A Break from Fashion. The other side of Communication practice.
Hyphenated Identities: The Mixed-Race Public in Australia
With Australia’s fusing cultural shift, has blossomed an active public commonly referred to as those of “mixed-race”, among other terms. They are a people more than likely to be born in Australia, but have one parent of a certain ethnicity and the other parent of another ethnicity. They are a public who want to know if they are any less ethnic than their “pure” counterparts, where they fit in and how their identity is relevant to Australia’s changing society. These “hyphenated identities” are an emerging counter public whose roots arise from the continuous geographical shift and immigration of races.
Mixed Marriages from Colonial Times Until Now
There has long been a history in mixed-race marriages in Australia from its colonisation. When the first settlers came to Australia, there were plans to ship Pacific Islander women to the land as companions for the white males. However, this plan was not carried through and marriage began to occur with Aboriginal women. A lot of people did (and still do) use the issue of mixed-race children to discourage interracial marriages.
In the 1850’s, the Gold Rush brought a number of immigrants to Australian shores. Most common were the Chinese, who were already disliked, and even more so when they began to marry Australian women. The White Australia Policy was not abandoned until 1966, by the then Prime Minister Harold Holt. The next year, Aboriginals were given full rights and citizenship. In the United States at the same time, Black/White marriages became lawful in nineteen states. By 1971 governments were working towards a harmonic multiracial society. Italians and Lebanese have had high immigration rates since the sixties, and more recently Africans along with Middle Eastern migrants. With constant immigration from a plethora of countries onto Australian shores, immigrants are practically forced to integrate into the host community, resulting in the recent upsurge of mixed-race people in Australia.
Mixed peoples are further outcast by geographical ethno-cities, for example Sydney’s Chinatown and Little Italy, that constitute the suburbs of Haymarket and Leichardt respectively. These racial boundaries are a form of exclusion. Residential segregation between ethnicities has come about (especially in Sydney) often as a result of language barriers or lack of proficiency in English, notable excessively in Western Sydney. This may not be the case with children of mixed race, as often the common language between the parents is English.
Communication Practices and Discourse
In the distant future, as races constantly intermix, it seems it will be impossible to define ethnicity or race. I believe that the vocabulary when talking about ethnic mixing is limited. Their discourse shows that they are aware of their possible alternate identity. This can be shown as the product of the ever-increasing globalisation of the world.
Culture does creates a newness, entertainment and a solid base (among other things) for people. This creativity is healthy as long as it doesn’t lead to racism. Nationality seems to provide a topic of conversation, or entry into one for those of a single ethnic background. However, there is a struggle to find appropriate names for collective identities.
In the plight to categorise people by their cultural or ethnic characteristics we have forgotten the notion of basic human rights and have opted instead to define a person by their “race”. Perhaps we should all call ourselves simply Australians, creating a single national-ethnic identity, based on where you were born rather than your ancestry. However, if this is to be the case it will certainly take time, as race does still matter to most people. In a sense mixed-race people fit into the future meaning of culture and are evidence that resistance to change is futile. Although still a soft voice, biracial people demand a voice equal to their ethnic counterparts and a willingness of others to deconstruct their identity as an emerging public in cosmopolitan Australia.
Proud to be Australian
Hyphenated Identities: The Mixed-Race Public in Australia
With Australia’s fusing cultural shift, has blossomed an active public commonly referred to as those of “mixed-race”, among other terms. They are a people more than likely to be born in Australia, but have one parent of a certain ethnicity and the other parent of another ethnicity. They are a public who want to know if they are any less ethnic than their “pure” counterparts, where they fit in and how their identity is relevant to Australia’s changing society. These “hyphenated identities” are an emerging counter public whose roots arise from the continuous geographical shift and immigration of races.
Mixed Marriages from Colonial Times Until Now
There has long been a history in mixed-race marriages in Australia from its colonisation. When the first settlers came to Australia, there were plans to ship Pacific Islander women to the land as companions for the white males. However, this plan was not carried through and marriage began to occur with Aboriginal women. A lot of people did (and still do) use the issue of mixed-race children to discourage interracial marriages.
In the 1850’s, the Gold Rush brought a number of immigrants to Australian shores. Most common were the Chinese, who were already disliked, and even more so when they began to marry Australian women. The White Australia Policy was not abandoned until 1966, by the then Prime Minister Harold Holt. The next year, Aboriginals were given full rights and citizenship. In the United States at the same time, Black/White marriages became lawful in nineteen states. By 1971 governments were working towards a harmonic multiracial society. Italians and Lebanese have had high immigration rates since the sixties, and more recently Africans along with Middle Eastern migrants. With constant immigration from a plethora of countries onto Australian shores, immigrants are practically forced to integrate into the host community, resulting in the recent upsurge of mixed-race people in Australia.
Mixed peoples are further outcast by geographical ethno-cities, for example Sydney’s Chinatown and Little Italy, that constitute the suburbs of Haymarket and Leichardt respectively. These racial boundaries are a form of exclusion. Residential segregation between ethnicities has come about (especially in Sydney) often as a result of language barriers or lack of proficiency in English, notable excessively in Western Sydney. This may not be the case with children of mixed race, as often the common language between the parents is English.
Communication Practices and Discourse
In the distant future, as races constantly intermix, it seems it will be impossible to define ethnicity or race. I believe that the vocabulary when talking about ethnic mixing is limited. Their discourse shows that they are aware of their possible alternate identity. This can be shown as the product of the ever-increasing globalisation of the world.
Culture does creates a newness, entertainment and a solid base (among other things) for people. This creativity is healthy as long as it doesn’t lead to racism. Nationality seems to provide a topic of conversation, or entry into one for those of a single ethnic background. However, there is a struggle to find appropriate names for collective identities.
In the plight to categorise people by their cultural or ethnic characteristics we have forgotten the notion of basic human rights and have opted instead to define a person by their “race”. Perhaps we should all call ourselves simply Australians, creating a single national-ethnic identity, based on where you were born rather than your ancestry. However, if this is to be the case it will certainly take time, as race does still matter to most people. In a sense mixed-race people fit into the future meaning of culture and are evidence that resistance to change is futile. Although still a soft voice, biracial people demand a voice equal to their ethnic counterparts and a willingness of others to deconstruct their identity as an emerging public in cosmopolitan Australia.
Proud to be Australian
Image: Can't remember, possibly some graf artist in Newtown
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