Denial Of Racism Research Articles

Challenging the Public Denial of Racism for a Deeper Multiculturalism

The further development of Australian multiculturalism must squarely address racism, and a primary step must be the acknowledgement of racism. The Challenging Racism Project (2001–2008) data provide a clear picture of the acknowledgement of racism and of Anglo cultural privilege among Australians. Encouragingly, most Australians recognise that racism is a problem in Australian society. A little under half, however, deny that there is Anglo cultural privilege. Perhaps surprisingly, respondents from non-Anglo-Australian backgrounds, including those born in the Middle East and South Asia, were significantly more likely than those from Anglo backgrounds and Australian-born respondents to deny that racial prejudice exists in Australia. Cultural hierarchies of citizenship regulate the acknowledgement of racism, encouraging denial and deflection, and punishing ‘complaint’ from those more exposed to racism. The broader social pathology identified by this paper is an unevenness in the sense of citizenship across ethnic groups, and addressing this social weakness must be a macro-level ambition for the further development of Australian multiculturalism.

Attacks on Indian students: the commerce of denial in Australia

The issue of racist violence appeared in the Australian media and politics in mid-2009 following a spate of attacks on international students in Melbourne and Sydney. The racist aspect of these attacks was downplayed, authorities describing them as ‘opportunistic’ and a ‘regrettable fact of urban life’. The denial of racism is a familiar hallmark of contemporary racism; for some scholars, it is a defining criterion of what has been called the ‘new racism’. But the denial of racism around the attacks on Indian international students also had an economic imperative. Negative media coverage within India posed a substantial threat to the AUS$18.6 billion international education export market, with potential students and sponsors becoming concerned about their security should they elect to study in Australia. Data from the Challenging Racism project provide compelling evidence on the racist context of the attacks. The Indian media and politicians maintained an outraged position on the attacks, affecting student interest in Australia. And as the substantial economic costs became clearer, Australian governments came to more openly acknowledge a racist element to the attacks, also hinting at structural issues regarding community relations and attitudes which required policy attention.

Racial Profiling: The Parisian Police Experience

The controversy over racial profiling in policing that is explored within the pages of the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice echoes the violent debates within French society regarding the police--debates that take place not only in specialized journals but in the outside world as well: One only has to think about the repeated recurrence of urban or race riots, to use the term common in the United States (Waddington, Jobard, and King 2009). One of our research projects, which focused on racial profiling, has been the source of numerous discussions in France (Open Justice 2009; Levy and Jobard 2010. More precisely, our research examined racial profiling within stop-and-searches (controle d'identite) executed by the police. Financed by the Open Justice program, it was carried out with the help of John Lamberth (Lamberth Consulting), Indira Goris, and Rachel Neild (Open Justice Initiative). In five heavily frequented places in Paris, we tasked observers to follow police officers furtively and to register, via mobile phone, the characteristics of the persons who were stopped and searched. The telephones allowed the observers to remain unnoticed and to send their coded data via SMS to a server located in the United States. More than 500 persons who were stopped and searched were recorded, of which we now know gender, age (young or not young), type of bags (no bag, big bag, other bag), style of clothing, and race. We also coded and registered the traits of the overall population at these places (benchmarking), thus cataloguing the variables related to around 37,000 persons. Comparing the variables for the persons stopped and searched with those of the overall population, we could demonstrate possible profiling practised by the police. In their response to Satzewich and Shaffir (2009), Henry and Tator (2011) note that while the discourse of the denial of racism is one of the most powerful in the public arena, it also permeates research perspectives in the scholarship (70). By this, Henry and Tator (2011) mean that denial of racism distorts and undermines scientific perceptions. In our case, anticipation as to the nature of police discourse has actually permeated our research, strongly influencing its design. We did find it necessary to establish a reference population. The main reason for that lies in the oft-cited denominator problem (Melchers 2003; Paulhamus, Kane, and Piquero 2010). But it also relates to police discourse, particularly to the Jane and Finch (Henry and Tator 2011: 68) explanation offered by Hamilton's police officers: a minority's over-representation among the people stopped is explained by that minority's over-representation in the available population. Behind the long and costly deployment of observers aiming to record tens of thousands of individuals was the goal of anticipating these discourses. In the same way, we anticipated the terrorism argument, making the carrying of bags and the characteristics of those bags one of our variables. We also aimed to introduce the question of clothing, distinguishing three types: casual, business, and youth culture. This last type is crucial, because one of the targets staked out by police officers in France is young people from suburban housing projects (cites de banlieue), who are essentially identifiable by their style of clothing (in common parlance, they are sometimes described as jeunes a capuche (hooded youngsters). But our first methodological choice was, in fact, to undertake a quantitative research on the topic. We feel dissatisfaction, if not exasperation, when faced with what Henry and Tator (2011) defend as narratives of personal experience, their term for what many call anecdotal evidence (74). In our view, sociology in France, when studying youth/police relationships, is all too often content with relying on the accounts put forward by the young people themselves in series of semi-directed interviews. …

