At an institutional level they are forced to sign on at different times to the rest of the population and in Dublin all Travellers who claim Supplementary Welfare have to do so in one separate health centre, Castle Street, whether they live in Bray or Balbriggan. Officially this is done to provide them with a service that respects their nomadic culture. In reality nothing could be further from the truth, which is that it is done in order to discriminate against them more efficiently. At school many Traveller children are taught in totally segregated classes which cater for Traveller children of all ages in the one class. 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.