Modern Colonialism in Australia: Imbalanced Power and Racial Discrimination

Sociology 1
Sociology
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Sociology 2
INTRODUCTION
Notably, colonialism implies the subjugation of persons to other people .Colonialism
stems from, “colonus” whose latin translation is farmers (Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy
2006).In the recent past, claims have been made as the existence of modern forms of colonialism
in the Australian employment, education, social, political and economic spheres of life.
Primarily, colonialism in Australia has encompassed racism and power imbalances between the
non-indigenous and indigenous Australian groups of people. Sadly, there is proof of modern
colonialist practices in the modern Australian social, economic and political spheres of life.
Economically, less indigenous population are employed in senior management positions, low
wages for indigenous university staff, low scholarship funding for indigenous university
scholarships and homelessness .On the political front, few indigenous persons have been elected
to higher political positions in the country. Socially, most indigenous children grow away from
their parents non –consensually .All these factors go to show the imbalanced power, colonist and
racist practices facing the indigenous Australian population.
Notably, the Australian aboriginal population still face challenges not so different
from the past. The right to vote for the aboriginal population was accented to 5 decades ago.
Also, despite the various deadly massacres of the aboriginal community, most of them are never
remembered as national days of tragedy at all. Similar to the past, some aboriginal land is being
taken away from them thus a modern display of colonialism (Pearson 2016).In addition, most
aboriginal offspring are separated from their families at a young ages as the case was in the past.
The fact that most of the aboriginal children grow up away from the families like they did years
before independence goes to show unequal and racial profiling of the aboriginal population in
Australia. Also, despite the current consultations between the indigenous Australian population

Sociology 3
and the Turn ball administration as to recognition rights in the constitution of the
commonwealth, no tangible results came out of it(Daley 2017).It is believed that the consultation
did nothing more to improve the current indifferent treatment of the indigenous population thus a
show of modern colonialism. The fact that the indigenous Australian population do not actively
participate in the laws and institutions that determine their fate, is proof of a contemporary mode
of colonialism.
Unfortunately, there is racial discrimination and violence in Australia (McGlade
2017).Predominantly, migrants and indigenous Australian population are at the receiving end of
this racial violence and discrimination despite the laws and institution set up to address the
inequality. Racism refers to any forms of prejudistic, antagonistic or discriminative behavior by
virtue of belonging to a particular race. According to who watches the media report, 2017, 62 out
of 124 published opinion news were racially motivated (Ho 2017).This goes to show how race
plays a role in the media industry .Despite the Australia media laws that prohibit racial
considerations as the basis for new reporting, this has not prevented the violation of the media
code of conduct on racial content. Specifically ,racial based stories are aired on publications such
as the Australian ,Herald sun among other national broadcast platforms .Following the physical
assault of an Indian student in Australia, speculations rose as to the racial profile and
discrimination of international students in the country(Gandhi et.al 2011).The judicial process in
the Indian student case unraveled a racial link to the physical attacks which goes to show that
racism is still alive in the Australian education sectors towards foreign students by nature of their
race.
Also, it is alleged that Australian higher education laws are not favorable towards
indigenous learners and their support system (Liddle 2014).Particularly, indigenous learners and