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Minceirs Whiden was established in 2004 by a group of Travellers to promote an understanding and recognition of Travellers as a minority ethnic group in Irish society who are proud and confident of their identity. Minceirs Whiden seeks full participation and inclusion of Travellers in the economic, social, political and cultural life of Ireland.There are links on this website to issues that affect Travellers and this is the link for Traveller Education.

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Minceirs Whiden was established in 2004 by a group of Travellers to promote an understanding and recognition of Travellers as a minority ethnic group in Irish society who are proud and confident of their identity. Minceirs Whiden seeks full participation and inclusion of Travellers in the economic, social, political and cultural life of Ireland.There are links on this website to issues that affect Travellers and this is the link for Traveller Education.

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The full realisation of the right to education is not simply a question of access. A rights-based approach to education must be a holistic one, which takes into account all the factors in a child's life that will impact on their educational outcomes.

The right to education encompasses access to education, educational quality and the environment in which education is provided. Recognising and respecting the human rights of children while they are in school - including respect for their identity, participation, and integrity is integral to a rights-based approach to education. Children will continue to be excluded from education unless measures are taken to address their rights to freedom from discrimination, to an adequate standard of living and to meaningful participation.

According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Roma are one of the most disadvantaged groups in education across the European Union (EU). Roma experience barriers to education, including poverty, racism, discrimination, poor housing and health conditions, and a lack of access to employment and social protection. These factors contribute to poor educational outcomes, such as issues with literacy and numeracy, early school leaving, intermittent school attendance, low educational attainment, and barriers to access further education and training

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The full realisation of the right to education is not simply a question of access. A rights-based approach to education must be a holistic one, which takes into account all the factors in a child's life that will impact on their educational outcomes.

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Dr Treasa Bowe collection of WW2 novels

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Built on a collection of 40,000+ popular, high-quality books from 250+ of the world's best publishers, Epic safely fuels curiosity and reading confidence for kids 12 and under.

Get Started

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online access fun thousands children great kids ebooks books

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Built on a collection of 40,000+ popular, high-quality books from 250+ of the world's best publishers, Epic safely fuels curiosity and reading confidence for kids 12 and under. Get Started

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Dr Treasa Bowe's links to picturebooks on WW2

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Travellers of North Cork (no date) MaggieMaysDayFinal

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Toolkit for Diversity in the Primary School

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Toolkit for Diversity in the Primary School

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Translated brochures for multilingual families - importance of home language

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Translated brochures for multilingual families - importance of home language

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This short, eight-page, brightly colored brochure is prepared especially for teachers and parents. It is available in 29 languages, (Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, Farsi, Filipino, French, German, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Tigrinya, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Urdu) and provides the following information in an easy-to-read format:

importance of home languages;

reasons for maintaining the home language;

the advantages for children who use two languages;

how two languages work together;

speaking the home language will not confuse children.

The image on the cover of the brochure, a hand holding a red balloon, is more than decorative. It is a reminder that home languages are as fragile as a balloon. If they are not maintained and protected, the hand will open, the balloon will fly away, and the home language will be lost.

Translations: The HOLD ON brochures found below were translated from the original (English) by both native- and non-native speakers (colleagues, students, families, community members). Click on the links below to download the translations. The English language brochure is also available in Power Point format.

University of Toronto Press 2012
Roma Chumak-Horbatsch
Foreword by Jim Cummins

University of Toronto Press: www.utorontopress.com

This widely used book looks at young newcomer children in a new way. Far more than learners of their new language these children are "bilinguals in the making" - who arrive in childcare centres and classrooms with unique language and literacy needs.

To meet these needs, a new three-part classroom practice, called Linguistically Appropriate Practice or LAP is introduced. The first part of LAP provides important background information about young newcomers' language circumstance. The second part focuses on preparing the classroom to launch LAP. It explores four tasks that are central to the adoption of LAP: transitioning newcomers from home to classroom; partnering with families; using home languages in the classroom; and recording classroom language and literacy behaviours. The final part of LAP addresses the following question: How do we work with young children who arrive without proficiency in the school language? The reader will find over fifty exciting classroom activities that can be adapted to match the developmental level of the children. The closing chapter looks to the future. It appeals to those working with young newcomers to turn their attention to this growing population, take their unique language and literacy needs into account and help them realize their bilingual potential.

Greek translation available from
DiSIGMA Publications: www.disigma.gr

For a summary of the ideas found in this book see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLod5d9mT98

Multilingual Matters 2019
Roma Chumak-Horbatsch
Foreword by Kelleen Toohey

Multilingual Matters: www.multilingual-matters.com

The presence of learners for whom the school language is not their first language creates unique challenges and opportunities for teachers. This book provides an accessible guide to multilingual teaching using Linguistically Appropriate Practice (LAP) in diverse classrooms worldwide. It is firmly grounded in the latest learning and bilingual research and takes a realistic approach to teaching in language-rich schools today. The author argues that multilingual teaching has benefits for everyone, all learners, teachers as well as the wider school community.

Highlights of the book:

provides profiles of multilingual teaching around the world;

explains the relationship between theory and multilingual practice;

lays out the characteristics of the multilingual teacher and the multilingual classroom;

discusses challenges identified by multilingual teachers;

provides a step-by-step guide to implementing multilingual teaching and

includes resources to support multilingual teaching and learning.

This book is an invaluable support and inspiration for practising teachers and trainee teachers. It will help them transform their classrooms into multilingual environments where all children have equal opportunity to participate, learn and grow.

For a review see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srhXHwrYqqA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuznjX7nkcDqDwUJpzlYWsw

The six videos in this YouTube channel provide summaries, highlights and examples of multilingual teaching. Teachers can view them individually or they can be used in meetings or workshops to generate discussion.

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This short, eight-page, brightly colored brochure is prepared especially for teachers and parents.

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WATCH: Michigan lawmaker says, ‘We will not let hate win’

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Is "critical race theory" a way of understanding how American racism has shaped public policy, or a divisive discourse that pits people of color against white people? Liberals and conservatives are in sharp disagreement.

In truth, the divides are not nearly as neat as they may seem. The events of the last decade have increased public awareness about things like housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy in the 1990s, and the legacy of enslavement on Black Americans. But there is much less consensus on what the government's role should be in righting these past wrongs. Add children and schooling into the mix and the debate becomes especially volatile.

School boards, superintendents, even principals and teachers are already facing questions about critical race theory, and there are significant disagreements even among experts about its precise definition as well as how its tenets should inform K-12 policy and practice. This explainer is meant only as a starting point to help educators grasp core aspects of the current debate.

Just what is critical race theory anyway?

Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.

The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.

A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas.

Today, those same patterns of discrimination live on through facially race-blind policies, like single-family zoning that prevents the building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts.

CRT also has ties to other intellectual currents, including the work of sociologists and literary theorists who studied links between political power, social organization, and language. And its ideas have since informed other fields, like the humanities, the social sciences, and teacher education.

This academic understanding of critical race theory differs from representation in recent popular books and, especially, from its portrayal by critics-often, though not exclusively, conservative Republicans. Critics charge that the theory leads to negative dynamics, such as a focus on group identity over universal, shared traits; divides people into "oppressed" and "oppressor" groups; and urges intolerance.

Thus, there is a good deal of confusion over what CRT means, as well as its relationship to other terms, like "anti-racism" and "social justice," with which it is often conflated.

To an extent, the term "critical race theory" is now cited as the basis of all diversity and inclusion efforts regardless of how much it's actually informed those programs.

One conservative organization, the Heritage Foundation, recently attributed a whole host of issues to CRT, including the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, LGBTQ clubs in schools, diversity training in federal agencies and organizations, California's recent ethnic studies model curriculum, the free-speech debate on college campuses, and alternatives to exclusionary discipline-such as the Promise program in Broward County, Fla., that some parents blame for the Parkland school shootings. "When followed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based," the organization claimed.

(A good parallel here is how popular ideas of the common core learning standards grew to encompass far more than what those standards said on paper.)

Does critical race theory say all white people are racist? Isn't that racist, too?

The theory says that racism is part of everyday life, so people-white or nonwhite-who don't intend to be racist can nevertheless make choices that fuel racism.

Some critics claim that the theory advocates discriminating against white people in order to achieve equity. They mainly aim those accusations at theorists who advocate for policies that explicitly take race into account. (The writer Ibram X. Kendi, whose recent popular book How to Be An Antiracist suggests that discrimination that creates equity can be considered anti-racist, is often cited in this context.)

Fundamentally, though, the disagreement springs from different conceptions of racism. CRT puts an emphasis on outcomes, not merely on individuals' own beliefs, and it calls on these outcomes to be examined and rectified. Among lawyers, teachers, policymakers, and the general public, there are many disagreements about how precisely to do those things, and to what extent race should be explicitly appealed to or referred to in the process.

All these different ideas grow out of longstanding, tenacious intellectual debates. Critical race theory emerged out of postmodernist thought, which tends to be skeptical of the idea of universal values, objective knowledge, individual merit, Enlightenment rationalism, and liberalism-tenets that conservatives tend to hold dear.

What does any of this have to do with K-12 education?

Scholars who study critical race theory in education look at how policies and practices in K-12 education contribute to persistent racial inequalities in education, and advocate for ways to change them. Among the topics they've studied: racially segregated schools, the underfunding of majority-Black and Latino school districts, disproportionate disciplining of Black students, barriers to gifted programs and selective-admission high schools, and curricula that reinforce racist ideas.

