Anti-racism month kicks off with reports of racism on the rise, especially in the workplace

In February, Dublin played host to the #IrelandForAll march, an anti-racism demonstration, organised by United Against Racism, MASI, the National Women's Council of Ireland, TENI, and more. Over 50,000 people took part.

The rally was in response to the rise of anti-immigration and racist demonstrations happening in Ireland. However, not all incidents of racism are as blatant as the orchestrated events that have hit the news.

Instead, in most cases in day-to-day life, racism arises through micro-aggressions. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) released a report earlier this week detailing the effect of racism on second generation ethnic minority youths. It includes specifics about the more subtle forms racism can take that are wwell worth noting and reflecting on.

This week, we kick off a new #AllAgainstRacism campaign featuring powerful testimonies from second-generation ethnic minority youth people on their experiences of growing up in Ireland.

Listen to new radio ad, live on the airwaves today:https://t.co/8FOQlYrcXp pic.twitter.com/U4V0aE0LFf

— Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission (@_IHREC) February 27, 2023

For the uninitiated, verbal micro-aggressions involve hurtful or stigmatising comments or questions. Micro-invalidations deny, negate, or undermine the struggles of a minority. Behavioural micro-aggressions involve an individual's behaviour being hurtful or discriminatory.

What are termed 'environmental micro-aggressions' occur within larger society as subtle forms of discrimination. The example IHREC gives is "a college campus that only has buildings named after White people."

The Commission also highlighted that micro-aggressions and other forms of discrimination, like "dirty looks" and people deliberately avoiding or ignoring minorities, can severely impact youths' self-esteem and self-worth.

Chief Commissioner of the IHREC, Sinéad Gibney has noted that “tackling racism is a long-term project which requires a sustained focus and coherent leadership from the State."

Thankfully, the IHREC isn't working alone in this endeavour. Also working to combat racism is the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR), a membership organisation of over 170+ member groups working together. The non-government, non-profit organisation releases an annual report compiling documented cases of racism every March, which is anti-racism month.

Data is collected by the online reporting system iReport, although incidents must be reported by individuals. The system was launched 9 years ago in July 2013. Using the data, INAR has regularly evaluated the data and spread awareness about racism in Ireland.

While the INAR has yet to publicly release 2022's report, although last year's, the previous year's, are all available online. However, in a report written by Joseph Okoh and published via Noteworthy – a platform within The Journal which funds in-depth journalism – a preview of the findings from the past year confirms that racism in the workplace is on the rise.

These impacts have also consistently been reflected in our iReport data with victims of racism often reporting physical, psychological as well as psychological impacts.

Our 2022 data will be released later this month. Previous reports can be found here: https://t.co/SdDRYgcdBe

— INAR - Irish Network Against Racism (@INARIreland) February 27, 2023

Joseph Okoh's Noteworthy report outlines first hand accounts of racism in the workplace, including instances of verbal and behavioural micro-aggressions and micro-invalidations.

"Often," Dr. Ebun Joseph, a lecturer in Black Studies in UCD, tells Okoh, "what we see in the workplace is micro-aggressions, reprimanding people unfairly."

The report's preliminary findings found that 69 cases of workplace discrimination were reported in 2022 compared to 16 in 2021. An additional 30 more cases were reported involving racially profiling abuse from customers or service users in 2022.

INAR believes that many cases of racism go unreported, which Dr. Lucy Michael, a sociologist and co-author of INAR's annual report, attributes to people not knowing what their rights are.

“You would think work environments are places where people are on their best behaviour but it’s not really true.”

Institutional racism plays a role in it, predetermined power structures inhibiting, discriminating, or facilitating discrimination against minorities inherently. The IHREC's report also mentioned that everyday micro-aggressions in the workplace can compound, forcing people to leave their jobs.

Even when aware of their rights, how the protection against discrimination is structured, outlined in the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 and Equal Status Acts 2000-2018, inhibit individuals from reporting cases.

“People don’t realise how difficult it is to prove discrimination.”

There’s been a drop in WRC cases related to race.

Lack of awareness by people of their rights or employers hindering cases are issues, according to sociologist Dr Lucy Michael.https://t.co/55QF5VWx57

— Noteworthy (@noteworthy_ie) March 1, 2023

“We did a focus group recently with young black Irish people between 20 and 30 and only one of eight knew they were employment equality laws that protected them," Dr. Michael told Joseph Okoh. "That’s problematic."

Employers, according to Dr. Michael, can inhibit cases made to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) by dragging out the process. A claim of discrimination has to be referred to the WRC by employers or other staff within six months.

The Noteworthy report highlights the fact that, where a victim needs to request crucial information from the employer to make the claim, the employer can slow down the process by "investigating."

"Such a delay can make a case fail," Lucy Michael explained.

Other incidents of workplace discrimination, highlighted nu the Noteworthy report, include bias in the hiring process and poor anti-bias training practices.

Joseph Okon quotes Dr. Ebun Joseph: "You can’t just organise an hour-long training for your staff and that’s it for the next five years. How do you expect people to become anti-racists just like that?”

Foreign workers who cannot apply for employment elsewhere also face predatory wage gaps and poor working conditions.

You can find graphs detailing live data of racism incidents on the iReport site. The graphs available there delve into the type of incident, where the incident occurred, how many people were involved, how many people it happened to, and why someone thought the incident was racist.

While major events like the Ireland For All march do not directly combat racism in its entirety, they can promote awareness and inclusion. INAR also has an anti-racism calendar for events celebrating diversity and inclusion throughout March.

Are you having an event to mark March 2023: Anti-Racism Month?

🗓️Every March, we publish a calendar for events celebrating #diversity. You can add your events to the calendar here & we will help promote them: https://t.co/LbqzXg8Gwa #TogetherAgainstRacism #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/J2pgPMFSws

— INAR - Irish Network Against Racism (@INARIreland) February 27, 2023

While the report by IHREC details an unfortunate reality, it remains important to maintain awareness and combat racism as we see it. Sinéad Gibney, the Chief Commissioner of IHREC, reminds people that "tackling racism is a long-term project which requires a sustained focus and coherent leadership from the State."

"Racism not only affects those targeted directly, but also, if not challenged, sends a pernicious message that some of our people do not belong and can therefore be mistreated with impunity."