Training for those involved in developing racist reporting system in Sligo under EU Peace III initiative.

1. Dr Alan Bruce
Universal Learning Systems – Dublin
Sligo
3 September 2013

2. To provide a training program in key themes and
issues in diversity management to support personal
and professional competence in dealing confidently
with human and social difference in contexts of
recording and referring racist incidents.
Outline of cultural, socio-economic and diversity issues
Analysis of diversity management issues and strategies in
contexts of changing societies
Analysis of best practice in understanding and dealing with
prejudice and discrimination

3.  Background to equality and diversity in contemporary
society
 Conflict, communications and culture
 Legal, social and economic dimensions of inequality
 Changing nature of Irish society
 Learning needs in a changing environment
 Description of origin and nature of racism
 Learning and applying interculturalism
 Diversity as springboard for innovation and collaboration
 Developing knowledge and practice
 From legal obligation to innovative advantage

4. • Self-awareness on bias, stereotypes,
discrimination and prejudices about diverse groups
• Understanding key elements in human difference
• Cross cultural communications
• Interculturalism and institutional discrimination
• Diversity competence and dealing with racism
• Organizational culture: equal opportunities
• Techniques and methods in managing diversity
• Engaging with diversity – specific recording,
analytical and advocacy issues

5.  Conceptual backgrounds
 Contours of change
 Interculturalism and the Other
 Understanding diversity
 Shaping required competencies
 Engaging with rights - best practice

6.  Biological origins
 Evident differences – inherent rank
 Stratification and assumptions
 Scientific racism – eugenics
 Hierarchy: superior and inferior
 Stereotypical portrayal
 Xenophobia; supremacism; segregation
 Institutional racism

7.  Francis Galton (1822-1911): eugenics and
degeneration
 Social darwinism and Spengler: degraded
jazz and negro dancing
 Gobineau (1855): race and inequality
 Lapouge (1854-1936): Aryans-Caucasians
 Madison Grant (1916): basis for Immigration
Act (1924)
 Human zoos and Nazis

15. What is the evidence for racism in Ireland?

16.  Globalization
process and impact
 Labour market and work
innovation, competitiveness, adaptability
 Paradigms of inclusion
equality and diversity
 Standards, skills, transferability and inclusion
learning and development in unequal environments

17.  Seismic shift in human relationships
 Competitive pressures
 New forms of work organization
 New diversities
 Instant, multidimensional communications
 Quality standards

18.  Patterns of constant change
 Permanent migration mobility
 Identity and threat: where are we?
 Threat and reaction to threat
 End of welfare: demographic time-bombs
 Knowledge, innovation and democratic deficit
 Structural inequalities

19.  Rights of Man: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
 Thematic mythologies - social inclusion
and mainstreaming
 Legacies of struggle
 Hidden pasts:
colonialism, fascism, exterminism

20.  Constitutional rights:
Life, Liberty,the Pursuit of Happiness
 All men are created equal… but…
 Final frontiers: immigration, assimilation, success,
opportunity
 Hidden poisons - slavery, race, eugenics
 Back to the future -
Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo… and Arizona

21.  Persistence and increase in inequality
 Permanent hopelessness of excluded
 Embedded violence
 Internal underclass
 Invisibility and ethnic difference

22. What are the key factors in Irish society that
drive social change?

23.  Rate of change
 Rural to urban > Boom to bust
 Monocultural stereotypes
 Inward migration and new demographics
 Re-defined Irishness
 International standards and ethics

24.  Interaction
 Empathy
 Communication
 Knowledge
 Removal of prejudice
 Linked themes: gender, power, violence,
values

25.  Permit exchange
 Greater knowledge
 Presumed growth in tolerance,
acceptance, non-discrimination
 Enhanced learning

26. Vladimir Spidla (9.6.08)
 Promoting tolerance not enough
 Racism requires policies on diversity, laws,
anti-discrimination measures
 Ongoing issues around cost implications,
ambiguities, resistance, rights

27.  Agreed definition of multicultural
 Adjustment and accommodation
 Melting pot or mosaic
 Separate development
 Beliefs, values and practices
 Symbols, language and behaviour

28.  Radical re-structuring of world economy
 Interconnected information/communication
 Differential access to resources
 Professional competence
 Dealing with transformational change
 Ensuring recognition and respect

29.  Mutual interaction or structured exclusion?
 Community values or communal rituals?
 Linkage to realities or past models?
 Shared memories or shared hatreds?

30. What should an intercultural Ireland look like?
How can this be constructed?

31.  New frameworks of social difference
 Classical formulations
 Challenges and conflict
 Integration or assimilation
 Discovery and engagement

33.  Abandoning
 Arriving
 Applying
 Adapting

34. Attitudes
Prejudice
Stereotypes
Discrimination
Harassment

35. Attitudes
 Organized through experience
 Shaped by background
 Enduring disposition towards
people/objects/events
 Exerts dynamic influence
 May be both negative and positive
 Not permanent - can be changed

36. Stereotypes
 Pre-established expectation about
individual or group
 Mental shortcut
 Sees all within a group as the same
 In-group and out-group
 Affects perceiver and perceived

37. Prejudice
 Negative attitude based on perception of group
membership
 Inflexible
 Learned through socialization
 Ignorant - but not illegal

38.  Ridicule
 Avoidance
 Discrimination
 Physical attack
 Extermination

39. Stories of prejudice from your personal
experience

40.  Integrating in civil society
 Paramount importance of labour market
 Citizenship
 Language competence
 Multi-agency partnerships

41.  Managing diversity - the discipline
 US origins
 Principles involved
 Avoiding conflict
 Achieving integration
 Deriving mutual benefit

42.  Diversity vs. equality
 Role of legislation
 Relationship to community
 Justice and enforcement
 Tokenism and surface approaches
 Ascertaining facts

43.  Interculturalism training
 Disability awareness competence
 Mentoring: diversity champions
 Researched best practice: reviewed
 Linguistic skills
 Comfort with difference: trust
 Contact and observational listening

44. What is our role in developing trust?
What is our role in developing shred
communication?
What is advocacy? How do we act as
advocates? Should we act as advocates?

45.  New issues - new opportunities
 Applied learning and research
 Active partnership with diverse communities
 Impact of integration will produce change - plan and
prepare
 How do we record incidents?
 How do we understand what we record?
 Can we be objective?
 What happens to our records?
 Why do we record?

46.  Valued diversity
 Democratic engagement
 Community empowerment
 Mutual benefit
 Legislative underpinning
 From tolerance to recognition
 Shared learning
 Acknowledged pasts - shared futures

47.  Challenging norms - what is indigenous culture?
 Challenging stereotypes
 Talent, competence and communicative empathy
 Engagement with difference
 Embedded vision
 Recognition - seeing the Other
seeing ourselves

48. Dr Alan Bruce
ULS
Dublin
abruce@ulsystems.com