Critical race theory is not a synonym for culturally relevant teaching, which emerged in the 1990s. This teaching approach seeks to affirm students' ethnic and racial backgrounds and is intellectually rigorous. But it's related in that one of its aims is to help students identify and critique the causes of social inequality in their own lives.

Many educators support, to one degree or another, culturally relevant teaching and other strategies to make schools feel safe and supportive for Black students and other underserved populations. (Students of color make up the majority of school-aged children.) But they don't necessarily identify these activities as CRT-related.

As one teacher-educator put it: "The way we usually see any of this in a classroom is: 'Have I thought about how my Black kids feel? And made a space for them, so that they can be successful?' That is the level I think it stays at, for most teachers." Like others interviewed for this explainer, the teacher-educator did not want to be named out of fear of online harassment.

An emerging subtext among some critics is that curricular excellence can't coexist alongside culturally responsive teaching or anti-racist work. Their argument goes that efforts to change grading practices or make the curriculum less Eurocentric will ultimately harm Black students, or hold them to a less high standard.

As with CRT in general, its popular representation in schools has been far less nuanced. A recent poll by the advocacy group Parents Defending Education claimed some schools were teaching that "white people are inherently privileged, while Black and other people of color are inherently oppressed and victimized"; that "achieving racial justice and equality between racial groups requires discriminating against people based on their whiteness"; and that "the United States was founded on racism."

Thus much of the current debate appears to spring not from the academic texts, but from fear among critics that students-especially white students-will be exposed to supposedly damaging or self-demoralizing ideas.

While some district officials have issued mission statements, resolutions, or spoken about changes in their policies using some of the discourse of CRT, it's not clear to what degree educators are explicitly teaching the concepts, or even using curriculum materials or other methods that implicitly draw on them. For one thing, scholars say, much scholarship on CRT is written in academic language or published in journals not easily accessible to K-12 teachers.

What is going on with these proposals to ban critical race theory in schools?

The bills are so vaguely written that it's unclear what they will affirmatively cover.

Could a teacher who wants to talk about a factual instance of state-sponsored racism-like the establishment of Jim Crow, the series of laws that prevented Black Americans from voting or holding office and separated them from white people in public spaces-be considered in violation of these laws?

It's also unclear whether these new bills are constitutional, or whether they impermissibly restrict free speech.

It would be extremely difficult, in any case, to police what goes on inside hundreds of thousands of classrooms. But social studies educators fear that such laws could have a chilling effect on teachers who might self-censor their own lessons out of concern for parent or administrator complaints.

The laws could also become a tool to attack other pieces of the curriculum, including ethnic studies and "action civics"-an approach to civics education that asks students to research local civic problems and propose solutions.

How is this related to other debates over what's taught in the classroom amid K-12 culture wars?

The charge that schools are indoctrinating students in a harmful theory or political mindset is a longstanding one, historians note. CRT appears to be the latest salvo in this ongoing debate.

In history, the debates have focused on the balance among patriotism and American exceptionalism, on one hand, and the country's history of exclusion and violence towards Indigenous people and the enslavement of African Americans on the other-between its ideals and its practices. Those tensions led to the implosion of a 1994 attempt to set national history standards.

The culture wars are always, at some level, battled out within schools, historians say.

"It's because they're nervous about broad social things, but they're talking in the language of school and school curriculum," said one historian of education. "That's the vocabulary, but the actual grammar is anxiety about shifting social power relations."

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What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?

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Here's what you need to understand about the academic concept-and how it's portrayed in political circles.

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Celebrating Diversity, Promoting Inclusion, Challenging Racism

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Welcome to the Yellow Flag

A practical programme that supports primary and secondary schools to become more inclusive of all cultures and ethnicities, celebrate diversity and challenge racism and discrimination

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Yellow Flag Programme - Equality & Diversity Initiative for Schools

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Yellow Flag is a practical programme that supports primary and secondary schools to become more inclusive of all cultures and ethnicities.

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Many people feel ill-equipped or anxious about discussing race in the workplace. Recent acts of anti-Black racism, hatred, and violence have re-ignited protests across the US and the world. Many of us have woken up to a new reality that others in our community have been living with for too long. Collectively, we are understanding that not only must we stand in solidarity with our students, colleagues, and community members of color, we must also take action to create long-lasting, systemic change to address racial injustice and inequality.

The purpose of this toolkit is to support dialogue about racism within the Stanford staff community, and engage and unite the community in actions that will advance racial justice.

View the content of this page as a document

How to use this Toolkit

These tools have been designed and curated to work together to support you on your anti-racism journey. You can "Start with Self" and work through each of the tools in order, or you can jump to learning more about "How to Talk

about Racism." There is no "right" way to start; what matters is that you start.

Useful reference as you get started
Terms you need to know

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Many people feel ill-equipped or anxious about discussing race in the workplace. Recent acts of anti-Black racism, hatred, and violence have re-ignited protests across the US and the world. Many of us have woken up to a new reality that others in our community have been living with for too long.

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Intercultural Education in the Primary School

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Intercultural Education in the Primary School

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McGinnity et al 2020

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What is it like to grow up Muslim in Ireland?

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We ask a group about their experiences of racism, acceptance and Irishness

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National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)

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Kimberlé Crenshaw: What is Intersectionality?

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National Literacy Trust

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It's so important the books we use in schools reflect our communities and that children see characters who are similar to themselves in their reading material.

The National Literacy Trust can help your school diversify the texts studied and the books in your school library through our resources, training and school programmes.

We have curated lists of our resources and book lists compiled as a quick reference, supporting you to include a diverse range of texts in your teaching and book collections. You can download these lists from the Available files to the right of this page.

Some highlights include:
A River of Stories - Tales and Poems from Across the Commonwealth Black Lives Matter - Book lists for ages 0-16+ Tales from the inner city by Shaun Tan - literacy transition project International Women's Day book list and poster
Young Readers Programme: booklists: covering a wide range of ages and interests, including LGBTQIA+ and Refugee and migrant stories.

Lit in Colour

We are supporting the Lit in Colour campaign from our partners Penguin Random House, who provide a range of resources for primary and secondary to support inclusive reading in schools.

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Promoting diversity through literacy: our resources | National Literacy Trust

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It's so important the books we use in schools reflect our communities and that children see characters who are similar to themselves in their reading material. The National Literacy Trust can help your school diversify the texts studied and the books in your school library through our resources, training and school programmes.

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Celebrating Difference

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Collection of Traveller stories by Oein DeBhairduin

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is a haunting collection of twenty tales rooted in the oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community. Brave vixens, prophetic owls and stalwart horses live alongside the human characters as guides, protectors, friends and foes while spirits, giants and fairies blur the lines between this world and the otherworld. Collected by Oein DeBhairduin throughout his childhood, retold in his lyrical style, and beautifully illustrated by Leanne McDonagh. Why the moon travels won both the Judges' Special Award and the Eilís Dillon Award at the 2021 KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards.

'A truly important book. Manages somehow to embody in the same breath the dazzling philosophy of the Pavee and the powerful poetry in their stories. Oein DeBhairduin's lovely introductions are passionate and beautifully written in their own right, and his versions of these vivid stories are extraordinary and deeply affecting. The whole enterprise is both personal and universal and also marks the debut of a true writer.'
Sebastian Barry

'The human world and the natural world, myth, folklore, kindness and cruelty combine in DeBhairduin's skilful and vivid collection, and the reader is left with a deep sense of the power of story, and of love in the life of a child.'
Deirdre Sullivan

'Many of the old tales have slipped from the campfire circle to sleep forever with the tellers. Here then, is a rare collection of original gems, nourished and nurtured from the pen of a Mincéir.'
Jess Smith

Oein DeBhairduin is a writer, activist and educator with a passion for preserving the beauty of Traveller tales, sayings, retellings and historic exchanges. He is the author of the award-winning Why the moon travels and Traveller Culture Collections Development Officer with the National Museum of Ireland. He seeks to pair community activism with cultural celebration, recalling old tales with fresh modern connections and, most of all, he wishes to rekindle the hearth fires of a shared kinship.

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is a haunting collection of twenty tales rooted in the oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community. Brave vixens, prophetic owls and stalwart horses live alongside the human characters as guides, protectors, friends and foes while spirits, giants and fairies blur the lines between this world and the otherworld.

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Video for children

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'Lets talk about Racism' | RTÉ After School Hub

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Picturebooks to promote intercultural understanding

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John Connors RTE documentary

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Watch all your favourite TV shows Live or On Demand on your PC, smartphone or tablet for free.

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Cynthia Silva Parker (2014)

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We are pleased to announce the release of Senior Associate Cynthia Silva Parker's TedX talk. Cynthia shares moments she's witnessed racism, and how she thinks we can end it. We hope you share this talk with your networks.

Cynthia has spent decades helping people understand how the system of racism operates. As Senior Associate at Interaction Institute for Social Change, she designs and facilitates collaborative equity and inclusion initiatives. These initiatives make change in organizations, cities, and networks. Cynthia also trains leaders through our public workshops.

She is a life-long advocate for racial equity and social justice, and for deeper awareness of each in our systems and organizations and the wider society. She focuses her observations, personal stories and career on strengthening collaborative networks by building the will, skill, knowledge and strategies to undo racism together.

