Racism; How We View Each Other

by Nyasha Mhandu

Race for not simply the colour of a person’s skin, it is all things cultural combined that make someone who they are. Where are you from? Where were you born? Where do you live? Innocent questions that I will live with for the rest of my life, when I am in Ireland I am not fully Irish but when I am in Zimbabwe I am not fully Zimbabwean so how do I identify myself? The development of technology has had an increasing effect on migration all over the world and the lines are blurring between who is of this and that race. Ireland as a small society has only began to experience multiculturalism in the last 25 years especially in Dublin although there is still major racial issues evident. The new generation of Irish is not the stereotypical red haired freckled Niamh and Eoin, I know Liam and Nathan born to fully Zimbabwean parents who may never get the chance to see Zimbabwe now that most of their relatives are spread around the world so where are they really from? Being racist or not racist does does not directly imply the dislike of another person because of their race but in our everyday manner and respect for other people. Words such as ‘chink’ ‘paki’ and foreigner itself are wrongly embedded into Irish colloquialism and the negative association with them mirrors an unwelcoming society. Although many of us don’t admit it there is an element of racism in all of us in that when we see someone who is of  a certain who sounds or dresses a certain we confine them to a box of stereotypical mannerisms.

‘Do they walk their dogs?’ ‘Do they have blonde hair’ I distinctly remember asking my dad on the phone before I moved to Ireland, this was my perception of varungu the Zimbabwean term for white people. To 12 year old me if you weren’t black you were white and I was going to live in a country with white people racial diversity was not a notion I had thought of before. I had mostly seen white people on the television prior to the big move and as I look at my attitude back then there I had been raised with an embedded superiority of white skin over black skin. This racial superiority is not something only common in Zimbabwe as I noticed it during the time I spent in Thailand. When the volunteers introduced themselves we all had to share where we are from and I would introduce myself as being from Ireland and so would another pale red head girl I had worked with and there would be a common muddled look on the children’s faces. As I worked mostly with children I noticed a lot of them instantly attracted to spending more time with my white colleagues where as it took them some time to relate to me. However as time developed one of the children got comfortable enough to really get to know the difference she touched my hair skin eyelashes and compared them to hers and I felt satisfied we all equal we really were.

The widespread consensus that has been highly encouraged by the media is very much of a whitewashed society, in black communities there is a significant amount of effort put into having long straight hair or lack of appreciation for very dark skin. I myself have been subject to this as a young black woman I have seen myself making a lot of effort to fit in by getting a very long weave instead of braids just so I can have the same silky smooth hair as all my friends. The older I get the more aware of this I am and it is in my best interest to love myself as I am afro and all. Racial stereotypes about black people that have indirectly affected me include the stereotyping of black people loving chicken or being seen as loud. Growing up in a predominantly white society made it significantly more difficult for me to accept my awkward puberty phase, I grew hips and a bum a lot faster and bigger than the majority of my peers. The body shape I developed is the same as that of my mother and my aunty but I cannot say it is that of all black women. It is only since Hollywood has accepted the current trend of a big bum not being ridiculed and associated with being fat I see people commenting on my figure in a positive manner.

Prior to writing this blog I had not fallen victim to any comments I would have found deeply hurtful however on St Patrick’s Day this year a comment made by a homeless man on Henry Street really hit home for me. Walking out of work with my colleagues he struck up conversation about the violence and noise and immediately he turned to question me about ‘the likes of you’ and why we like fighting. Although the comments were not taken personally it is the fact that no matter how hard I strive to be a better version of myself to someone else my melanin levels will always be more important than my contribution to society that always play on the mind.

Racsim ; Learning from Living

by Hannah Church

When I first sat down to write this post, I struggled. I didn’t know what I could bring to the cultural diversity and the media discussion. I don’t know what wisdom I have to impart on the topic. All I can give is what I’ve learned from life and growing up in the world I have. I feel that the best education a person can get comes mainly from experience. If you have a bad experience in a restaurant you’re not likely to return or give it a good review. If you go to a film and absolutely love it you’ll rave about it to your friends and encourage them to see it as soon as you can. And what about people? If you have a negative encounter with a person, you react. Some fight back, some take note to avoid in the future and most recount their experience to friends. This can often affect the friends’ judgement regardless of whether or not they’ve had their own encounter. This could be a far too confusing and convoluted analogy of how I believe media representation of different cultures can work. I don’t agree that traditional media is the best place to learn of other cultures. It can narrow our minds. With the introduction of new media however, there has been a new sort of revolution in the way people of all different cultures are exemplified and represent themselves and show their lives and struggles. We can be exposed to so much more now than we ever had been before. Our minds can broaden and so can our attitudes.

            I’m a twenty year old college student with no real worries or stress other than what I’m going to do once I’ve graduated. I’ve had it relatively easy. I’ve lived a sheltered, happy life and I, unfortunately, have not had many life changing or mind blowing experiences of different cultures. Other than visiting a few European countries every now and then on a family holiday, I’ve never travelled anywhere than takes more than four or five hours on a plane to get to. So I can’t actually regale you with any stories of my travels and the cultural education I’ve gained from each trip. All I have to offer what awareness I’ve developed over time of different cultures and how they can be represented or misrepresented and the obstacles that are still hindering a culturally diverse and developed world.

