'They get too much' - the idea, and the myth, of Aboriginal privilege.
The idea is remarkable for how it is imagined in the face of prodigious counter-evidence that Aborigines are the most disadvantaged people in Australia.
Encouragement for this idea of privilege can be seen in a 'media wave', unprecedented in Australia, which occurred in Perty in the early 1990s. Newspapers, television and talkback radio, with increasing sensationalism, reported a growing juvenile crime rate, focussing specifically on Aboriginal youth. As a result, a march of 30,000 people on Parliament achieved the harshest penalties for juvenile crime in the country.
Yet, crime statistics for the period do not support the perception created of an increase in youth crime.
The Myth of Privilege examines the role of the media-particularly news reporting and talkback radio-in the manufacture of the idea of Aboriginal privilege.