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Racism. What will it take to end it? - Interaction Institute for Social Change

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We are pleased to announce the release of Senior Associate Cynthia Silva Parker's TedX talk. Cynthia shares moments she's witnessed racism, and how she thinks we can end it. We hope you share this talk with your networks. Cynthia has spent decades helping people understand how the system of racism operates.

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Inclusivity and Representation

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Journeying towards anti-racism in our schools

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"Hi, my name is Laura and I'm privileged" - how many conversations start this way? Very few, if any , but they should, particularly if we are about to share our opinion on something that we have little or no experience of, such as racism.

Make a commitment to anti-racist education

Anti-racism education is a continuous journey. Reading this blog or any 'how to' list will not equip anyone to successfully deliver anti-racist education. However, making a commitment to enhancing your knowledge and practice is a good place to start.

Information about racism in Ireland and advice on supporting victims of racism is available in the Irish Network Against Racism publication "Responding to Racism Guide".

Acknowledge your privilege

This can be a difficult and challenging process. For those who experience privilege, it can be difficult to recognise it because for each of us, our experience is normal. Structural racism is embedded into the fabric of societies and is usually obscured from view. So w hat is privilege?

I f you are a white, settled , Irish person living in Ireland, you experience privilege, even though it may not seem like it or be immedi ately obvious .

John Rawls created a very simple thought experiment to help people reflect on the level of equality in society and our own privilege. You can watch a short video clip narrated by Stephen Fry about this .

Rawls ' experiment helps to draw attention to those aspects of society that are inherently unfair but remain hidden in general because they present advantages to some - usually those who hold the most power and privilege.

M ore links to help explore privilege and its impact:

Explore different perspectives and experiences

This video shares the views of some young people of colour on being Irish:

One way to learn about diverse experiences is by broadening the scope of our own reading. How many books do we read that are written by Black and Minority Ethnic authors? Reading texts such as in a number of articles, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Racism and White Fragility : Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism can help us to better understand the power dynamics that exist in conversations about racism and our role and responsibility to occupy the space of ally and activist rather than bystander. Dr Ebun Joseph recently spoke about the importance of personal responsibility and allyship here and here.

Participating in anti-racism conversations can also be an effective way of enhancing our knowledge and developing more awareness of our unconscious biases and practices.

Social media can also provide an opportunity to tap into the experiences of people from a range of ethnic backgrounds and identities living in Ireland. Here are some examples:

Audit your school / classroom practice

Making a commitment to anti - racism education, acknowledging our privilege and enhancing our knowledge and awareness of diverse experiences will help us with reflecting on our own practice. Our experiences influence our worldview and can make us blind to some of the things we do without thinking that may not be inclusive of all students and experiences. T here are some tools that can help us to audit our classrooms and school environments:

Equality in Second-level Schools - page 65 contains a checklist to help us reflect on how we teach.

The Yellow Flag programme is a practical programme that supports primary and secondary schools to become more inclusive of all cultures and ethnicities and to challenge racism and discrimination . Participating in The Yellow Flag programme provides a roadmap for schools to review their practice and enhance their commitment to inclusion and diversity.

If you are in an Educate Together school, anti-racism should be integrated into your wider comm i tment to school. A new will be available this year to help schools evaluate their practice in this area. Ethical Education and being an equality-based Ethos School Self-evaluation (SSE) tool

As well as expanding our own reading, w e need to pay close attention to the messages presented in the texts and materials we choose for use in the classroom. How many, and what kind, of experiences are featured and focused on? Do they convey a 'single story'?

In addition to widening the variety of texts that we use, we also need to think about how we use them. Are we critical and reflective of the representations of characters in the texts we read and the textbooks we use? Do we address racist language and ideas in texts that form part of the curriculum? How do we make sure people from a range of ethnic backgrounds are represented and normalised in school events and displays - without making some seem 'exotic' or different? See here for an activity to do with students related to this.

Children's Books Ireland have created a number of reading lists that can help teachers and parents explore books that represent more diverse experiences:

To find out about recent book publications, try reading:

Get comfortable managing

Many teachers are uncomfortable talking about racial and other inequalities in the classroom. While this is understandable, unfortunately i gnoring racism, or taking a 'colour-blind' approach ('I don't see race') , just helps to maintain the status quo. While outdated theories which link 'race' to genetic differences have (see article below) , they still have huge influence, and simply saying race does not exist is not enough .

They include establishing a classroom charter with agreed procedures for discussion, providing students with the opportunity to decompress a nd reflect during and after challenging conversations , and utilising frameworks such as school rules, the law and international Human Rights agreements to support anti - racist perspectives and practices.

Famil i arising ourselves with strategies and techniques that can be employed to manage difficult conversations will help us to feel more confident and prepared to facilitate respectful discussion s.

Language has power. Permitting the use of racist or discriminatory language in the classroom or school environment is extremely harmful . Policies should clearly name racist language as unacceptable, and any use by students or staff members, whether in class time or outside it , should be challenged immediately.

A whole school approach to linguistic diversity will involve supporting all students to develop both their home language (s) as well as the dominant language of the school (whether that is English or Irish) . It will also ensure that all teachers use language aware teaching methodologies, and that E nglish as an A dditional L anguage teaching is planned and delivered by teachers with specific skills in the area, for as long as students need it ( up to 7 years ' support is usually required to reach full academic proficiency in a second language).

School libraries should also reflect diversity and include books in a va r iety of languages. The School Library Home Languages Funding Scheme provides support to schools to purchase books and resources in languages other than English and Irish. See here.

Be culturally responsive

Culturally responsive teaching is a n approach th a t challenges teachers to address their implicit biases and approach all students from a perspective of critical care. It was originally developed by black educator Gloria Ladson-Billings (you can read her blog ).

Watch Dorothy Strickland talking about being culturally responsive and valuing individual differences in this short clip.

Teaching in a culturally responsive way involves building cultural competence and empathy, holding high expectations for all students, and ensuring students from minority backgrounds feel valued and empowered.

Here are some resources for learning more about culturally responsive teaching:

Apologise if you make a mistake

As Albert Einstein reminds us here, a person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Anti-racism is a continuous learning process. As with any learning journey, we may make mistakes along the way. If we make a mistake and cause offence , the most important thing for us to do is acknowledge our mistake , apologise for it and continue to try and improve our knowledge, awareness and practice . We will not be experienced anti-racis m education practitioners right away but our commitment to it will ensure that our experience continues to grow.

Educate Together's summer courses

Educate Together's summer courses are open to all teachers. 'Ethical Education in Educate Together Schools' includes the topics of anti-racism, intercultural education and equality and justice. You can find more information on the courses here.
This blog was put together by Laura and Emer from the Educate Together national office, both of whom have a particular interest in anti-racism. Laura's PhD investigated the impact of intercultural education, and Emer's explored the experiences of students from minority ethnic backgrounds in Irish post-primary schools.

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Journeying towards anti-racism in our schools - Educate Together

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(Originally published online in July) "Hi, my name is Laura and I'm privileged" - how many conversations start this way? Very few, if any, but they should, particularly if we are about to share our opinion on something that we have little or no experience of, such as racism.

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A Teacher's Handbook for Exploring Migration and Migrant Rights in the Primary Classroom

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Journeys: A Teachers Handbook for Exploring Migration and Migrant Rights in the Primary Classroom

Brighid Golden and Aideen Roche

​Journeys is a whole-school resource on the theme of migration, rights and integration. It is divided into four distinct themes: Stereotypes; Culture; Journeys; and Protection. The themes have been designed to be covered consecutively to allow children to build on their learning from the previous theme. After each theme has been covered throughout the school, classes are encouraged to come together to share their learning at school assemblies or through school displays. Each theme includes an introductory section. This is followed by activities which can be covered within each theme. To cater for the needs of children of all ages and ability levels, the activities get progressively more complex and in-depth as the theme progresses. Each activity has a suggested class level however, this is not definitive and you are encouraged to make a judgement call about the abilities and interest levels of your class and whether to adapt lessons to suit individual needs. Each theme begins with a home-school link activity, which can be used as an introduction for all class levels.

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Brighid Golden and Aideen Roche​Journeys is a whole-school resource on the theme of migration, rights and integration. It is divided into four distinct themes: Stereotypes; Culture; Journeys; and Protection. The themes have been designed to be covered consecutively to allow children to build on their learning from the previous theme.

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Animation for senior classes

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A senior primary animation telling the stories of two children from different parts of the world, faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to leave home. This animation draws on similarities between the Irish experience of migration during the great famine, and the current refugee crisis.

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Leaving Home: The Stories of Brigit and Sami | Trócaire

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A senior primary animation telling the stories of two children from different parts of the world, faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to leave home. This animation draws on similarities between the Irish experience of migration during the great famine, and the current refugee crisis.

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Primary and post-primary classes

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Say No to Racism

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New primary school anti-racism initiative launched

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The project was launched by Trinity College after it emerged children as young as 5 or 6 were being target by racist bullying

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Education Resources

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Stay up-to-date with Trócaire's work overseas, get news on key global social justice issues, and find out about our latest campaigns in Ireland and how you can get involved.

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Awareness Harmony Acceptance Advocates AHAA - Teaching Activities

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We are dedicated to breaking the habit of prejudice and discrimination. We are working together to overcome these social issues by spreading awareness of the problem, establishing harmony between groups, and promoting acceptance of differences.

