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Where Did You Come From (You Black Bitch)? Australia and Racism

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Understanding Racism in a Post-Racial World

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Abstract

The chapter offers a succinct summary of the relationship between Australian history and the contemporary nature of its racism. As well as exploring the historical ideologies that give rise to Australian whiteness and anti-blackness, it examines how these ideologies come to be expressed in the present as post-racial ideas. Post-racialism does not signify the end of race but rather a moment in the continuous evolution of racial thought. The chapter considers biological essentialism and social constructionism as being fundamental to the current historical moment, paying particular attention to the role bodies and spaces have played in the changing nature of racism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The White Australia Policy (1901–1973) was legislature introduced to enforce racial aspects to immigration law (1901–1973). The aim was to bar all persons belonging to any coloured race from immigrating to Australia.

  2. 2.

    An informal Australian concept that emphasises that everyone has the right to reasonable opportunity to do something. No one should be discriminated against.

  3. 3.

    E. Phillips Fox (1902), Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay, 1770, National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), available at https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/5576/ (last accessed 14 October 2018).

  4. 4.

    Terra Nullius was the Latin concept used to describe Australian land as empty and belonging to no one.

  5. 5.

    The 1967 referendum saw Australians voting overwhelmingly to include Aboriginals in the national census.

  6. 6.

    VW Jamaican-theme Super Bowl ad: Funny or Offensive, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxmPCCMwHLY (last accessed 14 October 2018).

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  1. Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    Sunshine Kamaloni

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  1. Sunshine Kamaloni
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Correspondence to Sunshine Kamaloni .

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Kamaloni, S. (2019). Where Did You Come From (You Black Bitch)? Australia and Racism. In: Understanding Racism in a Post-Racial World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10985-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10985-1_2

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