White Supremacy and Islamophobia

Earlier today, 28 May, seven men were arrested, after a racist, anti-Muslim right-wing group crashed an anti-racism protest outside a primary school in Coburg, Melbourne, Victoria. All except one are aged 25 to 33 years, and the other man is 18. One of the men carried three knives. Media reporting focuses on the “violent clash on the streets,” as if the two groups are neutral, or equally oppressive. We know the men perpetrating violence are white because their race is not mentioned. Islamophobia is mentioned as an aside, rather than the catalyst, and the anti-racism focus of the original rally is also not discussed. This illustrates how white supremacy works, by maintain the ideology that white people are superior to people of colour.

The Age reports that hundreds of people attended to support the anti-racism rally. They chanted anti-Nazi slogans. The right-wing group, had between 50 and 100 people. They chanted “The left is going down”.

Police pepper sprayed the crowd.

Mainstream media often reports racist violence in neutral terms, without referencing the race of white agitators. However, when people of colour are involved in disagreements, protests, or they are suspected of “deviance” (regardless of whether there is credible evidence), their race, culture, and religion (if non-Christian) will always be reported on.

This is an example of racialisation. The media names race only to classify non-dominant groups, but maintains whiteness (white culture as the “norm”) by not calling attention to the race of white people. White people’s violence is treated as an individual, and isolated issue, while the actions of racialised people (Muslims, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and other people of colour) are an indictment of their community.

In particular, the negative impact of Islamophobia (fear, prejudice, and discrimination against Islam and Muslims based on negative generalisations or stereotypes) is often softened, by not focusing on its social impact. Muslim victims are rarely the focus of the story. But when Muslim people are adjacent to a controversy, even if they are not responsible for wrongdoing, their religion is a key feature of the story. In this case, The Age includes a quote from a white vendor who lost business due to the disruption, rather than the Muslim victims who have been targeted in hate crimes.

Diluting the impact of Islamophobia is one way to maintain white supremacy. Drawing on W.E.B. Du Bois’ work, African studies scholar, Dr Reiland Rabaka defines this term thusly:

“White supremacy serves as the glue that connects and combines racism to colonialism, and racism to capitalism.”

The white supremacists of the Coburg story is not explored, and, instead, everyone involved is equally responsible for the violence and disruption. Research finds that white supremacy in Australia is centrally concerned with dehumanising Muslim people, and violently expelling Islam from Australia, despite the long history of Muslim migration to Australia, which predates British invasion, including peaceful trade with Aboriginal people.