What are the key issues that emerge from the yoking of crime to ethnicity, and the consequent criminalisation of specific ethnic minorities? Discuss in the context of Collins et al's essay and Of middle Eastern Appearance.
The way we can differentiate between the categorised of ethnic and racial is that ethnic refers to your country of origin e.g. Greek Australian, Italian Australian, Sri Lankan Australian, and so on. Racial is the bureaucratic ways in which we are still classified along racial hierarchy and grouping e.g. we might be identified as Caucasian, Black, and Asian. Racialisation here is understood as the ways in which complex social phenomena are explained and assessed mainly in term of ethnic and racial categories of social perception. Therefore Racialisation of crime is always attitudes of racial prejudice and understood in racialised term.
There has been a series of events, which have been subject to much media coverage and public debate in Australia over the last decade, and increasing in the late 1990s about 'ethnic crime gangs', 'race rapes', 'invasion' of asylum seeker or 'boat people', the terrorist attacks 9/11 in the USA, and the Bali Bombing in October 2002. These events have constructed the basis of sequences of fear and moral panic towards Arabic-speaking background and especially those of Muslim faith. Such wave of panic have been deliberately caused and encouraged not only by the mouth of shock-jocks – talkback radio but also from the mouth of opportunist politicians.
Public discourse on ethnic gangs has been very pervasive in all types of Sydney media since late 1998. Television news programs, radio talk back shows and newspapers have been giving the issue of ethnic crime and ethnic gangs repeated headline coverage. Moreover, this coverage has directly linked ethnic crime and ethnic gangs to specific ethnic and regional groupings of immigrants in particular Lebanese and immigrants of Middle Eastern appearance have come in for particular attention.
There are suburbs in Sydney's west that have become identical with "ethnic" crime. Cabramatta is identical with "Vietnamese triads" and Bankstown is identical with "Lebanese gangs". Based on a small number of crimes committed in the Bankstown area in the past six years, including the stabbing death of 14-year-old Edward Lee, the drive-by shoot-up of the Lakemba police station, and the gang-raping of a number of young white women by a group of young Lebanese Australians, the corporate media has run a sensationalist campaign about a "crime wave" in South Western Sydney involving "Lebanese gangs" or "Middle Eastern crime gangs". This essay will discuss the key issues that emerge from the yoking of crime to ethnicity, and the consequent criminalisation of specific ethnic minorities, focusing on Arab – Australian or people from what we might be broadly identified as a "Middle Eastern" ancestry. These two aspects will be discussed in the context of Collins et al’s essay and a short film Of middle Eastern Appearance.
Many researches and data available to date are not of sufficient quality to support the claim that there is a clear positive relationship between crime and ethnicity in Sydney. People in Australian cities like Sydney however still worry so much about criminal gangs, particularly if these gangs are ethnic or racial minorities or the "other". Lebanese crime incidents in Sydney in the early spring of 1998, the gang raping by a group of young Lebanese Australians and The 2005 Cronulla Riots are some of the examples of what media in Australia called "ethnic" crime. As Collin et al (2000:55-56) put it fear of crime among section of the Australian community was transformed into a fear of ethnic crime... the words 'Lebanese', 'Middle Eastern', and 'ethnic gangs' began to be increasingly associated with images of, and worries about, criminality in Sydney.
From the beginning, the crime was casually linked by police and media to ethnicity, the perpetrators were described in racial terms and the image of 'ethnic' gangs was raised by police and media, feeding off each other. Two weeks after the Punchbowl stabbing, gunshots were fired into nearby Lakemba police station. While no-one was injured, there followed a spiralling of press briefings from police spokespeople, comment on talkback radio, statements by parliaments and other public figures, letters to the editor, press editorials. These conditions then led to date of a classic 'moral panic', as defined by Stanley Cohen:
A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges, or deteriorates and becomes more visible. (1973:9 in Poynting, 2002:147).
