Danielle Every

The Language of “Race” and Prejudice A Discourse of Denial, Reason, and Liberal-Practical Politics

During the past 20 years, there has been a burgeoning literature on racial discourse in Western liberal democracies that has been informed by several disciplines. This literature has analysed linguistic and discursive patterns of everyday talk and formal institutional talk that can be found in parliamentary debates, political speeches, and the media. One of the most pervasive features of contemporary race discourse is the denial of prejudice. Increasing social taboos against openly expressing racist sentiments has led to the development of discursive strategies that present negative views of out-groups as reasonable and justified while at the same time protecting the speaker from charges of racism and prejudice. This research has demonstrated the flexible and ambivalent nature of contemporary race discourse. The present article reviews these discursive patterns or ways of talking about the other and emphasises the significant contribution that this work has made to research on language and discrimination.

New racism, meritocracy and individualism: constraining affirmative action in education

This article presents a discursive analysis of student talk on disadvantage and affirmative action from two focus group discussions on ‘race’ relations in Australia. Our analysis builds upon previous research in the discursive tradition on affirmative action and demonstrates how participants draw on resources, which construct affirmative action as largely problematic. Liberal principles such as individualism, merit, and egalitarianism were recurrently drawn upon to justify, argue and legitimate opposition to affirmative action. Speakers managed their opposition to affirmative action while presenting as fair, principled and lacking in prejudice. One argument, which was commonly deployed, constructed affirmative action as undermining meritocratic principles and ideals. This meritocratic discourse has a self-sufficient, taken-for-granted quality which participants assumed to be a moral and normative standard that needed to be protected and upheld. This argument was also associated with a closely related one that ‘everyone should be treated equally or the same’, regardless of social background. Although our analysis emphasizes the deployment of discursive resources that function primarily to uphold the ideals of meritocracy, individualism and equality, participants did produce talk that on occasion challenged the ideology of individual achievement and acknowledged the existence of Aboriginal disadvantage. We discuss how these contradictions are reflective of the competing values of egalitarianism and individualism in western liberal democracies like Australia and how the language of the ‘new racism’ is framed by such ideological dilemmas and ambivalence.

Accusations and denials of racism managing moral accountability in public discourse

As Van Dijk (1992) has documented, one of the pervasive features of contemporary race discourse is the denial of prejudice. During the last 50 years, social norms against openly expressing racist sentiments has led to the development of ways of talking that present negative views of out-groups as reasonable and justified, while at the same time protecting speakers from charges of racism and prejudice. It goes without saying that a ‘prejudiced’ or ‘racist’ identity is no longer a valued identity. Negative representations and evaluations of minorities are commonly preceded by ubiquitous disclaimers such as ‘I’m not racist but . . . ’ or ‘I have nothing against migrants but ... ’. Contemporary race talk, therefore, is strategically organized to deny racism. A closely related but largely ignored phenomenon associated with the denial of prejudice is a political climate that creates what is tantamount to a social taboo against making accusations of racism in the first place (Augoustinos and Every, 2007). Such charges and accusations are invariably met with not only strong denials, but also moral outrage and are often treated as more extreme than racism itself. This Special Edition publishes new discursive work on the delicate discursive and argumentative management of accusations of racism and their accompanying denials.

No Pet or Their Person Left Behind: Increasing the Disaster Resilience of Vulnerable Groups through Animal Attachment, Activities and Networks

Simple Summary The potential for reconfiguring pet ownership from a risk factor to a protective factor for natural disaster survival has been recently proposed. But how might this resilience-building proposition apply to members of the community who are already considered vulnerable? This article addresses this important question by synthesizing information about what makes seven particular groups vulnerable, the challenges to increasing their resilience and how animals figure in their lives. It concludes that animal attachment could provide a novel conduit for accessing, communicating with and motivating vulnerable people to engage in resilience building behaviors that promote survival and facilitate recovery. Abstract Increased vulnerability to natural disasters has been associated with particular groups in the community. This includes those who are considered de facto vulnerable (children, older people, those with disabilities etc.) and those who own pets (not to mention pets themselves). The potential for reconfiguring pet ownership from a risk factor to a protective factor for natural disaster survival has been recently proposed. But how might this resilience-building proposition apply to vulnerable members of the community who own pets or other animals? This article addresses this important question by synthesizing information about what makes particular groups vulnerable, the challenges to increasing their resilience and how animals figure in their lives. Despite different vulnerabilities, animals were found to be important to the disaster resilience of seven vulnerable groups in Australia. Animal attachment and animal-related activities and networks are identified as underexplored devices for disseminating or ‘piggybacking’ disaster-related information and engaging vulnerable people in resilience building behaviors (in addition to including animals in disaster planning initiatives in general). Animals may provide the kind of innovative approach required to overcome the challenges in accessing and engaging vulnerable groups. As the survival of humans and animals are so often intertwined, the benefits of increasing the resilience of vulnerable communities through animal attachment is twofold: human and animal lives can be saved together.

