Racism & Anti-Racism

• What is racism?
• Galway City Anti Racism Strategy
• Racism & Discrimination a key priority area of GRSG's work
• Racist Incident Form

What is Racism?
Racism is a specific form of discrimination and exclusion faced by cultural and ethnic minorities. It is based on the false belief that some ‘races’ are inherently superior to others because of different skin colour, nationality, ethnic or cultural background. Racism denies people their basic human rights, equality and respect.

Forms of Racism
There are two forms of racism, these are individual racism and institutional racism.

Individual racism
Racism experienced at an individual level includes offensive acts or comments based on colour, religion, nationality, or ethnicity of he individual experiencing racism. These acts and comments are designed to intimidate, insult or humiliate and can take the form of verbal abuse, attacks on the person, discrimination and prejudice. These attacks are harmful and painful. Sustained individual racism can be life changing. An emphasis on individual racism and individual racist attacks, however, tend to concentrate racism in individuals and to depoliticise racism, i.e to imply that society is not responsible for racism.

Institutional Racism
The theory of institutional racism acknowledges, at least to an extent, that society and the policitcal systme are responsible for racism. Institutional racism can have two causes:

• When members of ethnic minority groups are deliberately discriminated against by institutions.
• When institutions inadvertently discriminate against members of ethnic minorities by failing to plan for their diverse needs.
  

Definitions of a racist incident 
‘Any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person’ (The Macpherson Report, 1999)

Garda Siochana’s Response
The Garda Siochana in its Human Rights Action Plan set out its objective to ‘deal robustly with racist crimes and protect vulnerable communities’. This commitment on behalf of the Garda siochana to deal with reports of racists incidents was highlighted with their poster campaign ‘Racism is Wrong’ which was launched on the 21^st March 2007 - Anti Racism Day.

Galway City Anti Racism Strategy
Following the publication of the National Action Plan Against Racism, Galway was the first city that developed a local anti-racism and diversity plan Towards a City of Equals, Galway City Anti Racism Strategy 2005 – 2008.

Summary Version clicking here file size of 309KB
Full Version clicking here file size of 1.4MB

Racism & Discrimination a key priority area of GRSG's work
GRSG's Strategic Objective is to highlight the nature and extent of racism in Galway by establishing and managing an accessible and independent mechanism for the logging of racist incidents

How? To record of the number and nature of racist incidents in Galway is available and is used to inform local and national planning and policy and relevant authorities such as An Garda Siochana, NCCRI, and the Galway City Partnership.

Racist Incident Form

If you or someone you know have experienced a racist incident or were witness to a racist incident please complete and download the form or contact a member or staff to report the incident by clicking here.