Show racism the red card
Last Thursday (March 21) was the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. To mark the day, there was a ‘Victims of Racism’ panel discussion in our university library. I went to the discussion with great enthusiasm, particularly as a journalism student. I believe racism is widespread in our society, I believe the media plays a large role in this and I was curious to hear what the experts had to say.
The event opened with an explanation of the day, which marked the 63rd anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre where 69 peaceful protestors were killed in South Africa.
Among the panellists was a sergeant from Limerick Garda Station, an expert in anti-Muslim racism, the university's director of human rights, a member from Doras (a human rights organisation in Limerick) and the president of the postgrad student union. I took in my fellow audience members; mostly comprising of lecturers, PHD students and other representatives from An Garda Síochána. The talk opened with a discussion about racism, a thought process of viewing a group of people as the other and constructing characteristics and prescribing them.
The talk moved to the topic of intersectionality, a term I had never heard before. It was coined by American civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. She uses an analogy to explain it; “Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another. If an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by cars travelling from any number of directions and, sometimes, all of them.” (Crenshaw, 149).
Based on my reading of her paper, my understanding of the term is that it is a means of describing diversity in a person’s identity and how this identity reflects the way they are perceived and treated in society. Or, how multiple forms of discrimination intersect with one another. During the talk, a stereotypical example of a young black male was given, how their age and skin colour prescribes them with an association of criminality. Conscious or unconscious racism, assumptions about people, if left unchecked, can be dangerous.
Hostile environments within communities who reinforce such stereotypes were discussed. I started hearing familiar words and phrases, the unvetted, single men, the illegal migrants, etc. I say familiar because I hear them used in conversations and I see them on social media. Even though on this day they were used in a context other than to spread fear, I still felt that usual frustration at their utterance. I think these phrases completely dehumanise a person and are not at all applicable to people legally in the asylum process in Ireland. The media were urged to take care in their wording; however, I don’t think those using these phrases are doing so by accident.
I was shocked to hear that there were no racial crimes reported in Limerick within the last two years. In saying that, I do not take it as an reflection of the true number of such incidents. The panel debated barriers such as a fear of coming forward and reporting such crimes or a lack of awareness that they can be reported. There are 589 trained diversity officers within An Garda Síochána who are available to link in with victims of hate crimes. These can be reported online or, if urgent, by ringing 999/112.
Regarding tackling racism, education was said to be the way forward.
Towards the end, I raised the fact that I was a journalism student who never had the opportunity to undertake any module in anti-racism. With media blamed a few times throughout, I asked for advice on how we can improve practices.
To be honest, I didn’t really receive an answer other than to check some websites.
The talk was interesting but I came out of it wondering how I could apply any of the information in real life.
When it comes to racism, as individuals, we can start in our own homes by monitoring how we speak about other people. Also, we should report racism when and wherever we see it!
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