Racial Discrimination - Essay Example

RACISM Name: Institution: Course: Instructor’s Name: Date: Introduction Racism in Australia exists in all sectors of the society education included. In the society, racial discrimination exists in the form of attitudes geared at demotivating members of the community that are Australian natives. According to a movement by the name; all together now, one in five people living in Australia have experienced racial discrimination ranging from verbal attacks to discrimination during job applications (Lave, 2009). According to the movement, the labor market requires applicants to have a good command of the English language with a small proficiency rate. This strictness in by the labor market is proof that the market has racism traits. A report by the economics department, University of Essex, indigenous Australians have to make more efforts to job applications. This essay will outline one/ two theoretical frameworks to gain intercultural understanding on the racial discrimination and discuss how forces of power, equity and access influence on the student; it will also use empirical evidence to emphasize how Australian schools are reacting to the issue. Education plays a significant role in solving the racism as it is a system that has been adopted all over the world (Lave, 2009). Through education, young people are taught virtues such as respect and honesty. Students were enrolled in the same school, and events such as games, debates and music festivals also unite students from all walks of life. Racial discrimination has become one of the most controversial topics in the society; it is vital to educate students about racial issues. Research shows that “every day, one of five students experience racism” (Brice, 2014). Racism becomes a problem in the Australian education because teachers or the school management fail to acknowledge that there is racism in their institutions. Students that originate from English speaking countries complain of being prejudiced against by the students from the native country. Some of the signs of racism in the Australian schools include; hostility or lack of cooperation between groups of different races, the appearance of racist graffiti, promotion of racist propaganda among students. Also, low expectations from some groups of students by the teaching staff and none inclusive policies such as curriculum and cyber racism in school portals are racist signs. The education system plays a significant role in bringing racism to a halt. A comprehensive curriculum that recognizes all students as equal by engaging all of them in school activity and having an equal expectation to all students is a fundamental component in eradicating racism. School managements should also emerge with a plan of regulating projects such as art projects that involve graffiti that are targeted to demotivating a particular group (Mouzelis, 2003). Schools in Australia should push for laws that recognize all students as equals’ hence equal chances during enrollments in Australian schools. Teachers should ensure that they motivate all students equally especially equally. The teacher should congratulate all students during class lectures and reward all of them if they all pass a test. All the above efforts will help in bringing up an enhanced multicultural education system that will bring racism to a standstill. It should be a mandatory rule to all schools that they should recruit an Anti-Racism Contact officer (ARCO). ARCO is a person that should be nominated by the school principals and should have some of the following qualities: parents, teachers should trust good communication and mediation skills, and students, should not have a supporting role in the school, should be willing to develop racism understanding more. ARCO officer should carry out some of the following functions: Dealing with complaints regarding racism, education all the entire school fraternity on the dangers of racism and also monitoring the implemented structures meant to deal with racism. Functionalist theory The functionalist hypothesis resonates that for the race and ethnic relations to be functional and therefore play a great role in the social conduct and stability of society, racial and ethnic minorities must assimilate into that society. In for a stable society, social institutions are requiring unity for the harmonious working of the community. Education is one of the social institutions that are featured by the functionalist theory. Education is a major contributor to the Australian economy as it is the position with which the work force rises. An excellent job force is a workforce that is based on academic qualifications. A racist society, therefore, compromises the skill required as some of the groups discriminated against may be holding the novelty necessary to disrupt an economy. A part from racism, gender bias in schools, deprives a society of its future advancements as the workforce is short of the full potential that it should have. Criticism of the theory Functionalist theory downplays the role of individual efforts in the contribution of the success of the society. Individuals are only recognized in their respective social positions in the larger society. The functionality theory also fails to account for the general social change. Racism and ethnic groupings are contributed by individuals in the community (Mouzelis, 2003). Disregarding the role of each in the contribution of change in the society falls short of the expectations by the theory in explaining race and theory. Functionalism theory also fails to address social change because of its concise concentration on social order and equilibrium in the society. Critical race theory Critical race theory in an analytical framework that stems in the social sciences and it examines the society and culture to the intersection of race, law, and power. Critical race theory expounds on the white privileges. White privileges refer to the various social political and economic advantages that white individuals enjoy in their native countries as opposed to other citizens. White privileges include inherent access to power, social classes, education opportunities and so on (Davis, 1989). These privileges lead to aggravated racism in the Western countries including Australia. Critical theory also analyses micro aggressions that contribute to racism and