What is
Racial Indignity ?

Racial Indignity encapsulates the totality of negative racialised experiences marked by interpersonal and systemic forms of microaggressions, disrespect, humiliation, degradation, devaluation, and misrecognition, that result in self-shrinkage, masking, racial fatigue, diminished well-being, lowered self-esteem, and internalised inferiorisation. Racial indignity can lead to what is termed as a ‘poor life’- that is, a life that is lived without full affordances for freedom, agency, ease and joy.

The Racial Indignity Framework considers how the social construct of race influences how people are (In)dignified by institutions of power embedded in polices that govern law, health, education, welfare, and other practices.

Principles of Racial Indignity

  • 1. Dehumanisation

    The process of stripping individuals or groups of their human qualities, attributes, or individuality. This involves perceiving and treating others as subhuman, or denying their capacity for complex feelings and thought.

  • 2. Humiliation

    Refers to forms of being ‘torn down’, ridicule, mockery, public shaming with a view to assert dominance and reinforce social hierarchies. This involves being belittled, or exposed in a way that diminishes one’s social standing

  • 3. Devaluation & Inferiorisation

    The act of reducing the worth or importance of someone by placing a judgment over them that lowers their value in the eyes of others. It is portraying some people as inherently less capable, intelligent, or moral

  • 4. Disrespect

    Occurs when one is denied or rejected because of their perceived status. It can involve aggression, being talked down to, being treated with disdain or contempt and not being given consideration or the benefit of a doubt.

  • 5. Racial Gaslighting

    Psychological manipulation, where accounts of racism are often denied/minimised. It’s being turned into the problem for naming the problem and being forced to mask the impacts of racism. It’s been being made to ‘look crazy’ or ‘oversensitive’ for raising concerns about exclusion.

  • 6. Normalised Racism

    These are the ‘everyday’ or ‘casual’ racist attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, and practices that are so deeply embedded within a society or organisation’s norms, values, that they appear ordinary, natural and ‘normal’. Such practices often go unnoticed by the dominant group.

  • 7. Burden of minoritisation

    The cumulative disadvantages, stressors, and double expectations faced by people who belong to a minoritised group within a given society. Also refers to the invisible double labour to ‘prove worth’ and counter negative assumptions

  • 8. Surveillance & scrutiny

    The disproportionate and often unjustified monitoring, observation, scrutiny and control directed towards communities based on their racial identity due to negative assumptions. It is being perpetually treated with suspicion by people and structures.

  • 9. Hyper (in)visibility

    The dual experience of being both hyper visible and simultaneously invisible within a given social context. It is ‘standing out’ and at the same time having parts of yourself erased or made invisible in a way that your personality, skills, and interests are completely ignored.

  • 10. Performative inclusion & tokenism

    The superficial or insincere efforts to appear diverse and inclusive without enacting real or meaningful change. It is the surface level, tick box efforts made by people and institutions to create the evidentiary illusion that there is inclusion and equality

INDIGNITY

Take a minute to write an introduction that is short, sweet, and to the point. If you sell something, use this space to describe it in detail and tell us why we should make a purchase. Tap into your creativity. You’ve got this.

What participants said about (in)dignity…

  • “I never use my middle name in a regular work context or like with White people. Even when I think about my surname, it's not really a surname in the same way as White people's surname. There are times when I'm like, maybe I should just get myself a Smith and then surprise them at the interview" [laughs]

    — Maya, Victoria

  • “When people come in and they’re like, “Oh, we’re looking for the supervisor.” You’re like, “I’m it.” It's like, you can see that shock in their face because I think they’re used of people like us being in certain jobs.”

    — Jayne, Victoria

  • “During Black Lives Matter, my manager asked me to write an article about what was going to go in the internal newsletter. I then told its too provocative for management. We were actually called into a meeting with HR and the MD to be told off. I was like, it's not external, it's just with us, and I feel like it's really important…., but it was too much for them, and he was upset."

    — Briony, Western Australia

  • “I remember approaching our university to do more on the anti-racism space, and they made it into a battle. They wouldn't even do a presentation, a talk. They wouldn't even invite a speaker. They got close to it at one point because we'd just kicked out such a big fuss. Then, at the last minute, they changed their mind and made it into a panel of three women talking about the challenges of being a woman. They couldn't handle even talking about racism, even in theory. There are so many ways that you're constantly reminded that you don't belong."

    — Hani, Western Australia

  • “When I look at the work I used to do when I was in Tanzania or in Kenya, I was coordinating funding agencies, the World Bank and all those kinds of people, and organizing meetings, and attending meetings on behalf of eight countries and all that. When I look at that, and now somebody's just putting me in a box and deciding this is where you're gonna be, you'll never go on a trip internationally, you'll never be seen even in meetings, which are just local between different government agencies, they make sure you don't appear there.”

    — Jill, Queensland