The role of effective partnerships in an Australian place-based intervention to reduce race-based discrimination

Localities Embracing and Accepting Diversity (LEAD) is an ongoing place-based pilot program aimed at improving health outcomes among Aboriginal and migrant communities through increased social and economic participation. Specifically, LEAD works with mainstream organizations to prevent race-based discrimination from occurring. The partnership model of LEAD was designed to create a community intervention that was evidence-based, effective, and flexible enough to respond to local contexts and needs. LEAD's complex organizational and partnership model, in combination with an innovative approach to reducing race-based discrimination, has necessitated the use of new language and communication strategies to build genuinely collaborative partnerships. Allocating sufficient time to develop strategies aligned with this new way of doing business has been critical. However, preliminary data indicate that a varied set of partners has been integral to supporting the widespread influence of the emerging LEAD findings across partner networks in a number of different sectors.

Examining ‘Latinidad’ in Latin America: race, ‘Latinidad’ and the decolonial option

This article provides a critical account of the idea of race, conceived of and derived from European colonisers in the New World. The paper argues that race became a crucial category to the colonising projects of the New World, and in particular in the distribution of power during colonialism. The paper further examines how the notion of Latinidad (Latinity), entrenched in the term Latin America, continued to enact a discourse of racial superiority/inferiority even after the battles for Independence had taken place. Employing the critical vocabulary and framework of Decolonial theory, the paper introduces key arguments against Western European universality, and calls for a re-reading of the processes that structure privilege across racial and ethnic lines.

The elimination race in track cycling : patterns and predictors of performance

The track cycling Omnium is a multi-event competition that has recently been expanded to include the Elimination Race (ER), which presents a unique set of physical and tactical demands. The purpose of this research was to characterise the performance attributes of successful and unsuccessful cyclists in the ER, that are also predictive of performance. Video recordings of four international level ERs were analysed. The performance attributes measured related to the cyclists’ velocity and two dimensional position in the peloton. The average velocity of the peloton up to lap 30 (of 50) was relatively high and consistent (52.2±1.5 km/h). After lap 30, there was a significant (p<0.001) change in velocity (49.9±2.4 km/h), characterised by more fluctuations in lap-to-lap velocity. Successful ER cyclists adopted a tactic of remaining in the middle of the peloton, in the lower lanes of the velodrome, thus avoiding the risk of elimination at the rear and the extra effort required to remain on the front of the peloton. Unsuccessful cyclists tended to reside in the rear and upper (higher) portions of the peloton, risking elimination more often and having to ride faster than those in the lower lanes of the velodrome. The physiological demands of the Elimination Race that are determined by velocity, vary throughout the Elimination Race and the pattern of movement within the peloton is different for successful and unsuccessful cyclists. The findings of the present study may confirm some aspects of race tactics that are currently thought to be optimal, but they also reveal novel information that is useful to coaches and cyclists who compete in the Elimination Race.

Darkly dreaming (in) authenticity : the self/persona opposition in Dexter

 In ‘Darkly Dreaming (in) Authenticity: The Self/Persona Opposition in Dexter,’ Glenn D'Cruz uses Dexter Morgan, the novelised serial killer and Showtime TV anti-hero to examine the connections between self and persona and the discourse of authenticity. D’Cruz foresees a series of challenges for persona studies and considers key concerns ahead, in terms of the critical vocabulary and scholarly agenda and addresses the need for critical genealogy of the term ‘persona’. 

Race, genetic determinism and the media: an exploratory study of media coverage of genetics and Indigenous Australians

Social scientists and Indigenous people have voiced concerns that media messages about genetics and race may increase the public's belief in genetic determinism and even increase levels of racism. The degree of genetic determinism in media messages has been examined as a determining factor. This study is the first to consider the implications of this area of scholarship for the indigenous minority in Australia. A search of the last two decades of major Australian newspapers was undertaken for articles that discussed Indigenous Australians and genetics. The review found 212 articles, of which 58 concerned traits or conditions that were presented in a genetically deterministic or antideterministic fashion. These 58 articles were analysed by topic, slant, and time period. Overall, 23 articles were anti-deterministic, 18 were deterministic, 14 presented both sides and three were ambiguous. There was a spike in anti-deterministic articles in the years after the Human Genome Diversity Project, and a parallel increase in deterministic articles since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2000. Potential implications of the nature of media coverage of genetics for Indigenous Australians is discussed. Further research is required to test directly the impact of these messages on Australians.