Our Purpose

History documents the repeated devaluation and exclusion of certain groups. Even today, while it may be less evident, discrimination affects people of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, and abilities. But if individuals and groups stand up and speak out, things can and will change. Our differences are inconsequential when it comes to being human. Therefore, they should not affect how we treat other individuals.

Mary E. Kite, PhD
Department of Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and Counseling
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
mkite@bsu.edu

The third edition of our textbook, The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination, is available from Routledge (Taylor and Francis). Our textbook offers a comprehensive, research-based, review of the literature on prejudice and discrimination. The text covers a broad range of topics from race and ethnicity to gender, sexual orientation, ageism, lookism, and ability. We integrate theory and research with personal experiences and address the factors that shape prejudices.

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We are dedicated to breaking the habit of prejudice and discrimination. We are working together to overcome these social issues by spreading awareness of the problem, establishing harmony between groups, and promoting acceptance of differences. History documents the repeated devaluation and exclusion of certain groups.

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7 do's and don'ts to help your family build empathy skills

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7 do's and don'ts to help your family build empathy skills

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Does your child cry when you cry? Does she want to give a dollar to every homeless man with a cardboard sign? Or do you have the kid who noticed neither the tears nor the homeless person? The first child may have a deep natural capacity for empathy. The second child, not so much. Empathy is at the root of what it means to be human, experts say, and it's at the core of all good relationships - personal and professional. Some children may naturally have more of it than others. But not to worry, empathy - the ability to understand and share the feelings of another - is something that experts say can be enhanced, learned, and practiced.

But that basic dictionary definition of empathy misses the depth that leads to change and creates good relationships, says empathy and parenting expert Richard Weissbourd, co-director of the Making Caring Common project at Harvard University. Beyond perspective taking, empathy can dissolve boundaries and prompt action, he says.

Could a generation of children raised to be empathic change the world? Imagine a political landscape lead by empathic people. No hunger, homelessness, or war. Imagine schools filled with empathic people. No bullying. Not to mention, homes with empathic foundations will experience less conflict.

How do you foster an empathic environment at home? Well, to teach empathy you have to show empathy. A "do as I say, not as I do" style won't cut it. Your kids are watching you - and they copy you. Try these suggestions to strengthen your child's empathic muscles and avoid habits that destroy an empathic mindset.

1. Model caring for others

Show concern for people outside your circle, as well as your family, friends, and associates. Give the letter carrier a bottle of water on a hot day. Join the street musician in a song you know. Talk to strangers in the grocery store line.

Don't judge others. Don't call people names. Don't be rude and disrespectful. Don't sit around talking smack about the neighbors, especially the ones you also hang out and barbecue with.

2. Model good listening skills

Here's how:

* Actually listen.
* Let your body language and facial expressions convey that you are listening by nodding and offering plenty of uh-huhs.
* Respond to what people say.

Don't formulate your response while someone else is still talking. And don't interrupt.

3. Be forgiving

Remember, forgiveness is not about the other person. It's about how you act and feel. Let your child see you being the bigger person.

Don't hold grudges, seek revenge, be mean or unkind, or give "the silent treatment" to loved ones.

4. Challenge prejudices and stereotypes

Encourage your kids to be inclusive, so that means you need to be inclusive, too. What's your group of friends like? It's important to let your child talk about race, prejudice, and stereotypes.

Don't be afraid to talk to your kid about race, inequality, and discrimination. If you see incidents of prejudices or stereotyping, don't let them pass without comment.

5. Your child's other feelings could be getting in the way of their ability to feel empathy, Weissbourd says. Help your child learn to identify other people's feelings when reading books or watching movies or TV shows.

Don't shut your child down with phrases like, "Stop. I don't want to hear it" or "Big girls don't cry." Don't discount or disregard their feelings. Don't ignore emotions they are having a difficult time expressing or are attempting to suppress.

6. Let your children participate in the home. Have family meetings where you listen to their concerns and get their opinion. Give them chores and teach them life skills. Let them join you in your community and volunteer activities.

Don't discourage their desire to help others, even strangers - while teaching a healthy balance between kindness and safety.

7. Immerse them in literature and art

Surround your child with diverse books and music from other cultures. The more, the merrier! Pictures, books, and music allow kids to vicariously experience another person's world. Plus, they provide easy prompts for further discussion.

Don't discourage imagination.

Updated: December 4, 2019

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Does your child cry when you cry? Does she want to give a dollar to every homeless man with a cardboard sign? Or do you have the kid who noticed neither the tears nor the homeless person? The first child may have a deep natural capacity for empathy.

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Promoting and Protecting Human Rights of Migrants

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The Refugee Resettlement Toolkit is a set of guides and resources developed by Doras, available to any group working on resettlement or community sponsorship programmes in Ireland. These resources have been tried, tested, reviewed and developed across three Doras refugee resettlement programmes in Laois (2015-2016), Limerick (2017-2018) and Wexford (2017-2019).

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Classroom resources

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From film kits and lesson plans to the building blocks of a customized Learning Plan—texts, student tasks and teaching strategies—our resources will help you bring relevance, rigor and social emotional learning into your classroom—all for FREE.

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Responding to Racism Guide

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Thursday, 1 June 2017

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Dáil Éireann debate - Thursday, 1 Jun 2017

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Report on Recognition of Traveller Ethnicity: Motion Dáil Éireann debate - Thursday, 1 Jun 2017

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friends come in all colours and sizes

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In the first half of the 19th century, one of America's most prominent scientists was a doctor named Samuel Morton. Morton lived in Philadelphia, and he collected skulls.

He wasn't choosy about his suppliers. He accepted skulls scavenged from battlefields and snatched from catacombs. One of his most famous craniums belonged to an Irishman who'd been sent as a convict to Tasmania (and ultimately hanged for killing and eating other convicts). With each skull Morton performed the same procedure: He stuffed it with pepper seeds-later he switched to lead shot-which he then decanted to ascertain the volume of the braincase.

Morton believed that people could be divided into five races and that these represented separate acts of creation. The races had distinct characters, which corresponded to their place in a divinely determined hierarchy. Morton's "craniometry" showed, he claimed, that whites, or "Caucasians," were the most intelligent of the races. East Asians-Morton used the term "Mongolian"-though "ingenious" and "susceptible of cultivation," were one step down. Next came Southeast Asians, followed by Native Americans. Blacks, or "Ethiopians," were at the bottom. In the decades before the Civil War, Morton's ideas were quickly taken up by the defenders of slavery.

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There's No Scientific Basis for Race-It's a Made-Up Label

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In the first half of the 19th century, one of America's most prominent scientists was a doctor named Samuel Morton. Morton lived in Philadelphia, and he collected skulls. He wasn't choosy about his suppliers. He accepted skulls scavenged from battlefields and snatched from catacombs.

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Promotes positive interaction among children, parents and teachers. Guide for parents on how to use the book, glossary, suggested additional reading and a list of resources

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Good example of friends overcoming racism

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

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Peggy McIntosh

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'White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack' and 'Some Notes for Facilitators' - National SEED Project

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack Downloadable PDF © 1989 Peggy McIntosh 'White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack' first appeared in P...

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Julius Lester shares his story as he explores what makes each of us special

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Autobiography about Rosa Parks and her role in the civil rights movement

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Principles of Social Psychology - 1st International Edition: Ch. 11 Prejudice, Stereotypes and Discrimination

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Principles of Social Psychology - 1st International Edition: Ch. 11 Prejudice, Stereotypes and Discrimination

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Dr. Charles Stangor

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State-Sanctioned Homophobia

In recent years, the Russian government has enacted a series of laws designed to target members of its LGBT (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) community. These include forcing LGBT organizations to register as "foreign agents," banning depictions of homosexuality (including carrying rainbow flags) in front of young people, and denying permission to LGBT groups wanting to organize gay pride parades.

Unfortunately, homophobic attitudes and even violence are not uncommon in Russian society. For example, groups such as Occupy Gerontilyaj have been known to lure and then beat and torture gay teenagers. In 2012, a video that surfaced online showed six members of another far-right-wing organization torturing a young man who later died, according to the Spectrum Human Rights Alliance (a group that advocated for LGBT rights in Eastern Europe).

The tone of some of the Russian media reflects these attitudes. For instance, the LGBT community are portrayed as an "aggressive minority" whose children have venereal disease, and, in 2012, a well-known news anchor recommended on air that the hearts of victims of car accidents that happen to be homosexual "should be buried or burnt as unfit for prolonging anybody's life."

In recent years, several commentators have drawn parallels between Russia's persecution of its LGBT community and the treatment of the Jewish community by the Nazi regime in the years leading up to the Holocaust.

In 2014, public figures around the world called for a boycott (unsuccessfully) of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, arguing that the language of the Olympic Charter explicitly denounces all forms of discrimination. Ultimately, the Winter Olympic Games went ahead as planned, although athletes and Olympic tourists alike were warned against promoting "non-traditional sexual relations."

Sources: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25778272
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/09/homophobia-in-russia-is-taking-a-kafkaesque-turn.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/09/russia-the-next-third-reich.html

Contemporary increases in globalization and immigration are leading to more culturally diverse populations in many countries. These changes will create many benefits for society and for the individuals within it. Gender, cultural, sexual orientation, and ethnic diversity can improve creativity and group performance, facilitate new ways of looking at problems, and allow multiple viewpoints on decisions (Cunningham, 2011; Mannix & Neale, 2005; van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007). On the other hand, as we have seen in many places in this book, perceived similarity is an extremely important determinant of liking. Members of culturally diverse groups may be less attracted to each other than are members of more homogeneous groups, may have more difficulty communicating with each other, and in some cases may actively dislike and even engage in aggressive behavior toward each other.

