The issue of racism has reared its ugly head as it recently made news headlines. The conviction of Stephen Lawrence’s killers gave us a sinister reminder of the worst consequences of racism. Just as with the brutal murder of Toyosi Shittabey in 2010, we must use these incidents as a wake-up call to stamp out the possibility of such horrific tragedies happening.
In July, French president Nicolas Sarkozy began a blatantly racist policy of systematic deportation of Roma people residing in France. So far over 1,200 have been deported. A leaked memo from the French interior ministry confirms the racist nature of this policy, telling police chiefs to “begin a systematic dismantling of the illegal camps, particularly those of the Roma”.
The week of a college referendum on whether or not the Students' Union should support gay marriage has seen hundreds of NUI Galway students take a stand against anti-LGBTQ bigotry and fear-mongering. Last Wednesday, hundreds of students crowded around an anti-gay marriage stall set up on the main campus canteen, standing there for hours and showing the homophobic campaigners behind the display that they weren't welcome in the college.