Martha Augoustinos

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.

Stereotype knowledge and prejudice in children

The present research applies Devines (1989) distinction between stereotype knowledge and personal beliefs to the early development of racial bias in young children. The responses of 110 South Australian children (66 girls and 44 boys) toward white and black stimuli were examined across the 5-6 and 8-9 age groups. Analyses revealed that both age groups were knowledgeable about the cultural stereotypes associated with black and white skin colour, Negative adjectives were more strongly endorsed for black stimuli than were positive adjectives (the reverse was true for white stimuli). For 5- to 6-year-olds, knowledge of stereotypes and personal beliefs for black stimuli were highly congruent. In contrast, children aged 8-9 years were significantly more likely to report personal beliefs which diverged from their knowledge of pervasive cultural stereotypes, i.e. to endorse negative adjectives as stereotype knowledge rather than personal beliefs, It is tentatively concluded that the concordance of personal beliefs and stereotype knowledge found among very young children is not prejudice as typically conceived, but rather a function of their inability to make personal judgments that diverge from dominant stereotypes. In contrast, older children have an increasing ability to base evaluations on personal beliefs that may be inconsistent with collective societal representations of social groups. Various explanations accounting for the differentiation between personal beliefs and stereotype knowledge in older children are discussed.

Developmental effects of child abuse: Recent findings

This paper summarizes the pre-1982 research findings on the developmental effects of child abuse and reviews recent contributions to this area. While some of the recent research continues to demonstrate deleterious developmental consequences of child maltreatment, others are pointing to a complex relationship between child maltreatment and development. Mediating variables such as the childs individual characteristics, environmental resources, and the quality of personal interactions the child is exposed to may interact with negative experiences like maltreatment and may be just as important in predicting outcome than maltreatment alone. Recent research has also been concerned with specifying the possible differential effects of different patterns of maltreatment. This has led to a clearer separation between the effects of abuse and neglect, particularly in language development. Despite the methodological improvements in recent research, there is still the need for longitudinal prospective studies on the developmental effects of child abuse, taking into account possible mediating variables.

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.

Racism and Prejudice: An Australian Psychological Society Position Paper

In view of the rise of racist rhetoric in Australian public life in recent years, this paper reviews psychological research on racism and prejudice as they are expressed at every level of society from government policy to the intrapersonal sphere. It draws on evidence arising from social, developmental, clinical, and community psychology. The mental health system is used as an exemplar to analyse the operation of institutionalised racism, and some observations are made about the past, present, and potential future roles of psychological research and practice in relation to race and racism. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations about ways to reduce racism and prejudice at all levels of society.

Genetically modified food in the news: media representations of the GM debate in the UK.

This paper analyses a corpus of articles on GM crops and food which appeared in six UK newspapers in the first three months of 2004, the year following the GM Nation? debate (2003). Using the methods of critical discourse analysis we focus on how specific and pervasive representations of the major stakeholders in the national debate on GM—the British public, the British government, the science of GM, and biotechnology companies—served significant rhetorical functions in the controversy. Of particular significance was the pervasive representation of the British public as uniformly opposed to GM crops and food which served rhetorically to position the British government as undemocratic and as being beholden to powerful political and economic interests. Of significance also in our analysis, is how the science of GM farming itself became a highly contested arena. In short, our analysis demonstrates how the GM debate was represented in the newsprint media as a “battleground” of competing interests. We conclude by considering the possible implications of this representation given the increasing emphasis placed on the importance of deliberative and inclusive forms of science policy decision-making.

Heat waves and climate change: applying the health belief model to identify predictors of risk perception and adaptive behaviours in adelaide, australia.

Heat waves are considered a health risk and they are likely to increase in frequency, intensity and duration as a consequence of climate change. The effects of heat waves on human health could be reduced if individuals recognise the risks and adopt healthy behaviours during a heat wave. The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of risk perception using a heat wave scenario and identify the constructs of the health belief model that could predict adaptive behaviours during a heat wave. A cross-sectional study was conducted during the summer of 2012 among a sample of persons aged between 30 to 69 years in Adelaide. Participants’ perceptions were assessed using the health belief model as a conceptual frame. Their knowledge about heat waves and adaptive behaviours during heat waves was also assessed. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the predictors of risk perception to a heat wave scenario and adaptive behaviours during a heat wave. Of the 267 participants, about half (50.9%) had a high risk perception to heat waves while 82.8% had good adaptive behaviours during a heat wave. Multivariate models found that age was a significant predictor of risk perception. In addition, participants who were married (OR = 0.21; 95% CI, 0.07–0.62), who earned a gross annual household income of ≥

Apologising to the stolen generations: Argument, rhetoric, and identity in public reasoning

60,000 (OR = 0.41; 95% CI, 0.17–0.94) and without a fan (OR = 0.29; 95% CI, 0.11–0.79) were less likely to have a high risk perception to heat waves. Those who were living with others (OR = 2.87; 95% CI, 1.19–6.90) were more likely to have a high risk perception to heat waves. On the other hand, participants with a high perceived benefit (OR = 2.14; 95% CI, 1.00–4.58), a high “cues to action” (OR = 3.71; 95% CI, 1.63–8.43), who had additional training or education after high school (OR = 2.65; 95% CI, 1.25–5.58) and who earned a gross annual household income of ≥

‘Race’ and the Human Genome Project: Constructions of Scientific Legitimacy

60,000 (OR = 2.66; 95% CI, 1.07–6.56) were more likely to have good adaptive behaviours during a heat wave. The health belief model could be useful to guide the design and implementation of interventions to promote adaptive behaviours during heat waves.