Racist?

According to a report in today's Irish Examiner, parts of the post-primary education system are 'institutionally racist'. This is the the finding of a Trinity College Master's Degree Student. First of all, I'm not sure why a student's thesis is news. I don't remember any news coverage when I "published" my thesis in 1992 nor did any of my classmates' theses make headlines. But, whatever.

Let's look at Joe O'Brien's thesis. "The research was carried out among 18 teacher educators from five university education departments". So, what we have (and all we have) are the views of 18 college lecturers. No immigrants themselves seem to have been part of this. Here's what 9 of those lecturers identified as evidence of institutional racism:

• A limited view of Irish identity in the curriculum.
• A predominantly Christian influence in schools.
• Inadequate English language provision to non-Irish students.
• The compulsory study of Irish language.
• A lack of support for the mother tongue of students.

Now, where in any of these is there any "racism"? Okay, possibly in the first item, but after that? The Christian influence? What? I see loads of Nigerians and Filipinos at Mass every Sunday. If anything, the Christian influence acts as a brake on racism.

Inadequate English language provision? Lack of support for the mother tongue of students? The compulsory study of Irish? Surely Latvians, Poles, Romanians, Spaniards and other "white" non-nationals face these same difficulties.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not really trying to get on Mr. O'Brien's case. I haven't actually seen his paper. My problem is with the Examiner. Shouldn't they be a little more cautious when tossing around words like "racist"? I don't think there's any doubt that Ireland is only really coming to grips with the influx of non-nationals. I'm sure the education system is struggling a bit. But, institutional racism? Gimme a break. A student, 18 lecturers and possibly an agenda is a pretty flimsy basis for such a charge.