Living in my sheltered existence meant that many of my cultural experiences, outside of what I’d encountered on a few family holidays, came from outside sources. Mainly the media. The media nowadays is a regular form of education. We get our news and current affairs, our Information on people, places and events, and it can help to expand our knowledge and broaden our minds. Traditional print media and television can help in our education of the world. However, it can also end up interfering in our view on certain cultures. I watched a lot of television as a child. I would watch shows and cartoons on Nickelodeon, I would rent every Disney movie I could and I would love every minute. This is where my cultural knowledge started. Or lack thereof. The most popular shows at the time, and probably most impactful, were the American shows. I would notice small messages here and there within the shows. For example, all Asians are smart or nerdy or high achieving and not very social. Or all African Americans are cool or trouble makers. I would later learn that this was stereotyping and how damaging it is. We were fed closed minded messages like this so often. It’s really troubling how much of this stereotypical content is in children’s television.   I’ve never had to really face racism in my life. My only experience was in second class in primary school, I wouldn’t share my crayons with a class mate so she called me a racist. I remember getting incredibly offended, even though I didn’t fully comprehend what she meant, and I quickly assured her that she was wrong and actually I wasn’t sharing my crayons with anyone. After that day I stopped bringing in any crayons because I’d rather avoid the drama. I grew up not understanding racism until it was discussed in school. We were told in history class about the racism experienced by the Irish by the British. We learned about the atrocities Africans Americans were subjected to for centuries. We read roll of Thunder Hear My Cry as a class to teach us how wrong racism is and what it did to families and entire cultures. Though we knew that racism hadn’t suddenly become extinct it was easy to feel that it had only really happened in the past. To believe it happened when people were less civilised, when they didn’t know as much or understand empathy like we did today. “That was ages ago”, we could reassure ourselves. Having been exposed to the internet I can see that the world did not fix itself in the way we had been led to believe.

Through the internet we can be exposed to so many harsh truths. Not everyone has grown up with the same sense of what is right and what is wrong that I have. We can now see through YouTube, social media, bloggers and online news outlets racism is still out there. More so than we’d like to think. Scrolling through comments sections on videos or articles it is common place now to see at least one or two racist remarks. A simple YouTube search will bring you page upon page of videos with someone sharing their experiences with racism or even videos containing racist content. It’s eye opening. I am a particularly empathetic person, you cry, I cry. So consuming this content can be hard. But I’ve learned so much more about what is really happening in the real world than I had before.

With the introduction of this new media I feel like the conversation about racism, cultural diversity and identity has really taken off. Because though there can be some dispiriting content out there, there is also an army of people who are ready to defend and speak out and fight against the way things are. For example, the tragic cases recently of the shooting of Mike Brown and the death of Eric Garner in America were covered extensively online. Thousands of people came out in protest of the racist treatment of these men, showing their support in so many ways through social media. Stories like this may not have had as much coverage and may not have had a chance to gain as much support as they did if it had been left to traditional media to decide what story takes preference. With social media and new media the story, the issue and the outrage could all be heard clearly.

I believe that a culturally diverse and accepting world is so much more obtainable now with new media. There are so many incredibly intelligent and broadminded people from every corner of the globe ready to give support, speak out and defend themselves and others against oppression, racism and cultural ignorance. There are so many people ready to learn more than what traditional media has told them to be true. There are also people who will abuse their right to freedom of speech and will offend and insult and attack the developed and diverse mind-set. But it is important to know that there are people like that out there, and not just naively believe when your teachers tell you that racism was in the past. This is the only way we can continue learning and growing and fighting for a diverse, accepting future. 

A World of Cultural Diversity

by Adam Halpin

Ireland is not the most diverse of nations, with less than 5 per cent of the population being of an ethnic origin other than white. As a result, one would expect a low level of discrimination and racism. In my opinion, while racism in the sense of colour is not a massive problem in Ireland, there seems to be a lot of discrimination based on origin. I find that people often comment and complain when they hear an accent from overseas as they immediately associate that accent with preconceived notions of a particular nation. These generalisations need to stop and as a nation we need to become more open and accepting, we are not all the same, but we are all human and share many similarities. I’m glad to say that I haven’t witnessed many racist acts in Ireland, but unfortunately they do happen and are mostly based on traditional stereotypes.

To be honest I feel that overall Ireland is a very welcoming country and most people will treat people with culturally diverse backgrounds in a respectable manner. In my opinion, most racism in the world can be dealt with through education, as once people know more of the world and its people they will be less likely to discriminate against those from elsewhere. Currently Ireland seems to have a system of cultural integration in that immigrants tend to respect the cultures and traditions of Ireland while keeping their own beliefs, cultures and traditions, as opposed to cultural assimilation which sees national identity forced upon all citizens. While at the outset, a clear national identity may seem favourable, in some cases it may result in negative outcomes, for example in France, where cultural assimilation has led to many racist attacks in the past. The first extreme case of racism that I have encountered occurred in France when I was 16 as part of a cultural exchange program in Transition Year. My exchange student had racist views, believing that all black people and “Arabs” were thieves who wanted to take over France. While comments such as that were disturbing, I was even more shocked when he told me to put my hands in my pockets whenever anyone that wasn’t white passed us. Attitudes like this need to disappear and can only do so if cultural diversity is respected and accepted. If that experience taught me anything, it is that as world citizens we need to be open to different cultures and look at what makes us similar rather than what sets us apart.

