“It Depends How You’re Saying It”: The Complexities of Everyday Racism

Authors

  • Jessica Walton McCaughey Centre, The University of Melbourne
  • Naomi Priest McCaughey Centre, The University of Melbourne
  • Yin Paradies McCaughey Centre, The University of Melbourne

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4119/ijcv-2959

Abstract

While racism is widely recognised as a complex social phenomenon, the basis for defining and identifying everyday racism from a lay perspective is not well understood. This exploration of factors used to frame everyday racism draws on seven cognitive interviews and four focus groups conducted in November 2010 and January 2011 with Australian adults predominantly from Anglo ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The study reveals lay theorising centring on tropes of intentionality, effect of speech, relationality and acceptability. Participants were more likely to think of racism as having negative, overtly offensive and emotional connotations. Racialised speech that was not considered to be blatantly racist was more contested, with participants engaging in complex theorising to determine whether or not such speech constituted racism. The study also highlights the potential of qualitative research to inform survey development as an unobtrusive method for in-depth participant reflection. The ambiguous nature of everyday racism demonstrated in this paper indicates a need to foster more nuanced lay understandings of racism that encompass the subtle, rational and complementary expressions that can be situated within institutions and society.

Author Biographies

Jessica Walton, McCaughey Centre, The University of Melbourne

Research Fellow at the McCaughey Centre, Melbourne School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne

Naomi Priest, McCaughey Centre, The University of Melbourne

Research Fellow at the McCaughey Centre, Melbourne School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne

Yin Paradies, McCaughey Centre, The University of Melbourne

Senior Research Fellow at the McCaughey Centre, Melbourne School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne

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Further information

Published

2013-04-04

How to Cite

Walton, J., Priest, N., & Paradies, Y. (2013). “It Depends How You’re Saying It”: The Complexities of Everyday Racism. International Journal of Conflict and Violence (IJCV), 7(1), 74–90. https://doi.org/10.4119/ijcv-2959

Issue

Section

Focus: Qualitative Research on Prejudice