Anti-Black Racism: Afrophobia, exclusion and global racisms

In 2013, the United Nations established the International Decade for People of African Descent (resolution 68/237) to provide a framework within which the United Nations, Member States, civil society and other relevant actors can work with people identified as Black to identify and address problems of recognition, justice and development. The emerging policy literature around this approach has adopted the term ‘Afrophobia’ to cover all forms of anti-blackness, meaning hostility and discrimination towards people identified as Black, including in housing, education, healthcare, policy, as well as characterising experiences of violence and harassment1. Hate crimes are a key concern within the justice strand of intergovernmental organisations’ activities, with significantly different institutional responses by country. OSCE and EU Fundamental Rights Agency data has repeatedly shown that rates of hate crime victimisation were significantly higher for people identified as Black than for most other groups (Thompson, 2015). These correspond to widespread discrimination against this group (Michael, 2015; ENAR, 2016). This chapter describes and explores the experiences of hostility faced by people of African descent in the Republic of Ireland today, drawing particular attention to their experiences of hate crimes, policing and police responses to racist victimisation, and the roles of perpetrators and bystanders insofar as they are documented in racist incident reports.