups in a country that had won independence because of strategic <a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/haiti.htm">alliances among Blacks, biracial people and a few white soldiers</a>.</p>
<p>Dessalines is often portrayed by mainstream media as <a href="https://romantic-circles.org/praxis/circulations/HTML/praxis.2011.twa.html">a cannibal and assassin</a>. That’s because he was abhorred by white Europeans and Americans – leaders of the global economic system who were intimidated by the Haitian Revolution.</p>
<p>Additionally, the elites in Dessalines’ circle disapproved of the power he had concentrated, and they assassinated him on Oct. 17, 1806.</p>
<p>His death accelerated Haiti’s political disintegration. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417451/original/file-20210823-24-p2up7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man marches during a protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417451/original/file-20210823-24-p2up7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417451/original/file-20210823-24-p2up7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417451/original/file-20210823-24-p2up7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417451/original/file-20210823-24-p2up7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417451/original/file-20210823-24-p2up7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417451/original/file-20210823-24-p2up7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417451/original/file-20210823-24-p2up7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A man dressed as the hero of Haiti’s independence, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, marches during an anti-government protest in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-dressed-as-the-founding-father-and-hero-of-the-news-photo/457388276?adppopup=true">Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>The Monroe Doctrine and political assassinations</h2>
<p>The 30 billion euros in today’s currency that Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-france-extorted-haiti-the-greatest-heist-in-history-137949">agreed to pay France in 1825</a> as compensation for property losses during the war has destabilized the country. </p>
<p>It has also allowed foreign powers to undermine Haiti’s sovereignty. </p>
<p>In 1823, the U.S. passed the <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/monroe-doctrine">Monroe Doctrine</a>, which says “that the American continents … are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.” The declaration, meant to keep Europe out of the continent, has justified U.S. interventions in the region.</p>
<p>Between 1889 and 1891, the U.S. unsuccessfully negotiated with Haiti to acquire the Môle St. Nicholas port, which would have given it a military foothold in the Caribbean.</p>
<p>More than 20 years later, the murder of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam offered the U.S. the perfect rationale to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/haiti-us-occupation-hundred-year-anniversary">invade Haiti</a>. </p>
<p>On same day as Sam’s assassination, July 28, 1915, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/07/10/haitis-interim-government-requests-help-us-troops/7928255002/">Woodrow Wilson authorized the American warship USS Washington</a> to invade Haiti. The U.S. occupied Haiti until 1934. </p>
<p>During that occupation, U.S. officials altered Haiti’s Constitution to allow foreigners to become landowners. That change also gave the U.S. control of Haiti’s customs agency and finances. </p>
<p>Racial discrimination and segregation were the norm in the U.S. South at the time, and most U.S. Marines sent to Haiti were Southerners, accustomed to Jim Crow. </p>
<p>This Southern influence among U.S. Marines played a big role in Haitian history. During the occupation, the U.S. picked only light-skinned Haitians to serve as presidents. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/06/haiti-us-occupation-1915/">And after 19 years in the country</a>, the U.S. left behind a racially divided society that remains intact today.</p>
<h2>US-trained army</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/06/haiti-us-occupation-1915/">U.S. also trained the Haitian military</a> ideologically to defend U.S. interests. These forces eventually engineered many coups against Haitian leaders who were popular with locals but rejected by the U.S. </p>
<p>Between 1946 and 1950, under the presidency of Dumarsais Estimé, Haiti enjoyed political and social stability. However, on May 10, 1950, Paul-Eugène Magloire, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jul/20/guardianobituaries">trained during the U.S. occupation</a>, overthrew Estimé and changed Haiti’s political trajectory. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jul/20/guardianobituaries">Magloire established a corrupt political regime</a>. Then the army provided support for U.S.-backed François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, from his presidential election in 1957 to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/23/archives/papa-doc-a-ruthless-dictator-kept-the-haitians-in-illiteracy-and.html">establishment in 1959 of his dictatorship</a>. </p>
