Britain's recent riots have given much food for thought on the racial tensions present in Australia.

The domestic challenges unrelated to security that have arisen since September 11, 2001, revolve around moderating racial and cultural differences into a cohesive society. A core weakness of liberal democracy is its weak collective identity amid unprecedented diversity. These challenges remain at the forefront for Western governments, highlighted in recent months by riots in Britain and mass murder in Norway.

When the first sprouts of violence emerged in the London riots, the initial hypotheses revolved around the contributions of race. Shadowing these riots were those of Brixton 30 years ago, when clashes between people of Caribbean descent and the police superficially mirrored the events of recent weeks.

It has become clear that race did not explain these extraordinary developments in Britain. Several commentators have jokingly called the riots a triumph of multiculturalism, given that white, black and Asian faces took part. David Goodhart wrote in Prospect magazine that: "These are truly post-political riots, style riots, boredom riots, feel-good riots, look-at-me riots, riots at the end of history."

In spite of these trends, race still permeates much of the discussions. The uncomfortable question has been the degree to which tensions between different ethnic communities and the wider issues of race and cultural alienation have played a part in some areas.

The incoming police adviser, Bill Bratton, whom David Cameron recruited from the US, has already suggested racial tensions remain a key contributor to crime and disaffection in Britain.

During a television discussion on the BBC, the renowned British historian David Starkey suggested part of the problem was that "the whites had become black", by which he meant the nihilistic grievance culture of the black inner city, fanned by parts of the hip-hop/rap scene and copied by many white people, had created a hardcore subculture of post-political disaffection. His comment brings to mind the famous Ali G phrase, "Is it cos I is black?", which is funny precisely because it hits a nerve.

The disaffection is mainly unjustified. It is as if the routine brutalities and racist humiliations of the past have been preserved and channelled into anger for what is just an adolescent pose.

The closest parallels to Australia may be the Redfern riots in 2004, when the death of 17-year-old Thomas "TJ" Hickey sparked clashes with police and the torching of the police station. The so-called race riots in Cronulla in 2005 also had parallels, with sections of Lebanese youth routinely posturing in the streets with false machismo, taught by community leaders that they were the victims of racism.

Recent trends in Britain have great relevance to Australia, given there is a risk our leaders want to follow in the footsteps of our British cousins in policing racial vilification and exclusion more aggressively. Helen Szoke, former leader of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal in Victoria, was appointed last month as Australia's first stand-alone Race Discrimination Commissioner for more than a decade. The government is also attempting to implement the National Anti-Racism Partnership and Strategy.

Australia is in the unusual position of being called racist more often than just about any other developed Western country. It occurs internally from among progressive groups and externally commonly from visiting humanitarian leaders. Most recently, Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, suggested Australia had an undercurrent of racism.

Pillay highlighted her South African heritage and her subsequent attunement to racial discrimination. Racists and anti-racists are alike in one way - driven to view everyone through the distorting lens of race rather than as individuals.

In Britain, despite years of official exhortations to "celebrate diversity", many people retreated into their ethnic camps. This was apparent during the riots, where ethnic groups, whether they were looting or protecting their communities, were often segregated into their specific groups, be it Asian, West Indian or white.

Britain has pursued a policy of actively promoting racial equality, from setting targets for representation of certain racial groups in public sector organisations to passing racial vilification laws.

But if white people are constantly told how culturally different their Asian or black neighbours are, and if Asians and blacks are told to be vigilant against white racism, all groups might conclude that they have little in common. Grievances over issues such as population and housing exacerbate the tensions.

The notion of race, which lacks a biological authority but is a powerful cultural and social category, stirs the primitive within us. Our survival instincts have created an innate fear of difference.

The term ''racism'' is often used in a loose and unreflective way to describe the hostile or negative feelings one ethnic group has towards another and the actions resulting from such attitudes. Debates around racism are a relatively new phenomenon and occur primarily in countries touched by the Enlightenment, which are predominantly in the West. They are a product of a century marred by genocide, the Holocaust and the death throes of empire. The conquests of European imperialism and the white man's burden to civilise the ''lesser'' peoples of the developing world are the counterweight to movements against racism.

