Internalised Racism Research Articles

Surviving the survival narrative, part 2: Conceptualising Whiteness-as-utility and internalised racism

This article interrogates how the concept of critical consciousness applies to racialised subjects’ lived experiences when attempting to resist racialisation and racism within Australian society. We first demonstrate the incongruence between the theoretical conceptualisation of critical consciousness-raising and its practical application for racialised subjects, examined through the concept of the will-to-resist. This foregrounds the individualised nature of resistance for the racialised. Then, we offer a helpful conceptual differentiation between racialised survival, discussed in terms of Whiteness-as-utility. This has often become conflated with the phenomenon of internalised racism (IR), discussed in terms of Whiteness-as-referent. Overall, we suggest that subversion, or rather, resistance through adaptation, may indeed be a survival tactic for the racialised, but is nevertheless one that fails to effectively subvert racist systems due to the racialised dynamics inherent within the settler colonial structure. This highlights the need to account for the dynamics of IR when attempting to understand issues of race, as it presents a significant hurdle towards anti-racism objectives.

Surviving the Survival Narrative Part 1: Internalised Racism and the Limits of Resistance

The concept of internalised racism (IR) has been criticised for its potential utilisation to perpetuate ‘victim blaming’. In describing the racialised subject’s indoctrination to racist beliefs about themselves and/or their group, the concept of IR has been a point of difficulty for scholarship which sustains a hyper-focus on racialised resistance towards structural racism and its effects. Some scholars have highlighted that this hyper-focus on resistance is connected to a political stance which essentialises racialised subjects as always resisting. In this article, I further this argument by demonstrating the limitations within resistance strategies employed by some racialised subjects. I utilise participants’ narratives from a wider study to highlight three forms of limitations (conscious renouncing, inadvertent complicity, and non-resistance) in resisting racist ideology. I then draw on these examples to problematise scholarship that sustain a hyper-focus on resistance, one that may inadvertently foreclose the deeper impact of racism upon the racialised.

Divide and Conquer: Gendered Division Within the Process of Internalised Racism

ABSTRACT Utilising a socio-psychological understanding of the concept of internalised racism (IR), this article examines the racialised romantic/sexual preferences for White Western men amongst Asian Australians subjects. By psychoanalytically analysing the notion of White nation-building and its inherent gendered dynamics, the article examines how the White patriarchal national will aims to secure its dominance over national space. In doing so, it necessarily engages in two simultaneous strategic plays of power. First, it must secure access to the racialised female element – a symbolic penetration of the motherland’s other. Second, as corollary and catalyst, the national will engenders an emasculation of the racialised male element – a symbolic castration of the phallic signifier of the counter-will. By examining how both these dynamics are internalised by racialised subjects, this article demonstrates how IR ultimately works to fracture a racialised community from within.

The seemingly ‘protective’ effect of internalised racism on overall health among 780 Black/African Americans: the serial mediation of stigma consciousness and locus of control

Objective Internalised racism (IR) is associated with better and worse health outcomes among racial/ethnic minorities. However, the underlying mechanisms associating IR with either positive or negative health outcomes are not well understood. Design & main outcomes measures: To address this gap, this study investigated two pathways that associate increased IR with better self-reported overall health (OH; i.e. dental, mental, physical and vision health) among 780 Black/African American adults (mean age 37.68 years, 57.6% female): (1) via stigma consciousness and (2) via stigma consciousness and locus of control beliefs. Results Consistent with predictions, stigma consciousness mediated the indirect effect of IR on OH, such that higher IR was associated with lower stigma consciousness, which was associated with better self-reported OH. Confirming predictions, this indirect effect was also carried through locus of control beliefs, such that higher IR was associated with lower stigma consciousness; lower stigma consciousness was also associated with internal locus of control beliefs, which were associated with better self-reported OH. Conclusions Although seemingly protective, this adaptive, strategic and short-term response to race-based threat in which group stereotypes are internalised can lead to negative health outcomes over time. These findings have implications for understanding IR and associated health disparities.