<p>In 1959, Duvalier created the <a href="https://www.coha.org/tonton-macoutes/">Tontons Macoutes</a>, a paramilitary group trained by U.S. Marines that killed more than 60,000 Haitians. The Duvalier regime, led by Papa Doc’s son Jean-Claude after his death in 1971, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/world/americas/jean-claude-duvalier-haitis-baby-doc-dies-at-63.html">lasted until 1986</a>.</p>
<h2>The Aristide era</h2>
<p>Between 1991 and 2004, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide – who won over Haitians with his anti-imperialism – was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/failing-haiti-and-forgetting-jean-bertrand-aristide">overthrown twice by the Haitian military</a>. </p>
<p>On Sept. 29, 1991, the army, <a href="https://archive.globalpolicy.org/empire/history/2004/0415lrbaristide.htm">with CIA help</a>, removed Aristide from power for his nationalistic views, and for his attempts to hold accountable powerful business leaders with strong ties to Washington.</p>
<p>On Oct. 15, 1994, amid huge protests, the Bill Clinton administration restored Aristide to power, after Washington coerced him to sign l’Accord de Paris, an agreement to reinforce the <a href="https://nacla.org/article/disaster-capitalism-rescue-international-community-and-haiti-after-earthquake">implementation of market-oriented reform policies in Haiti</a> that reduced local influence over the economy.</p>
<p>Aristide was forced to privatize social services and public institutions, and he had to facilitate the entry of foreign agricultural goods into the Haitian market. These moves undermined the economy and compromised Haiti’s social development.</p>
<p>In 2000, Aristide again won the presidency. But <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/international/americas/haitis-president-forced-out-marines-sent-to-keep.html">a February 2004 coup</a>, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/coup-haiti/">engineered by Washington and Paris</a>, overthrew him once more. </p>
<p>Under foreign influence, Haitian politicians have been unable to develop a stable society for their fellow citizens. Because of their lack of vision and their erroneous conception of political power, they have given powerful transnational forces the opportunity to shape Haiti’s political leadership.</p>
<p>Both Democratic and Republican U.S. politicians have imposed on Haitian society a political leadership supportive of U.S. interests but noxious for any nation-building project on the Caribbean island.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164269/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Eddy Saint Paul does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Local power struggles and strong US interests have long shaped political leadership – and presidential assassinations – in Haiti, limiting nation-building projects on the Caribbean island.Jean Eddy Saint Paul, Professor of Sociology, Brooklyn CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1635772021-08-17T05:12:47Z2021-08-17T05:12:47ZThe role of ‘re-storying’ in addressing over-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples<p>The 17 socioeconomic targets in the Closing the Gap report intend to reduce the incarceration rate of First Nations people. Despite this, according to the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/closing-the-gap-data/annual-data-report/2021/snapshot/socioeconomic/outcome-area10">recent Productivity Commission update</a> on the Closing the Gap targets, First Nations incarceration rates are still rising.</p>
<p>Over the past 30 years, incarceration rates have more than <a href="https://caepr.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/docs/2021/4/WP_140_Anthony_et_al_2021.pdf">doubled</a> to unprecedented levels for First Nations people. Yet, violent offending convictions for Aboriginal people have <a href="https://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Pages/bocsar_media_releases/2016/mr-Indigenous-crime-and-imprisonment.aspx">decreased</a> in NSW and <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/recorded-crime-offenders/2019-20/4.%20Indigenous%20status%2C%20selected%20states%20and%20territories.xls">across Australia</a>. </p>
<p>This could be due to entrenched racism in the justice system. Sentencing courts are key gatekeepers for prisons and are therefore, in part, accountable for the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276827164_First_Nations_Peoples_and_Judicial_Sentencing_Main_Effects_and_the_Impact_of_Contextual_Variability">high rates</a> of First Nations incarceration.</p>
<p>What is required in sentencing is a process of <a href="http://www.corntassel.net/IndigenousStorytelling.pdf">“re-storying”, or truth-telling</a>. Aboriginal storying in sentencing promotes the principles of truth-telling by placing power in the hands of the Aboriginal person and their community to tell their story.</p>
<p>Through this, non-custodial pathways can be identified, drawing on the person’s strengths and community avenues for healing. Re-storying provides resistance to racist stereotypes in courts that contribute to the over-incarceration of Aboriginal people.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://healingfoundation.org.au/app/uploads/2017/05/Bringing-Them-Home-20-years-on-FINAL-SCREEN-1.pdf">Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation</a> notes that laying bare the truths of Aboriginal people is a way to counter and expose racism.</p>
