Having been in Australia since I was about 17, there have been a number of dramas going on since I landed my feet on Australian soil. Once excited about going abroad and starting a completely new life, all of my curiosity and expectations were turning into an array of disappointments, and bittersweet lessons I thoroughly learnt about life in a foreign country although I became an Australian citizen down the track. Relating to issues that can arise from areas of culture and identity especially in modern Australia which officially presents itself as a multicultural society, as discussed every now and then in some of my classes, these set of experiences not only provided me tips on how to view this society, but also what sorts of things to think about to be aware of whether Australia is heading in the right direction in achieving social cohesiveness and promoting multiculturalism at the same time.
Probably what I was expecting at the beginning of my life in Australia, is the great amount of possibilty of being able to mix up with others and being involved actively in the society which I was maybe too naïve to think about because of immaturity and very limited life experience back then. Also up to that point, I was brought up in a culture where conformity to the social norms and tradition prevailed over(presumably much less so nowadays, as a result of ongoing Westernization) upon individual freedom of will and creativity so whatever I heard about Australia were almost always about something that emphasized the extreme differences between two countries in a good way which led me to deficit thinking of stereotyping good things that were portrayed through Western drama and movies where I used to focus on being expressive, apparently open minded and less discriminative in terms of age, gender, level of education etc., obviously without knowing or thinking twice about what sort of upcoming harships and cultural adjustment problems I should expect once I arrive into Australia. So full of fantacisation and lack of realisation of reality I suppose.
So an array of life experiences since I began schooling in Sydney was at large about turning my ‘naïve’ dreams and expectations upside down yet allowing me to learn from failure and pain. These experiences, mostly negative somewhat, are perhaps nothing really special to mention about in such a detail but they include being called a wog or dog eater by a few fellow students just because I came from one of Asian countries, segregation amongst students according to races, not just hobbies and interests.
Learning from all of these instances, as Wadham, Pudsey, Boyd(2007) argues that people tend to have a strong sense of classifying people to emphasize the similarities and differences between things and people(p. 13), it became crystal clear to me that things are not nice as what they might look like from outside and that basic culture and identity indicators like essentialism and identity markers are what get into people’s minds in the first place and people categorize each other based on those, without really taking into consideration of how nice they may be regardless of their initial make-ups, and they either join or isolate them altogether. So in my case, it didn't really matter whether I am an Australian citizen, how Australianised I am, and this circumstance again, throws a question “Is Australia heading in the right direction of achieving multiculturalism and social cohesiveness? Or is it not really achievable in the first place?” No wonder it reminds me of the terms ‘melting pot’ and ‘salad bowl’.
Reference:
Wadham, B. Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education. Sydney: Pearson Education. Chapter 1: what is culture?
I strongly agree with you Ken, Australia does possess a facade of the 'land of the multicultural'.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry for your negative experiences Ken, I sympathies upon them. Some people are just so immature and ignorant. It's very disappointing to see racism present in Australia's society. Often today, racism is shown covertly rather than overtly (Solo' rzano et al., 2000 p.61) . But in your case, being called a 'dog eater' is disgusting and overtly racist.
Forrest and Dunn suggests there is a form of 'new racism' that exists where 'ethnic minorities are culturally disadvantaged by dominant cultural group’s understanding of the national culture and identity” (Forrest & Dunn, 2007: 712) . I feel as if this statement alludes to your overall argument. It is unfair, that ethnic minorities are disadvantaged in this form. It is an unalterable social factor for individuals. It is crucial for Australia to reflect back upon how we handle diversity and the inevitable multicultural society. If not, we will become a 'melting pot'.
References:
Solorzano, D., Ceja, M., & Yosso, T. (2000). Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate: The experiences of African American college students.Journal of Negro Education, 60-73.
Forrest, J., & Dunn, K. (2007). Constructing racism in Sydney, Australia's largest EthniCity. Urban Studies, 44(4), 699-721.