Essay: Deconstruction of 'Aboriginal Addiction' Question

This essay undertakes a deconstruction of the question, "Why are Aboriginal people prone to Alcohol and drug addiction?" The essay begins by analyzing the key terminologies within the question, including 'Aboriginal,' 'prone,' and 'alcohol and drug addiction,' providing contextual definitions for each. It then explores the question's implications, highlighting its inherent assumptions about Aboriginal communities and their relationship with substance abuse. The essay critically examines the stereotypes embedded in the question, arguing that it reflects a lack of understanding of the complex factors contributing to addiction, rather than cultural predisposition. The essay points out the question's potential to perpetuate harmful stereotypes, and emphasizes the importance of considering socio-economic factors, access to education, and mental health when addressing addiction within any population. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for a more nuanced approach to understanding the issue, advocating for questions that promote understanding rather than reinforcing biases.

Running head: DECONSTRUCTION OF A QUESTION
Deconstruction of a question
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1DECONSTRUCTION OF A QUESTION
Introduction
The structuring of a society is dependent on many factors. Human beings are perceived as
one of the most important constituent units on such societies. Societies did not exist in their
formal structure since the beginning of human civilization (Klostermann and Forstadt 2016)n. It
slowly started to formulate itself as a result of several human activities which included in itself
the various ethical considerations and other obligations. Such ethics and values of the society had
to be adhered by the people of the society in order to give to it its essence and nature. Within this
context, it can be observed that there are several individuals within the society who do not abide
by such ethical requirement, leading to the gross degeneration of the societal values and customs
(Wiers, Field and Stacy 2016). The purpose of this essay is to understand the implication of the
issue of alcohol and drug addiction among the Aboriginal population. In this context, the essay
has attempted to analyze the assumptions made in the question asked and if this question shows a
tendency to stereotype. The essay concludes with the importance of posing a question in a
manner whereby there is proper understanding of the issue at hand.
Analysis of terminologies
The question “Why are Aboriginal people prone to Alcohol and drug addiction?” needs
to be analysed in its contextual frame work. It is first essential to understand the idea of
Aboriginals. The Aboriginals refer to those people who inhabit the regions of Tasmania, the
mainland of Australia and that of the Tiwi Islands (Clough et al. 2016). The Aboriginals are
considered to be the only native population of Australia while all other people are seen to be
migrants who came to this country during the period of colonization and migration. Initially, the
Aboriginals were concerned with the activities of gathering and hunting.

2DECONSTRUCTION OF A QUESTION
The second important word that is used in the question is that of “prone”. Prone is an
adjective which mainly refers to the tendency of being inclined to something.
The third important element which needs to be understood in the question is that of
“alcohol and drug addiction”. Alcohol and drug refers to the substances which are highly
undesirable within an ethical community. The consumption of this substances in an unregulated
manner has the potential to cause certain illegal and socially undesirable activities whereby the
different people of the community and their property have the chance of being hurt or being
damaged (Glei and Weinstein 2019). Being addicted to such substances imply that the
individuals do not have the practical ability anymore to judge their competence of consuming
these substances and therefore, they run in to the problem of over consumption and creating a
problem in the society.
Implication of the question
The question has tried to imply the fact that people belonging to the Aboriginal cultural
ethnic back ground have the potential or the tendency of being addicted to the consumption of
alcohol and drugs. Furthermore, they can also become highly addicted to these substances,
thereby causing a problem not only to their own health but also lead to the degeneration of the
societal values and their customs and traditions (Munro, Allan and Shakeshaft 2017).
Assumptions made by the question
The question “Why are Aboriginal people prone to Alcohol and drug addiction?” has
certain inherent assumptions made within it. The question makes the assumption that the people
belonging to the Aboriginal ethnic community have a tendency and are prone to drug and alcohol
consumption. This can be understood by the manner the question is posed as it did not ask a