subordination of racialized individuals. However, being minor traces of prejudice, micro aggressions are hard to control. This type of discrimination is covered in legal discourse as discussed by Peggy Davis. Critical theory also discusses racism to be an institutionalized concept. According to the theory, the dominant individuals in a society restrict certain persons who are not dominant in their society to accessing opportunities in the community (Brice, 2015). These inequalities have been solved through introductions of laws that deal with culprits that discriminate against others. Critical theory also suggests that racism is a social construct meaning that it is a notion that has been formed an individuals mind. Critical theory also analyses intersectionality and anti-essentialism which states that one aspect of a person has nothing to do with the rest of categories in the society. Influence of power, Equity, and Access Intersections in sociology are defined as the discrimination of people based on various factors such as race, gender, ethnicity and social classes in the society. Intersections cause stalemates in the education sector as they affect the well-being of the students in the learning institutions. Racism is supposed to be controlled by the forces of power because they are the people capable of enacting laws that limit the heat of racism (Ferfolja, 2015). Intersections have existed for a long time, and most of the people propagate them knowingly or unknowingly in their daily lives. Intersections are fueled by cultural believes in the society as well as other intentional motives with the intention of showing superiority. Forces of power influence the depth to which racism and ethnicity become absorbed in the society. Racism is supposed to be controlled by the forces of authority because they are the people capable of enacting laws that limit the heat of racism (Ferfolja, 2015). Equality includes equal treatment for the people regardless of their social categorization. The word equality gives a different meaning and complex nature of the concept of social justice. Many people perceive social justice in equality perspective to mean equal share of resource or an equal treatment for all. The concept, however, means treatment of people according to their efforts towards an individual course (Moran, 2014). Individual efforts help to eliminate prejudice in a privileged white community which appreciated the value of functionalism theory. Powerful leadership bundled with equal distribution of resources helps in giving equal opportunities to all people in accessing resources in the society hence uplifting the entire society (Bell, 1995). Social justice refers to perceived qualities in a community that relate to race, ethnicity, class, and gender. From the definition, social justice cannot be separated from equality as it strives to make all members of the community equal regardless of their social inclination. Social justice suggests that a community should have uniformity while dealing with social categories (Guskey, 1995). Social justice has been used to address various scenarios in the society such as Distribution, equality, the common good, compassion and progressive agenda. Departmental policies Academic institutions should come up with proper channels that will help the government in implementing policies that can assist in eradicating intersectionality in the education society. Policies at the departmental level are key to making sure that the intersections are fully eliminated in the society. As a way of castigating equality in the education system, schools should come up with policies that keep a close eye to their students (Salomon, 1997). Such Policies include having clinic days in schools. In such clinic days, parents are invited to schools to hold a meeting with teachers to discuss matters about the well-being of their children. Academic clinic day functions will help both the teachers and the students to air their grievances to the parents who then act as a mediator between the two for the sake of the student’s education. Both students and teachers who found guilty of propagating any social injustice should have a proper disciplinary action acted against them. Strictness in punishing the propagators of intersections will be a big booster to bringing the social injustice to a halt (Kirk, 1997). Students that give false information concerning intersection cases should also be taken through a disciplinary procedure because this also contributes to an inverse kind of intersection. Conclusion The impact of social intersections is massive as they include termination of education by some of the victims in the society. Intersections more so racism and ethnicity in the society have various categorizations. Racism can be eliminated by putting in place policies that directly impact the victims and their parents. Most of the responsibilities for dealing with racism lie with the powerful forces in the society. Racism and ethnicity remain a problem many years after the emergence of democracy though the evil seems to have reduced in intensity over the years. In future, the rate of intersection activities is expected to reduce with new policies coming up fast enough. References Bell, Derrick A. “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?” University of Illinois Law Review 4 (1995): 893-910. Brice Reynolds, D., Walker, R. J., Campbell, J. A., & Egede, L. E. (2015). Differential effect of race, education, gender, and language discrimination on glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes technology & therapeutics, 17(4), 243-247. Davis, Peggy. “Law as Microaggression.” Yale Law Journal 98 (1989): 1559-1577. Ferfolja, T., Díaz, C. J., & Ullman, J. (2015).Understanding Sociological Theory for Educational Practices. Cambridge University Press. Guskey, T. R., & Huberman, M. (1995). Professional development in education: New paradigms and practices. Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027 (paperback: ISBN-0-8077-3425-X; clothbound: ISBN-0-8077-3426-8). Kirk, D., Macdonald, D., & Tinning, R. (1997). The social construction of pedagogic discourse in physical education teacher education in Australia. The Curriculum Journal, 8(2), 271-298. Ladson-Billings, G., & Tate, W. F. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. 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