<p>There must be a process for truth-telling in sentencing that compels action. However, there also needs to be systemic change that recognises prisons as a harm rather than a solution for First Nations people.</p>
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<p>It is also critical that courts recognise and redress their role in over-incarceration, which the <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1695/index.do">Canadian Supreme Court</a> has begun to do. This includes critically reflecting on how unconscious bias can influence <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/cognitive-social-biases-ji6/">judicial decision-making</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-news-media-play-an-important-role-reminding-the-country-that-black-lives-still-matter-161412">Australia's news media play an important role reminding the country that Black lives still matter</a>
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<h2>A history of assuming guilt influencing criminal justice systems</h2>
<p>Casting Aboriginal people as criminals has been happening since the earliest days of colonisation when Aboriginal people were deemed <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/114909">outcasts</a> on homelands.</p>
<p>Ambēyaŋ scholar <a href="https://indigenousx.com.au/callum-clayton-dixon-our-history-of-resistance-involves-revitalising-our-traditional-languages/">Callum Clayton Dixon</a> identifies how Aboriginal peoples were “officially deemed criminals by colonial authorities” to justify colonial land takeover of a sovereign people. </p>
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<p><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/arthur-sir-george-1721">Governor George Arthur</a> in NSW claimed ahead of a military attack on Aboriginal people in 1828, </p>
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<p>The Aboriginal natives of this colony are and ever have been a most treacherous race. </p>
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<p>In 1839, the <a href="https://indigenousx.com.au/callum-clayton-dixon-our-history-of-resistance-involves-revitalising-our-traditional-languages/">Sydney Herald</a> reported:</p>
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<p>…if strong measures be not soon adopted, these ruthless savages will go on, adding one crime to another. </p>
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<p>Today, the legal narrative of Aboriginal people’s offending – laid bare in prosecutor’s statements – is worsened by the assumption and measurement of criminal “<a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1047&context=jgi">risk</a>”. </p>
<p>The language and measurements of risk inform pre-sentence reports prepared for courts by community corrections. They use a deficit metric to influence decisions on sentencing. Rather than identifying strengths, community corrections treat First Nations peoples’ backgrounds and circumstances as a problem.</p>
<p><a href="https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/378227">Australian</a> and Canadian research has found that such reports reinforce <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1462474510369442">racist assumptions</a> about First Nations people. </p>
<p>A risk framework focused on perceived deficits of Aboriginal people positions them, according to Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman and health professor <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/244586/sub040-indigenous-evaluation.pdf">Chelsea Watego and colleagues</a>, as “in need of ‘fixing’ and ‘moulding’ (usually by white hands).” </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/excessive-strip-searching-shines-light-on-discrimination-of-aboriginal-women-in-the-criminal-justice-system-163969">Excessive strip-searching shines light on discrimination of Aboriginal women in the criminal justice system</a>
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<h2>Deficit narratives in sentencing</h2>
<p>Listening to the life stories of First Nations people on their terms provides an antidote to the usual deficit narrative in courts. </p>
<p>This approach is adopted in Canadian Gladue reports, which are First Nations-narrated pre-sentence reports. They illustrate the First Nations person’s holistic circumstances and needs, including how they have been failed by the system. These have the potential to reduce prison sentences, according to the <a href="http://www.trc.ca/assets/pdf/Honouring_the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_Future_July_23_2015.pdf">Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a>. </p>
<p>This approach is also being implemented by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service through <a href="http://www.vals.org.au/aboriginal-community-justice-reports/">Aboriginal community justice reports</a>. This initiative draws on the lessons of the Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto when it established <a href="https://ciaj-icaj.ca/wp-content/uploads/page/2016/05/903.pdf">Gladue reports</a>.</p>