Teaching in fractured classrooms: refugee education, public culture, community and ethics

During the last decade or so, schooling policy has had to increasingly grapple with processes that have a global reach. One significant aspect of globalisation has been the global flows of asylum seekers and refugees. Although Australia has a long history of accepting asylum seekers and refugees, in recent times, concerns about national security have fuelled community disquiet about refugees and asylum seekers. As such the ‘refugee problem’ is a crucial site for research by those interested in the relationships between a vibrant and socially just society and educational policy and practice. This paper draws on Roses genealogy of ‘community’ (that is community now a site for governmentality); and Baumans meditation on ‘elusive community’ (how can we have both freedom and security?) as a means to think through an appropriate ethico‐politics for educators grappling with the refugee problem in Australia.

Contemporary Racist Discourse: Taboos Against Racism and Racist Accusations

During the last twenty years there has been a burgeoning literature on the language of contemporary racism in Western liberal democracies such as Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Europe and the United States. Much of this literature has been informed by discursive psychology, which not only analyses everyday talk and conversation, but also formal institutional talk that can be found in parliamentary debates, political speeches and newspaper articles. One of the most pervasive features of contemporary racist discourse is the denial of prejudice. Increasing social taboos against openly expressing racist sentiments have led to the development of discursive strategies that present negative views of outgroups as reasonable and justified, while at the same time protecting the speaker from charges of racism and prejudice. This research has demonstrated the flexible, contradictory and ambivalent nature of contemporary racist discourse, which is organized by common and recurring tropes used by majority group members to justify and rationalize existing social inequities between groups. These justifications are premised largely on the flexible and rhetorical use of liberal and egalitarian commonplaces that draw on principles of freedom, fairness, and individual rights.

'An image of hope in a week of despair': Representations of Sam the Koala in the Australian mainstream news media

Natural disasters are events with far-reaching humanitarian implications that frequently receive international attention through the use of an image that comes to represent the disaster in question. The most successful images often comprise ‘identifiable’ and therefore human victims. What is more unusual is for a single animal image to become representative of an entire disaster. This was the case with the 2009 Victorian bushfires in Australia, when the image of a firefighter offering a koala a drink gained international fame. Given that this image of ‘Sam’ the koala does not conform to traditional disaster imagery, we undertook a thematic analysis of mainstream news media representations of Sam in order to identify how she was represented by the media. In this article, we discuss these themes in relation to the ‘identifiable victim’, together with the implications of Sams success in terms of disaster-relief campaigns.

‘Shame on you’: The language, practice and consequences of shame and shaming in asylum seeker advocacy:

The struggle to change negative responses to asylum seekers is becoming more difficult due to global economic insecurity and increasing numbers of people seeking asylum. Effective and persuasive advocacy and activism to shift these opinions and create better outcomes for asylum seekers are critical. As for all social movements, how advocates engage the wider public, particularly those opposed to asylum seeking, is key to gaining support for this project. In this article, I use discourse analysis as a method for identifying both current activist discourses and rhetorical strategies, and how these shape the responses of the opposition. Using letters to the editor, online comments and media articles from a 2010–2011 Australian debate on the relocation of asylum seekers to a small South Australian town, I explore a particular strategy for change used in asylum seeker advocacy: eliciting shame. I identify two ways that shaming is ‘done’ – through expressions of contempt and disgust, and through a comparison of privilege and oppression. However, the analysis of the responses to this shaming demonstrates that, rather than provoking the hoped-for change, shaming actually elicits its opposite: flight or fight responses of denial, avoidance and escalating conflict.

How can a donkey fly on the plane? The benefits and limits of animal therapy with refugees

Background Humanitarian migrants experience higher rates of mental illness than the resident population, limiting their social and economic opportunities and contributions. Effective interventions are thus critical to improve the settlement outcomes. Many therapists employ narrative and expressive therapies because of their holistic approach to both trauma and psychosocial stressors, and their benefits for working with people with limited English literacy. A potential non-language-based intervention that has been effective with other groups, but which has not yet been evaluated in relation to refugees, is animal-assisted therapy. Animal therapy has been shown to reduce social isolation, increase well-being and reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression in general and clinical populations. However, there is a need to understand if and how these benefits apply to refugees. Methods We used open-ended questions presented in an online survey for Australian therapeutic and support practitioners working with refugees. Results We found that interactions with animals in school and community settings have positive outcomes for increasing social interaction, building trust, and reducing difficult behaviours, especially with children. Some clients are more timid around animals, and some express specific cultural concerns about the type of animal. Practitioners recommended that clients are approached individually about their views on animals prior to including animals in therapy or community activities. They also recommend avoiding assumptions about particular cultures and animals, as these are not universal. Conclusions Culturally appropriate animal therapy may thus be a complementary therapy that improves the therapeutic relationship, overall well-being, and settlement outcomes, especially with refugee children.

Racism: Social Psychological Perspectives

Racism has been a core topic in social psychology since the 1930s. Central to most definitions of racism is the belief in a biological hierarchy between different social groups based on perceived racial differences. As a complex social issue multiple social psychological perspectives have been advanced to understand and theorize beliefs, behavior, and social practices that sustain racial inequality ranging from the individual to the social level of explanation. These include personality theories; social cognition models; realistic group conflict; social identity theory; critical discursive approaches, studies of White privilege; and embodied racism. Although these perspectives are frequently argued to be inconsistent with each other, recent attempts at integration are providing richer accounts of this phenomenon.