"Racism is a hot topic in museums today, as well as an urgent social issue. Focused on the broad field of multicultural policy, Museums and Racism examines how the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, Australia, has responded to political culture and public debate around racism.Analysis focuses on the conceptualization of the Immigration Museum in the mid-1990s, and on the most recent permanent exhibition to be opened there in 20112012, which coincided with the publication of a new multicultural policy for Australia. The opening of The National Museum of Australia in Canberra in the intervening period is also examined in some detail, as a comparison providing broader national social and political context. Message argues that each of the three episodes demonstrates the close relationship between museum and exhibition development on the one hand, and policy, politics, and public opinion on the other. She widens her argument with brief discussion of comparative examples from the United States and |