Whiteness and policing Vietnamese Australian communities

The empirical study explores the effects of whiteness on relations between a predominantly white police force and Vietnamese Australian communities. The study draws on fifty-four interviews with white police officers, ten focus groups with Vietnamese Australian community members and nineteen interviews with Vietnamese Australian social justice workers. The approach links historical constructions of whiteness to the current practices of the state police force and examines the racialisation of communities and other exclusions. The study finds material effects of structural whiteness for Vietnamese Australian communities including reduced access to police services, racialised hierarchies of criminalisation and a sense of not belonging.