Reverse Racism: Discrimination or Affirmative Action?

            In chapter three of White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society, author Ghassan Hage discusses the concept of a tolerant society as merely a “White Fantasy” (Hage, 78). Specifically, Hage examines Australian society to demonstrate how the practice of tolerance in multicultural societies is closely related to the perceived power of White nationalists and their attitudes of intolerance and exclusion of migrants (Hage, 79). From this perspective, the author suggests that the “tolerant society” is rooted in the denial of a loss of perceived power (Hage, 99). 

           Nowhere is Hage’s notion of the “white fantasy” in Australia more evident than in the issue surrounding migrant workers. In what has been called “reverse racism,” workers and trade unions claim employers are discriminating against White Australians in favour of predominately Asian migrants who are willing to work harder and longer hours for less pay (Eccleston, 2010).

           In the following news clip, fellow Australian Craig Whitney echoes the concern that racism is working in reverse. Explaining how his employer began to strip shifts from white workers like himself at a Meatworks in Ipswich, Whitney believes companies favour cheap foreign labourers who are less likely to complain that they are paid less to work more. He also feels as though Australians are too expensive to hire, so if companies get the cheap labour in they cut the costs, explaining why he and other Caucasian employees received one or two days of work, while the Asian migrants  are guaranteed forty hours a week (Eccleston, 2010). Read more>>