Again Alan Jones led the 2GB talkback hosts in creating moral panic. In November 2003 Jones pushed the race angle of criminal gang gun violence in his Today Show editorial. Jones argues While this (shooting) is happening in Punchbowl, Greenacres and Bankstowns of Sydney, providentially, we don't hear about them in Perth, or Glenelg, or Bendigo or Wagga or Dalby or Cairns. Which means we have to confront reality. It must have something to do with the people who are living in this area. (Lygo, 2004:134). Moreover, after criticising loudly and angrily against gun violence by youths of "Middle Eastern appearance" Jones argues Well it's quite plain that there are some people who don't want to live by the standards that Australians expect of those who live here. Is this proof of the failure of a multicultural society? (ibid., 135) It is clear that violence is now typically linked to ethnicity by shock jocks that simplify the debate by highlighting ethnicity and religions rather than social and economic factors as the cause of violent actions. Jones concludes his editorial by stating We are multi-racial but monocultural. And if there are some people who can’t live under the Australian cultural umbrella, then we are better off without them (ibid.,135) In other words Jones points out that 'Australian culture' is higher and greater than other cultures by declaring we are better off without people who can't live under the Australian culture umbrella. The commentary like this is now usual in the tabloid media.
There are suburbs in Sydney's west that have become identical with "ethnic" crime. Cabramatta is identical with "Vietnamese triads" and Bankstown is identical with "Lebanese gangs". Based on a small number of crimes committed in the Bankstown area in the past six years, including the stabbing death of 14-year-old Edward Lee, the drive-by shoot-up of the Lakemba police station, and the gang-raping of a number of young white women by a group of young Lebanese Australians, the corporate media has run a sensationalist campaign about a "crime wave" in South Western Sydney involving "Lebanese gangs" or "Middle Eastern crime gangs". This essay will discuss the key issues that emerge from the yoking of crime to ethnicity, and the consequent criminalisation of specific ethnic minorities, focusing on Arab – Australian or people from what we might be broadly identified as a "Middle Eastern" ancestry. These two aspects will be discussed in the context of Collins et al’s essay and a short film Of middle Eastern Appearance.
Many researches and data available to date are not of sufficient quality to support the claim that there is a clear positive relationship between crime and ethnicity in Sydney. People in Australian cities like Sydney however still worry so much about criminal gangs, particularly if these gangs are ethnic or racial minorities or the "other". Lebanese crime incidents in Sydney in the early spring of 1998, the gang raping by a group of young Lebanese Australians and The 2005 Cronulla Riots are some of the examples of what media in Australia called "ethnic" crime. As Collin et al (2000:55-56) put it fear of crime among section of the Australian community was transformed into a fear of ethnic crime... the words 'Lebanese', 'Middle Eastern', and 'ethnic gangs' began to be increasingly associated with images of, and worries about, criminality in Sydney.
From the beginning, the crime was casually linked by police and media to ethnicity, the perpetrators were described in racial terms and the image of 'ethnic' gangs was raised by police and media, feeding off each other. Two weeks after the Punchbowl stabbing, gunshots were fired into nearby Lakemba police station. While no-one was injured, there followed a spiralling of press briefings from police spokespeople, comment on talkback radio, statements by parliaments and other public figures, letters to the editor, press editorials. These conditions then led to date of a classic 'moral panic', as defined by Stanley Cohen:
A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges, or deteriorates and becomes more visible. (1973:9 in Poynting, 2002:147).
