Q1) What is institutionalised racism and what impact has it had on Indigenous Australians. Consider the effects of racial discrimination, paternalism, marginalization, prevailing myths and current bureaucratic and social policies.
Institutional Racism "describes the way Social Institutions discriminate directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally through their structures and organisations to support or maintain racism." The white community has the preponderance of supremacy and structure and in this case is the dominated group. These structures include "laws and policies which exclude or discriminate against the dominated group." (Anti racism handbook).
The "Rabbit Proof Fence" showed the audience how much of an impact institutional racism had on Indigenous Australians. This was mainly shown when the "half cast" children where taken away by the government, due to government policy, and placed into homes with other children. So many children were taken away, that they were called the "Stolen Generation" which happened from 1904 all the way through to 1960. The children's parents couldn't do anything about what was happening to their children and they weren't even aloud to visit them. The government done this because they wanted all the Aboriginal children that had white blood in them to be brought up amongst white communities.
An example of institutional racism was when the Aboriginal people had to sit at the back of public transport. The police were also aloud to rummage around and inspect what was in their baggage and yet again they had no say in the matter, this happened during the 1950's.
Marginalization is the disempowerment of Aboriginal people. "There is little sign that most indigenous citizens see themselves, or are seen by the wider community as valued stake holders in national life" (www.geocities.com/Aboriginal/Gosh.html)This shows that the white community think that the Aboriginal people have no power and believe that they are a nonentity in the community.
