Prelims

Half Title Page

Racism and Anti-Racism Today

Title Page

Racism and Anti-Racism Today: Principles, Policies and Practices

By

Amanuel Elias

Deakin University, Australia

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL

First edition 2024

Copyright © 2024 Amanuel Elias.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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ISBN: 978-1-83753-513-2 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83753-512-5 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83753-514-9 (Epub)

List of Figures and Tables

List of Acronyms

AFL

Australian Football League

AI

Artificial Intelligence

ANC

African National Congress

APA

American Psychological Association

BLM

Black Lives Matter

CLS

Critical Legal Studies

COVID-19

Coronavirus Disease 2019

CRT

Critical Race Theory

D&I

Diversity and Inclusion

EOP

Equal Opportunity Policies

FECCA

Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia

FHA

Federal Housing Administration

GDP

Gross Domestic Product

GFC

Global Financial Crises

IHRA

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

IQ

Intelligence Quotient

KKK

Ku Klux Klan

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People

NIV

New International Version

OAU

Organisation of African Unity

UEFA

Union of European Football Associations

UK

United Kingdom

UN

United Nations

US

United States

WHO

World Health Organization

About the Author

Amanuel Elias is a Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (Deakin University). His research focuses on racism, ethnic inequality and intercultural relations. Dr Elias has previously published another book Racism in Australia Today, Palgrave Macmillan (with Mansouri and Paradies). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8871-5956

Preface

The struggle against racism reached a critical juncture when 60 years ago, in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr delivered the famous ‘I have a dream’ speech. This was a period when the civil rights struggle galvanised the black community, a decade since the end of Jim Crow. Institutional racism prevailed across many regions globally, prompting blacks and other minorities worldwide to challenge oppression and discrimination. Africa was amid a decolonisation process, while Apartheid remained defiant. Yet, the civil rights movement inspired decades of global anti-racism initiatives aimed at combating interpersonal and institutional racism.

Fast forward half a century, and racism endures as we enter the third decade of the new millennium, with racist ideas continuing to divide societies worldwide. Scholars grapple with the enduring significance of racism, raising academic inquiry into the origin and causes of racism. Questions remain about whether racism stems from ideas or systems of exclusion. Some may wonder why racism endures when the biological significance of ‘race’ has been discredited. However, for racism scholars, it is not surprising that the ‘racial contract’ of modernity continues to produce racial inequities. While debates remain about the origin or causes of racism, there's no denying regarding its profound influence on the organisation of modern society. And this is one of the reasons that inspired me to write this new book on racism and anti-racism. Across this volume, I delve into the concepts of racism and anti-racism, exploring their use in analysing racial divisions, galvanising political movements and driving reforms in social policies.

This book is the product of more than a decade of research on racism and its many impacts. During my research, I have become aware that many books tend to focus solely on either racism or anti-racism. While a few authors (e.g., Bowser, 1995; Garland & Rowe, 2001; Hervik, 2019; Lentin, 2004) have attempted to engage with both racism and anti-racism, they often remain distinct fields of inquiry, at least in published works, both analytically and theoretically. This book emerged from a desire to bridge existing knowledge on racism and anti-racism, integrating them through critical analysis.

Primarily, this book aims to connect the racism and anti-racism scholarship, by critically examining them as interrelated rather than isolated subjects. I believe this approach offers a holistic and more comprehensive understanding of racism, acknowledging the efforts being made to dismantle it across many levels. Such a synthesis enables scholars and practitioners to engage with both topics within a single book rather than in separate documents.

In addition, this book adopts a comparative perspective, incorporating research findings and examples from different geographic contexts. While maintaining the view that racism, its distinct basis of ‘race’, has a western origin, I argue that it has evolved into a global phenomenon both historically and in the contemporary period. I illustrate this through global analyses and cross-national examples of racism in discourse and policy, as well as anti-racism in social policy and political action.

Methodologically, this book draws on my interdisciplinary research, extended to global audience. The conceptual framework for understanding racism as discussed across the chapters draws on a range of cross-disciplinary theories, encompassing sociology, political science, social psychology and economics. This incorporates anti-racism policy and practice at both micro and macro levels, with each chapter engaging in interdisciplinary contemporary theoretical debates.

This book is equally divided into two parts and commences with a comprehensive Introduction. Each chapter is cross-referenced with the preceding chapters to maintain a coherent narrative flow. Each chapter attempts to provide a critical analysis of the thematic topic covered, linked by introductory and concluding sections. Some chapters include tables and figures to succinctly summarise the key conceptual and analytical discussions.

The first part, consisting of five chapters, focuses on racism as the main subject. This part details the notion of ‘racisms’, to incorporate new manifestations of racism that have become central to contemporary research. It also engages with the intersectional nature of structural inequities involving race, gender, class hierarchies and exclusionary nationalism. Additionally, it provides a comparative analysis of how racism manifests in diverse geographic contexts, exploring its various expressions, forms and intersections.

The second part of this book, also comprising five chapters, focuses on anti-racism concepts, struggles and approaches. It engages with anti-racism as an everyday practice, strategy and policy, explores the history of anti-racism in political mobilisations and considers various anti-racism approaches including a holistic anti-racism perspective. Furthermore, this part critically evaluates the challenges confronting anti-racism efforts, and offers directions for an anti-racist future, proposing a framework for effective anti-racist policy and practice.

By synthesising existing racism and anti-racism scholarship, I hope this book will elucidate and stimulate robust debates on the complexities and enduring roles of race, racism and anti-racism in contemporary societies. This book incorporates a wide range of perspectives on the thematic topics covered, drawing from research across various ideological views. It is my hope that this volume will serve as a valuable introductory resource for anyone interested in in-depth study of such an important topic. I also aspire for this work to contribute to future research that bridges the scholarship on racism and anti-racism.

Amanuel Elias

October 2023

Melbourne, Australia

Acknowledgements

A book like this is an outcome of collective efforts. In writing this book, I have benefited from the generous moral and intellectual support of many friends, colleagues and my family members, to whom I owe deep debt of gratitude. It is not possible to list the numerous help I received within this brief statement. However, I would like to acknowledge those who made specific contribution to this project. First, this work would not be possible without the excellent research environment that the Alfred Deakin Institute (ADI), where I am based, provided. The deep philosophical debates and conversations I had with ADI colleagues and friends have greatly expanded my understanding of major issues including those I put forth in this book. More specifically, I would like to thank Professor Mansouri for his continuous support and mentorship as well as for an extended period of collaboration.

Several colleagues reviewed draft manuscripts of this book and offered valuable feedback, significantly enhancing the strength of my arguments. I am specifically indebted to Leanne Kelly who generously copy-edited several chapters of this book. My colleagues Enqi Weng, Mandy Truong, Ayuba Issaka, Jehonathan Ben, Kim Lam and Greg Barton read chapter manuscripts and provided thorough reviews, which greatly improved the respective chapters. I am grateful to Kiros Hiruy with whom I had fruitful discussions that gave me insight to generate a comprehensive anti-racism framework. As anyone with family responsibility would appreciate, this work would not be completed without my family's unwavering support. They endured countless nights and weekends as I delved into researching and writing this book. I am deeply grateful to my wife Natsinet Ghebretinsae and my children Senay, Lwam and Simret. Finally, I would like to thank the publishing team at Emerald for their efforts in bringing this book to publication.

Amanuel Elias

October 2023

Melbourne, Australia