Racism and anti-racism

Australia has made substantial reform to migration and community relations policies since the institutionalised racism of the White Australia Policy at the beginning of the twentieth century. But there arc contemporary legacies of the White Australia Policy era, and of assimilationism. Arguments for race-based separatism and supremacism have faded, but cultural separatism remains strong. It is manifest as narrow assumptions about national identity, which attach belonging-ness to some groups and not others. Whites and Christians enjoy an assured and unquestioned place in the national imaginary, whereas many non-Whites and -non-Christians have their substantive citizenship undermined through discrimination, racist critique and symbolic exclusion. But there are competing antiracist ideologies that draw from post-World War II human rights discourses, and from the pro-diversity values of official multiculturalism. As this chapter has demonstrated, both racism and anti-racism have had a presence in Australia since British colonisation. Racism and anti-racism coexist and compete within contemporary Australia. Current priorities for anti-racism in Australia should continue to challenge institutional racism, seek to engage people in responding to everyday forms of racism, and implement measures to address racism in online environments.