Racism very often manifests itself in good people making decisions which have bad implications, an anti-racism conference being held in Tipperary has heard. The conference was also told that the approach to services for travellers is flawed because of settled people's misunderstanding of traveller history and culture.
This conference organised by the Tipperary Rural Travellers project explored anti-racist practices here and tried to identify strategies which would end exclusion. ICTU President Inez McCormack, who is also on the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, said that racism in all its forms must be tackled. This did not just include those obvious incidents where people are heckled or spat at in the street, but also those decisions taken by good people, the effect of which is to exclude people who live and work differently from getting services like health and education.She also said that any action for change must be rights based, giving those who are powerless a voice which would be heard by the powerful.
Michael McDonagh who represents Ireland on the World Council for Nomadic people, said the approach to services for travellers is flawed because settled people's understanding of traveller culture and history is also flawed. Services should be resource based aimed at accommodating that culture, rather than aimed at the rehabilitation and assimilation of travellers.
President McAleese, who visited the Tipperary Traveller resource centre before addressing the conference, said that our success as a nation could not just be measured in economic prosperity, but on how fairly and equally those opportunities are shared among our people and on their access to education employment, decent housing and healthcare. She said that this should be the century when the tired culture of bigotry and division gives way to a new adventure in consensus.