The Blindside Flick: Race and Rugby League

The issue of race was virtually beyond the touchline in Australian rugby league before the 1960s. It was a white man’s game. Institutionalised racism meant that few Aboriginal men played rugby league at the highest professional level. It is now presumed that race and racism has no place in a game where these questions have been historically ‘out of bounds’. The dearth of critical writing in rugby league history indicates that racism in the sport has been subject to a form of social blindness and deemed unworthy of study. Rugby league’s white exclusionist past and the denial of racism in the present era indicate habits of mind which may be described in league argot as the ‘blindside flick’.

Accusations and denials of racism: Managing moral accountability in public discourse

As Van Dijk (1992) has documented, one of the pervasive features of contemporary race discourse is the denial of prejudice. During the last 50 years, social norms against openly expressing racist sentiments has led to the development of ways of talking that present negative views of out-groups as reasonable and justified, while at the same time protecting speakers from charges of racism and prejudice. It goes without saying that a ‘prejudiced’ or ‘racist’ identity is no longer a valued identity. Negative representations and evaluations of minorities are commonly preceded by ubiquitous disclaimers such as ‘I’m not racist but . . . ’ or ‘I have nothing against migrants but ... ’. Contemporary race talk, therefore, is strategically organized to deny racism. A closely related but largely ignored phenomenon associated with the denial of prejudice is a political climate that creates what is tantamount to a social taboo against making accusations of racism in the first place (Augoustinos and Every, 2007). Such charges and accusations are invariably met with not only strong denials, but also moral outrage and are often treated as more extreme than racism itself. This Special Edition publishes new discursive work on the delicate discursive and argumentative management of accusations of racism and their accompanying denials.

‘We're not like that’: Denial of racism in the Afrikaans press in South Africa

While the South African media on the whole underwent significant shifts after the demise of apartheid, repositioning was especially acute on the part of the Afrikaans-language press, which during the apartheid years largely served as legitimising institutions for apartheid and now had to adapt to the changing democratic political and social environment. This repositioning coincided with a liberal consensus in the news media in general, in terms of which individual rights, independence of the media and freedom of speech were emphasised. What complicated matters for the Afrikaans media was the need to retain the loyalty of primarily white Afrikaans readers, who remained attractive to advertisers, while having to orientate itself in relation to the new centres of political power in the country. The precarious balance between the liberal consensus of individual rights and freedom of expression on the one hand, and the imperative to carry a torch for Afrikaans cultural identity in the new dispensation, comes to light in news coverage of a recent racist incident at a historically white, Afrikaans university. This article will seek to explore editorial comment on the incident in selected Afrikaans media, to indicate how the event was interpreted and presented as an individual transgression, rather than a systemic and historically determined problem.