Again Alan Jones led the 2GB talkback hosts in creating moral panic. In November 2003 Jones pushed the race angle of criminal gang gun violence in his Today Show editorial. Jones argues While this (shooting) is happening in Punchbowl, Greenacres and Bankstowns of Sydney, providentially, we don't hear about them in Perth, or Glenelg, or Bendigo or Wagga or Dalby or Cairns. Which means we have to confront reality. It must have something to do with the people who are living in this area. (Lygo, 2004:134). Moreover, after criticising loudly and angrily against gun violence by youths of "Middle Eastern appearance" Jones argues Well it's quite plain that there are some people who don't want to live by the standards that Australians expect of those who live here. Is this proof of the failure of a multicultural society? (ibid., 135) It is clear that violence is now typically linked to ethnicity by shock jocks that simplify the debate by highlighting ethnicity and religions rather than social and economic factors as the cause of violent actions. Jones concludes his editorial by stating We are multi-racial but monocultural. And if there are some people who can’t live under the Australian cultural umbrella, then we are better off without them (ibid.,135) In other words Jones points out that 'Australian culture' is higher and greater than other cultures by declaring we are better off without people who can't live under the Australian culture umbrella. The commentary like this is now usual in the tabloid media.
The debate of 'ethnic' criminal gangs by the tabloid media tend to focus on nationality or physical appearance of the perpetrators rather than the complex socio-economic factors that lead to criminal behaviour. According to Collin et al (2000:55) The criminal in Sydney had a new police identikit profile. NSW police force uses the ethnic descriptor of Middle Eastern appearance in order to construct its identity-kit profiles. In other words the ethnic descriptor of Middle eastern appearance is a racist construct which assumes that everyone from Middle East looks the same, and automatically identifiable as Middle Eastern. The ethnic descriptor of Middle Eastern appearance is a type of structural contradiction or a paradoxical formulation i.e. I am of Middle Eastern appearance – dark skin, black hair, black beard, wearing of hijab (veil) and so on – and I am not Middle Eastern. (Pugliese, 2003:5).
Pugliese (2003:5) argues that:
Everything in this [ethnic] descriptor is predicted on situating the interpellated subject within a geographical location: this descriptor assumes its animating essence precisely through its naming and invocation of a geopolitical place [i.e. the Middle East]. Yet, this descriptor, when applied to individual bodies, obliterates the specificity of geography as such, as it sweeps up into its biometric grid bodies from across a range of countries that fall outside the geography of the Middle East.
Everything in this [ethnic] descriptor is predicted on situating the interpellated subject within a geographical location: this descriptor assumes its animating essence precisely through its naming and invocation of a geopolitical place [i.e. the Middle East]. Yet, this descriptor, when applied to individual bodies, obliterates the specificity of geography as such, as it sweeps up into its biometric grid bodies from across a range of countries that fall outside the geography of the Middle East.
Moreover, Pugliese (2003) states that this ethnic descriptor is an Orientalist construct. According to Said (1978:205) The Oriental is seen as degenerate, primitive or backward, uncivilised, unreliable and sexually rapacious, with an 'aberrant mentality' and a tendency to despotism. Orientals are rarely seen as people, but as problems to be solved or confined – and there is a particular fear of the Oriental male. Furthermore, Said (1978:287) argues that Film images emphasise the Arab Oriental as dishonest and menacing, physically violent and an 'oversexed degenerate'. In other words as an Orientalist construct, ethnic descriptor forms its targets as demonic, unlawful, violent and naturally criminal. The best example of this is how television newscast and cinema keep promoting the notion of evil and dangerous Arab particularly after the airborne attacks in the US 9/11 in 2001 and the Bali bombings in October 2002. The racial stereotype is also portrayed in a short film 'Of Middle Eastern appearance', through the scene where woman in a car suddenly looked panic and locked her car’s door when she saw three Arabian boys passing her car.Arab and 'terrorist' are by now an almost natural adjective/noun grouping. Images and imaginings of the Arab also immediately conjure up other qualifiers – Hezbollah, Hamas, bombings, Muslim fundamentalism, fanaticism, and so on. Not only do these almost natural combinations create the Arab as Other, but locally they immediately pose the Arab Other as a real threat to an authentic Australia. (Fraser, Melhem, Yacoub, 1997:76).
This means Middle Eastern appearance, Arab-ness, and Islam are seen to be the same thing, and are seen to be essentially and pathologically evil, inhuman, violent and criminal. Terror, violence, Islam all pose an immediate and real threat which must be faced and defeated if the real vision of Australia is to be upheld and defended as White English Speaking civilised and Christian.
