Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Institutional Racism and Its Social Costs

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Racism in Australia Today

Abstract

This chapter discusses contemporary aspects of institutional racism, examining the systemic structures that perpetuate exclusion and racial inequality, and critically interrogating the policy environment that has shaped the discourse of race relations in Australia. Coined in 1960 by Kwame Ture and Charles Hamilton, institutional racism refers to racism perpetrated through the instruments of the nation-state and various structures of society. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate whether and to what extent there are structural and systemic barriers in Australia that preclude racial and ethnic minorities from attaining racial equality across multiple domains (e.g. law, political representation, education, employment, health and business). We look at this in light of the historical interplay between the politics of identity and racial socioeconomic and political reality in Australia. Overt institutional racism ended in Australia in the late 1960s, with the abolition of the laws that promulgated a White Australia Policy. Ever since, particularly since the late 1970s, the Australian government has come to recognise that Australia has a multicultural population. The Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 affirms the equal rights of racial, ethnic and religious minorities, prohibiting racial discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, ethnicity, religion and national origin. Despite this, Australian society remains largely dominated by the Anglo-European population with minorities frequently experiencing disadvantage, discrimination, social exclusion and less social, political and economic representation. A widely held view among researchers and social policy practitioners postulates that the socioeconomic circumstances and political underrepresentation of minority groups point to ongoing systematic and structural racial inequality and injustice. To what extent these are indicative of an underlying institutional racism, with race/ethnicity still determining one’s place in Australian society, is a heavily debated issue across public policy spheres and academic discourse. Therefore, in addition to depicting the structural processes that perpetuate unequal and disparate outcomes for minority racial/ethnic groups, this chapter discusses the ethical dimension of institutional racism to provide a more nuanced perspective to this ongoing discourse that tends to be simplistic and polarised.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Typical examples are: the elections of the anti-immigration politicians Nigel Farage in the UK, Marine Le Pen in France; the leader of an Austrian far right party Norbert Hofer; the Islamophobe Dutch politician Geert Wilders; the anti-immigrant and Islamophobic politicians Pauline Hanson and Fraser Anning in Australia; the election of Donald Trump in the US and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.

  2. 2.

    Prime Minister Rudd’s Apology speech in 2008 mentioned some of the institutionally racist policies, saying: “We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.”

  3. 3.

    These include the labour, housing, and consumer markets, healthcare, and criminal justice system.

  4. 4.

    1 Corinthians 12:26 (Good News Translation). However, both the Christian Bible and Muslim Quran state the notion that membership within a group implies that individual suffering is shared more widely.

References

  • Australian Human Rights Commission. (2018). Leading for change: A blueprint for cultural diversity and inclusive leadership revisited. Australian Human Rights Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bastos, J. L., Harnois, C. E., & Paradies, Y. C. (2018). Health care barriers, racism, and intersectionality in Australia. Social Science and Medicine, 199, 209–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. S. (2010). The economics of discrimination. University of Chicago Press (original work published 1957).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben, J., Cormack, D., Harris, R., & Paradies, Y. (2017). Racism and health service utilisation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One, 12(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189900.

  • Better, S. (2008). Institutional racism: A primer on theory and strategies for social change. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhattacharyya, G., Gabriel, J., & Small, S. (2016). Race and power: Global racism in the twenty first century. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Blum, L. (2002). “I’m not a racist, but...”: The moral quandary of race. Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bodkin-Andrews, G., & Carlson, B. (2014). The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(4), 784–807.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bongiorno, F. (2013). A working man’s paradise? In M. H. (Ed.), Glorious days Australia 1913 (pp. 109–119). National Museum of Australia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Booth, A. L., Leigh, A., & Varganova, E. (2012). Does ethnic discrimination vary across minority groups? Evidence from a field experiment. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 74(4), 547–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourke, C. J., Marrie, H., & Marrie, A. (2018). Transforming institutional racism at an Australian hospital. Australian Health Review, 43, 611–618. https://doi.org/10.1071/AH18062.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourne, J. (2001). The life and times of institutional racism. Race and Class, 43(2), 7–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boxill, B. R. (2013). Racism. In H. LaFollette (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of ethics. Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee196.

  • Brimmer, A. (1997). The economic cost of discrimination against black Americans. In T. Bostorn (Ed.), A different vision: Race and public policy. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Button, P., & Walker, B. (2020). Employment discrimination against Indigenous peoples in the United States: Evidence from a field experiment. Labour Economics, 65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2020.101851.

  • Chesterman, J., & Galligan, B. (1997). Citizens without rights: Aborigines and Australian citizenship. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Colucci, E., Minas, H., Szwarc, J., Guerra, C., & Paxton, G. (2015). In or out? Barriers and facilitators to refugee-background young people accessing mental health services. Transcultural Psychiatry, 52(6), 766–790.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cox, O. (1959). Castes, class and race: A study in social dynamics. Monthly Review Press (original work published 1948).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunneen, C. (2019). Institutional racism and (in)justice: Australia in the 21st century. Decolonization of Criminology and Justice, 1(1), 29–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darity, W. A., Hamilton, D., & Stewart, J. B. (2015). A tour de force in understanding intergroup inequality: An introduction to stratification economics. The Review of Black Political Economy, 42(1–2), 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Plevitz, L. (2007). Systemic racism: The hidden barrier to educational success for Indigenous school students. Australian Journal of Education, 51(1), 54–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du Bois, W. (2015). The souls of black folk. Yale University Press (original work published 1903).

