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Racial complaint and sovereign divergence: the case of Australia's first Indigenous ophthalmologist
- Source :
- The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, Vol 49, Iss 2 (2020)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of Queensland, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Abstract This is a reflective piece that examines the nature of racial complaint with reference to Dr Kris Rallah-Baker's concerns about the racism that characterised his medical education. It will further examine the anti-racist campaign that sprung up in support of Rallah-Baker with a view to illustrating the limits of conventional critical race theory in understanding the course of events. Using the work of Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Gramsci and Stuart Hall, it will be argued that the Rallah-Baker case illustrates that Australian hegemonic formations can never quite command total legitimacy because sovereign formations, anti-racist in outlook, erupt with a frequency and facticity that lay bare the conceit of settler-colonialism. In so doing the paper will work towards an understanding of the critical Indigenous/race paradigm that goes beyond critical race insights borne of other places and experiences. As will be seen, what followed Rallah-Baker's complaint, the campaign that supported him and the concessions finally won was not, as critical race theory is wont to claim, a case simply of ‘interest convergence’; rather it was, I propose, an example of ‘sovereign divergence’.
- Subjects :
- Anti-racism
higher education
race
Special aspects of education
LC8-6691
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20497784
- Volume :
- 49
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.66bcdc3e3e094e4c83c703bad5d5b55c
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2020.17