WS1005 - Racial Justice: Activism Strategy Report - JCU SP1 2022

This report provides a social action strategy for addressing racial discrimination in Australia. It summarizes human rights and social justice concerns, analyzes the National Anti-Racism Strategy and the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, and offers recommendations. The report highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy, emphasizing the importance of public awareness and clear consequences for discriminatory actions. The National Anti-Racism Strategy is recommended for its effectiveness in raising awareness and changing public perception, while the report also acknowledges the need for greater public knowledge of the Racial Discrimination Act and its enforcement. The ultimate goal is to create a safe and equitable society for all individuals in Australia.

ACTIVISM STRATEGY
REPORT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Summary of Human rights and social justice..............................................................................3
National Anti-Racism Strategy....................................................................................................4
Racial discrimination act 1975....................................................................................................4
Strengths and Weaknesses of the National Anti-Racism Strategy..............................................5
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Racial Discrimination Act, 1975............................................6
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Social justice can be described a perspective that states that each and every individual
within the nation should be provided with equal opportunities, respect and dignity within the
country. It is the social right of a person to get equal political, economic and social rights and
opportunities irrespective of their age, caste, gender, social status, background or any other
aspect for that matter. However, despite all the efforts put in by the government of the country,
there is a wide array of people who have to deal with racial discrimination within their routine
lives. The present report aims to formulate and provide social action strategies to the citizens of
the country with respect to eradicating the racial discrimination from the nation.
MAIN BODY
Summary of Human rights and social justice
Human rights can be referred to as those rights of an individual which are inherent to a
person. The human rights are those rights of an individual which he is born with and it is
essential that each and every human being within a nation gets to access their human rights
throughout their lives. The basic human rights of an individual include the right to live, freedom
from slavery, freedom to speech and express their views and opinions, the right to education, the
right to work and so on (Gatenio Gabel, & Mapp, 2020). An individual must have access to these
rights irrespective of their age, caste, gender, cultural background, income or any other basis.
Similarly, the concept of social justice can be explained as the viewpoints which states that these
rights should be accessed by each and every citizen of a country and should be provided with
equal opportunities within their lives.
The present report aims to address the issue of racial discrimination faced by certain
people within a country. The racial discrimination can be described as a belief that a particular
group or clan of people are inferior to other communities because of their colour, caste, creed,
nationality, religion, income and social background or any other basis. This issue hampers the
happiness and living of the people who are the victims of the racial discrimination within a
country (Rodrigues, & Cabete, ). It has been observed that in order to make a particular clan
uncomfortable and inferior to others, many people make use of taunts, sarcastic comments, bad
words, and other such pitiful acts which affects the mental health of the victims and sometimes
creates a traumatic environment for them. It has been observed on the basis of relevant statistics

that around 20 % of the population makes use of hate speech and talks in order to insult and
make them feel discomforting among themselves.
National Anti-Racism Strategy
The national Anti-Racism Strategy is a strategy which aims to make the general public
understand about is racism and how it can be reduced, eliminated and prevented within the
society as a whole. The major objectives of the National Anti-Racism strategy is to widen the
knowledge of the Australian Community about the concept of racial discrimination within the
country and how it affects the people who are the victims of the same. The particular strategy
also intends to plan a course of action and promote good practice and take initiatives in order to
address the issue and prevent the same from happening within the nation as a whole. The Anti-
Discrimination Strategy also aims to encourage the general audience of the nation so that they
could identify the racial practices and take the relevant steps in order to control and mitigate the
impact of racial discrimination within the country (Kwansah-Aidoo, & Mapedzahama, 2018).
With the help of this campaign, the Australian government can ensure that their
community learns that racism is not a good practice and therefore, it should be restricted and not
used in any manner and at any place within the country. Similarly, the present campaign will also
try to provide the Australian citizens with the required tools and resources which could help
them in taking the required steps that could help them in restricting the practices of racial
discrimination which takes places within different parts of a country. The present campaign will
ask the organizations and companies to make their own rules and regulations associated with the
racial discrimination within their enterprise. Various NGOs who works for the betterment of the
community will also be included in this campaign (Quillian, & Midtbøen, 2021). This will help
the government in collaborating the efforts of different organization and thus, will be found
helpful in eliminating the concept of racial discriminations from schools, colleges, universities,
organizations, public places, hotels, restaurants and other regions.
Racial discrimination act 1975
The Australian Government has formulated a law according to which practicing the racial
discrimination against an individual is unlawful. According to this law, if a person practices the
racial discrimination against an individual, then the person will have to face its consequences.
The practices who practices racial discrimination within the nation will be punished and strict
disciplinary actions will be taken against the person practicing the same. The Racial