The principles of social psychology, including the ABCs-affect, behavior, and cognition-apply to the study of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, and social psychologists have expended substantial research efforts studying these concepts ( Figure 11.2). The cognitive component in our perceptions of group members is the stereotype- the positive or negative beliefs that we hold about the characteristics of social group. We may decide that "French people are romantic," that "old people are incompetent," or that "college professors are absent minded." And we may use those beliefs to guide our actions toward people from those groups. In addition to our stereotypes, we may also develop prejudice- an unjustifiable negative attitude toward an outgroup or toward the members of that outgroup. Prejudice can take the form of disliking, anger, fear, disgust, discomfort, and even hatred-the kind of affective states that can lead to behavior such as the gay bashing you just read about. Our stereotypes and our prejudices are problematic because they may create discrimination- unjustified negative behaviors toward members of outgroups based on their group membership.

Although violence against members of outgroups is fortunately rare, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination nevertheless influence people's lives in a variety of ways. Stereotypes influence our academic performance (Shapiro & Neuberg, 2007), the careers that we chose to follow (Zhang, Schmader, & Forbes, 2009), our experiences at work (Fiske & Lee, 2008), and the amount that we are paid for the work that we do (Jackson, 2011; Wood & Eagly, 2010).

Stereotypes and prejudice have a pervasive and often pernicious influence on our responses to others, and also in some cases on our own behaviors. To take one example, social psychological research has found that our stereotypes may in some cases lead to stereotype threat- performance decrements that are caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes. Spencer, Steele, and Quinn (1999) found that when women were reminded of the (untrue) stereotype that "women are poor at math," they performed more poorly on math tests than when they were not reminded of the stereotype, and other research has found stereotype threat in many other domains as well. We'll consider the role of stereotype threat in more detail later in this chapter.

In one particularly disturbing line of research about the influence of prejudice on behaviors, Joshua Correll and his colleagues had White participants participate in an experiment in which they viewed photographs of White and Black people on a computer screen. Across the experiment, the photographs showed the people holding either a gun or something harmless such as a cell phone. The participants were asked to decide as quickly as possible to press a button to "shoot" if the target held a weapon but to "not shoot" if the person did not hold a weapon. Overall, the White participants tended to shoot more often when the person holding the object was Black than when the person holding the object was White, and this occurred even when there was no weapon present (Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2007; Correll et al., 2007).

Discrimination is a major societal problem because it is so pervasive, takes so many forms, and has such negative effects on so many people. Even people who are paid to be unbiased may discriminate. Price and Wolfers (2007) found that White players in National Basketball Association games received fewer fouls when more of the referees present in the game were White, and Black players received fewer fouls when more of the referees present in the game where Black. The implication is-whether they know it or not-the referees were discriminating on the basis of race.

You may have had some experiences where you found yourself responding to another person on the basis of a stereotype or a prejudice, and perhaps the fact that you did surprised you. Perhaps you then tried to get past these beliefs and to react to the person more on the basis of his or her individual characteristics. We like some people and we dislike others-this is natural-but we should not let a person's skin color, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnic background make these determinations for us. And yet, despite our best intentions, we may end up making friends only with people who are similar to us and perhaps even avoiding people whom we see as different.

In this chapter, we will study the processes by which we develop, maintain, and make use of our stereotypes and our prejudices. We will consider the negative outcomes of those beliefs on the targets of our perceptions, and we will consider ways that we might be able to change those beliefs, or at least help us stop acting upon them. Let's begin by considering the cognitive side of our group beliefs-focusing primarily on stereotypes-before turning to the important role of feelings in prejudice.

References

Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2007). The influence of stereotypes on decisions to shoot. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37(6), 1102-1117.

Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., Wittenbrink, B., Sadler, M. S., & Keesee, T. (2007). Across the thin blue line: Police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1006-1023.

Cunningham, G. B. (2011). The LGBT advantage: Examining the relationship among sexual orientation diversity, diversity strategy, and performance. Sport Management Review, 14(4), 453-461.

Fiske, S. T., & Lee, T. L. (2008). Stereotypes and prejudice create workplace discrimination. In A. P. Brief (Ed.), Diversity at work (pp. 13-52).Jackson, L. M. (2011). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Jackson, L. M. (2011). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association

Mannix, E., & Neale, M. A. (2005). What differences make a difference? The promise and reality of diverse teams in organizations. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 6(2), 31-55.

Price, J., & Wolfers, J. (2007). Racial discrimination among NBA referees. NBER Working Paper #13206. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Shapiro, J. R., & Neuberg, S. L. (2007). From stereotype threat to stereotype threats: Implications of a multi-threat framework for causes, moderators, mediators, consequences, and interventions. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 107-130. doi: 10.1177/1088868306294790.

Spencer, S. J., Steele, C. M., & Quinn, D. M. (1999). Stereotype threat and women's math performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 4-28.

van Knippenberg, D., & Schippers, M. C. (2007). Work group diversity. Annual Review of Psychology, 58(1), 515-541.

Wood, W., & Eagly, A. H. (2010). Gender. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (5th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 629-667). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Zhang, S., Schmader, T., & Forbes, C. (2009). The effects of gender stereotypes on women's career choice: Opening the glass door. In M. Barreto, M. K. Ryan, & M. T. Schmitt (Eds.), The glass ceiling in the 21st century: Understanding barriers to gender equality (pp. 125-150).

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Principles of Social Psychology - 1st International Edition

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In recent years, the Russian government has enacted a series of laws designed to target members of its LGBT (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) community. These include forcing LGBT organizations to register as "foreign agents," banning depictions of homosexuality (including carrying rainbow flags) in front of young people, and denying permission to LGBT groups wanting to organize gay pride parades.

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MLK book about civil rights movement and children's parts in it

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Hate Hurts: How Children Learn and Unlearn Prejudice

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Hate Hurts: How Children Learn and Unlearn Prejudice

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Understanding hate and where it comes from

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. These resources include classroom lessons, webinars, grants, podcasts, policy guides and much more. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

The program emphasizes anti-bias and social justice. The anti-bias approach encourages children and young people to challenge prejudice and learn how to be agents of change in their own lives. Our Social Justice Standards show how anti-bias education works through the four domains of identity, diversity, justice and action.

Teaching Tolerance was founded in 1991 to prevent the growth of hate. We began by publishing Teaching Tolerance magazine and producing films chronicling the modern civil rights movement. Today, our community includes more than 500,000 educators who read our magazine, screen our films, visit our website, participate in our professional development workshops and webinars, use our curriculum or engage in our social media community.

Visit Tolerance.org to learn more.

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. These resources include classroom lessons, webinars, grants, podcasts, policy guides and much more. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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Workshops & Training
Teacher Resources
Awareness Activities
Equity Case Studies
Equity & Diversity Quizzes
Printable Handouts
Equity Curriculum
Research Room
Social Justice Speeches
Social Justice Songs
Social Justice Quotations
Equity Web Links
Join Our Email List
Contact Us
Receive Email Updates
Awards & Recognition
About Paul C. Gorski Also Visit:

"All generalizations are false, including this one." -Alexander Chase

[Full Quotation Collection]

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Multicultural Education Pavilion - Diversity, Equity, & Social Justice Education Resources

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Workshops & Training Teacher Resources Awareness Activities Equity Case Studies Equity & Diversity Quizzes Printable Handouts Equity Curriculum Research Room Social Justice Speeches Social Justice Songs Social Justice Quotations Equity Web Links Join Our Email List Contact Us Receive Email Updates Awards & Recognition About Paul C.

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Travellers formally recognised as an ethnic minority

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Travellers formally recognised as an ethnic minority

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Irish Times Mar 1 2017

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Taoiseach Enda Kenny has announced formal recognition for Travellers as a distinct ethnic group within the State.

In a statement to the Dáil on Wednesday night, Mr Kenny said: "It is a historic day for our Travellers and a proud day for Ireland."

There was sustained applause and a standing ovation as Mr Kenny formally recognised, in both Irish and English, the community's ethnic status.

At the end of Mr Kenny's speech, Traveller activist Bernard Sweeney shouted from the public gallery: "Taoiseach, offer an apology on behalf of the State to the Travellers."

The public gallery of the Dáil and an overflow room were packed as members of the Traveller community watched the announcement.

Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit TDs Bríd Smith and Ruth Coppinger and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams suggested the large crowd outside Leinster House for the event should be allowed in.

Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghaíl said the House did not have the personnel to manage the unprecedented numbers of visitors.

He apologised to those who had to wait at the front gate of Leinster House for the announcement.

Mr Kenny said the Traveller community had for many years campaigned to have their unique heritage, culture and identity formally recognised by the State.

"And in this State, they make their contribution as gardaí, doctors, members of the Defence Forces, prison officers," he said.

He said it should not be a surprise that a person could identify as Irish and as a Traveller.

"This is a deep and personal issue for many Travellers.

"It is a great pleasure for me to be the person who has the honour of making this statement."

Representatives of the community spoke last year to Cabinet members about how recognition "would be a very important symbolic and positive step in acknowledging the uniqueness of Traveller identity", the Taoiseach said.

"We all want the same for our children - to grow up and thrive in a society where everyone is free to be who they truly are.

