Discuss How the Concepts of ‘Race’ and ‘Ethnicity’ Essay

Australia is knget for its multicultural golf-club, and locomote and paganity atomic number 18 a big situationor of persistent racial discrimination and diversity in this bea. The driving force rear this is the warm belief that some of the population still hold against multitude who protrude different to themselves. To gain a blank understanding of this sensitive topic superstarness must look at the bloodlines, forms and set up of racism. This essay forget look at how the concepts of race and ethnicity uphold inequality in our society, a brief history of Australia in relation to racism and how people fuck off these inequalities to twenty-four hours in a society that we c all multicultural.Modern Australia was completed as a region of recent blockage in 1788 which was a small crack of a larger process of European colonisation (Bessant & Watts, 2002, p. 219). They had a set of ideas, value and beliefs and assumed that aborigines had no system of fetch own ership, agriculture, animal husbandry. Indigenous people endure been in Australia for more than 100,000 years (Bessant & Watts, 2002, p. 222). The exsanguinous Australia indemnity in the 20th carbon encouraged immigration unless from Britain, but didnt allow Asians and Non-whites (Economou N, 1998, p.363).By 1950s people from all countries were allowed to migrate into Australia to serve well post war reconstruction. The colonial immigration saw a mass migration of European people in the main from Britain to Australia. It is give tongue to that between 1788 and 1852 approximately 170,000 people moved to Australia, and the florid rush era after 1851 do it a richlyly desirable country for migrating (Bessant & Watts, 2002, p. 231). By end of World fight two, as war forced Australia to repel closer to other countries, which resulted in the premier(prenominal) signifi push asidet weakening of the policy in 1951.Later in the 1950s and mid-sixties other parts of the White Au stralia Policy were gradually dismantled. By the 1970s the federal g everywheren manpowert had removed all racial restrictions from its immigration law (Bessant & Watts, 2002). Various writers know contradictory admissi sensations and elbow rooms of looking at racism, making it a complex topic. It takes numerous different forms, ranging from physical violence to uncomplimentary verbiage. A person or conventions belief that their race is brilliant or inferior, or their moral and genial traits argon predetermined, based on biologic differences can be termed racism.A group of people sharing the identical skin colour, equivalent values, coming from the uniform backgrounds may constitute as race. One of the most common forms of racism found today is Institutional Racism, which stems from established corporations, and other powerful forces in society, indeed making it hard to question and faces less(prenominal) public condemnation. Examples include housing, employment, busi nesses, precept, religion and media (Healey, 2002). Typically, the al-Qaida of this type of discrimination is from irrational business organisation of people at the receiving end who go to a different culture or race.Although, there puddle been current debates closely racism all n first us for centuries, it is an assault on military personnel rights as it methodically refuses people of different caste, colour, race, sex or their country of origin basic values underlined by oecumenical Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which states that human rights argon every sensations birthright and apply to all without difference (Healey, 2002). Common perception of share origins, culture, lifestyle and traditions amongst a group of people or society is the universal description of ethnicity (Bessant & Watts, 2002).People can share the same nationality but have different ethnicities. A few writers have put send fascinating explanations of ethnicity. Edward Shils in his primordial approach argues that he believes everyone has a primordial chemical bond to their motherland, people and religion which brings out starchy emotional ties by societalising, which further gives parent to the need to have a make out identity and belonging. Then the Mobilisationist Approach suggests that secret code is predictable or normal most ethnicity.Rather, ethnic identities bonk into sight and are toughened in policy-making contexts where groups skin to get advance to inadequate and treasured resources ( caravan Krieken et al, 2000, p. 519). The basis of ethnocentrism is a conscious or unconscious belief that ones ethnic group, culture, religion, custom or behaviour is superior to a nonher ethnic group. Politicians splatter that Australia is a multicultural, on the fence(p) and classless society. in spite of the well known image of Australias everyone have a fair go, the country is still full of some(prenominal) institutional and popular racism.Education has co ntinuously been very important when it comes to moving up in class and has been very liberating in Australian society. However, indigenous and ethnic groups have been somewhat disadvantaged in opportunities to spring up education. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics only five Indigenous Australians per 1,000 obtain ordinal qualification, compared to 70-80 per 1,000 for Anglo Australians. In the 1990s welfare, health carry on and education support for Aborigines accounted only to 2% of occur budget outlay (ABS 200021).In order to receive an education a person requires an income, but to get an income one needs a occupancy, and a job is challenging to mark without an appropriate train of education. Therefore an individuals retrieve of education is influenced by the socio-stinting berth of ones parents which is a cyclic social inequality hard to break. Migrants and their children often find it challenging to adjust to the Australian civilize system as they often c ome from countries that have a poor education system, and even if they have tertiary qualifications they mostly are not recognised, resulting in them winning subvert remunerative and pass up lieu jobs.Working class children often be schools in working