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, A., Mavisakalyan, A., & Tarverdi, Y. (2019). Self-assessed vs. statistical evidence of racial discrimination: The case of indigenous Australians. Applied Economics Letters, 51(12), 1232–1247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eidelson, B. (2015). Discrimination and disrespect. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Elias, A., & Paradies, Y. (2016). Estimating the mental health costs of racial discrimination. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 1205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias, A., & Paradies, Y. (2021). The costs of institutional racism and its ethical implications for healthcare. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 18(1), 45–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farley, R., & Allen, W. R. (1987). The color line and the quality of life in America. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feagin, J. R., & McKinney, K. D. (2005). The many costs of racism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N., & Honneth, A. (2003). Redistribution or recognition? A political-philosophical exchange. Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, D., Howard, M., & Cummings, E. (2004). The impact of institutional racism upon Indigenous economic and human development in Australia. Development in Practice, 14(4), 559–568.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gannoni, A., & Bricknell, S. (2019). Indigenous deaths in custody: 25 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Statistical Bulletin, 17. Australian Institute of Criminology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gee, G., Hing, A., Mohammed, S., Tabor, D., & Williams, D. (2019). Racism and the life course: Taking time seriously. American Journal of Public Health, 109(S43–S47). https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304766.

  • Glasgow, J. (2009). Racism as disrespect. Ethics, 120(1), 64–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Government of Australia. (2019). Closing the gap report 2019. Canberra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hage, G. (1998). White nation: Fantasies of white supremacy in a multicultural society. Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Havemann, P. (2005). Denial, modernity and exclusion: Indigenous placelessness in Australia. Macquarie Law Journal, 5, 57–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Head, B. (2008). Wicked problems in public policy. Public Policy, 3(2), 101–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henricks, K. (2016). Racism, structural and institutional. In J. Stone, R. M. Denis, P. Rizova, A. D. Smith, & X. Hou (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of race, ethnicity, and nationalism (1st ed., pp. 1–8). Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henricks, K. (2019). Power to the paperwork? Mandatory financial sanctions and the bureaucratic means to racially unequal ends. American Behavioral Scientist, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219859620.

  • Henricks, K., & Harvey, D. (2017). Not one but many: Monetary punishment and the Fergusons of America. Sociological Forum, 32, 930–951.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henry, B. R., Houston, S., & Mooney, G. H. (2004). Institutional racism in Australian healthcare: A plea for decency. Medical Journal of Australia, 180(10), 517–520.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, T. E., Jr. (1989). Kantian constructivism in ethics. Ethics, 99(4), 752–770.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hing, B. O. (2009). Institutional racism, ICE raids, and immigration reform. University of San Francisco Law Review, 44, 307–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnstone, M. J., & Kanitsaki, O. (2008a). The problem of failing to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare. In S. Barraclough & H. Gardner (Eds.), Analysing Australian health policy: A problem orientated approach (pp. 176–187). Elsevier.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Johnstone, M. J., & Kanitsaki, O. (2008b). The politics of resistance to workplace cultural diversity education for health service providers: An Australian study. Race Ethnicity and Education, 11(2), 133–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnstone, M. J., & Kanitsaki, O. (2010). The neglect of racism as an ethical issue in health care. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 12(4), 489–495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerr, J., Schafer, P., Perry, A., Orkin, J., Vance, M., & O’Campo, P. (2018). The impact of racial discrimination on African American fathers’ intimate relationships. Race and Social Problems, 10(2), 134–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kilty, K. M., & Swank, E. (1997). Institutional racism and media representations: Depictions of violent criminals and welfare recipients. Sociological Imagination, 34(2–3), 105–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krieger, N. (2020). Measures of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and gender binarism for health equity research: From structural injustice to embodied harm—An ecosocial analysis. Annual Review of Public Health, 41(4), 1–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larkin, S. R. (2013). Race matters: Indigenous employment in the Australian public service. Ph.D. Thesis. Queensland University of Technology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, N. (2017). Am I a racist? Implicit bias and the ascription of racism. The Philosophical Quarterly, 67(268), 534–551.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lichter, D. T., Parisi, D., & Taquino, M. C. (2012). The geography of exclusion: Race, segregation, and concentrated poverty. Social Problems, 59(3), 364–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Littler, J. (2018). Against meritocracy: Culture, power and myths of mobility. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyneham, M., & Chan, A. (2013). Deaths in custody in Australia to 30 June 2011. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maina, I. W., Belton, T. D., Ginzberg, S., Singh, A., & Johnson, T. J. (2018). A decade of studying implicit racial/ethnic bias in healthcare providers using the implicit association test. Social Science and Medicine, 199, 219–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mapedzahama, V., & Kwansah-Aidoo, K. (2017). Blackness as burden? The lived experience of black Africans in Australia. Sage Open, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017720483.

