Why are aboriginal people negatively stereotyped and what can be done to rectify this?

Stereotypes are widely held beliefs about the common traits of a group of people. They are often over-generalised, inaccurate, durable and unaffected by new information (Myers, 2008). Bauemeister and Bushman (2008) state that stereotypes are heuristics that humans use to save mental effort and time, they can lead to errors however it is thought stereotypes often survive due to the fact that they often produce the right answer. Baumeister and Bushman believe that negative stereotypes are used due to the scapegoat theory, which involves society blaming the majority of its problems on a minority group despite this not being the case. There are both positive and negative stereotypes, the negative stereotypes are more durable then the positive ones which means that it takes many good exceptions to the rule to remove a bad stereotype however it takes few bad exceptions to the rule to destroy a positively held stereotype. This may help explain the continuous negative stereotype held about Australian aboriginals despite the work of many communities to improve their image (ABC News, 30/4/2007). A major problem with stereotypes is that they over-generalize traits to the whole population which is not always accurate. For example, there may be some aboriginals who drink alcohol and commit violent crimes however this is only a small minority of them.

The colonisation of Australia brought about a change in the way aboriginals viewed themselves and what cultural heritage they passed onto their children. The white settlers treated the aborigines like animals and led them and their fellow white men to believe that they were trouble makers who were no good for society. The impact of this treatment is still evident in the negative stereotypes of aboriginals that exist today (Lowe, 2003). The media tends to mention that an offender or a victim was an aboriginal unnecessarily which leads people to suggest that the cause of the incident was something innate about aboriginals rather then some external factors, this also contributes to and strengthens these negative stereotypes (Lowe, 2003).

In Australia, aboriginals are often seen in news stories about indigenous drinking problems and violent behaviour however there is little seen about the people who are doing good things for the community by demonstrating leadership and giving direction to the aboriginal people. There is one television program, run by Bush TV, called the Murri Minute which is run in Cape York, Rockhampton and Brisbane, which attempts to breakdown the negative stereotypes of aboriginal people by showing aboriginal people exercising their talent and entrepreneurial skills and praising those who are achieving things. This show is playing a vital role in breaking down the negative stereotypes of aboriginals in those communities (ABC News 30/4/2007).

The stereotype may also be attributed to the high ratio of aboriginal prisoners in both male and female prisons in Australia. A report by Payne (1990) showed that the ratio of aboriginal female prisoners to white female prisoners is 16:1 and for men 14:1. Aboriginal men and women are involved in a high proportion of homicides, rapes and assaults compared to the rest of Australian society. (Payne, 1990) This may contribute to the police force holding a negative view of aboriginals, which can exacerbate the negative stereotype.

An aboriginal candidate for the Federal Election in 1998, Charmaine Clarke, described how she was brought up at school to believe that aboriginals were more like apes then people, because they had no intellect, vision or sense of innovation. This was after she was taken from her home and fostered into a white family under the government’s assimilation policy (Arkley, 1998). The education system in previous decades is partially responsible for the negative stereotypes that still exist today because they taught white Australians that aboriginals were inferior and not the same as white Australians. This knowledge may have been passed on along the generations which helps explain why such a negative stigma surrounds Aboriginal Australians today.

The Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (2007) reported that there are many indigenous people in Victoria who are working hard to improve the health and well-being of aboriginals in their community. The Organisation also called on the media and politicians to reduce the number of dramatic media reports which reinforce these negative stereotypes and to increase the reporting of the hard work of aboriginal communities to improve their social status and well-being.

There are several programmes which have been developed to reduce these stereotypes. These programmes may be cognitive in orientation, which involves changing inter-group attitudes by attempting to increase the in-groups knowledge, awareness and understanding of the out-group by providing members of the in-group information about the stereotyped groups history, achievements and contributions to the community. An alternate method is by introducing inter-group contact by getting a member of the other group to personally present the information. The success of these programs has been limited. A study by Hill and Augoustinos (2001) found that people in the Australian Public service who were put through a cross-cultural awareness study informing them of Aboriginal culture and commonly held stereotypes had little long-term effect on the attitude of the participants towards indigenous Australians. There was a short-term effect which reduced modern and old-fashioned racism and also reduced negative stereotypes of Aboriginals. Three months after the course however, it was found that old stereotypes had been reformed and only those who were highly prejudiced towards Aboriginals showed any long-term improvement.

Largely due to the durability of negative stereotypes, the negative stereotype of aboriginals still exists today. The media are largely to blame for this, due to the reporting of negative events much more frequently then positive actions of aboriginals. If this negative stereotype is to be reduced, the media must play a large role by informing people of the Aboriginals culture and achievements. Other initiatives such as the cross-cultural awareness study can also be implemented to reduce the prejudices shown by highly discriminatory people. Our education system must inform young children of today that aboriginals are not all as problematic as their stereotype would suggest and that they can be valuable contributors to our society.

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References

Payne, S. (1990). Aboriginal women and the criminal justice system. Aboriginal Law Bulletin, Vol 2(46) 41. p 9-11. Viewed online September 2, 2007. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AboriginalLB/1990/41.html

Arkley, L. (1998). Few and far between, aboriginal candidates try to break a stereotype. Christian Science Monitor, Vol 90(216), p 6.

Victorian Aborginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. Media Release (11/7/2007). Victoria’s peak Aboriginal health body in plea to media and politicians not to reinforce negative stereotypes of Aboriginal people. Viewed online September 3, 2007. http://www.crcah.org.au/communication/downloads/VACCHO_sucess_stories.pdf

Lowe, S. (2003). The third Aboriginal/Maori youth cultural exchange. OxFam News Magazine. Viewed online September 5, 2007
http://www.oxfam.org.au/oxfamnews/february_2003/indigenous_exchange.html

Myers, D. (2008). Social Psychology. Holland, Michigan: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Baumeister, R. F. & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Social Psychology and Human Nature (1st ed.) Belmont, California: Thomson Wadsworth.

ABC News (30/4/2007). Bulletin breaks down negative perception of Aboriginal people. Viewed online September 5, 2007 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/04/30/1910124.htm