ACTIVITIES AND ACTIONS FOR STUDENTS AND YOUTH GROUPS

Set up a Media Watchdog Group
Using members of your class or youth-group set up a media-watch organisation to monitor your local media for evidence of racism.

It's easier to spot outright racism but watch closely for those journalists who may seem moderate at first glance but actually perpetuate society's racist attitudes.

Use the NUJ Guidelines on Race Reporting as your reference. If you find evidence of racist coverage, ensure that your group takes appropriate measures to counter it.

Write to the editor of the paper complaining about the coverage. Try to ensure that the paper publishes a response from members of organisations representing the minority ethnic group in question.

Arrange a discussion in your class or club between the journalist and spokespeople for the concerned minority ethnic group.

Design an Advertising Campaign
Set up small groups in your class or club each of which represents an advertising agency which has been hired by a minority ethnic group in Irish society. Allocate a time for each group to design a campaign to persuade the public of:

• the evils of racism
• the danger of stereotypes
• the need for change

Your campaign should include posters and print ads.

Remember the concerned groups are looking for rights and equality, not sympathy and pity.

Have each group present its campaign and discuss whether it has achieved its objective; does it lead people to commit themselves to equality?

Establish a Traveller's Rights Group
Together with members of your class or club, set up a Travellers Rights Group. Contact members of Traveller organisations and arrange discussions with them. Listen to the problems faced by the Traveller community in Ireland and look for areas where your group can be of support. Although there may be many areas of concern, remember it is much more effective if your group concentrates on one issue at a time. Local Traveller organisations will help you identify the most pressing issues.

Once you have focused in on a set of demands, start to lobby.

• Contact your local county council
• Write to TDs
• Help raise public awareness by encouraging your local media to highlight the issue

Once you have achieved progress in one area, focus your group's attention on the next area of pressing concern as identified by the Traveller organisation.

Organise a "Racism Out" project
Make contact with a range of minority ethnic groups to hear their ideas about how to make your school or club anti-racist.

Find out what your school plan has to say about racism and minority ethnic groups. See if there is anything anti-racist about your classroom or what you are learning.

Creative Activities
Take some incidents from Gene Kerrigan's article. Write them up as a five minute sketch and act them out.
OR: just set the situation, and improvise - make up the dialogue and action as you go along. (Note: if you're improvising, make sure you know exactly what's happened and what you've got to do before you start.)

For example:
1. The scene in Dublin Airport when the Algerian Madani Haouanoh is stopped by an immigration officer with his friend who has given him a lift from France in his plane. (Note: Switch to women characters if you like)

2. One person is an Irish Immigration officer in Heathrow. The other person is the deportee he's detailed to put on a plane back to Algeria. You're sitting side by side. What do you talk about? The deportee wants to get his deportation stopped. The immigration officer wants to carry out his duties to the best of his ability. (Note: Switch to two women if you like. Same situation applies)

Pick some other situations from the same article and write a five-minute sketch about it. Act out the sketch.
OR: set the situation and improvise the action and dialogue (take care to nail down the situations very specifically and give each character a specific aim he/she wants to achieve in the situation).

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