These trends were part of the rage and so-called "blowback" that the attacks on September 11, 2001, partly encapsulated.

The idea of ''all men being created equal'' remains novel in most parts of the world and, therefore, debates surrounding racism are less relevant. Racism implies a belief that other collective groups have specific and unchangeable traits - ones usually undesirable.

The climax of racism occurred in the 20th century, symbolised by the Holocaust, apartheid and segregation of the American South. Each of these societies was underpinned by a belief of cultural essentialism, that there was something special about their biology. This emphasis on racial purity meant each of the offending, racist regimes enforced strict laws against intermarriage.

There are a host of statistics that suggest Australia is among the least racist countries of the multicultural developed world.

We have among the highest rates of social mobility as measured by education and income. According to the last census, Sydney has the greatest proportion of overseas born people in the world, more than London or New York.

I would argue that our most important statistic, one that particularly separates us from Britain, is that we have the highest rate of mixed marriage in the world, according to a study by Professor Bob Birrell at Monash University in 2010. This shows our ethnic communities are less likely to cluster into so-called ghettos and then pass on a siege mentality to future generations.

While racial or cultural prejudice no doubt exists, and has clearly increased towards Muslims, racism is often a simplistic explanation for what are usually multi-layered human motives. It is exemplified in a host of recent issues in which race was deemed to be the dominant factor by some.

Pauline Hanson was a blip on the nation's political radar. We have nothing to compare with Jean-Marie Le Pen or white supremacist parties prominent in Europe.

Opposition to asylum seekers is often construed as evidence of an Australian fear of being swamped by Asian or Muslim hordes, but unchecked immigration touches on the sense of fairness for all Australians. Some of the most vociferous opponents of asylum seekers have been other migrants.

The attacks on Indian students were also related to them living in poor suburbs, working late at night for cash-in-hand jobs and being easy targets for their petty thief assailants, not to mention that Victoria had the lowest per capita police levels of any state at the time.

Even the race riots could be explained by an eruption of the opposing tensions of young men and their urban tribes.

In each example, racial prejudice is just one of many factors. Race is no longer the significant disadvantage it is often portrayed to be. In a range of areas, class and socio-economic background are more important. Many of the differences between ethnic groups may have been shaped by racism in the past, but are not necessarily so today. As a result, perceptions of racism are being routinely misinterpreted as actual racism.

The substandard performance by Aboriginal students in school is more likely to be due to poor parenting, peer-group pressure and an inability to be responsible for their own behaviour. They are not subjects of institutional racism. They fail their exams because they do not do the homework, do not pay attention and are disrespectful to their teachers. Instead of challenging such issues, they are repeatedly given the discourse of the victim.

This can also occur in health and policing. As we become more diverse, extra attention to the cultural needs of minority groups is welcome. But too narrow a focus on cultural differences creates anxiety in clinicians, who worry about not causing affront.

The commonality of human suffering, pain and loss should allow us to understand the influences of culture without demanding that ethnic minority patients be treated in a different way. In my experience, Australian clinicians do not overestimate the influence of culture upon health.

I have seen such differences, however, when police are asked to intervene in domestic violence cases where ethnic groups such as South Asian or Middle Eastern couples are involved. Police often keep greater distance in such cases, some believing that cultural factors are at play and the families and communities should be left to their own devices. We do not officially have parallel laws for other groups, but variable enforcement can have the same effect.

The current government has been strident about reinvigorating a highly successful Australian brand of multiculturalism, one that does not get the global attention it deserves. Yet the risk if it strays too far is that tensions surrounding race, which are increasingly more imagined than real, are in danger of resurfacing. The more protection and measures there are to promote racial equality, the higher the risk of encouraging people to engage with each other not as individuals, which is the very foundation of our liberal democracy, but in terms of our ethnicity. The example of Britain suggests that this policy has had more than its share of failures and we would do well not to mimic it.