Racial dignity framework: Advancing dignity-led thinking and practice in Australia

Abstract

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Charter recognizes that all human beings have ‘inherent dignity’; they are ‘born free and have equal and inalienable rights’ (Universal Declaration of Human Rights Charter, 1948). This article explores an important contradiction: the idea that all people possess equal, inherent dignity versus the reality that race, a social construct, creates categories that assign unequal worth to those who are racialized within colonial modernities. To grapple with this contradiction, this article introduces the concept of Racial Dignity, which demonstrates how race profoundly shapes who is afforded dignity as a given and who must struggle for it. The Racial Dignity Framework (RDF) functions as both a theoretical lens and a practical approach to analyse how racialized experiences of exclusion and (non)belonging impact a person’s sense of worth. Drawing from critical theories and, in particular, Jacobsen's conceptualization of bodily dignity, the RDF is operationalized through an examination of how dignity is fostered or undermined through micro-practices of i) humanization, ii) affirming everyday relational practices, iii) sociocultural experiences, and iv) self-determination.