Quick questions on Racism, prejudice and stereotyping in HSC Aboriginal Studies

Racism is not only individual. It operates at three levels. Individual racism is the attitudes and actions of particular people. Institutional racism is built into the rules and practices of organisations, such as a health or justice system that delivers worse outcomes to Aboriginal people.

Racism toward Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is rooted in colonisation. Terra nullius treated Aboriginal law and ownership as non-existent, protection and assimilation policy treated Aboriginal culture as inferior and destined to disappear, and pseudo-scientific racial theories were used to justify control and removal. The stereotypes that persist today, of deficit, dependence or being people of the past, are the descendants of these colonial ideas. Linking contemporary racism to its colonial origins is what turns description into analysis.

To analyse, define the terms precisely, identify the level of racism at work, trace it to its colonial roots, and show its impact on identity and wellbeing. Then centre the ways communities have resisted and continue to challenge racism. The strongest answers treat racism as a structural and historical phenomenon, not merely individual rudeness, and frame Aboriginal peoples as agents of change.