Deborah Somorin moved from Nigeria to Naas when she was ten years old.

Growing up, she faced homelessness, a teenage pregnancy and the loss of her mother to suicide.

Now she's helping disadvantaged students succeed with Empower the Family, which is an approved housing body.

This week Deborah posted on LinkedIn saying:

Like every black person in Ireland, I’m battling with a lot of different emotions right now – explain how you’re feeling and why…

What I’ve learned to date is you can’t force people to listen or to choose to do the right thing. But, thankfully the people who want to listen and want to do the right thing, outnumber those that don’t – what does she mean by this?

 I don’t know what moving forward looks like but I do know that systemic racial inequality isn’t an issue unique to the US.

Deborah recommended that people find out more about this issue and educate themselves on whats happening in Ireland - For those that want to listen and be educated on systemic racial oppression in Ireland, I’ve linked to an academic paper from Dr. Ebun Joseph. She teaches Black Studies at University College Dublin. Dr Ebun is genuinely one of my favourite people on the planet

Deborah joined Mario for Mario's Sunday Roast, you can catch their full chat by pressing the play button below.

[audio mp3="https://media.radiocms.net/uploads/2020/06/11174246/Deborah-MSR.mp3"][/audio]