Perspectives on the geography of intolerance: Racist attitudes and experience of racism in Melbourne, Australia
Introduction
In an age of globalisation and international migration, competing discourses associated with attitudes towards cultural diversity, the socio-cultural composition of neighbourhoods, and experience of racism characterise settler societies such as the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Forrest and Dunn, 2006a). Among central issues for intergroup relations in such increasingly multiracial, multicultural societies is the response of majority group members to ‘strangers in our midst’ (Miller, 2016), and its impact on minority ethnic group immigrants, at both national (Talaska et al., 2008, p. 263), and local levels (Bowyer, 2009). Two questions are suggested: how are any relationship between racist attitudes and experiences of racism constructed, and to what extent and in what ways are such relationships manifested generally and in place-specific (local) contexts?
In addressing the first major study question, it can be noted that, until recently, very few studies have focused on associations between majority attitudes and minority experience of racial discrimination (EoD). Most analysed either one or the other, perpetrator attitudes or target experience (e.g. Dovidio et al., 2002, Flynn, 2005, Hyers, 2007 Swim et al., 2003), although in two European studies, Pereira et al. (2010) found a positive relationship between prejudice and discriminatory behaviour, while Kauff and Wagner (2012) found such behaviour was negatively related to pro-diversity attitudes.
More is known about the spatiality of receiving society attitudes to recent immigrants, though again the analyses are largely two-dimensional, treating the broad spatial context of attitudes or experience (Robinson, 1987, Clayton, 2006 Bowyer, 2009, Hopkins et al., 2015). Forrest and Dunn, 2006b, Forrest and Dunn, 2007 noted an ‘everywhere different’ aspect to racist attitudes in specific localities, where demographic profiles and differences in attitudes were associated with variations in out-group status (discussed below), or social distance, more or less affecting different ethnic groups. Two Canadian studies have also shown significant differences in the spatiality of racist experiences (Ray and Preston, 2009, Ray and Preston, 2013).
Habtegiorgis et al. (2014) have addressed the gap in the literature involving relationships between perpetrator attitudes and target experience of racism with a new approach (used in this paper) which analyses two embedded though not mutually exclusive samples. Our objective is, for the first time in an intra-urban context, to explore interactions between attitudes towards ethnic minority groups, minority group experience of racism, and their spatial context in Melbourne, one of Australia’s two largest immigrant receiving cities (Forrest et al., 2003).
Section snippets
Attitude, experience and the spatiality of racism
In Australia, 27 per cent of the population were born overseas, compared with 20 per cent in Canada, 13 per cent in the USA and 24 per cent in New Zealand (OECD, 2014). In a society so strongly influenced by immigration, cultural diversity has, to some degree, been accepted as a normal aspect of people’s lives, as part of everyday multiculturalism (Wise, 2005), representing Australians as open to diversity and willing to engage with others (Ho and Jakubowicz, 2013, pp. 4–5; Forrest and Dunn,
Methodology and data
Habtegiorgis et al.’s (2014, p. 182) recently developed approach to relationships between racist attitudes and self-reported EoD using two embedded samples, proceeds in two main stages. The first measures racist attitudes towards specific target out-groups. The second measures the specific EoD reported by these target groups. The common element is out-group status: if racist attitudes relate to specific ethnic groups in a statistically significant way, and those groups are the targets of more
Linking attitudes and perceptions of out-groups among perpetrators
Assessment of responses to relationships from Habtegiorgis et al.’s (2014) first stage of analysis (Table 4) between expressions of racist attitudes (each column represents one of the nine attitude elements) and major nominated out-groups was restricted to Australian-born respondents as proxies for key perpetrators of such attitudes as the majority or ‘host’ group.
Spatial contextual effects
The second major research question – do attitudes to ethnic minorities and experience of racism occur in local spatial contexts (Table 5) – can now be addressed for the groups of LGAs derived from the social area analysis and the compositional elements set out in Table 1. Holding constant gender, age, education and out-group status, five of the entropy groups had significant levels of locality-based EoD. For two, (groups 2 and 4) the relationship with EoD was negative: some 40 per cent less
Conclusion
Using procedures aimed at disaggregating relationships between aspects of racist attitudes among members of a receiving society (as potential perpetrators), experience of that racism among minority ethnic groups (as targets), and the spatiality of their interaction at the sub-district (LGA) level this study has, for the first time at the intra-urban level, essayed a better understanding of the totality of the interplay between attitudes towards and experience of racism and its spatial
References (78)
- et al.
