The transnational communication of "racism" : media, migration, and the shaping of international relations

Entrenched in this proliferation of indictments of "racism" is the longevity of historical discourses in configuring the shape of international relations" in this case, the relationship between India and Australia. Here the past is folded into the present and the colonial East/West divide reinforced, even as the global geopolitical situation has changed, with a relative shift in the balance of power, from the West toward Asia in a world where transnational flows of people, money, and media make nation-states thoroughly networked with each other. Communication, here, is what supposedly makes this world hang together, not least through the media and the Internet. However, what this case study suggests is that instant and pervasive communicative connectivity does not necessarily encourage greater cross-cultural exchange, mutual understanding, and intercultural dialogue. Instead, it tends to solidify nationalist biases and stereotypes across the East/West divide. "Racism," the name for the moral wrong that modern humanity struggles universally to overcome, provides one of the most bitter stumbling blocks for achieving precisely that aim. In today's postcolonial, officially postracist world, "racists" are always others, never ourselves. The entangled web of responses and counterresponses to the attacks that emerged from both India and Australia, so concerned as they were with assigning, denying, and shifting blame, have led to a divergence between all parties involved. In the wake of this, the opportunity for serious dialogue and reflection about the complexities and consequences of our transnational interconnectedness has been lost.