期刊名称：Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies
印刷版ISSN：1832-3898
电子版ISSN：1838-8310
出版年度：2008
卷号：4
期号：2
出版社：Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association (ACRAWSA)
摘要：Although anti-discrimination laws have supported m uch social change, they have been subjected to sustained critique by legal scholars. A significant concern is that the formal 'same treatment' standard promoted by the design of anti-discrimination law is inherently problematic (Graycar & Morgan 2004) because it gives 'apparent legitimacy to outcomes which ¡ in effect embed inequality' (Kerruish & Purdy 1998: 150). In this article, I critique the laws' standard of formal equality, first to demonstrate the capacity of its 'neutral' response to reproduce and stabilise dominant privilege. Next, using the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) as an example, I argue that the Act's 'race-neutral' and 'colour-blind' practice of formal equality holds capacity to stabilise and reproduce whiteness. I then argue that substantive equality¡ªadvocated by most legal critics as promoting 'better' forms of equality¡ªalso holds the capacity to reiterate whiteness as it can be defined through terms and conditions 'designed for and skewed' in favour of 'the white majority' (Davies 2008: 317). I c onclude that this holds great implic ations for legal scholarship that re mains selec tively ' colour-blind' to the significance of racial 'difference', and call on mainstream legal scholars to open spaces to interrogate the implications of our raced position as whites (Moreton-Robinson 2007: 85). Introduction Australian comm on law recognises the fundamental right to equality before the law, but has never protected citizens from discrimination in their day-to-day affairs; instead, this protection is made available in Anglo-Australian law only through federal anti-discrimination Acts and those enacted in each state and territory jurisdiction (Rees et al 2008: 16-9). These Acts are based upon international covenants to which Australia has become signatory, providing a constitutional basis for the federal laws, and arguably at least, the inspiration for state and territory enactments. For instance, all of these laws prohibit race discrimination, which corresponds to the principle of racial non-discrimination established in Article 4 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) (1969).