Everywhere different? Globalism and the impact of international migration on Sydney and Melbourne
Geoforum
(2003) Social determinants of self-perceived discrimination in Spain
Public Health
(2013)- et al.
Are racist attitudes related to experiences of racial discrimination? Within sample testing utilising nationally representative survey data
Soc. Sci. Res.
(2014) - et al.
The relationship between outgroup size and anti-outgroup attitudes: a theoretical synthesis and empirical test of group threat and intergroup contact theory
Soc. Sci. Res.
(2010) - et al.
Thresholds for tolerance: the impact of racial and ethnic population composition on the vote for Californian propositions 197 and 209
Soc. Sci. J.
(2004) - et al.
An analysis of race equality policy and practice in the city of Birmingham, UK
Local Gov. Stud.
(2005) The Great Divide: Immigration Politics in Australia
(1999)Group conflict, prejudice, and the paradox of contemporary racial attitudes
Constructions of ‘race’, place and discipline: geographies of ‘racial’ identity and racism
Ethnic Racial Stud.
(1996)The contextual determinants of whites’ racial attitudes in England
Br. J. Polit. Sci.
(2009)
Eliminating institutional racism within local government: the city of seattle race and social justice initiative
Diasporic otherness: racism, sectarianism and ‘national exteriority’ in modern Scotland
Soc. Cult. Geogr.
Disillusionment and disenchantment at the fringe: explaining the geography of the One Nation party vote at the Queensland election
People Place
Implicit and explicit prejudice and interracial interaction
J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity
Commonality and the complexity of “we”: social attitudes and social change
Personal. Soc. Psychol. Rev.
Racism in Australia: Cultural Imperialism, Disempowerment and Violence
Constructing racism in Australia
Aust. J. Soc. Issues
Contemporary racism and Islamaphobia in Australia
Ethnicities
The role of effective partnerships in an Australian place-based intervention to reduce race-based discrimination
Public Health Rep.
Having an open mind: the impact of openness to experience on interracial attitudes and impression formation
J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
‘Core’ culture hegemony and multiculturalism: perceptions of the privileged position of Australians with British backgrounds
Ethnicities
Racism and intolerance in Eastern Australia: a geographic perspective
Aust. Geogr.
Constructing racism in Sydney, Australia’s largest ethnicity
Urban Stud.
Attitudes to multicultural values in diverse spaces in Australia’s immigrant cities, Sydney and Melbourne
Space Polity
Attitudes to diversity: new perspectives on the ethnic geography of Brisbane, Australia
Aust. Geogr.
On the characterization of urban sub-areas according to age
Urban Geogr.
The relative size of minority populations and white racial attitudes
Soc. Sci. Quart.
Anglo-Celtics today: cosmo-multiculturalism and the phase of the fading phallus
Conclusion: the multi-cultural question
The impact of ethnic concentration on prejudice: the role of cultural and socioeconomic differences among ethnic neighborhood residents
J. Urban Aff.
Neighbourhood ethnic diversity and orientations toward Muslims in Britain: the role of intergroup contact
Political Quart.
The realities of Australian multiculturalism
Managing race equality in Scottish local councils in the aftermath of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000
Int. J. Public Sect. Manage.
Resisting prejudice every day: exploring women’s assertive responses to anti-black racism, anti-semitism, heterosexism, and sexism
Sex Roles
Understanding Australian racism
Aust. Univ. Rev.
Cited by (6)
Exploring the relationship between neighborhood environment and transport disadvantage during the COVID-19 lockdown
2024, Travel Behaviour and SocietySurveying the landscape five years on: An examination of how teachers, and the teaching of Australia's shared-history, is constructed within Australian academic literature
2019, Teaching and Teacher EducationCitation Excerpt :The literature suggests that foundations for critical engagement and analysis of Aboriginal peoples' and Torres Strait Islanders' perspectives on Australian history is developed over time and is influenced by teachers' acquisition of knowledge (Austin & Hickey, 2011). If teachers are not taught to analyse critically whose voices and whose perspectives are reflected in studies relating to the ACH, then privileged Eurocentric perspectives continue to permeate school-based programs through discursive techniques of power/knowledge relations and regimes of truth (Bunda, 2015; Forrest, Elias, & Paradies, 2016; Lowe & Yunkaporta, 2013; Parkes, 2007; Perso & Hayward, 2015). By way of example, Harrison and Greenfield (2011) state that:
Racism Data in Australia: A Review of Quantitative Studies and Directions for Future Research
2024, Journal of Intercultural StudiesRacism in Australia Today
2021, Racism in Australia TodayElimination of racial discrimination
2020, Health Equity, Social Justice and Human Rights