"No one should have to hide their religion, their sexual orientation, their race or culture to be respected or even accepted in society."

He said there were "darker elements that challenge the law of the land that must be tackled. The Traveller community is not immune to this.

"I hope that today will create a new platform for positive engagement by the Traveller community and Government together in seeking sustainable solutions which are based on respect and on an honest dialogue."
'A people within our people'
Mr Kenny said: "Our Traveller community is an integral part of our society for over a millennium, with their own distinct identity - a people within our people."

The Taoiseach also said: "We recognise the inequalities and discrimination that the Traveller community faces."

He said the community enjoys all of the human rights and responsibilities afforded under the Constitution.

"The acceptance and implementation of those rights and responsibilities has to work both ways in order for society to function effectively, inclusively and with mutual respect for all citizens."

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the recognition of Traveller ethnicity was a first step in addressing the damaging impact of the marginalisation of and discrimination against the community.

"Recent research and work have shown Travellers have been a distinct part of our history for as long as written records exist,'' he said.

"They are today, as they always have been, a very important, distinct and valuable element of the broader mosaic of Irish culture and society.''

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said ethnic recognition is a "momentous step forward for equality" and a "hugely historic moment for the 40,000 members of our Traveller community".

He said it was an "important symbolic acknowledgement. It also must pave the way for real, practical change.

"Action must follow ethnicity."

He said the State's policy on Travellers for decades was based on "one of the most shameful reports in the history of the State", the Commission on Itinerancy Report of 1963.

He said the report dripped with racism and elitism, and was "ignorant, stupid and ill-informed".

Paying tribute to the female members of the community, Mr Adams said that, "like their sisters in disadvantaged sections of the settled community, the women have been the great heroines and the champions who have kept their families going through thick and thin".

Labour TD Joan Burton said it had been a long road to this point and, for the many groups involved, there had been a temptation to lose faith.

"But they never did,'' she said. "They believed in each other, in their people, and that the process would succeed.''

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Travellers formally recognised as an ethnic minority

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Taoiseach Enda Kenny has announced formal recognition for Travellers as a distinct ethnic group within the State. In a statement to the Dáil on Wednesday night, Mr Kenny said: "It is a historic day for our Travellers and a proud day for Ireland."

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Jane Elliott

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Jane Elliott interviewed about her Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise

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Jane Elliott interviewed about her Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise

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Jane Elliott on Her "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise" and Fighting Racism

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Short (12 min) documentary about Niklas Sarri , a Sámi man living in Sweden – struggling to come to terms with his Sámi identity -  similar to the Traveller community in Ireland. Nils Aslak – “The inside of me is my home. It will follow me wherever I go.”

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Short film by Roddy Doyle

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Interview with Amanda Kernell, Director of Sámi Blood, a movie she made about the Sámi people of northern Scandinavia.

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Sami Blood: Amanda Kernell director - interview

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The Veil of Ignorance experiment

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How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them

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Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we’ve seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Vernā Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how.

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The end of racism starts with each of us

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The end of racism starts with each of us

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Beyond policy reform, what can ordinary people do to combat systemic racism? Diversity advocate Vernā Myers thinks it starts with confronting our own acknowledged and subconscious prejudices.
In your work, you encourage people to talk to young black men, to get out of one's comfort zone. Who are you speaking to in particular? Who is your audience?
Everyone. This is something that every human being has to deal with. It's not like, "White people have to deal with this and black people don't." All of us have a comfort zone. My observation is: In the hopes of being respectful and sensitive, people create distance between themselves and people they don't know well. The only remedy for that is to actually get to know people. So look for opportunities to extend the connection that you do have with people of difference. Get a little bit closer and go deeper. Listen longer in a conversation, be more curious about what people's views are, share your own life with them. Instead of just, "Hi," and keeping it neat, really lean into the conversation and be curious about what you don't know. And be okay about sharing your own worldview.
That makes sense in an office or school situation, but you also suggest in your work that we practice this in the street. Couldn't that be dangerous?
Don't get crazy. Don't go anywhere that could be stressful or where you could be afraid. But there are a million safe opportunities every day to engage with black men. In the elevator, for example. If you find these small opportunities, then you start to find a level of comfort, and then your zone of comfort increases, so the thing you perceive as dangerous is actually not.
How does class factor in here? If I were to talk to ten black people that I see every day, it would probably be publicists who work in my building and people who work at TED. That might not expose me to a wider range of people and may actually reinforce other biases about class.
Class is so important. Certainly when class is the same or when educational level is the same or you're in an environment where people have been vetted, so to speak, it may be easier; however, I have spent thousands of hours talking to white executives in major corporations and thousands of hours talking to the people of color in their organizations, and the latter still see this issue. They're all in the same socioeconomic strata, but the people of color still perceive and experience the type of bias that people on the street who don't know each other experience. So class can trump race, but often it doesn't.

I was once at a beautiful event where I was being given an award. I was with my boyfriend, who's a decorated soldier. He decided, instead of wearing black tie, to wear his blues. He had a chest full of medals, and at this lovely event he was lauded. People loved him. He went downstairs to get the car out of valet, and a middle-aged white woman turned to him and said, "Boy, what's taking so long to get the cars out?" Somehow she was completely unaware that he had on a military uniform with brass all across his chest. Somehow, he became her servant.

In some cases, yes, a person may have the same cultural upbringing as you even though they're of a different race, but many people don't. Many people have masked their difference in order to assimilate and make people comfortable. Say you have befriended a black family. They come over to your house, and they tell you their black son just got stopped. This is a boy you care about. It feels distant when you read the newspaper; here you start to see things that you couldn't see because you have that relationship. Because you're peers, you begin to make their reality your own. And that's actually more powerful because you're on the same socioeconomic level.
Is your message about racism toward black people specifically? What about other groups?
These suggestions can be used to reconnect to the human family all sorts of groups that have been excluded, maligned, ostracized, undervalued. The minute you think, "I don't do [blank] biased thing with [blank] group," you can always find some group with whom you do it.

Every way that you can notice your own victimization or the ways you've been marginalized, you can access the feelings other people might be having. Everybody has an experience of exclusion. Maybe it's not around a group identity; maybe it's just an individual experience, but there's power in recalling that and extrapolating it.
Let's talk about introverts. What if you're equal-opportunity awkward?
[Laughs.] So many of my suggestions come out of my lens as an extrovert. So for introverts: Get curious. Don't do things out of guilt or shame - that rarely actually shifts things, because you get paternalistic or condescending. Be curious; read; notice, notice, notice. Ask open-ended questions instead of questions that have embedded assumptions about people.

Recently I was at a Whole Foods late at night in an elevator with a really short person. She had on medical scrubs, and she was a black woman. So don't you know that out of my mouth almost came, "I love nurses!" Seriously. Finally I said, "What's got you here so late?" And she said, "I just delivered a bunch of babies." And I was like, "Oh, thank God." When it comes from your "sister," it's probably even worse.

We're not all going out and shooting people down, but we're schooled in the same stereotypes. There are so many other forms of violence that are not physical, but are assaults to your sense of self. When people clutch their purses when a CEO walks into an elevator and he just happens to be black: That's an assault.
Any last thoughts?
Part of my message is: No blame, shame or attack. Most of us know that we aren't exactly as good on this as we would like to be, and there are good reasons for that that have nothing to do with us being bad. We just didn't know - nobody taught us. I went to college and discovered that black people wrote books, and I had come up in an all-black family in an all-black neighborhood. I say: Low guilt, but high responsibility. Once you know these biases are wrong, what do you want to do about it?
Featured image via iStock.

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The end of racism starts with each of us: Q&A with Vernā Myers

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In your work, you encourage people to talk to young black men, to get out of one's comfort zone. Who are you speaking to in particular? Who is your audience? Everyone. This is something that every human being has to deal with. It's not like, "White people have to deal with this and black people don't."

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How racial bias works -- and how to disrupt it

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Our brains create categories to make sense of the world, recognize patterns and make quick decisions. But this ability to categorize also exacts a heavy toll in the form of unconscious bias. In this powerful talk, psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt explores how our biases unfairly target Black people at all levels of society -- from schools and social media to policing and criminal justice -- and discusses how creating points of friction can help us actively interrupt and address this troubling problem.

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Source: istock

By Amber Garrett

Updated

Two weeks of protesting over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed, and too many others have resulted in a great deal of action to reform police departments across the U.S. And, hopefully, this national conversation is also moving white people to critically examine the ways they uphold white supremacy with their actions or inaction, and with their words as well as with their silence.

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One huge way white people can begin to become antiracist is to understand what white privilege means and how they benefit from it. While it's a term that frequently gets misunderstood, there are some brilliant illustrations that explain white privilege on, of all places, Instagram. Here are a few of our favorites.

White privilege explained on Instagram: 6 posts that beautifully illustrate the concept.

The simple two-sentence way to explain white privilege is this: "White privilege doesn't mean your life wasn't hard. All it means is that your skin color didn't contribute to your problems."

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There are numerous ways we can see the different treatment white and Black suspects in police custody are treated. One extreme example is that of white supremacist and mass murderer Dylann Roof. Although armed with semiautomatic weapons and having killed nine Black people attending a church service, Roof was peacefully taken into custody and treated humanely.

George Floyd, on the other hand, a man who was detained for using a counterfeit bill (which he may not have even known was fake), was held in a lethal chokehold for 8 minutes and 46 seconds until he died. Police disproportionately use deadly force against unarmed Black suspects.