Chase better than a yard horse than last gallery : Royal tennis in the Antipodes

Review article on 'A history of royal tennis in Australia' by Michael P. Garnett, pubd. by Historical Publications, Melbourne, 1983

The senseless war : the sentencing drug offenses arms race

There has been a considerable increase in the penalties for drug trafficking following the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961, over fifty years ago. In many parts of the world, the sanctions are as severe as those for homicide and rape. This penalty escalation is at odds with the counter movement to decriminalise illicit drugs. Drug supplying is the only serious crime where there are widespread moves to decriminalize the main outcome of the crime – the use illicit drugs. This paper explores this paradox. It also examines the rationales for the increasingly harsh penalties for drug suppliers. We conclude that while there is no conclusive argument in favour of the decriminalizing drugs, the weight of empirical data does not establish any concrete benefits stemming from severe penalties for serious drug offenses. In particular, there is no correlation between longer prison terms for drug offenders and a reduction in the availability and use of drugs. We propose that the penalties for drug offenses should be reduced considerably. There is no useful objective that can be achieved by a twenty-five-year term of imprisonment that cannot be achieved by a term of five to ten years. A more measured sentencing response to serious drug offense penalties would make sentencing fairer and enable billions of dollars currently directed to imprisonment to be spent on more pressing community needs.

Race lines and spaces of political action among migrant youth

Recently proposed Anti-Racism Strategy established within a framework of the Australian Government's multicultural policy, People of Australia, identifies ‘youth engagement’ as one of the key areas that needs to be promoted and supported. Young people have been invited to join youth councils and youth forums and work with national, state and local policy-makers. Some have taken up this challenge and became public faces and active members of anti-racism campaigns. Others, however, either remained silent about the discrimination they face, or organised their own grassroots youth-based and youth-led initiatives. This paper discusses individual and collective responses to racism among young people in Australia, focusing on Melbourne, and examines possibilities in which racism, as a common experience among migrant youth, can be utilised to form alternative spaces for political action, challenging not only interpersonal, but also systemic forms of racism. By drawing attention towards institutional and systemic forms of racism, and the historical perpetuation of racist practices, these youth initiatives rely on legal measures, and argue that racism should be discussed in the context of the broader Australian society, not only in relation to minority groups.

Age, class and race discrimination: their interactions and associations with mental health among Brazilian university students

Although research on discrimination and health has progressed significantly, it has tended to focus on racial discrimination and US populations. This study explored different types of discrimination, their interactions and associations with common mental disorders among Brazilian university students, in Rio de Janeiro in 2010. Associations between discrimination and common mental disorders were examined using multiple logistic regression models, adjusted for confounders. Interactions between discrimination and socio-demographics were tested. Discrimination attributed to age, class and skin color/race were the most frequently reported. In a fully adjusted model, discrimination attributed to skin color/race and class were both independently associated with increased odds of common mental disorders. The simultaneous reporting of skin color/race, class and age discrimination was associated with the highest odds ratio. No significant interactions were found. Skin color/race and class discrimination were important, but their simultaneous reporting, in conjunction with age discrimination, were associated with the highest occurrence of common mental disorders.

Glomerular hypertrophy in subjects with low nephron number: contributions of sex, body size and race

Background. We have shown that low nephron number (Nglom) is a strong determinant of individual glomerular volume (IGV) in male Americans. However, whether the same pattern is present in female Americans remains unclear. The contributions of body surface area (BSA) and race to IGV in the context of Nglom also require further evaluation. Methods. Kidneys without overt renal disease were collected at autopsy in Mississippi, USA. The extremes of female Nglom were used to define high and low N glom for both sexes. Nglom and IGV were estimated by design-based stereology. A total of 24 African and Caucasian American females (n = 12 per race; 6 per Nglom extreme) were included. These subjects were subsequently matched to 24 comparable males by age and Nglom and to 18 additional males by age, Nglom and BSA. Results. IGV average and variance were very similar in female African and Caucasian Americans with high and low Nglom. Males with low Nglom from both races showed greater IGV average and variance than comparable females matched by age and Nglom. These differences in IGV between sexes were not observed in Caucasian Americans with low Nglom that were matched by age, Nglom and BSA. In contrast, glomeruli from African Americans were larger than those from Caucasian Americans, especially in subjects with high Nglom. Conclusions. While female Americans with low Nglom did not show glomerular hypertrophy, comparable males with low Nglom showed marked glomerular hypertrophy that was closely associated with high BSA. Glomerular size in African Americans may be confounded by multiple additional factors. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved.