One thing this referendum has highlighted is how very few people in Australia think they are racist. And yet, the dominate sub-text of the debate appears to be that there is racism at the core of both Yes and No arguments.

From No, it is that the Amendment is divisive on racial grounds, that it elevates one racial group over another, that it moves power to one racial group over others, and that it contradicts the "colour-blindness" of Australian society. From Yes, it is that those No arguments are either racist arguments and/or wholly untrue, and that characterising First Nations people as suffering either no contemporary harm from colonisation or as suffering self-inflected deprivations is racist.

On and on we've all gone about racism, and yet the premise of the arguments on race and racism are wildly different. How can we possibly have a sensible debate?

On one 'side', there is a view that racism is simply "prejudice, discrimination or hatred directed at someone because of their colour, ethnicity or national origin".[1] On the other, it is that racism has to be viewed in the context of power, "racism equals power plus prejudice".[2]

And the two views are colliding:

Dude its being taught in schools to teachers. I know a teacher and they had ... [a] speaker come in who said exactly that, can't be racist to white people because white people have the power.

(from a recent referendum reddit thread, in which it dawned on me that people are miles apart)

Can we possibly resolve these differences?

Should we have had a debate about racism before we even talked about Indigenous Recognition?

Is it even a debate, or do we just need to find (or re-find), as one paper puts it, "sense of mutual respect and common identity"?

Can we put the genie back in the bottle, or do we actually need to face up to this disparity in our views of the world?

[1] https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/ahrc_sr_2021_4_keyterms_a4_r2_0.pdf

[2] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-07453-002

On reverse racism: https://theconversation.com/what-is-reverse-racism-and-whats-wrong-with-the-term-208009

On 'liberal' racism: https://assets.ctfassets.net/qnesrjodfi80/3gnCY08WTuE6w4WeIW8qCg/1d03dbd8bece68a46bb8da3accd579dd/green-who_are_the_racists-transcript.pdf

Human rights commission on racism: https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/race-discrimination/what-racism

Union movement on racism of Voice: https://www.weareunion.org.au/im_confused_is_the_voice_racist

On why communities get along (or don't): https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/research-report-56-processes-of-prejudice-theory-evidence-and-intervention.pdf