Book Reviews : MARTHA MINOW, Making All the Difference. New York: Cornell University Press, 1990, 403 pp
| Author | Judith Carlson |
| Published date | 01 June 1993 |
| Date | 01 June 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/096466399300200211 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
247
Australia and concludes that, although it is of a qualitatively and quantitatively different
order, racial violence against the Asian and Arab communities by their white neighbours
should be a cause for concern. The conclusion to this part of the report argues that, despite
the mounting evidence, racist violence has yet to be acknowledged as a problem by many
public institutions and authorities. In addition, it stresses that Aboriginal-police relations
have reached crisis point because of ’the widespread involvement of the police in acts of
racist violence, intimidation and harassment’ (p. 213) and the lack of police accountability.
In Part 3, the Inquiry considers the overseas experience of combating racism and in the
last part we are presented with a wide-ranging set of suggested reforms. This includes a
need for federal and state authorities to: acknowledge the seriousness of the situation,
strengthen the existing anti-discrimination legislation, pass new legislation to protect the
human rights of Aborigines and Torres Straits Islanders, and enact measures to eradicate
prevailing institutional racist practices.
Because of the scope of the Inquiry, this is more than just another well-intentioned set
of policy proposals. It is a thoroughly researched and contextualized agenda for change
and, as such, should be required reading for all those concerned about racism. My only
question concerns whether the Australian authorities are prepared to confront the issues
raised in this report. In the early 1990s there has been renewed concern about Asian
immigrants ’swamping’ Australia and public support for a tightening of the immigration
laws. There are also continuing allegations of widespread police racism. Given this context
what realistic hope is there of the Inquiry’s reforms being realized?
In conclusion, I can thoroughly recommend both of these books. They stand as
meticulous and disturbing studies of the underside of the Australian dream.
EUGENE MCLAUGHLIN
Faculty of Social Sciences
,
The Open University
,
UK
MARTHA
MINOW, Making All the Difference
.
New
York: Cornell University Press, 1990,
403 pp.
In her study, Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language, Nora Groce interviews elderly
members of a community known as Martha’s Vineyard. The community was dis-
tinguished by its unusually high rates of profound hereditary deafness and deaf people
were completely integrated. This integration, however, was not characterized by
assimilation to some able-bodied norm, rather the community was bilingual to such an
extent that conversation between members who were not hearing impaired was
sometimes carried out in sign language. Groce selects the following statement as best
conveying the status of deaf individuals within the Vineyard: when asked about those
handicapped by deafness when she was a girl, one elderly woman was most emphatic, ’oh
those
...
people weren’t handicapped they were just deaf’.
Minow derives from this narrative a question for the wider community: can we also
invent practices that treat difference as just the...
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