Understanding and Challenging Racism: further reading and resources

Clare PPN and Fridays for Future Clare recently hosted an online workshop on ‘Understanding and Challenging Racism’. Lots of people took part and we had a really useful discussion, led by three excellent facilitators, Vicky Donnelly, Ryma Halfoui and Oein de Bhairdúin. As a follow-up to the discussion, they have compiled a selection of videos, articles, podcasts and other resources you might find helpful. Thanks again to everyone who took part.

VIDEOS

Does My Life Matter?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pjr7OU9N6s
Wexford teenager Noon Abubakar presents a speech she wrote and was due to present at a Black Lives Matter protest march in Wexford. The event was cancelled by the authorities citing that the assembly would exacerbate the Covid-19 pandemic. (June 2020.)

It’s Everywhere
www.youtube.com/watch?v=00HaIYSGiIw
Short powerful video, written and narrated by Racheal Ofori and other Black British people. Entirely relevant to Ireland too. “Racism is everywhere and only when we admit that it’s a learnt construct, and that it exists in everything can we even begin to dismantle it: the overt and the subtly insidious.

Reverse Racism
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw_mRaIHb-M
Many people will claim that racism can work ‘both ways’. The model we looked at during our workshop strongly suggests that it does not. Comedian Aamer Rahman deconstructs the notion of ‘reverse racism’ and what it would take for reverse racism to actually function. He clarifies the links between ideology, colonialism and exploitation, and the profoundly damaging impact of a belief system that elevates white norms, and dehumanises and devalues Black lives, culture, appearance and…everything. All in under 3 hyperbolic minutes.

ARTICLES

Unequal Impact: The Deep Links Between Racism and Climate Change (2020)
https://e360.yale.edu/features/unequal-impact-the-deep-links-between-inequality-and-climate-change
An Article exploring the connections between colonial exploitation of land and peoples, making the struggle for climate justice and racial justice inseparable, and links with the disproportionate impact of Covid 19 on communities of colour. Featuring the work of activist Elizabeth Yeampierre.

‘I Was Six When I Was First Called A N****R In Ireland‘ (Irish Times, June 2020)
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/i-was-six-when-i-was-first-called-a-n-r-in-ireland-1.4275686
Sean Gallen writes about his experiences of racism in Ireland, from the youngest age.

Black Irish Citizens Twice As Likely To Experience Discrimination (2018)
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/black-irish-citizens-twice-as-likely-to-experience-discrimination-1.3734589
Black Irish citizens are twice as likely to experience discrimination in seeking employment as white Irish residents and black non-Irish people are five times more likely to experience discrimination, new research has found.

A Country Seen Through The Lens Of Direct Provision. (GCN, April 2020)
https://gcn.ie/country-seen-through-lens-direct-provision/
Evgeny Shtorn has first-hand experience of the cruel and inhumane system; he looks at its past and imagines the long-term impact it will have not only on those forced to go through it but on Ireland itself.

Education and Love are Not the Answer (2017)
https://theundefeated.com/features/ibram-kendi-leading-scholar-of-racism-says-education-and-love-are-not-the-answer/
Ibram X. Kendi asserts that, “Education, love and exemplary black people will not deliver America from racism, Kendi says. Racist ideas grow out of discriminatory policies, he argues, not the other way around.”

Aid, trade and neocolonialism:
The following two articles deal with the legacy of colonialism, and the impact of the neocolonial trade rules, tax structures and legacy of debt that continues the flow of resources from the Global South to North:

Let’s Talk About Reparations.” (2015)
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/nov/27/enough-of-aid-lets-talk-reparations   

Aid in Reverse – How Poor countries Develop Rich Countries” (2017)
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/jan/14/aid-in-reverse-how-poor-countries-develop-rich-countries

The Treasury’s Tweet Shows Slavery Is Still Misunderstood (2017)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/12/treasury-tweet-slavery-compensate-slave-owners
David Olusoga on how the modern equivalent of £17bn was paid out to compensate slave owners for the loss of their human property.

Invisibility is the Modern Form of Racism Against Native Americans (2018)
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/racism-against-native-americans
Details of systemic racism and racist violence direct at Native American communities in the US.

‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack‘, by Peggy Mackintosh
https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf
An early article looking at the idea of white privilege by Peggy Mackintosh. “My work is not about blame, shame, guilt, or whether one is a “nice person.” …I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.”
First appeared in Peace and Freedom Magazine, July/August, 1989, pp. 10-12, a publication of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Philadelphia, PA.

BOOKS

Why I no longer speak to white people about race
by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Me and White Supremacy
by Layla F Saad

‘I will not be erased’: Our stories growing up as people of colour
by Gal-dem

Queenie
by Candice Carty-Williams

Girl, Woman, Other
by Bernardine Evaristo

Policing the Black Man
by Toni Morrison

‘Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire’
by Akala

‘Dark days’
by James Baldwin

PODCASTS

 Race Reni Eddo-Lodge looks at the recent history that led to the politics of today.

Intersectionality Matters Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.

Scene on Radio Explores human experience and American society.

1619 An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.

Hoodrat to Headwrap A Decolonized Podcast with sexuality educator Ericka Hart and Deep East Oakland’s Ebony Donnley.

The End Of Policing – A Conversation with Alex Vitale

Pod Save The People Organiser and activist DeRay Mckesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics with fellow activists.

Code Switch Fearless conversations about race  

Links & resources related to the Travelling community in Ireland:

Behaviours and Attitudes
https://www.exchangehouse.ie/publications_nationaltravellersurvey2017.php

Traveller Homes: Waste of Resource
https://cf.broadsheet.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/jmadigannews1.jpg

Delight of Traveller homes not being built
https://cf.broadsheet.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/f13edb1b-ca77-4adc-958d-5f8287642016.jpg

Annie Furey
https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/1005/732497-traveller-targeted-in-galway/

Carrickmines
https://www.thejournal.ie/carrickmines-accommodation-problems-2386057-Oct2015/

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/some-businesses-including-pubs-close-for-traveller-funeral-1.2404047

Discrimination case thrown out due to accent
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/district-court/traveller-activist-loses-discrimination-claim-against-lucan-pub-1.3938614

Trish Nolan – broken lines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8n-M4sNlGg

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Irish Network Against Racism:
And finally, a resource pack from the Irish Network Against Racism, to better understand racism in Ireland and your role in addressing it:  
https://inar.ie/racism-in-ireland/learn-about-racism/