class suburbs where pupils are directed into working-class jobs. A high number of students leave school early and the arithmetic mean that they bequeath attend university is low. In comparison, upper-class children attend private schools, and the expectation that they will attend university is high. Migrants and ethnic groups are often at a lower end of the socioeconomic scale (Aspin, 1996, p. 87) Migrants get into with little money and few skills.already at a disadvantage with language barriers, migrants and ethnic groups are overly confront with racism and discrimination in their wait for employment. In 1996, One Nation political party leader Pauline Hanson do a speech that claimed that Australia was being overwhelmed by Asians and feared that Asians were taking over jobs. The fact is that Asians at the time only accounted for 5% of total population and there is little express to support the claim that high grade of immigration set out unemployment or cause Australians to lose their jobs (Bessant, 2002, p. 219).Indigenous people had a 24. 3% unemployment rate according to 1996 enumerate (ABS 200023). Indigenous people are unremarkably poorer than most non-indigenous Australians and receive a lower income on average than the total population. The mob income for Aborigines in 1994 was $158 compared to $310 for white Australians (ABS 2000C23) This also reflects the fact the there is a higher conviction by the Aboriginal population on social security payments (ABS 1996b 122-4) Socioeconomic status is a major determinant of inequality as it influences access an individual has to the economic resources of a society.L. J. Aspin (1996) explains that white Australian-born males have a better chance of obtaining access to the resources of society. discrepancy is also reflected in the differential access to housing and health run. For people who are paying rent and on a low income, it is almost impossible to spare for a deposit on a house at the same time. Aborigines and migrants recede discrimination in rental accommodation, where landlords preferring a two-parent, white, Anglo-Saxon families. Only 10% of Aborigines own housing compared to 70% of white Australia population (Aspin, 1996, p.87). Most Aborigines live in agrarian and provincial Australia (Bessant, 2002, p. 226) far from big cities where there are more jobs, higher paid jobs, better education, better housing, good piss and sanitation services, hospital medical services and other community amenities. Some ethnic backgrounds are still not legitimate in our society and are treat differently and unequally. We see and hear about them on a day to day basis. In recent months the Indian community in Australia, especia lly students have extend a vulnerable target for attacks, whether racialist or not.On 31 may 2009 in Melbourne, about 5000 students marched through the streets of Melbourne protesting against these attacks on Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students. 25-year-old Sravan Kumar Theerthala was in a serious condition in intensifier care after being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver one workweek earlier (Bolton & Peterson, 2009). In an article in The Age newspaper on February 19 Victorian police claimed that these attacks are not racially motivated, but opportunistic where Indian students are over representing themselves as victims and can be looked upon as soft targets.The police also advised them not to announce in their native language loud or display signs of wealth. Attacks on Indians arent the only allegation Australia has faced over the years. It fronts that anyone in power, including police, politicians or the media has had the tendency to someways flare these attac ks. In the Herald sunlight on 11 June 2009, 3AWs Neil Mitchell state Australians are also bashed and die in India, which does not provoke parades of chanting ocker backpackers in the streets of Mumbai.In 2007, the consequently immigration take care Kevin Andrews referred to the Sudanese community when he said Some groups dont seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope. A spate of violent attacks were then unleashed against Sudanese migrants, and one was bashed to death by a group of white men (Bolton & Peterson, 2009). As Australia continues to argue that it is a just, tolerant, open and classless society, there is still grounds of race and inequality among us and bear on the many lives of migrants and Indigenous people.It is interesting to situation that the very determinants of class power, money, education, family background, occupation, health and oecumenic way of life are also the same factors where others experience i nequalities. Race and ethnicity perpetuate inequality, and in any country including Australia, one would find that there are always some people with very strong values of racism, and media outlets which help in manipulating the views of general public. There still needs to be a massive drive by communities and governments on racism and inequality and it will be long before we will be a happy multicultural Australia.Bibliography Aspin, L J 1996, Social stratification and inequality, Focus on Australian society, second edn, Longman, Melbourne. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2009, Australian Bureau of Statistics, viewed 28 November 2009, http//www. abs. gov. au/ . Bessant, J & Watts, R 2002, Neighbours and nations ethnic identity and multiculturalism, Sociology Australia, second edn, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW. Bolton, S & Peterson, C 2009, Indian students chat Stop the racist attacks , viewed 28 November 2009, http//www.greenleft. org. au/2009/798/41083.Economou, N 1998, The Politics of Citizenship identity, ethnicity and race, in Alan Fenna, Introduction to Australian Public Policy, Vol 1, Addison Wesley Longman, Melbourne. Healey, J 2002, Racism Beyond Tolerance, A second-rate Go, Racism in Australia, Vol 180, The Spinney Press, Rozelle, NSW. Van Krieken, R, Smith, P, Hobbis, D & McDonald, K 2000, Migration, ethnicity and Australian Aboriginality, Sociology themes and perspectives, 2nd edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, NSW.