Urban and Regional Research Program

Racism continues to be an enduring worldwide social problem, and is commonly manifest in everyday encounters and incivilities. Little academic or policy attention has been paid to bystander anti-racism, whereby ordinary people speak up and take prosocial action when witnessing racism. Given the everyday quality of much racism, ordinary bystanders are potentially powerful anti-racism actors. This project aims to develop a strong empirical understanding of this underdeveloped, yet potentially powerful form of anti-racism. The project gathers data on the frequency of bystander anti-racism, the outcome of this type of action, and explores factors that enable and constrain bystander anti-racism. This is an Australian Research Council Linkage Project, in partnership with the Australian Human Rights Commission, VicHealth and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.

This project is funded by the Australian Research Council (ACRG)

Contacts:

Professor Kevin Dunn (opens in a new window)