Collins et al also argue that part of problem with the debate on ethnic crime in Sydney is that the media's use of the terms "Middle Eastern", Lebanese "Ethnic" reinforce myths of ethnic homogeneity. This then promotes a fallacy of composition. That is according to Collins et al (2000:60) if we focus on ethnicity as a factor as if it were a cause of crime, the misdeeds of a minority criminal element of different ethnic communities are attributed to all others who share that cultural background. This means through the use of the "fallacy of composition" it standardize whole ethnic communities as "criminally predisposed". In other words merely because some members of a community commit crime, the entire community is constructed as automatically criminal. As Mukherjee puts it
If an Australian commits a misdemeanour, responsibility for it is attributed to him individually. If a migrant commits a similar misdemeanour it is usually reported in such a way that the fact that he is a migrant, rather than the crime itself, is featured and the responsibility for the offence is thus shared by the whole migrant population. (in Lygo 2004:130)
The use of fallacy of composition indeed affects the whole people who share the same cultural background or are considered having similar religious beliefs and values. For instances the bombing of World Trade Centre was portrayed in the news as an attack against America and its coalition by non-western figures or groups i.e. Al-Qaeda, Palestinians = Terrorists. Thus people, who are considered as Arabs or figures of Middle Eastern appearance will be judged and accused as part of terrorist, then discriminated and treated as criminal. What happened to Mamdouh Habib – and his family – after his release from detention in Egypt and Guantanamo Bay is one of the best examples of the effect of the use of fallacy of composition. According to Osuri (2006: para 2) …since Habib’s return to Australia, governmental attempts to silence him as if he were a terrorist… .
The same treatment happened to the refugees and asylum seekers which invariably described as "Middle-Eastern" when they arriving on Australian territory off the coast of /western Australia, throughout 2000 and up to August 2001. The Australian government refused permission for the ship to enter Australia's territorial waters, insisting on their disembarkment elsewhere. They were disparaged and devalued then claimed without evidence, that many of them 'maybe' associating them with terrorist. The asylum seekers linked to the deepening concern regarding terrorist activity, arising at the same time as the refugee crisis: the Daily Telegraph in its editorial column claimed that, 'While on board, SAS members were able to place under surveillance a suspected agent of the Osama bin Laden terrorist network' (Daily Telegraph 13/10/01:24 in Poynting, Noble, Tabar & Collins, 2004:25). As with the link to terrorism, the accusation that the asylum seekers were bad parents through the infamous 'children overboard affair', only served to strengthen the popular opinion that refugees would not be good and decent Australians. Prime Minister Howard repeated, I don’t want, in Australia, people who would throw their own children into the sea (Four Corners 15/04/02, in Poynting, Noble, Tabar & Collins, 2004:27).
We have seen the emergence in recent years of a highly racialised framing of current events, around crime and terrorism, on a local, national and international level. This framing works to marginalise certain groups because crime images are typically structured through oppositions of us and them, good and bad, victim and villain, right and wrong. These oppositions are then understood in racialised term. An investigation into Lebanese or Middle Eastern crime in Sydney is the same time an investigation into racialisation of crime. That is according to Collin et al (2000:92) attitudes of racial prejudice, directly or indirectly shape practices of individual and institution, including the labour marker and the police. The racialisation of crime functions to construct particular ethnic or racial groups as naturally or inherently criminal. Another term for this is racial profiling.
Racial profiling means that according to your look or how you look, you will be deemed as a suspect, in advance having committed any offences. For example opposition to and suspicion of refugees and so-called illegal have been a dominant theme in racialisation of crime discourse particularly in Australia. As the function of racial profiling is to construct racially targeted subjects as guilty in advance of having committed any criminal offence, thus refugees, asylum seekers, Arab and/or Muslim-Australians are denied within this regime, the right to due legal process. The government even put them – asylum seekers in detention centre merely based on racial profiling assumption – Asylum Seeker, Arab, Muslim are figure of Middle Eastern appearance therefore they are considered as terrorist.