<p>The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation, bears witness to how Aboriginal voices are stifled in sentencing courts, and their lives reduced to the sum of criminal histories and risks. Promoting First Nations strengths and self-determination in truth telling is at the heart of its work. This includes through re-storying in sentencing.</p>
<p>Reflecting on the role of the Yoo-rrook Commission (Victoria’s truth-telling process), CEO <a href="https://nit.com.au/victoria-launches-countrys-first-truth-telling-commission/">Nerita Waight</a> articulated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Self-determination is the only way Aboriginal people will ever get justice. Self-determination is too often stifled by bureaucracies that exclude or sideline Aboriginal voices.</p>
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<h2>The role of Aboriginal community justice reports</h2>
<p>Aboriginal community justice reports were recommended by the <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/final_report_133_amended1.pdf">Australian Law Reform Commission</a> in its <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/inquiry/incarceration-rates-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/">2017 inquiry</a> into First Nations over-incarceration. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aboriginaljustice.vic.gov.au/the-agreement/aboriginal-justice-outcomes-framework/goal-21-aboriginal-people-are-not-7">Aboriginal community justice reports</a> seek to provide a more complete picture of a person’s life and circumstances. They endeavour to amplify the aspirations, interests, strengths, connections, culture, and supports of the individual, as well as the adverse impact of colonial and carceral systems on their life.</p>
<p>The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Services <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gE06pay0dw">began a trial using these reports</a> this year. Twenty will be produced over the next two years by Aboriginal report writers who are working with the Aboriginal person before the court. The person’s own words and experiences will form the substance of the reports. </p>
<p>This approach acknowledges the Aboriginal person is the expert in their own journey, and conveys the person’s circumstances and a deeper understanding of their life, ties to family, community, ancestors and their involvement with government institutions.</p>
<p>Reports will be trialled in the County Court – both Koori County Court and mainstream criminal division. Aboriginal people who request a report will also receive support from Aboriginal caseworkers to build their own path forward. </p>
<p>The process of speaking “<a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14032.html">one’s own voice</a>” with an Aboriginal worker preparing the report is intended to restore dignity and empower the person to take responsibility and a lead role in their healing, rather than just be judged.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/carceral-feminism-and-coercive-control-when-indigenous-women-arent-seen-as-ideal-victims-witnesses-or-women-161091">Carceral feminism and coercive control: when Indigenous women aren't seen as ideal victims, witnesses or women</a>
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<h2>Moving forward with truth telling and re-storying practices</h2>
<p>Aboriginal community justice reports are part of a growing momentum for Aboriginal narrative reports in sentencing. </p>
<p>In addition to Victoria, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations in other parts of Australia, including <a href="https://www.fivebridges.com.au/">Five Bridges</a> in Queensland and <a href="https://deadlyconnections.org.au/bugmy-justice-project/">Deadly Connections</a> in New South Wales, are taking the lead in producing reports that involve truth-telling in sentencing.</p>
<p>However, truth-telling needs to involve systemic change. The Aboriginal community justice reports coincide with the self-determination work of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and other Aboriginal organisations to build community programs and advocacy that pushes back on colonial carceralism. </p>
<p>This is true to First Nations radical scholarship that <a href="https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/bitstream/handle/1828/12462/Corntassel_Jeff_ESC_2009.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">heeds</a>, </p>
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<p>Processes of re-storying and truth-telling are not effective without some larger community-centred, decolonising actions behind them.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163577/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thalia Anthony receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andreea Lachsz is Head of Policy, Communications and Strategy at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nerita Waight is the Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service. </span></em></p>Opportunities to give voice to Aboriginal people in prison have the potential to address the growing impacts of racism in the justice system in Australia.Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology SydneyAndreea Lachsz, PhD Candidate, University of Technology SydneyNerita Waight, Chief Executive Officer - Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, Indigenous KnowledgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.