The formation of the autonomous Ethno-Cultural and People of Colour Collective (EPOC) at Sydney University has raised an important debate about fighting racism.
EPOC is based on the idea that only those experiencing a particular form of oppression can define and fight against it. EPOC is autonomous, meaning only self-identifying people of colour can join. It is conceived of as a “safe space” for people oppressed by the “dominant white culture” in Australia.
EPOC regards those who are not part of the oppressed group, not only as part as the problem, but also as having a stake in perpetuating oppression. So instead of focusing their anger on racist politicians and policies, some EPOC members have declared that Sydney Uni’s established and open campaign group, the Anti-Racism Collective (ARC), to be “racist” and paternalistic.
They have argued that only their group should be able to elect the Ethnic Affairs officer-bearer rather than students democratically elected to the SRC.
Anti-Racism Collective members have held the Ethnic Affairs position for many years, on the basis of consistent campaigning against racism, for refugee rights and against the NT Intervention on campus.
In a clear win for the ARC’s political arguments and student democracy, ARC member Gabrielle Pei Tia Tia won the vote against EPOC candidates in the contest for the Ethnic Affairs officer position in early November.
Identity politics
EPOC’s ideas, based on identity politics, are not capable of building the anti-racist fight that’s needed.
Since its election, the Coalition has ramped up racist attacks on refugees and asylum seekers with the reintroduction of Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) and the expansion of offshore detention on Nauru and Manus Island.
But instead of targeting the policies and structures that perpetuate racism, EPOC has focused on a form of consciousness-raising through reading groups about critical race theory and discussing issues like cultural appropriation amongst themselves. This attitude is informed by white privilege theory.
Influential (white) US author and privilege theorist Frances Kendall argues that, “any of us that has race privilege is by definition racist”.
Others, such as academic Tim Wise, describe racism as so entrenched in the white working class that they largely reproduce racism as if on “autopilot”.
Since a generalised “white culture” is seen as the source of oppression, there is a very internally-focused attitude and emphasis on the behaviour of individuals.
Racism from above
Focusing on personal behaviour and creating a false equivalence between all manifestations of racism confuses instances of racist behaviour with the root causes of oppression.
No one is born racist; it’s a socially-conditioned behaviour, enforced by society’s most powerful and influential institutions.
We live in a society characterised by gross and systemic inequality of wealth and power.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2012-13, 20 per cent of households held 60.8 per cent of the net worth. Racism tries to normalise this inequality by directing anger at the victims of government policies. It is used as a divide and rule tactic.
Racism is not in the interests of white workers and students; they are worse off when they accept racist ideas. Individual instances of racism on campus or anywhere else can be challenged and racist ideas can be changed.
The Liberals are already trying to misdirect the anger at government cuts and anxiety over job security onto the wrong target. This was crudely on display when the now Liberal Member for Parramatta, Fiona Scott, openly blamed asylum seekers for traffic jams and public hospital overcrowding in Sydney.
The government’s anti-refugee hysteria fosters a general, anti-migrant sentiment in the community. Reports of racist harassment have increased because of that. Monash University’s Social Cohesion report released in October, records a 59 per cent increase in incidents of racial vilification in 2012-13 compared to the previous year.
Similarly, the Islamophobia of recent decades has been consciously pushed to provide justification for imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and race-hate attacks on Muslims and Arabs have increased.
What’s needed is a political fight against the structures that generate these racist attitudes.
Building a movement
Brilliant movements against racism in Australian history have united black, white and Asian workers and students to confront government racism: from the campaign against apartheid in South Africa; to the fight for Aboriginal land rights; to the demonstrations that shut down Pauline Hanson and opposed the Cronulla riots.
If these movements had accepted the logic of identity politics, they wouldn’t have had the force they did. This is why it’s important to challenge the idea promoted by EPOC that white anti-racists are the problem and that we shouldn’t unite and fight together to challenge racism.
EPOC’s anti-racism should be directed against Abbott and everything he represents—not the people who are fighting him.
By Adam Adelpour
