Institutional Racism in Victoria: Always and Everywhere a Different Phenomena

Ethnoracial discrimination is a complex phenomenon that occurs within a social ecology. That is to say that there are multiple causal factors that influence its reproduction at all levels of society. As such, solutions need to be tailored to the multiple sites where racism is reproduced and importantly where discrimination occurs. Finding solutions requires explicit recognition of context, a reflective approach that attributes the reproduction of racism to not only individual attributes, but also to institutions and environments. This paper argues that though they are one of a number of sites for interventions, institutional contexts are critical to addressing ethnoracial discrimination. Further, while locality is important, the nature of different institutions and their manifestations of discrimination are often contingent on the nature of the relationship between service provider and the public, evident in the commonality in the forms of discrimination manifested in institutions across regions and countries. This commonality extends not only to the nature of discrimination but also to policy and practices to counter discrimination in these settings and consistency in failures across jurisdictions. This paper will first define ethnoracial discrimination, exploring institutional discrimination as a critical factor in the reproduction of discrimination. The paper will then examine an institutional setting; namely the police force; and an institutional practice, namely the human resources’ task of recruitment to explore the nature of ethnocracial discrimination in these sectors and the commonality of issues and responses between Victoria and other settings to argue the critical importance of addressing the specifics of particular institutions as part of a broader ecological approach to addressing ethno-racial discrimination.; ;