  • Massey, G. C., Scott, M. V., & Dornbusch, S. M. (1975). Racism without racists: Institutional racism in urban schools. The Black Scholar, 7(3), 10–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McNeill, P. M. (2003). Public health ethics: Asylum seekers and the case for political action. Bioethics, 17(5–6), 487–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellor, D. (2003). Contemporary racism in Australia: The experiences of Aborigines. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(4), 474–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miles, R., & Brown, M. (2004). Racism (2nd ed.). Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J., & Garran, A. M. (2007). The web of institutional racism. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 77(1), 33–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. W. (2009). Rawls on race/race in Rawls. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 47(Supplement), 161–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moodie, N., Maxwell, J., & Rudolph, S. (2019). The impact of racism on the schooling experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students: A systematic review. The Australian Educational Researcher, 46(2), 273–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moran, A. (2011). Multiculturalism as nation-building in Australia: Inclusive national identity and the embrace of diversity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(12), 2153–2172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myrdal, G. (1996). An American dilemma: The Negro problem and modern democracy. Routledge (original work published 1944).

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, L. K., Dudley, M., & Steel, Z. (2008). Asylum, detention, and mental health in Australia. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 27(3), 110–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nixon, S. A. (2019). The coin model of privilege and critical allyship: Implications for health. BMC Public Health, 19, 1637. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7884-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noah, B. A. (2002). The invisible patient. University of Illinois Law Review, 2002, 121–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paradies, Y. (2016). Racism and health. In S. R. Quah & W. C. Cockerham (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of public health (2nd ed., pp. 249–259). Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paradies, Y., Ben, J., Denson, N., Elias, A., Priest, N., Pieterse, A., Gupta, A., Kelaher, M., & Gee, G. (2015). Racism as a determinant of health: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One, 10(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.013851.

  • Paradies, Y., Truong, M., & Priest, N. (2014). A systematic review of the extent and measurement of healthcare provider racism. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 29(2), 364–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peeples, L. (2019). What the data say about police shootings. Nature, 573(7772), 24–26. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02601-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polonsky, M. J., Brijnath, B., & Renzaho, A. M. (2011). “They don’t want our blood”: Social inclusion and blood donation among African migrants in Australia. Social Science and Medicine, 73(2), 336–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Post, R. (1991). Racist speech, democracy, and the First Amendment. William and Mary Law Review, 32, 267–327.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powers, M., & Faden, R. R. (2006). Social justice: The moral foundations of public health and health policy. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pyle, E. A. (2018). Problematising the wickedness of “disadvantage” in Australian Indigenous affairs policy. Master’s Thesis, Queensland University of Technology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (2001). Justice as fairness: A restatement (E. Kelly, Ed.). Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, L. D., & Norris, M. (2010). Access to health and health care: How race and ethnicity matter. Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, 77(2), 166–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, P., Naidoo, Y., & Griffiths, M. (2008). Towards new indicators of disadvantage: Deprivation and social exclusion in Australia. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 43(2), 175–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlosser, E. (1998). The prison-industrial complex. The Atlantic, December Issue. Retrieved on September 26, 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/304669/.

  • Seet, A. Z. (2019). Serving the White nation: Bringing internalised racism within a sociological understanding. Journal of Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783319882087.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seet, A. Z., & Paradies, Y. (2018). Silenced realities: The significance of the “old racism” in contemporary Australian society. Journal of Australian Studies, 42(4), 445–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shelby, T. (2014). Racism, moralism and social criticism. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 11(1), 57–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silove, D., Steel, Z., & Mollica, R. F. (2001). Detention of asylum seekers: Assault on health, human rights, and social development. The Lancet, 357(9266), 1436–1437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J. (2004). Refugees and social exclusion: What the literature says. Migration Action, 22(2), 16–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tendler, S. (1999, February 22). Report gives wider meaning to “institutional racism”—The Stephen Lawrence inquiry. The Times, p. 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomsen, F. K. (2017). Discrimination. In Oxford research encyclopedia of politics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.202.

  • Ture, K., & Hamilton, C. V. (1967). Black power: The politics of liberation in America. Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M., & Gooda, M. (2017). Royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the northern territory—NT final report. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willard, M. (1967). History of the White Australia policy to 1920. Frank Cass & Co., Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. R., & Wyatt, R. (2015). Racial bias in health care and health: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of the American Medical Association, 314(6), 555–556.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, P. (2001). Deaths in custody: 10 years on from the Royal Commission. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, 203, 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, W. J. (2010). Why both social structure and culture matter in a holistic analysis of inner-city poverty. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 629(1), 200–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native. Journal of Genocide Research, 8(4), 387–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young, I. M. (2011). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

    Dr. Amanuel Elias

  2. Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

    Prof. Fethi Mansouri

  3. Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

    Prof. Yin Paradies

Authors
  1. Dr. Amanuel Elias
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Prof. Fethi Mansouri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Prof. Yin Paradies
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanuel Elias .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Elias, A., Mansouri, F., Paradies, Y. (2021). Institutional Racism and Its Social Costs. In: Racism in Australia Today. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2137-6_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-16-2136-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-16-2137-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation