New Kid on the Black: an immigrant woman of colour transforming ethnic conflicts in Ireland

No Thumbnail Available
Date
2020
Authors
TATIANA DOS SANTOS
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Racism, Afrophobia and ethnic conflicts are aspects of the contemporary society, affecting the socalled “minority” groups (even when those groups majority in their territories). In many contexts, those phenomenons are related to historical events such as colonization, the emergence of Capitalism and territorial invasions. It is has been claimed that, having experienced the anti-Irish sentiment, the Irish society would be incapable to be racist. However, from Asylum Seekers deportations to questions like “where are you really from?”, the manifestations of Afrophobia do occur in a daily basis. Having experienced racism throughout life, my perception on that type of discrimination allows me, as researcher, to assess in which extent the ethnic conflicts affect Irish society. To be able to investigate in a neutral, independent manner, the method utilized is the Autoethnography, allowing the researcher to be part of the object to be studied. Having as hypothesis that the presence of those conflicts are considerable, but undermined, this project presents, in its objectives, a Conflict Transformation session as an experiment. Besides, a second objective is evaluating the effects of racism on people of colour and black people in Ireland. Said that, the aim set is to investigate in which extent the Conflict Transformation method of Alternative Dispute Resolution is effective when it comes to raise awareness on the subject – hence attenuating the present and imminent ethnic conflicts in Ireland. Based on primary and second data, the present work evaluates the myth that Ireland is a “racism-free” country. Nevertheless, mainly in terms of non-intended, covert racism, the principles of Conflict Transformation (such as creation of a safe, non-judgemental zone, analysis of power, non-violent communication and appreciation of diversity) proved to be an effective tool to break the taboo and raise awareness about the problem.
Description
Thesis
Keywords
Citation
DOS SANTOS, 2020