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Thriving diversity should be embraced, not feared

Opinion The Drum
Multiculturalism ( Jupiterimages: Thinkstock)

Multiculturalism (Jupiterimages: Thinkstock)

With whites on track to become a minority by mid-century in the US and the UK, and significant demographic changes here, Ruby Hamad says it's time for all Australians to embrace the reality of our long-standing multicultural make-up.

Last week, Oxford University's professor of demography, David Coleman, got the British press in a flutter with his projections that white Britons could become a minority by the year 2066.

Coleman's "explosive" report identifies immigration as a key indicator of demographic change, and the language used to describe it leaves little doubt that this is a less than desirable state of affairs. The Times speaks (pay wall) of a "mass influx of migrants" and a "decade of surging immigration" that has already "left white Britons as a minority in London for the first time".

A similar trend in the US has experts projecting that whites, currently two-thirds of the population, will be a minority by 2050 (thought they will remain the largest single ethnic group).

The inevitable fear that this change is causing (humans are not generally known for their willingness to embrace change, as the ongoing marriage equality debate demonstrates), has seen 'white rights' groups mobilising to protest what they claim is racial discrimination against them. They have called for 'whiteness studies' at tertiary institutions, complained of voter intimidation at polling booths and even marched on Washington demanding their civil rights.

A poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found 44 per cent of Americans now identify discrimination against whites as being just as big as bigotry aimed at blacks and other minorities. Inadvertently, this survey reveals what many white Americans have long denied: that they the beneficiaries of unearned privilege. To be afraid of becoming a minority, you have to be aware that minorities are not treated equally.

Before a mass panic ensues, it should be kept in mind that white privilege is so institutionalised, it would take more than a dip in numbers to overturn it. That, however, doesn't do much to stem the tide of the fear at being outnumbered.

When white pride groups are offering scholarships to "needy white men", one can't help drawing parallels with the anti-misandry movement who, clutching at the small amount of false rape claims, equate a loss of male privilege with oppression.

In Australia, while whites won't likely be a minority quite as soon, there is, nonetheless, a very real demographic change occurring. In 2010, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that 26.8 per cent of Australia's population were born overseas and more and more of these are arriving from the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.

However, that can be seen as either in keeping with Australia's history or a sharp diversion away from it, depending on how you view this history. Writing in The Conversation, Monash University's Bob Birrell identifies two conflicting views of Australia. The first sees us a nation of migrants, while the second clings to such things as the Digger myths as a means of preserving our heritage as "a unique [white] people and culture".

This myth of a shared white culture not only ignores the Indigenous population but also overlooks the long history of non-white immigration, including the role of the Chinese and Afghans in building Australia's enduring bush and war legends. How many people would know that Australia's most celebrated WW1 sniper, Billy Sing, was Chinese-Australian? Birrell concludes that Australia' is "now two nations in terms of ethnic diversity" with Sydney and Melbourne at odds with the rest of the country:

There is only a dim awareness of the magnitude of these demographic changes within the wider community. Nevertheless… there can be few residents who have not noticed changes in the ethnic make-up of their community.

For those who ignore the demographical writing on the wall, even this dim awareness is enough to set fear alight, as can be seen in the proliferation of racist attacks on public transport. For some, so deep is the dread at the loss of what they regard as Australia's white, English-speaking heritage, not only are people of non-white races targeted, such as ABC reporter Jeremy Fernandez, but even white tourists who speak another language, as happened last November when bus passengers turned against a young French tourist, warning her to "speak English or die", after she had the audacity to sing in her native language.

The growing attachment to the Anzac Legend is another manifestation of this fear of changing demography. The celebration of Anzac Day has moved well beyond the solemn remembrance of the wasted lives of exploited soldiers and into an idolisation of this mythical Australia where things were simpler, better, and a whole lot whiter.

As such, the diggers of old have become unwitting mouthpieces from beyond the grave, who killed and died for whatever people imagine the "real" Australia is. Recall that infamous tweet from the Australian Christian Lobby's Jim Wallace two years ago, "Just hope that as we remember Servicemen and women today we remember the Australia they fought for - wasn't gay marriage and Islamic!"

In as much as humans resist change, we are often powerless against it. Australia's racial demography will be what it is as we become more diverse than ever. The Jim Wallaces and racist bus passengers can either come along for the ride or be left behind in that mythical Australia they romanticise, but that never really was.


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