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You've probably seen this video in your feeds. The exercise conducted at Link Year, a Christian leadership program for graduates taking a gap year, has been making the rounds a lot lately. While it invites some valid criticism about the way the Black participants are singled out, potentially without their consent, the exercise illustrates the many ways privilege helps people get ahead in life while thinking they're running the same race as everyone else..

This privilege checklist from therapist Suzy Fauria's @ wellness_dialogues is a powerful tool to help people understand the many ways they benefit from their white privilege, that white people may take for granted things people of color, particularly Black people, cannot.

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For example, white people do not get routinely treated with suspicion while they are shopping because of the color of their skin, but nearly any Black person you speak to will be able to tell you the date and location of the last time they were followed by a store employee, because it likely happened within the last week or two.

This performance is a few years old but still as relevant as ever. Poet Kyla Lacey's poem is jam-packed with examples of the way Black people are held to different standards in nearly every aspect of American life.

Courtney Yahn is a Korean American who created this brief guide to white privilege that sums it up in five slides that should take your followers no more than a couple minutes to read and digest.

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6 Instagram Posts That Beautifully Explain White Privilege

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By Amber Garrett Updated Two weeks of protesting over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed, and too many others have resulted in a great deal of action to reform police departments across the U.S.

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People of colour in Ireland need allies 'not bystanders'

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People of colour in Ireland need allies 'not bystanders'

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Last Thursday, Dr Ebun Joseph held an online conversation with people of colour living in Ireland. On Thursday, she is doing it again, but this time she hopes that white Irish people will join in.

"We need allies. Bystanders are of no use to us," says Joseph, an author, inter-cultural consultant and creator of the black studies module in University College Dublin, the first to be created in any of the State's universities.

Joseph wants people to say "I believe you" when a person of colour recounts their experience of racism: "It's not an invitation to critique what they have said. It's not even an invitation to tell them of how many non-racist people you know.

"When you hear people give out about racism, it is not an invitation to analyse it and tell them they're wrong," she says, adding that she is well accustomed to "the blowback" black people in Ireland can experience.

Recounting some of her own experiences she laughs when she lists the things that have happened to her, though they are not funny. She is viciously and frequently trolled online. She is called vile names. She is frequently told to go home. "I am home!" she replies.

There's a racist parody Twitter account pretending to be her. *

Last Thursday, she hosted a free "townhall webinar" in which she and eight other black academics and writers discussed the idea of "Bringing Allyship Alive in Ireland" - basically a discussion of how white people can help. On Thursday she is holding another one.

'Permanent strangers'

There's a tendency to view black Irish people as "permanent strangers", she says, expected to remain silently grateful to be allowed to contribute here. This has a huge emotional impact.

Some young Irish-born people of colour leave for the UK once adults, or they are expected to shrug off racist bullying in school if they stay: "After George Floyd's death people in Ireland were looking at it like, 'It's in the US' . And I was like, 'This is not just in the US. Right here in Ireland, we feel people's knees on our neck, even me, with all my education... ' Yes, you're not physically killing us, but you're emotionally and mentally killing people."

It is not enough to be "not racist", she argues. White people need to be actively "anti-racist". "White supremacy and racism were not created by black people. The way people see it, it's black people that have a problem. But no, it's white people who have a problem.

"It's not, 'How do you deal with your racism?' They should say, 'How do we deal with 'our racism'?" She adds that some white Irish people go through a series of stages "before they can actually hear about race and racism".

"They hear it first as an indictment of themselves and nobody wants to hear anything bad about themselves... In order not to sit with that uncomfortable feeling, they run away from it, they push back by denying the experience."

Racism is not about "the KKK, that you have a white hood on your head", Joseph says. "No. Racism is every day. It's normal. It's written into our policies and how we operate on a daily basis.

"Even if you do nothing, just be white, all you need to do is show up and automatically you are favoured. Whiteness makes you a benefactor of the racist structures that have been put in place."

A lot of the systemic racial equalities stem, she says, not from an overt desire to exclude black people but an implicit desire on the part of employers to hire people just like them. "Group favouritism," she says, "is when we favour people who look like us. It's [like when] you go to the pub and you reserve the seat beside you for your partner while everyone else has to stand waiting... That's how discrimination operates."

Urging people to expand their networks, she says: "Add one [person of colour] to the people you follow on Twitter or Linked In. Add one to your organisation." She laughs. "And then add one more because it's very isolating to be the only one in there."

People of colour should not be " just reduced" to telling stories about their worst experiences and that they are also represented more widely in Irish life. Talking about experiences of racism is painful, she says. "It's very embarrassing sometimes.

"You don't want to be the object of other people's pity. 'Oh my God, poor you'... So the black friend you have, they are not your teacher [on racism]. Ask me and that's fine, because that's my job as an educator. I thrive on providing information...

"But listen and find information. There are good books out there... If you work in an organisation, make sure you get somebody in who is equipped to teach you. Attend a black studies module." And keep learning, she says. "You can't do an hour of cultural bias training and expect to be an anti-racist... You can't come and talk to us and then go to your all-white meetings to solve the problem."

Talented young people of colour should steer away from places where they do not see themselves represented there, Joseph says, so organisations (including media organisations) should go beyond mentoring them to actively sponsor and champion them.

She benefited from such sponsorship herself, she says, thanks to the UCD academic Kathleen Lynch. "Come to a school in Lucan or Blanchardstown where the [classes] are very mixed. Stop going to Dublin 4 to talk about journalism. Go to Tallaght, to Blanchardstown... Talk to the young people there about your journey and what they need to do and tell them how possible it is for them to do it... Amplify black voices."
Thursday's webinar can be found here * This article was amended on June 18th, 2020

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People of colour in Ireland need allies 'not bystanders'

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Last Thursday, Dr Ebun Joseph held an online conversation with people of colour living in Ireland. On Thursday, she is doing it again, but this time she hopes that white Irish people will join in. "We need allies.

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Dr Ebun Joseph, an 'unapologetically black' Irish woman of Nigerian descent, established the country's first Black Studies university course at University College Dublin. Here she talks about racism in Ireland, the importance of black studies and bringing an end to Direct Provision

On May 25, the horrific murder of George Floyd took place in Minneapolis. The resulting protests against age-old racism in its most visceral form have since spread across American cities. The murder of George Floyd has led to the commitment made over the weekend by the city council in Minneapolis to dismantle the police force there.

The police officer responsible for kneeling on George Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes, Derek Chauvin, has now been charged with second-degree murder. The other three officers present - Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng - have also been charged with aiding and abetting Chauvin in committing murder and in committing manslaughter. All four officers were immediately fired from Minneapolis police force.

This appalling, naked injustice and its brutal execution have stirred collective political consciences, from Washington to Dublin to Sydney. George Floyd has become a symbol of racism and how deeply ingrained it has been in America for so long.

In Ireland, a country that is itself a survivor of colonial oppression, murals of George Floyd and slogans have appeared on walls in different cities. The children of James Connolly flocked through the streets of Dublin, Belfast, Galway and elsewhere, to take a stand against the oppression of black Americans. In the process, Black Lives Matter came into focus as the new mantra of a generation too often wrongly accused of apathy.

But does the anger sparked by the murder of George Floyd mean that racism no longer exists on our island? Not by a long shot.

Dr Ebun Joseph, an 'unapologetically black' Irish woman of Nigerian descent, established the country's first Black Studies university course at University College Dublin (UCD). Dr Joseph became a microbiologist in Nigeria at 20 and migrated to Ireland in 2002, at the age of 30. She focused her PhD on Social Justice and has worked her way up to become a lecturer in Trinity and UCD.
She says that we sweep Irish racism under the carpet.

Our colonial past makes honest discussions around the issue doubly complicated - we tend to see ourselves as the oppressed, not the oppressor. Yet the system, she says dramatically, referring to the barbaric way in which George Floyd was murdered, kneels on the necks of Ireland's marginalised people, every day, frequently rendering them invisible.

