‘It restored my hope’: how community action is confronting racism in Belfast

An initiative linking people across race, class and faith offers an antidote to silence, hate and growing division

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As a black woman in Northern Ireland, Maureen Hamblin knows that racism comes in many forms. “It’s not just the smashing in of shop windows,” she says. “It can be quiet, it can be silent.”

Bystanders who hear racist remarks and remain mute, as if oblivious, amplify the hurt and leave victims feeling alone and isolated, a recurring experience that left Hamblin drained. “There was a time when I’d lost a lot of faith in white people, in white men.”