Education is the key to stamping out racism

Sourced from:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/education-is-the-key-to-stamping-out-racism-20130530-2nep5.html

Issues of Education and Racism

The article above is very much based on the popular remark that Eddie McGuire made at a Sydney Swans game that Adam Goodes be used to promote the musical King Kong. McGuire argued that it was a “slip of the tongue” however the article argues that the remark was intolerable and this issue is bigger than just one individual.

The article points out that our education system must “accept that we could and should have done more…” and indeed the “role that universities should play in responding to the need for greater cultural competence”.

In tutorials and lectures we so frequently discussed informal and social racism that exists today which would have arguably led McGuire to perhaps subconsciously be able to make such a remark. The article suggests, and one suggestion that was also made in tutorials was that by teaching children what the idea of “cultural racism” is – we are able to “stamp it out early, rather than try to clean up the mess afterwards”.     

Australia however does have a racism policy in place, however clearly we aren’t doing enough to address cultural competency at all levels of our education system.

The anti-racism policy identifies that “The NSW Department of Education and Training rejects all forms of racism”. The policy aims to eliminate racial discrimination such as: 

1) Direct and indirect racism 

2) Racial vilification 

3) Harassment. 

This policy seeks to eradicate such racism in each school in NSW, notably in its organisation, structures, culture and curriculum. The policies identify that no stakeholder of the NSW educational system such as student, employee, parents and community member should experience racism.

It can be argued that this policy is excellent in theory however not implemented in practice, with teachers from the onset failing to address such issues.

What are your ideas regarding this article? Could Cultural competency have helped McGuire? The article indicates that it is in everyone’s interest to become more culturally competent – would education create this?