According to Pugliese (2006:7) in the context racial profiling, targeted subjects are represented as figures of fear, suspicion and violence. As a result, they are disenfranchised from exercising the same freedoms and rights as the rest of the citizenry. Of Middle Eastern Appearance depicts racial profiling by the police and the harassment being experienced by Muslim youth in Sydney's West. Simply because the boys were of Middle Eastern appearance and share the same colour hair, skin, and eyes with the real terrorist, they automatically become racially suspect and were treated as criminal. Fadia Abu Karim described furthermore about racial profiling when she was asked the question: 'Do white people have ethnicity'?. According to Fadia Abu Karim:
There seems to be two distinct groups in this country. There is Australian and there is racialize others. If you look at the reporting of crime, you will see when white people suspecting criminal activity, it is reporting that police is looking for a man wearing grey jumper and brown shorts. If the suspect is non-white, he is automatically was said Middle Eastern appearance. That is what you will end up inaccurate and distorted picture. This phenomenon is commonly known as image distortion disorder. People of colour especially men and boys are targeted because of distortion perception of they pose physical threat to white. Stereotype of particular community participate in the continuing of prejudicing policy and actual violence against disempower placing the very body of accusing jeopardy…. The sensitivity around stereotype and distortion largely arises then form the powerlessness of marginalized group to control their own representation. (in Of Middle Eastern Appearance, 2001).
In conclusion, it appears that a series of events over the last decade about 'ethnic crime gangs', 'race rapes', 'invasion' of asylum seeker or 'boat people', the terrorist attacks 9/11, and the Bali Bombing have ignited moral panic about the figure of Middle Eastern appearance and ethnic crime in general. This racialisation of crime and cultural panics have laid behind the response to the events by media personalities. Incidents of 'ethnic crime' have also been irresistible to newspaper, editors, and talkback show producers. In order to understand the complex issue of 'ethnic crime' in Sydney, we need to consider how the social construction of the term 'ethnic' produces a discourse about ethnic crime that often reproduces racist stereotypes rather than challenging them.
REFERENCE
Collins, J. et al (2000) Kebabs, Kids, Cops & Crime, Annandale: Pluto Press.
Cunneen, C, D. Fraser, S. Tomsen (1997) Faces of Hate: Hate Crime in Australia,
Annandale: Hawkins Press.
Lygo, I (2004) News Overboard: The Tabloid Media, Race Politics and Islam, n.p.:
Southerly Change Media.
Osuri, G (2006) ‘Regimes of Terror: Contesting the War on Terror,” Borderlands
Ejournal, vol.5, no.1. Available at:
http://www.borderlandsejournal.adelaide.edu.au/vol5no1/osuri.html
Paula Abood, dir., Of Middle Eastern Appearance, Sydney: Metro Screen, 2001.
Poynthing, S (2002) ‘‘Street Arabs’ and ‘Mug Lairs’: racism, class relations and moral panic about Lebanese-Australian youth, in Hage, G. (ed) Arab-Australians citizenship and belonging Today, Carlton South: Melbourne University Press.
Poynthing, S, G. Noble, P. Tabar and J. Collins (2004) Bin Laden in the Suburbs:
Criminalising the Arab Other, Sydney: Sydney Institute of Criminology.
Pugliese, J (2003) ‘The Locus of the Non: The Racial Fault Line ‘of Middle Eastern
Appearance’, Borderlands ejournal, vol.2, no.3. Available at:
Pugliese, J (2006) ‘Asymmetries of Terror,’ Borderlands ejournal, vol. 5, no.1. Available
at: http://www.borderlandsejournal.adelaide.edu.au/vol5no1_2005/pugliese.html
Said, E (1978) Orientalism, London : Routledge
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