‘It might have been incompetent, but it wasn't racist’: murder detectives’ perceptions of the Lawrence Inquiry and its impact on homicide investigation in London

This article describes murder detectives’ perceptions of the Lawrence Inquiry and its impact on homicide investigation in London. Based on extensive qualitative research with a murder team, and interviews with detectives involved in the original inquiry, the article describes how the events surrounding Stephen Lawrence's murder and its investigation were ‘framed’ in very different ways. In one account race and institutional racism were central, in the other they were peripheral. Although denial of racism was a key feature of detectives’ discourse, their knowledge of murder investigations also led them to challenge criticisms made of the investigation – some of which were supported by the research. However, it was also apparent that detectives were generally unaware of the potential for unwitting or discriminatory behaviour in their investigations.

Designs and (Co)Incidents

This article sketches the dominant themes that have shaped Dutch discourse, policy and research on issues related to race, ethnicity, and immigration during the past 40 years. It will be shown that the paradigmatic foundations of Dutch minority research were laid in the 1980s and that mainstream research and discourse is largely about ethnic minorities; about their migration and their degree (or lack) of economic, social and political integration in the Netherlands. By (co)incident or design, ethnic minorities – invariably called allochtonen, a Dutch word for non-natives or aliens, irrespective of citizenship – are problematized, while mainstream research generally downplays the ramifications of the colonial history, and concomitant presuppositions of European (Dutch) cultural superiority. We present an extended discussion of the denial of racism and the de-legitimization of racism research. Common sense (notions of) racism profoundly shaped research interpretations and research agendas. Mainstream researchers and scholars are largely critical of antiimmigrant discourse, but with the silencing of race critical paradigms there are few concepts and frameworks left to analyze and contextualize which anti-immigrant sentiments and policies are historically rooted in the invention of race and the Other and which sentiments are fears, discomforts and insecurities resulting from the uncontrollable paradigms of globalization in a world that has become smaller.

Rocking the racism boat: school‐based activists speak out on denial and avoidance

The present study seeks insights from current school activists on the tendency of educators and others to engage in denial and avoidance when discussing issues surrounding racism, and how that affects the daily work on social justice projects in schools. The author outlines contemporary and historical aspects of the denial of racism in Canada, and a problematic lack of engagement of school‐based activists, especially young people, in the academic literature, particularly related to their role as active participants in social justice movements. This research repositions student and teacher activist roles in schools and in educational research itself. Excerpts from in‐depth interviews with 11 student and teacher participants include the understandings of those who choose to engage in social justice work in actual school settings, and offer new insights into theoretical and practical considerations regarding the denial and avoidance of racism in schools.

Review of The Last War: Racism, Spirituality, and the Future of Civilization by M. L. Perry