discrimination act, 1975, states that practicing discrimination when advertising the jobs, hiring
the candidate within the organization, conducting training and development programmes and
restricting the individual from promotion opportunities will be considered as unlawful and
unethical within the country (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018). Similarly, the law
also states that in the service industry such as banking, transportation, telecommunications,
lawyers, doctors and various others should comply with the regulatory standards and ensure that
no individual faces any kind of discrimination while receiving any of these services.
The Racial Discrimination Act, 1975 also states the concept of direct discrimination and
indirect discrimination. The direct discrimination can be visible to the everyone and is practiced
in obvious forms such as refusing to hire a person who is extremely qualified for a job just
because of religion, caste, colour or any other factors. On the other hand, indirect discrimination
cannot be visible to other but is still practiced against a person. The Racial Discrimination Act,
1975 states and describes these terms in order to make the public aware about these concepts and
learn to stop and restrict the same. If an individual finds themselves a victim of these, they have
the right to file a valid complaint against the culprit and the law will take the actions towards the
culprit. The culprit might be punished with imprisonment for conducting such behaviour or
might be penalized with charges which the culprit will have to pay to the victim in order to
compensate for their behaviour.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the National Anti-Racism Strategy
The major strengths of the National Anti-racism strategy can be stated as it is effective in
communicating to a large audience with respect to the concept of racism. It describes the
Australian community why it is considered as an issue within the country. This strategy provides
the general public with an understanding about what is the impact of practicing racial
discrimination against an individual within the country (Kwansah-Aidoo, & Mapedzahama,
2018). It describes the audience the ways in which people conducts such bad behaviour against a
certain group or clan of people and also communicate them with the ways in which they could
help in restricting the practice of Racism and discrimination within the different parts of the
nation.
The campaign is able to address the issues faced by the victims of racial discrimination
and the impact of hate speech, bad comments, sarcastic comments on the mental health of the
people within the country. It has been determined that implications of the discrimination against

a specific group of people affects their mental health, creates a traumatic environment for them
which can further make them a victim of anxiety and depression. However, it has been identified
that the National Anti-Racial Strategy does not state any of the disciplinary actions which will be
taken against the culprit. It is important to state the course of action which the culprit will have to
face as a result of practicing the racial discrimination within the country as this will help the
public in understanding the consequences of such an action.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Racial Discrimination Act, 1975
The strengths of the Racial Discrimination Act, 1975 includes description of the laws
against the practice of racial discrimination. The Racial Discrimination Act, 1975 is efficient and
effective in stating what is racial discrimination and how it is practiced. It also helps the public
and the Australian community in understanding what is considered as discriminatory practice
what does not fall under the category of discrimination. It provides the Australian community
with different types of discriminatory practices and how these actions take place within different
forms, in different departments and industries. It also provides the community with the
punishments which the culprit will have to face if found practicing such unethical and unlawful
practices within the nation (Clément, 2018). However, the major weakness of this law is that the
Australian community do not have sufficient knowledge about the law and how it can be used in
case if they have faced such a situation within the nation.
Recommendation
The appropriate course of action or the social action strategy that should be chosen in
order to eliminate the practice of discrimination within the nation includes the social action
strategy of National Anti-Racism strategy. This is so, because, this strategy is effective in
changing the perspective and mentality of the general public of the nation. It helps the
government in taking steps to create awareness about the issue of racial discrimination within the
country. It is helpful in making the audience understand about the concept of discrimination and
how they should take a stand on their own in order to restrict the people from practicing this kind
of unfair treatment within the country. In order to stop the people from practising the racial
discrimination within the country, it is important for the government to ensure that the public
knows about its consequences and how it affects the behaviour and health of the victims.
Therefore, the group should proceed with the strategy of National Anti-Racism strategy.

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that it is essential for the government of
Australia to take a step forward in order to eradicate the issue of racial discrimination practiced
within their country and make it a safe and healthy place to live for each and every individual
within the country. The present report should opt for the Nation Anti-Racism Strategy in order to
eliminate the racial discrimination from the country.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Australian Human Rights Commission. (2018). Anti-racism in 2018 and beyond.
Clément, D. (2018). Human rights or social justice? The problem of rights inflation. The
International Journal of Human Rights. 22(2). 155-169.
Gatenio Gabel, S., & Mapp, S. (2020). Teaching human rights and social justice in social work
education. Journal of Social Work Education. 56(3). 428-441.
Kwansah-Aidoo, K., & Mapedzahama, V. (2018). " There is really discrimination everywhere":
Experiences and consequences of'everyday racism'among the new black African diaspora
in Australia. Australasian Review of African Studies, The. 39(1). 81-109.
Kwansah-Aidoo, K., & Mapedzahama, V. (2018). Towards Afrocentric counter-narratives of
race and racism in Australia. Australasian Review of African Studies, The. 39(2). 6-18.
Quillian, L., & Midtbøen, A. H. (2021). Comparative perspectives on racial discrimination in
hiring: the rise of field experiments. Annual Review of Sociology. 47(1).
Rodrigues, J. N., & Cabete, D. C. R. Social Justice and Human Rights in the 22nd Century–
Equity Principle. Globalisation, Ideology and Social Justice Discourses. 55.
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