Free Radikal

Archive for the ‘racism’ Category

He was a 15 year old who played football with Shelbourne FC.  He came to Ireland from Nigeria 11 years ago, had a lovely smile and a loving family and was popular with his Tyrrelstown school friends. On Good Friday he got into a row with two Irish men outside a house at Mount Garrett Rise sparked by racist jibes, and before he knew what was happening, Toyosi Shittabey was stabbed several times in the chest and was taken to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown where he died an hour later.

According to initial reports the Gardai, reportedly concerned about tensions in Tyrrelstown, which has 50 per cent non-Irish residents, were thinking in terms of a racist crime. They arrested brothers Paul (38) and Michael (23) Barry, who got away in a black Nissan. After a brief investigation Paul was charged with manslaughter and Michael was charged under section 11 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act with possession of a hockey stick. Both were released on bail.

What became apparent very soon after the mindless killing of Toyosi Shittabey was the haste with which everyone, from Gardai and local politicians to the local Muslim leader Dr Muhammad Umar al-Qadri and the Nigerian ambassador Dr Kemafo Nonyerem Chikwe, insisted that the killing was not about racism, and appealed for calm.

I am just back from a postgraduate conference on migration studies at DCU, where a leading Dutch sociologist spoke about integration without mentioning racism even once. Racism, it seems, is increasingly becoming unmentionables. I do not wish to use Toyosi’s killing to make political capital, but it is important to note how quickly what was patently a racist crime became ‘not specifically a racist attack’ according to al-Qadri.

Despite the rallying of Tyrrelstown community around the Shittabeys, and the shows of solidarity, not naming racism takes us back to the pre-interculturalism age, when Irish people were convinced that there was no racism in Ireland ‘until these people came’. Migration studies scholars speak about integration without pointing at the state’s racist categorisation of migrant populations, and without linking restrictive immigration and asylum policies with street racism, that brought about Toyosi’s death.

What is not racist about two grown men insulting a young Nigerian schoolboy and stabbing him several times in the chest? Why is such wanton act turn from murder to manslaughter? Why were the killers granted bail? And – most importantly – why is everyone so afraid of the R word?

In Britain, the murder of Stephen Lawrence galvanised a powerful antiracism campaign, and led to the MacPherson Report which named police ‘institutional racism’. Though the campaign did not bring Stephen back to life and did not stop the British government from enacting its own draconian migration policies, antiracism is not dead in Britain. In the Republic, on the other hand, we are pretending that if we don’t call it by name, racism will disappear.

Many Irish-African people are justifyably angry. As Benedicta Attoh said in the conference today, Toyosi came to Ireland at the age of four; he could have been born here and be an Irish citizen. Many young African people are afraid to leave home after dark, because, whether or not they are Irish citizens, racism lurks on every street corner and we all need to mount a vigorous campaign against it, beginning by naming the problem, before it is too late.

Prof. Rivka Carmi
President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Office of the President
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
P.O. Box 653
Beer-Sheva  84105  ISRAEL
Tel:  +972-8-647-930
Cell:  +972-526-839-367
Fax:    +972-8-647-2991
Email:  board@bgu.ac.il
berkan@exchange.bgu.ac.il
justman@bgu.ac.il
ngordon@bgu.ac.il

23 January 2010

Cc.
Prof. Moshe Justman, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Neve Gordon, Chairman of the Department of Politics and Government
Staff
Ms Anne Berkeley, Liaison Officer to the Board of Governors

Dear Prof Carmi,

We, Israeli, Palestinian and British academics, are writing to express our deep concern at the treatment of Dr Ahmad Sa’di, a Senior Lecturer at Ben-Gurion University’s Department of Politics and Government, who was subjected to racist treatment on 3 January 2010 when he arrived at Ben-Gurion University train station, as he does every teaching week.  He was humiliatingly searched, yelled at and embarrassed by the security staff at Mexico Gate, which we find offensive and unacceptable.We believe that Dr Sa’di’s reaction on the date was exemplary; he did not block the entrance nor did he insult the security staff.

Following the incident Dr Sa’di complained to the university authorities on 3 January 2010 and again on 10 January 2010. Dr Sa’di strongly believes that his treatment at Mexico Gate on 3 January was only the last in a whole series of racist encounters and harassment he has faced in the past ten years of his employment at Ben-Gurion University. Other incidents included his car being stopped, his bags searched and security staff making calls to ascertain whether he should be allowed to enter the university.

We are extremely concerned that Dr Sa’di’s formal complaint about his treatment on 3 January has neither been looked into seriously by Ben-Gurion University nor been met with anything like a response that it requires from your institution’s senior management. Although Ben-Gurion University acknowledges that Dr Sa’di was insulted and humiliated on 3 January, no further disciplinary action were pursued.

Ben-Gurion University claims to be like other European universities. Yet the response by Ben-Gurion University is another indication of an entirely different sort of system where racism is accepted as routine.  Had a complaint of this nature been made in the UK, there would have been automatic suspension with pay of the individuals involved.  This would then be followed by an investigation by the university department of Human Resources. Yet the fact that Dr Sa’di complaint of racism was dismissed, almost instantly, by the Director of the Department of Security says volumes about your attitude to racism.  You simply are not taking this complaint of racism seriously and we emphatically object.
We also believe that Dr Sa’di’s treatment by Ben-Gurion University is very typical of a wide range of experiences of racist encounters made by Palestinian citizens of Israel, in their face to face, day in and day out confrontations with your security.  This makes life near impossible for many Palestinian academics teaching for Israeli institutions.  It also makes travel to international conferences difficult.  Academics moving in and out of other Israeli institutions have similar experiences to those of Dr Sa’di’s.  It is this that we find so appalling.  It dehumanises those who do some of the very best work.

We call on Ben-Gurion University to take measures preventing further harassment of Dr Sa’di and we hope you realise that such racist treatment and the lack of any serious redress by senior management at Ben-Gurion seriously damages the reputation of your institution and offends the international family of academics to the core.

Sincerely,

Signed by

Professor Avi Shlaim, Oxford University, UK
Professor Nur Masalha, St Mary’s University College, UK
Dr Ronit Lentin, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland
Dr Paul Kelemen, University of Manchester, UK
Keith Hammond, Glasgow University, Scotland
Professor Nira Yuval-Davis, University of East London, UK
Professor Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University, New York, US
Professor Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA, US
Dr Nadje Al-Ali, SOAS, University of London, UK
Professor Ilan Pappe, Exeter University, UK
Professor Elia Zureik, Queen’s University, Canada
Dr Laleh Khalili, SOAS, University of London, UK
Dr Stephanie Cronin, Oxford University, UK
Professor Mary Grey, St Mary’s University College, UK