Some notorious schools have gone so far as to paint a white line down the middle of the playground and Traveller children are not allowed to cross over it. Racism is a particular form of domination, exploitation and exclusion. Racism against Travellers and Gypsies is rooted in an ideology of sedentarist superiority. This is the belief that the settled person's way of life is the modern norm and that nomadism is a throwback to less civilised times. Nomadic people also pose a threat to the values of property ownership and the accumulation of possessions.
Racism involves power domination by one group over the other.
The effects of this racism and exclusion can be graphically seen in the health statistics of the Traveller population. Traveller infants have three times the infant mortality rate of the settled population. Traveller women have a life expectancy that is fifteen years less than their settled counterparts and Traveller mens' life expectancy is ten years less than settled mens'. They don't fare any better educationally. In 1993 only a handful of Traveller children, about 50 nationwide, have made it into second level education and there are still only three Travellers nationwide who have completed a third level course.