From anti-racism to interracial trust: A cultural perspective

Furthermore, racism is not a single and homogeneous phenomenon: it varies, it changes, and it is always uneven, especially in everyday contexts. "Where are you from?" is a question often asked by Anglo-celtic Australians to people of non-anglo origins. This is especially offensive to people who were born and bred in Australia.

Here we have a situation in which the meaning of a conversation is radically different for both sides. Many Anglo Australians are not aware of the fact that their very asking of that question tends to place them in a position of power and entitlement vis-à-vis others: their belonging to Australia is unquestioned, that of the others made doubtful. This very presumption of white privilege is based on a very old, racially exclusionary image of the Australian nation.

But it may be too simplistic and unforgiving to condemn anyone asking us, 'Where are you from' as simply racist. It is more complex than this: the interest and curiosity may be genuine, perhaps the uneasy beginning of a more open and mutual exchange and critical dialogue.

A second example is a much more troublesome and explosive one. Recently, I was walking into a shopping mall, when I saw a young man, of Anglo appearance rushing out of the mall while screaming, "You think I was going to steal something, don't you - you fucking Chinese!" He was obviously upset at the female shopkeeper, who was indeed of Chinese background. She said nothing, and the man walked away.

We have to ask the question: is this man a racist? It is obvious that he has made a very offensive racially charged comment, and I am pretty sure that it has inflicted pain and distress on the woman, though she suffered it stoically. But did he make the comment because he is a racist or did the circumstances make him utter the comment? This is a very ordinary but complex incident.

The word "Chinese" became the shorthand for his anger: it was an easy label for him to resort to give a name to his anger and frustration. The upshot may be that he would go home and tell his mates how he hated "those fucking Chinese", and this in turn may reinforce the interracial hostility that was articulated and expressed in what was just a small incident.

Was the Chinese woman right in her suspicions that the man might be a thief, or was she acting prematurely on prejudicial assumption based on the young man's less than respectable appearance. Did she discriminate against him because he was young, male and working-class – the category of people most often associated with criminal behaviour, irrespective of race?

What is clear from this example is how ordinary people deal with volatile conflicts by resorting to old stereotypes or antipathies. They need some way of coming to terms with the stressful situations. It makes little sense, in a situation like this, to simply condemn the Anglo young man for being a racist, even though his comment had undeniably racist overtones.

We need to place the comment in its context, which was one of evident social antagonism and mutual suspicion. At the same time, the Chinese woman may, understandably but perhaps unnecessarily, have offended the young man because she was afraid that he would steal something.

Unfortunately, such indeterminacy is a very common feature of contemporary social life. As the scale of social organisation increases with globalisation, and the proliferation of difference and diversity, we have to be mindful of this complexity.

We can define culture in anthropological terms, as the process by which people make sense of themselves and the world they live in, and construct their identities. Concepts such as race, ethnicity and religion are only some of the categories through which this ongoing process of meaning-making and identity construction takes place: they intersect with class, education, gender, and so on.

Moreover, this process does not take place in a level playing field. There are dominant meanings and identities, which exert power and constrain the cultural self-construction of those groups who are not part of the dominant culture. Above all, the formation of culture is a collective social process: we form our identities and make sense of the world dialogically, through encounters and interactions with others.