Australia is a nation made up of a variety of people: the majority Anglo-Celtic population; other immigrants and their descendants; and the Indigenous Australian population. Popular understandings and expressions of race and ethnicity vary - from the official categories and findings in census records to far more informal ideas. The latter are given expression in slang, and sometimes in language that expresses various forms of racial or ethnic bigotry.

Race in Australia prior to European settlement

Prior to Europeans arriving in Australia, Aboriginal language and culture groups mainly interacted with one another on the basis of traditional cultural arrangements. Additionally, a long term seasonal trade system was developed between some far northern communities and Indonesian communities. Most of these arrangements centred on mutually beneficial trade, were highly ritualised, and covered under traditional conceptions of identity.

Institutional racism and conceptions of race and ethnicity

British settlement of Australia was originally intended to be conducted under British conceptions of negotiating settlement according to local law. Instead, the Sydney settlement proceeded without reference to this conception of British colonialism. The basis adopted was that of terra nullius. While some attempts were made by the government to apply British law in Australia equally to Indigenous and British civilians, the early history of the Sydney settlement was defined by sporadic conflict and forays between the two communities. From this point onwards, the British created a unique racial category in Australia of Aboriginality. Early racist elements of this identity were based on the prostitution and alcoholism forced on the local population.

Institutional conceptions of race and ethnicity have always defined Aboriginality in terms of race, and this definition is distinctive and different from most Australian conceptions of race-as-ethnicity. "Aboriginal" is used to cover mainland indigenous Australians, regardless of language or cultural group, and this definition of a universal and Australian wide racial category has been used to apply undifferentiated social policy to many indigneous cultural groups. Currently, the Federal government distinguishes two special indigenous categories: Aboriginal background and Torres Strait Islander background.

In the Twentieth century governments developed additional conceptions of race during the administration of the White Australia Policy, and with the attempts to come to terms with New Australians. Currently most governments seek information about people in these ethnic or racial categories by asking about country of origin, parent's country of origin, and languages other than English spoken at home.

Popular Australian racism

Popular Australian racism has mostly been based by Anglos against Celtics. These groups were inherited, as with the long standing anti-Catholic (basically anti-Irish) bigotry, which continues to this day. During further waves of 19th century settlement Chinese immigrants were targeted as "Asians" and later as a "Yellow Peril," because Chinese labourers were willing to work for less and undermine working conditions. This manifested in racial targeting like Lambing flats where Asians were accused as a group of attacking young white women and brutally beaten. Some of the larger trade unions strongly supported the development of the White Australia Policy.

Contemporary Australian conceptions of race and ethnicity

In contemporary Australia, what is often referred to as "racism" is usually focused on conceptions of ethnicity, rather than on such issues as skin colour, genetics, or a division of the human species into biologcally superior and inferior "races". While the majority group often calls itself "White" this is primarily used as a synonym for British ethnic background.

With the exception of some Government-defined categories, mostly developed in an attempt to counter racism, current Australian conceptions of "race" and ethnicity are based in popular community conceptions. While most epithets are little more than everyday slang, other more bigoted and offensive terms are also common.

Many recearches claim that Australian is one of the least racist countries of the world. According to the authors of How Australia Compares, Rodney Tiffen and Ross Gittins, an international survey of people who are not desired as neighbours, Australians answer was:

drug addicts 74%,

heavy drinkers 60%,

people with a criminal record 45%,

emotionally unstable 38%,

immigrants and people from a different race 5%.

The percentage of people who would not want to live next door to people of different race was found to be the lowest in the world [1417]. For the comparison in Austria and Belgium it was 20%, in Japan - 17% and in France, Italy and Germany 13%.

Terms or nicknames for ethnicities

See Australian terms or nicknames for ethnicities.

Anti-racism in Australia

Anti-racist sentiments in Australia began, largely by Australian Celts like Ned Kelly who were sick at the racism directed at "yon paddy". Racism against Celts in Australia has always been a huge issue that for the most part is not spoken of much for fear of reigniting sectarianism. Also within the labour movement, which was dominated by Australian Celts beaten down by the authourities, racism was increasingly disencouraged after the beginning of the 20th Century. At first they were associated with revolutionary left-wing groups like the Australian section of the Industrial Workers of the World or the Communist Party of Australia. After the Second World War both conservative and labour movement opinion moved towards the opening of Australia to Europeans other than just the British and Irish. During the 1970s, ideas of a multicultural Australia began to surface, and these were debated extensively in the 1980s, effectively winning over both major political parties by the early 1990s. Deeper anti-racism or some might suggest the stooge's anti-racism, at the level of internationalism or a strongly-theorised cultural pluralism, is only held by the politicised left and the WTO supporting corporations. Today however there is a growing awareness and reawakening of the dormant racism by Anglos against Celts. The vicious attacks on any Australian Celtic politician of prominence by the Anglo owned media, as well as a new awareness of the anti-Celtic nature of the system particuarly in NSW. This manifests itself in the vicious media assault on the Sydney Celt's football, Rugby League, which is the only sport to NEVER have any form of racial segregation in favour of the fascist collaborating and racist games of both RFU and soccer. It also manifests itself in the lack of education about Irish history where they would rather teach about Mahatme Ghandi, than his earlier Irish counterpart Daniel O'Connell (who is ignored entirely by the curriculum). Celts and people of Anglo-Celt tradition and ethnicity are the biggest minority in Australia. Despite this, wealth and clout both historically and presently is very much in the hands of Anglos, with John Howard, an Anglo is in power, federally, and the richest families being almost entirely exclusively Anglo.

References

Henry Reynolds. North of Capricorn :the untold story of Australia’s north. Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2003.