Dr. Ebun Joseph hopes that the rise of Black Lives Matter will prompt sincere deliberations in Ireland, forcing us to admit that racism, in all its forms, is a global social issue - and that it plagues us too.
On The Lessons of Minneapolis
"Firstly, it should make us realise that racism is real, and it is bigger than we think, and if we are not addressing it - if we are sweeping it under the carpet - it is going to cause a lot of damage. We are in the middle of a [health crisis] that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, but what is raging now? Race and racism. I think we underestimate how important the issue of race is. If we want to learn from what happened in America, we should admit that racism is not something that just happens 'over there'. It is right here. Here, we think, 'Oh it is American, it is in the UK.' I'm like, 'are you joking?' Racism it is here too. Yes, we are not being physically killed, but every day when we apply for jobs - people who look like me - we are being discriminated against. We're being called the N-word. You are kneeling on our necks, and that's why I'm saying, we can't breathe."
On Seeing the Murder of George Floyd
"I cry every time I watch it. My first reaction was sadness that we have to deal with this in 2020. For me, that video is evidence to the permanence of racism. A man puts his hand in his pocket and kneels on another human being. As African-Americans would say 'a grown-ass man', was lying on the floor and crying for his mother. He was saying, 'Mama, I can't breathe'. His mum was dead. He knew he was being killed. That picture is etched in my mind. It's never going to go away."
On Direct Provision in Ireland
People are effectively incarcerated in our Direct Provision system. You know it's like Donald Trump and his wall (laughs). Direct Provision is the same idea as Trump's wall. There is a base that wants Direct Provision to exist, and the Government wants to please them. We repealed the Eighth Amendment; we have marriage equality now, because there was a political will for that; but the Government doesn't have the same will to abolish Direct Provision. They'd rather pay billions of Euros to private companies to incarcerate people - and it is a form of incarceration - than to allow them to work and live in society. We are actually spending more money than we would if we were to give people autonomy to have their own lives and be a part of the community here and contribute to the system. We talk about how lockdown is hard, how we don't have our freedom - but people live five/six/ten years in Direct Provision. It should make us look inside - and (then) underscore the issue of race and racism in Ireland in academia, in our schools and Government. Race studies is the most under-resourced topic in Ireland. We don't believe it is a big issue here.
On the Meaning of White Supremacy
The way we imagine Ireland is that it was the victim of British colonisation, of the Irish oppression in America, but we stop the history there. We don't teach our students, our nation, that once Ireland gained independence when we became white and we became white on the backs and the necks of Africans. When we ticked that box of whiteness, we began enjoying our white privileges. Now, when we hear the word white supremacy, we think of KKK. No. White supremacy is when a white person places another white person above a black person: that's what white supremacy is to me. When you think because you're white you're superior, that's what white supremacy is.
On the Oppressed and the Oppressors
In Ireland, we think we can't be racist because we were once discriminated against. We were the oppressed. If you go and read Paula Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, it says, that when the oppressed is free, if they're not careful, they can become worse than their oppressors. When I tell you that the racism we experience in Ireland is of the worst kind, it is not because we are doing worse things than the rest of the world. No, we are not doing half as much they are doing. It is because, here, we still have to grapple with admitting that we have racism here. Nobody in the US would tell you that there is no racism in their country. In the UK, they agree with you if you talk about their racism. In Ireland, we can't even admit that we have racism.
On the African Scholars Association
Because we don't see many people coming out to report racism, we think we don't have it. When people don't come out to report, it is an indicator of the level of oppression within our system. People are insecure; they are afraid. In the US, people of colour, they became President, they are managers, CEOs. They're in the police force. They are also drug dealers (laughs): they are at every sector. So is the case in the UK. Here black people, Travellers, people who have a different name, who look visibly different, they are at the bottom of the ladder. So, there is no occasion for conflict. Here, black people are cleaners. Your cleaner won't confront you about your racism. They would be afraid. They know if they talk, they can lose their jobs. I set up the African Scholars' Association. I get emails from people who have PhDs in nursing, working as a care assistant. Do you understand? I'm being blacklisted, they say, if we get her, she's going to bring her black activism into things. But, so be it. I am unapologetically black. I'm Ebun Joseph, and I'm willing to pay that price.
On the Influence of Leaders
Leadership is everything. The minute you do something or say something, you tell people that it is okay to do that or say that. Leaders are role models. Leo Varadkar made a statement just last night at about 8 pm or so, and it was not a strong statement. He forgot to mention to young people that he understands how difficult this must be, to make them feel calm. Many of us still look to Obama for leadership. He wasn't perfect, but I was still looking to read a statement from him. When Donald Trump said, 'When looting starts, shooting starts,' that is a 1968 racist comment - and that's what he is teaching his people. So, people focus on the looting. Who taught people how to loot? Who taught people that looting was a weapon of war? Who taught us looting, rioting and burning? The British and the French, when they went to Africa, when they went to Benin: the first thing they did was burning beautiful houses. They looted and rioted. They taught us how to loot.
On the 27th Amendment to the Constitution
In 2004, when we took away the citizenship rights of children who are born to non-Irish parents in Ireland, what we did was create classes of citizenship, categories of citizenship. That's why (racist) people can go out and call us 'paper Irish'. [The 27th Amendment] acknowledges that there are levels of Irish citizenship. That's why even if you have an Irish passport if your name doesn't sound Irish or you have a different skin colour, they can say you're not Irish. Remember the little, black girl who did Irish dancing and they went after her. It's like Africans telling white people you can't rap because we invented rap music. So, Irishness is defined on the basis of whiteness. So, we feel if we're not white, we can't be Irish.
On Feedback from Students
I was in a bad way because of George Floyd these past few days. But I got the most amazing email from a young man. I taught him in Trinity College. He wasn't part of my Black Studies course. I taught him Race, Ethnicity and Identity. I'm used to getting these emails from black students or white, female students. But I held this one so dear in my heart. He was a young, white male student. His email said, 'Thank you so much for teaching me so excellently' that he's not somebody who normally gets a 70. But he wrote [his essay for me] on whiteness, the hypocrisy of whiteness. I didn't give him that topic. He chose that topic. I had to go back and re-read his essay to see what he wrote, and it was brilliant again. I tried to encourage him to get it published. When I get that email from him, that's exciting.
On Feedback from Students - Part 2
Last year, my Black Studies students emailed me - as part of black history month - that they are running a seminar on the significance of Black Studies. I was like, 'Oh my god'. They finished the course in June and on their own in November, they were going to do that. The course taught black students how they were programmed to be embarrassed by their race. It helped them to find pride in themselves. Now, they are unapologetically black. It was a mixed class though, half-white and half-black students. What I enjoy most about it is that in Black Studies, I'm teaching students that history is not about the amazingness of whites' achievements and black slavery.
On her plan for the Institute of Black Studies in Ireland
There was also a UN resolution in 2019 that schools should teach students African history, and Africans should teach it. No one is doing that here. But I put myself behind this, and I'm going to make it happen. UCD should not take any credit for the Black Studies course. All they did was giving me a platform, and that's because I had people like [UCD Prof] Kathleen Lynch advocate it. They have no right to the glory of it. It's my sweat and blood. I'm going to set up The Institute of African Studies in Ireland. All these colleges have Diversity and Inclusion officers. What does that even mean? How many of them reached out to their migrant students to see how they were doing during the pandemic? They just give themselves big titles.
On Online Harassment
I recently looked and realised that I had blocked 720 people. Do you know how draining it is to block 720 people? I think what triggers them the most is that I don't fit into the stereotypes. I'm confident. One of them told me that I should be grateful that they gave me an education. I'm like, no. You didn't fucking give me anything. I paid for my education.
On the Race to Deliver Her Thesis
I stayed up for 78 hours, and I submitted my PhD dissertation, because if I didn't submit that on time, I had to pay for extensions, and I didn't have the money. My body was shaking from lack of food and sleep. I jumped into my car and drove to Maynooth to print it. They couldn't print it there. I drove to the city. We had to submit it [physically] I think at 4pm. I got to UCD at 3.48pm. I was so hungry, I tried to eat, but I couldn't. And you want me to be grateful? I worked for it. I was working full-time, doing my PhD and raising two kids as a single parent. I wasn't funded by any organisation. When they tell me, we gave you these things, I'm like, then let's give them to everybody. Why are we not doing that?
On the Disproportionate Impact of the Pandemic on Women
We recently had a series of webinars, and one of them was the Gendered Face of Covid-19. You can see that we are taking all the flak. Even my son was telling me, 'Mum, I think you're actually cooking more now'. When I'm going to work, I'm like: 'Guys, sort yourselves out.' But when I'm at home, I feel like since I'm not commuting, I can use that one-hour to cook and clean because women still do over 80 per cent of the work at home. I also saw that more men were publishing academic work during the pandemic. In the academic world you get promoted based on your publications and research - so, what happens is that once the pandemic ends, these men are going to get ahead of women because women had to take care of the kids. You can't try to publish; you don't have time to write down anything. I'm not saying all the men, but a high percentage of them, are not taking on home responsibility. And when they do, it is called helping, and when it is called helping, that means you don't see it as your responsibility. Gender roles still negatively impact women. A vast majority of our nurses are women because it is considered to be a female profession.
On the Formation of a New Government
There are so many issues that opposition parties need to prioritise. Once the pandemic is over, we are going to try to make the health care system privatised again, and that is going to affect our marginalised groups. We're not going back to square one. We're going back to square zero. Before the pandemic homelessness was a major issue, but we saw that if we wanted to house the homeless, we could. So, parties must make sure we are not going back to having our men, women and children on the streets. Inequality of income must be addressed. I think the Government realised that the social welfare payment was not enough, during the pandemic. So, maybe it is time we had a liveable, basic income for everybody, if they need help, whether they are cleaners or consultants. Our health system serves the wealthy. Let's try to see if we can have an equal health service. Let's abolish Direct Provision and help people actualise their citizenship. These are some of the things that the new Government should prioritise.
On The Possibility of Running for Office
No way (laughs). My dad was a politician. He was like a commissioner for education and finance, different things during his life. He's retired now. He's 82. But it made me realise that politics was dirty. You get there with all those amazing ideas, and you get disillusioned. I'm an academic. I want to teach future politicians and managers. If I can change their mindset, then I can have a bigger reach and have an influence on politics.

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Dr Ebun Joseph: Why Black Studies Matter In Ireland and Responding to the Murder of George Floyd | Hotpress

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Dr Ebun Joseph, an 'unapologetically black' Irish woman of Nigerian descent, established the country's first Black Studies university course at University College Dublin. Here she talks about racism in Ireland, the importance of black studies and bringing an end to Direct Provision On May 25, the horrific murder of George Floyd took place in Minneapolis.