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general question but rather posed it from the angle of the Aboriginals. The second assumption
that was made that the Aboriginals use the socially undesirable substances of alcohol and drugs.
Since the question specifically mentioned these materials in the context of the Aboriginals, the
assumption can therefore be observed to be true in nature. Furthermore, the question particularly
talked about the problem of addiction which assumed that the Aboriginals not only use such
substances of drug and alcohol but rather the misuse such substances to the extent that it can be
termed as an ‘addiction’ (Azar et al. 2016).
Stereotype echoed by the question
The question “Why are Aboriginal people prone to Alcohol and drug addiction?” is noted
by be quite stereotypical in context. The word “why” within the question implies that the one
who posed the question did not try to give the benefit of doubt to the Aboriginals. They did not
ask “if” the Aboriginals are prone to drug and alcohol addiction but rather “why” which shows
that the individual has already taken in to consideration that the Aboriginals are indeed addicted
to the substances of drug and alcohol.
The stereotype that can be noticed within this question is that indigenous population is
regarded to be one of the social groups within the community who have the potential to engage
in certain undesirable or illegal activities. In this regard it can be observed that the stereotype of
the indigenous population of being addicted to the substances of drug and alcohol is shown
explicitly in this question. The popular opinion among the people of the common public is that
the indigenous population does not have an idea about the different cultures and traditional
values of the main stream society. Since the indigenous people prefer to live on the out skirts of
the society, they remain aloof from the city life at the centre (Delker, Brown and Hasin 2016).
Although, in a sense it is true that the Aboriginals find it difficult to understand the common

4DECONSTRUCTION OF A QUESTION
language of the main stream population and that they are not familiar with the cultures and
values of such people, it is also true the other way around. The common public do not find it
necessary to understand and integrate the Aboriginals in the society because of their inherent
cultural differences (Munro et al. 2017). This leads to their thinking that all the various socially
undesirable activities within the community are done by the indigenous population. This, in turn,
leads to their thinking that the section of population that is addicted to the substances of drug and
alcohol, invariably has to be belonging to the indigenous population.
Lack of understanding exhibited within the question
The question does indeed exhibit a complete lack of understanding. Being addicted to the
harmful substances which are present in the community does not flow from the cultural identity
of the people of the society. Rather, it depends upon their level of mental development and
critical thinking ability. Consuming a substance depends upon the logical interpretation which is
made by the individual (Kelly et al. 2018). For instance, if an individual feels hungry or thirsty,
then the likelihood of them consuming any food or beverage increases to a significant extent.
Thus, from this, it can be observed that the idea of consumption depends upon the rational
thought process of the individuals.
This reasoning can be applied even in the context of the consumption of certain harmful
substances of the society such as drug and alcohol. The first time a person consumes these
substances, depend upon their rational thought process (Tang, Tang and Posner 2016). The
substances are available throughout the society and almost everyone who is desirous of
consuming them, have the means to find these substances. The cultural and ethnic identity of
these individuals play no role in their desire to consume drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, the level
of addiction to such substances also depends upon their ability to control themselves while

5DECONSTRUCTION OF A QUESTION
consuming such harmful substances (Harrison et al. 2016). This depends upon the level of
critical thinking ability of the individuals which in turn depends upon their level of mental
maturity.
In this context, the view of the main stream population that it is invariable always the
indigenous population who is addicted to the harmful substances of drugs and alcohol, can be
understood. The indigenous population do not have an easy and free access to education due to
certain barriers such as demographic barriers, socio-economic status barriers and the barrier of
communicating effectively. Education is important for the mental development of the individual
as it makes them critical evaluate the different social occurring (d'Abbs 2015). However, with the
dawn of the contemporary society such barriers have been drastically reduced due to the active
participation of the governments. As a result of this, the indigenous population now have an
equal access to education. Thus, in this regard, the view that the Aboriginals are prone to alcohol
and drug addiction is misunderstood.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be noticed that there are certain assumptions which are made with
regard to the indigenous population of any country. The Aboriginals constitute the native
population of a region. They are the ones who have set the foundations for the culture and values
of the place. Thus, the idea that they engage in socially undesirable activities is often found to be
based on typical stereotyping without having proper validations.

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