Sub-typing El-Masri and the denial of police racism

Sporting stars that deconstruct popular images are also evident in Aboriginal communities. Cathy Freeman has been established as a sporting hero whom rather then being denounced as an “alcoholic dole-bludger”, destroys this image through her success as an Aboriginal sporting hero. Yet it could be argued that both Freeman and El-Masri are understood as sub-types when it comes to examining mainstream attitudes towards minority groups.

Sub-typing occurs when a particular image does not fit in with a perceived stereotype. Similar to the accommodation-assimilation analysis used in infant psychology, where an infant might see a picture of a tiger, and refer to it as a cat, such reasoning is also evident in adults. Revisiting the examples at the start, members of race X and Y who are not misogynistic, alcohol dependent, terrorist- drug abusers, are “not like most of them” rather “he/she is different” in that they are more “like us”.

Sub-typing offers simplicity and relief to one whom had just suffered the initial shock of coming across a member of X or Y that does not resemble a typical X or Y person.

El-Masri and Houda - both subjects at the scene of controversy- one a high profile rugby league star, the other a successful Sydney lawyer, arguably escape the racially motivated conceptions of Arabic people in Australia. Yet they have been unable to escape familiar experiences when it comes to interactions between police and minority groups.

We only need to hear vilifying racial jokes or watch comedic sketches on television shows such as “Fat Pizza” to find that racially motivated harassment is an issue when it comes to policing.

Recently, I watched an episode on the ABC’s Message Stick program that looked at the issues of racism within the police force. The episode “An Oath Unbroken” was the story about Col Dillon, the first commissioned Indigenous police officer in Australia. Apart from recalling racism within the police force towards his Aboriginal identity, Dillon had resigned from his government job because no police officer had been charged at the time over the death in custody that sparked the Palm Island Riots.

The documentary Cop It Sweet brings us to Redfern, where it details police harassment and racism. Years after the documentary was made, the Redfern riots emerged where the rioters were fed up with over-policing and harassment in the area, as experienced by the young man from Kamileroi who died in a police chase.

Whether high-profile sporting stars or disadvantaged youth, racially motivated police harassment is evident in Australia. Even though El-Masri has only just lodged the complaint, the police commissioner is bound to maintain his position of excluding racial identity as a factor. After all, one of the police officers (I’m assuming one of the nine police officers) was Turkish and one was Chinese, which the acting commissioner feels is irrelevant - yet worth mentioning.

Police profiling has never approached one’s racial identity as irrelevant. The popular “of Middle Eastern appearance” demonstrates the use of racial profiling in framing criminal activity. If the predicament did not involve El-Masri and Houda, it would have undoubtedly been reported as “three men of Middle Eastern appearance” whom were questioned by police at a night when vandalism in the area had occurred.

Denying that racism in the police force exists does not eliminate the existence of racism in the police force. If racially motivated harassment had occurred towards a high-profile league star who is well respected in all communities, what’s to say that it is not a common experience for minorities in Australia?