This article interrogates how the concept of critical consciousness applies to racialised subjects’ lived experiences when attempting to resist racialisation and racism within Australian society. We first demonstrate the incongruence between the theoretical conceptualisation of critical consciousness-raising and its practical application for racialised subjects, examined through the concept of the will-to-resist. This foregrounds the individualised nature of resistance for the racialised. Then, we offer a helpful conceptual differentiation between racialised survival, discussed in terms of Whiteness-as-utility. This has often become conflated with the phenomenon of internalised racism (IR), discussed in terms of Whiteness-as-referent. Overall, we suggest that subversion, or rather, resistance through adaptation, may indeed be a survival tactic for the racialised, but is nevertheless one that fails to effectively subvert racist systems due to the racialised dynamics inherent within the settler colonial structure. This highlights the need to account for the dynamics of IR when attempting to understand issues of race, as it presents a significant hurdle towards anti-racism objectives.

本文探讨了批判意识的概念如何在试图抵制澳大利亚社会内部的种族化和种族主义时，应用于种族化主体的生活经历。我们首先展示了批判意识培养的理论概念与其在种族化主体中的实际应用之间的矛盾，这是通过抗拒意志的概念进行考察的。这为种族主义者提出了抵抗的个性化前景。然后，我们提供了种族化的生存之间的有用的概念区分，以“效用为白”进行了讨论。这常常与内部种族主义（IR）现象混为一谈，后者以“以白人为参照”进行讨论。总的来说，我们建议颠覆，或者说是通过适应来抵抗，可能确实是种族化的生存策略，但由于定居者殖民地结构固有的种族化动态，它未能有效地颠覆种族主义制度。这突显了在试图理解种族问题时需要考虑IR的动态，因为这是实现反种族主义目标的重大障碍。