Last War: Racism, Spirituality, and Future of Civilization. By M. L. Perry. Oxford: George Ronald, 2005. xiv + 338 pages.In a scholarly era when books on race have become commonplace and not always insightful in breaking new ground, Mark Perry's book, Last War: Racism, Spirituality, and Future of challenges both scholars and laypersons to expand and deepen their understanding of relationship between spirituality, and civilization.Perry's approach to his subject is based upon what he explains as unique vision of relationship between religion and human society. He argues that Baha'u'llah's vision is of critical importance for understanding humanity's transition from its turbulent adolescence to maturity and particularly for resolution of (ix). It is here that he departs from most contemporary scholarship on racism and bravely enters domain of spirituality. His focus on slavery and racism in North American centers on role of Christianity in rise of Western civilization; he argues that true religion teaches love under the most trying circumstances. He is unapologetic in asserting fundamental importance of spirituality and religious life in studying race and racism.The book is divided into four sections that include countless strands of world history. first discusses racism and spirituality; second focuses on what Perry terms Despiritualization: Archeology of and introduces reader to a radically new approach to study of racism. Using archeology as a theoretical framework, Perry divides this section into eleven levels: Denial of Racism; Covert Racism, Present to 1960s; Overt Racism, 1960s to 1860s; Slavery, 1960s to 1500s; Justifications; Substitute Belief Systems; Violent Materialism in America; Waning of Christianity in Europe; Spiritual Unity of Europe; Paganism; and Feral Humanity.The much shorter third section, Respiritualization, deals with America's continuing spiritual potential, the respiritualization of social science, the insufficiency of material solutions, the respiritualization of daily life, and justice. and is followed by a segment called Beyond Affirmative Action, in which he includes a discussion on education described as A True Panacea and A Remedy Withheld.In fourth section, Civilization, Perry describes the maturation of human society and fusion of human race, and ends with a discussion of the birth of true humanity.The topics and subtopics in this book can be overwhelming as they intertwine with major historical narrative. They are held together, however, by Perry's major claim that discussions of spirituality are vital to solution of racial problems, that there is a need to revalidate spirituality in our discourse on race and its solution. The fact is that spirituality is real, its operation powerful, its neglect fraught with dire consequences. lack of brotherhood, absence of spirituality, make possible inhuman treatment of one by other. Racism and slavery are symptoms or consequences of ebbing of spirituality from social landscape (16).Perry makes bold claim that we must question secular methods of solving problems based on materialism, as it was materialism which created slavery and developed racism to justify and support practice. In chapter on despiritualization he writes:. . . American slavery was not distinguished by its ideology so much as by skin color and large number of its victims. We have been blinded by color and hence fetishized it; we have been deceived into thinking that color and Africanness are keys to understanding slavery and racism, whereas these are only incidental. . . . Race and skin color are nothing but red herrings. same attitudes and actions were practiced in Europe in two centuries bracketing establishment of North American colonies but there victims were neither dark-skinned nor African, but European women. …

Nurses’ experiences of caring for South Asian minority ethnic patients in a general hospital in England

Healthcare provision for minority ethnic groups in the UK has generally revealed inequalities in access and differential service provision. British healthcare policy has started to address such issues. However, very few studies have specifically examined the experiences of nurses caring for minority ethnic patients. This paper focuses on the focus group interviews of a broader ethnographic study, aimed at describing nurses' experiences of caring for South Asian minority ethnic patients, in a general hospital in the south of England. A sample of 43 nurses of all grades from six medical wards took part in the focus groups: three ward sisters, 22 staff nurses and 18 care assistants; 40 participants were white, one was African-Caribbean and two were South Asian. Data analysis revealed eight themes: changes in service provision; false consciousness of equity; limited cultural knowledge; victim blaming; valuing of the relatives; denial of racism; ethnocentrism, and self-disclosure. The study revealed a good local service response to government policies in addressing inequality. However, there was a tendency to treat all minority ethnic patients the same, with evidence of ethnocentric practices, victim-blaming approaches and poor cultural competence in nursing staff, which raise questions about the quality of service provision. The study indicates that ongoing training and development in the area of cultural competence is necessary.

‘Saltdean can't cope’: Protests against asylum-seekers in an English seaside suburb

During 2002–3, the British Government, responding to popular moral panic about asylum-seekers, sought drastically to reduce the numbers trying to enter the country. Long-term policy aimed to process all asylum applications overseas, but meantime this had to be undertaken in dispersed “induction centres” in Britain itself. Proposals to create such centres invariably met with opposition from local residents. The article documents one such protest, in a suburb along the South Coast of England, demonstrates the “localist” and “cosmopolitan” discourses employed by anti- and pro-asylum-seeker groups, and considers the extent to which the former overlapped with that of the extreme right British National Party. By examining how those opposed to the centre framed their opposition and how they sought to distance themselves from charges of racism, the study explores the significance of such protests for our understanding of xenophobia in contemporary middle-class Britain and asks how their denials of racism might be interpreted.

