Seventy-five per cent of Australians hold an implicit bias against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, a study published in the Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, has found.
According to Australian National University researcher Siddharth Shirodkar, the results show that “most Australian participants on average – regardless of background – hold an implicit bias against Indigenous Australians”. Your internal implicit bias, that’s what’s inside,” he said. “You may or may not act on that.”
Shirodkar said implicit bias was not in itself a measure of racism, but could potentially be the cause of racism or discriminatory actions. He said it showed the discrimination experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples was not imaginary, and had a foundation in the perceptions of non-Indigenous Australians.
“It’s the conscious part, that’s what can cause the discriminatory actions,” he said. “But the reality is if your unconscious bias remains unconscious and unchallenged and you don’t identify it, if you are not even aware of it, then it is potentially weighing on all of your decisions and how you behave.” Shirodkar said: “The result implies that the level of implicit bias that Australian residents have toward Indigenous Australians is comparable in magnitude and direction to the implicit bias that US residents have towards African Americans.”
Black Lives Matter protests brought thousands on to the streets campaigning for an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody. 437 deaths that are known to have happened since the 1991 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. Despite evidence in some cases of excessive force or neglect by police or prison officers, there has never been a criminal conviction for a death in custody in Australia.
"The conclusions are clear,” royal commissioner Elliott Johnston QC wrote in 1991. “Aboriginal people die in custody at a rate relative to the proportion of the whole population which is totally unacceptable and which would not be tolerated if it occurred in the non-Aboriginal community."
“The fact is that the royal commission released almost three decades ago said that to stop Aboriginal deaths in custody we must stop putting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison,” the Change the Record co-chair and CEO of the national Aboriginal legal service (Natsils), Cheryl Axleby, said. “Overwhelmingly state and territory governments have failed to take the necessary steps to do this.”
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