INTRODUCTION

BECAUSE SOCIAL ETHICS IS ALWAYS CONCERNED WITH THE WAY individuals relate to and interact with each other, the question of ‘the other’, the one we are interacting with, is always at the heart of all social ethical concerns. Indeed, if there is one question that encapsulates the essential concerns of all social ethical investigations, it is this one: when we human beings interact with each other, how should we regulate our conduct so as to sustain each other's viability as human beings? This means a recognition that other people are, like us, engaged in a struggle to make their lives as human beings worth living. To try and sustain the human viability of others is to help them in this struggle.

In this essay, I will reflect on the significance of this question for White journalists writing and talking about Third-World-looking Australians, or as they are more popularly referred to, ‘ethnic’ Australians. I want to know, how could White journalists report or comment on ‘ethnic’ people in a way that sustains their human viability? I hope it will become clear that such ethical questions are not about ‘being nice to people’. They are about treating people as human beings. ‘Being nice’ to some people does not mean you are treating them as human beings. You can be very nice to animals without necessarily humanising them and, likewise, you can be very nice to humans and animalise them.