The discursive construction of high profile media racism rows in the United Kingdom and Australia

Using high profile case studies of media storms about alleged racist events against people of colour in
Australia and the UK ('race rows') spanning the last decade, I will explore the discourse used in debates
about racism that disrupt and fracture "our imagined sense of togetherness..." (Bauman, 1990, 42).
Starting with a very close reading of the language used in race rows, I have two aims. The first is to
investigate and challenge the framing of racism. Building on what is called the "new racism" literature,
including topics such as colour-blind racism, whiteness studies and the sociology of ignorance (Mills,
2007; Bonilla-Silva, 2013; Sullivan, 2014), I will explore whether and how the very concept of racial
ignorance is actively produced using discursive manoeuvres, described as the "way of knowing that
produces not knowing", which calls into question the explicit framing of ignorance as the mere passive
absence of knowledge (Mueller, 2018). The second is to build toward a new type of analytical framework
which spans the life cycle of the racial event from utterance to adjudication, and which could eventually
be developed into a practical teaching and diversity training tool to analyse the discursive construction
of racism. I want to bring aspects of media studies, critical linguistics and sociology together with a
critical discourse analysis informed in particular by recent American critical race studies literature, but
reconsidered for UK and Australian racial event case studies.