Problematizing the Race Consciousness of Women of Color

Previous articleNext article No AccessRaceProblematizing the Race Consciousness of Women of ColorPaula Stewart BrushPaula Stewart Brush Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 27, Number 1Autumn, 2001 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/495676 Views: 23Total views on this site Citations: 9Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 2001 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Laura Hall Minimizations and denials of racism by UK residents from Zimbabwe as occasioned linguistic practice, Ethnic and Racial Studies 46, no.55 (Jul 2022): 1082–1100.https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2101893Heather Nancarrow Introduction: The Problem in Context, (Sep 2019): 1–30.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27500-6_1Nicole Marie Brown Bridge Leadership: Gendered Consumerism and Black Women’s Political Power within Early 20th Century “Don’t Buy” Campaigns, Sociological Focus 50, no.33 (Mar 2017): 244–260.https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2017.1283190Mridula Nath Chakraborty Outside in the House of Colour: A Second Look at Postcolonial and Transnational Feminisms, (Aug 2017): 87–112.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58427-0_5Elena Marchetti Intersectional Race and Gender Analyses: Why Legal Processes Just Don't Get It, Social & Legal Studies 17, no.22 (Jun 2008): 155–174.https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663908089609Laura Gillman Beyond the Shadow: Re-scripting Race in Women's Studies, Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism 7, no.22 (Apr 2007): 117–141.https://doi.org/10.2979/MER.2007.7.2.117Lynette Kvasny Let the sisters speak, ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems 37, no.44 (Nov 2006): 13–25.https://doi.org/10.1145/1185335.1185342Jennifer E. Bruening Gender and Racial Analysis in Sport: Are All the Women White and All the Blacks Men?, Quest 57, no.33 (Aug 2005): 330–349.https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2005.10491861Alexandra von Stauss Representations and objections: Geert Van Kesteren and the 13th International Aids Conference, Durban, 2000, Critical Arts 18, no.22 (Jan 2004): 45–62.https://doi.org/10.1080/02560240485310161

The Denial of Racism

Informed by discursive psychology, this study aimed to identify and explicate those rhetorical maneuvers that function to introduce the issue of race into conversations in the presence of an interracial couple (the first two authors) in the “new South Africa” and to negotiate “race talk” in their presence while distancing the speaker from inferences of racism. Over a period of 2 months, conversations of people with whom the first two authors came into contact were tape-recorded in a variety of social settings without their knowledge. The study revealed that humor, personal experience, and self-censorship were rhetorical maneuvers drawn on extensively in conversations about race. Two possible reasons for this are suggested. First, the conversations involved the interracial, heterosexual couple and other persons of different races, rather than only White speakers, as in many previous studies. Second, unlike previous studies, conversations occurred in naturalistic settings and not in contrived settings.

Re-Pressing Racism: The Denial of Racism in the Canadian Press

A long-standing and pervasive element of Canadian national identity is the idealization of Canadian society as uniquely tolerant and free of racism. This national myth was seriously challenged when the results of a federally commissioned survey on attitudes toward immigration were made public. Using the methods of critical discourse analysis, this paper examines how the results of this survey were presented and interpreted in The Globe and Mail. Specifically, the press reports are examined with respect to: (a) how the situation of discrimination and intolerance revealed in the survey is encoded, (b) the meaning of the terms “Canadian” and “Canadian culture” in the context of these texts, and (c) how the texts account for the reported change in “Canadian” attitudes towards “visible minorities.” I argue that The Globe and Mail adopted an overall semantic strategy of denial of racism which reinterprets, marginalizes, and mitigates evidence of racism in Canada, and thus reinforces the dominant and preferred view of Canadian society as tolerant, pluralistic, and free of systemic racism.

Unraveling the "Model Minority" Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth.

