https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/anti-traveller-vitriol-is-socially-acceptable-here-but-lets-call-it-what-it-is-racism-39502475.html
When I
was 15, I volunteered to teach literacy to Traveller children after school.
That’s where I met Josephine, whose ensuing friendship gave me the gift,
privileged and painful though it was, to walk in another girl’s shoes.
Strictly
speaking, they were slippers, which I wore inside the caravan Josephine shared
with her parents and four siblings. Her grandmother was often there too,
imparting knowledge and love of her Traveller heritage through story telling. I
sat for hours listening to her tales, hanging on every word.
I lost
contact with Josephine, but every-time I hear racist anti-Traveller rhetoric
and reports of attacks on the community, I think of her. So when a house in Galway,
earmarked for a Traveller family was set alight this week, I thought, what if
that’s Josephine’s family?
What if
the children who were counting the sleeps before moving to their new home were
hers? How would she explain, for example, that local councillor, Noel Larkin, went
on radio, not to sympathise with the Traveller family, but to demand
consultation for residents who “have genuine fears for their own property”? Adding,
“Ramming a family into an area will cause upset to the people there”.
Thugs
intimidating builders, blockading homes with silage bales in the dead of night
and arson resulting in actual destruction of property, is not upsetting? But a
young family with children seeking a safe, secure home pose “genuine fears for
property”?
Prejudice
is underpinned by fear and ignorance. It’s not the responsibility of the
marginalised to educate their oppressors. The only thing that Mr Larkin and the
people on whose behalf he purports to speak, knows about their new neighbours
is their ethnicity. Therefore, the fear he speaks of is predicated on hackneyed
stereotypes and poisonous prejudice.
As an
elected representative, Mr Larkin knows that to consult with residents before
allocating housing to Travellers would be discriminatory. Galway City Council made that clear to fellow anti-Traveller
agitator, Noel [Golfgate] Grealish, when
he also demanded community consultation regarding the same burnt out property. If
these men were demanding consultation before allocating social housing to Jews
or Black people, it would be called out for what it is: Racist. It’s beyond
time this country spoke anti-Traveller racism by its name and strengthened the
law against hate crime to combat it.
Burning houses allocated to
Travellers is not new in Ireland. Last year, an elderly Traveller couple in Cork
had their caravan burnt out, destroying all their possessions, including their
pets. In Tipperary,
vandals targeted a house assigned to Travellers and in February 2013, a house
earmarked for Travellers in Donegal,
was wrecked in an arson attack.
What’s particularly disturbing
to me is the perception that vitriol against Travellers is socially acceptable.
Comments such as, “The people who did that deserve a medal”, “The
travellers would’ve burned down the house if they didn’t do it.” and "Pity
the Travellers weren't in there," are alarmingly commonplace online.
Scanning Travellers’ social
media accounts, the mental health impact of the constant deluge of tacitly
accepted racism is palpable, as captured in this comment: “I honestly can't take anymore. My mental health is
suffering from all the racism I am seeing against my community”. It’s
little wonder that suicide
in Travellers is 6 times that of the general population and accounts
for 11% of all deaths. Such relentless hatred would not be tolerated if targeted
at any other ethnic group in the country.
On Tuesday, a 9 year old boy, who happens to be a
Traveller, returned to school for the first time in six months to be greeted
with this from another child: “No-one likes k******s,
that’s why that house was burnt down”.
Shielding our children
against the emotional impact of coronavirus is hard enough without burdening
them with the additional psychological trauma of racism. That any child is
subjected to this hate, in Ireland, in 2020, is a national disgrace. Ireland’s
Human Rights and Equality Commission reported
in October that, “Persistence of systemic institutional racism against
Travellers and the continued and widespread existence within Irish society of
discriminatory attitudes towards Travellers remain among the most significant
areas where the State is failing to meet its [UN] obligations” to eliminate
racial discrimination.
Dehumanising
Travellers and portraying them as “other” and evil, desensitises us to their distress
and makes the conditions for discrimination and oppression possible. When we
have limited contact with people who are different to us, we become susceptible
to the shorthand of stereotypes which is mitigated by seeking out friendships
beyond our comfort zones.
When you
walk a mile in someone else’s shoes/slippers, their pain becomes your pain,
their joy becomes your joy. When I stood up for Josephine in school, she said
it was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her. If you’re reading this Josie,
know that your fight is still my fight and that I stand with you, your family
and your kind, compassionate community.