Unraveling Model Minority Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth, by Stacey J. Lee. York: Teachers College Press, 1996.160 pp. $39.00, cloth; $17.95, paper. Reviewed by Donna Y. Ford, The University of Virginia; and Deneese L. Jones, The University of Kentucky. There seems to be a national obsession with explaining high educational achievement of Asian American students, who are often referred to as minority. Educators and researchers in particular have relied heavily on comparative research and theory to explain why some minority groups fare better than others educationally and economically. The most popular theory has been that advanced by Ogbu (1978, 1990, 1992), through his comparison of what he calls involuntary and voluntary minority groups. Unraveling Model Minority offers a brief but interesting analysis of Ogbu's theory regarding members of this latter group. Countering Ogbu, Lee contends that his analysis (a) fails to explain why Asians do not perform as well in their respective countries of origin as they do in United States; (b) fails to explain poor achievement among Asian Americans; and (c) treats voluntary minorities as a homogeneous group, thereby ignoring within-group differences among various Asians (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.). Like Ogbu, Lee places heavy emphasis on comparing achievements of Asian Americans with African Americans. This is not a criticism, however, for Lee is to be commended for being one of few researchers who has put pen to paper in an effort to raise readers' awareness as well as their consciousness regarding myths and motives surrounding seemingly positive stereotype of Asian Americans. As Christine Sleeter states in Foreword, the model minority image authorizes flat denial of racism and structures of racial dominance, and silences those who are not economically successful (p. ix). In unraveling model minority stereotype, this work illustrates how it is used both as a hegemonic device to support notions of meritocracy and individualism, and as an obvious but long-ignored tactic to pit people of color against each other. The book is based on a qualitative study conducted in a high school located in a major city on East Coast, north of Mason-Dixon line. Of 2,050 students enrolled at this school, 45% were White, 35% Black, 18% Asian American, and 2% members of other racial/ethnic groups. Lee early explains that several questions guided this study, among them following: What do Asian American student identities explain about formation of ethnic//racial identity? How does variation in Asian American student identity contribute to our understanding of literature on immigrant minorities? How did model minority stereotype influence Asian American student identity? What identities were encouraged and discouraged by school? How did model minority stereotype influence race relations? What influence did school have on race relations? In search of answers to these questions, Lee conducted semistructured interviews with 47 of 356 Asian American students, a number of teachers, and several of school's Black students. The book centers on experiences of students from four Asian American identity groups: Korean-identified students; Asian-identified students; Asian Americanidentified students; and New Wavers, a group Lee describes as personifying a culture of resistance to extant racial/ethnic identities. Accordingly, she notes that these four groups are categorized based on students' levels of racial identity and pride, levels of acculturation, cultural orientations (values, beliefs, behaviors), and attitudes toward school and achievement. After reading this book, readers may begin to sense how model minority stereotype serves to ease guilt and appease conscience of those who wish to ignore nation's most trenchant social ills-namely, racism, prejudice, and discrimination. …

Elites, Racism and the Press

This paper examines the relations between the press and other elite institutions in the reproduction of racism in Western societies. It is argued that the press does not merely report the activities and the attitudes of political, scholarly or corporate elites in the domain of ethnic affairs, but also has an autonomous role in the persuasive legitimation of white group dominance. Analysis of data from the British press shows that especially the dominant conservative press generally supports the problematization and marginalization of immigrants, refugees and other minorities by the other elites. At the same time it rhetorically contributes to the enhancement of popular resentment against the Others, and especially against those groups and organizations involved in the struggle against discrimination and racism. Thus, the press functions as the main forum for the widespread denial of racism by the white elites, and thereby also as an enemy of the challenge to the ethnic status quo.

Discourse and the Denial of Racism

Within the broader framework of a research programme on the reproduction of racism in discourse and communication, the present article examines the prominent role of the denial of racism, especially among the elites, in much contemporary text and talk about ethnic relations. After a conceptual analysis of denial strategies in interpersonal impression formation on the one hand, and within the social-political context of minority and immigration management on the other, various types of denial are examined in everyday conversations, press reports and parliamentary debates. Among these forms of denial are disclaimers, mitigation, euphemism, excuses, blaming the victim, reversal and other moves of defence, face-keeping and positive self-presentation in negative discourse about minorities, immigrants and (other) anti-racists.