Last summer, I worked in Orlando, Florida in the United States as part of a J 1 programme and was pleasantly surprised to see how well racism is dealt with in America. While on the outside America may seem similar to Ireland, it is a much more culturally diverse nation and has often been seen as a melting pot of culture as all cultures tend to exist together. This was particularly evident to me when an African American colleague jokingly asked me if black people existed in Ireland. My immediate response was that they did exist in Ireland, but not as they do in America, as I would consider most black people in Ireland as Irish. Whether or not this is a good thing I do not know, but I do find it very interesting that  cultural diversity is treated differently in different parts of the world. I find America particularly interesting in how it treats multiculturalism. Minority or ethnic groups are established, e.g. Italian American, Irish American, Asian American and African American which differentiates these groups from the rest of the population. As a result, the majority of these groups keep traditions from their place of origin, often creating their own communities which led to the development of ghettos or “China-town” like areas where people of the same ethnic origin live together. While these minorities may be accepted now, it has taken a long time for America to overcome discrimination and it is still a work in progress, with racism still occurring in some areas.

It is difficult to say whether integration or a “melting pot” can deal with multiculturalism adequately, as there are even more ways that other nations have dealt with cultural diversity. While the melting pot of the United States celebrates the different cultures of American citizens it also creates minority groups, which separates them from the wider society, in a way alienating them. On the other hand, cultural integration also has its issues in that people are forced to let their heritage become more refined in order to respect the national traditions of the new country.  As a result it’s hard to say if either is suitable for a world without racism, but a mixture of both could allow ethnic cultures to better blend in with mainstream culture.

It may take a long time for racism to vanish, but in my opinion, Ireland has already taken small steps which could be built upon. In general people need to become more informed, whether this is through school or public information campaigns, everyone needs to be encouraged to be more open in their outlook of the world and its people. It is clear that people may have established judgements which may negatively influence their actions. However, if people know more about different cultures, they may be less likely to make racist comments or attack people out of discrimination. A recent experience which has allowed me to see the similarities of cultures was last week, when I visited a mosque for a college assignment. During this visit it became clear to me that Islamic beliefs are not that different from Christian or Jewish beliefs with many more similarities than differences. I found this particularly surprising with the amount of violence cause by Islamic extremists which shows that even minor differences can cause disruption. These differences really shouldn’t separate the world, but unfortunately they do. In my opinion if we all embrace our similarities rather than differences we may be one step closer to a world without racism.

That Was Then, This Is Now

by Anonymous

My story begins in 1988. The new wave of mass emigration from Ireland in the 1980s was a different animal altogether. Emigration was most concentrated at two ends of the class/education/wealth spectrum. Unskilled and semi-skilled workers were still leaving in droves and I was one of them.

 “The world is your oyster”, my mammy said. I had just been for a second interview as a trainee manager within the hotel industry and had been successfully. Out of the 350 people from around Ireland who applied for the job only 35 people were selected and I was one of them. I couldn’t believe it I had got the job. My whole family were so excited. I was going to Las Vegas. Although I was very excited myself, I was also a bit apprehensive as I had never been outside Ireland before and I could sense from my mam and dad, while they were happy for me they were nervous about the idea too. But they knew that opportunities like this only came once in a life time. Not only did I have a very good relationship with my parents but I was also daddy’s little girl out of the 5 children my daddy doted on me the most.

The day came for me to set off on my adventure and all my family came to the airport to see me off. I remember in particular my dad holding me in an embrace so tight I thought I was going to faint. “You take care now and be safe I love you Catherine”, he said.  My heart was breaking and I cried tears of joy and sadness.

I arrived in Las Vegas dumb struck. The place was amazing everywhere was opened 24 hours, nowhere shut. The strip at night was lit up like a great big disco ball it was fantastic. After two weeks of orientation and training we were all given our shifts to work in the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. I had made a lot of friends and when we had time off we would go out and about exploring all the different casinos in Las Vegas. It was all so incredible and wonderful. Life couldn’t have been better!

Then one night while a few friends and I were out in a bar having a few drinks and listening to the band that was playing. I noticed the guy that was playing the saxophone; he was so handsome all my friends thought so too. We both exchanged glances and before the end of the night we were laughing and talking about everything and anything, we hit it off real well his name was Kenny. Life had just got better!

Everything was fantastic I and Kenny were going strong and I had told my parents about him too. They were so happy for me especially my daddy and he said that he couldn’t wait to meet him. My work visa had finished and I had to return home to Ireland. I was devastated on having to leave Kenny and he felt the same way too. We decided that we would have a long distance relationship as neither of us wanted to be without the other. Kenny had promised to come to Ireland to visit and I had promised that I would also go back to America on holidays.

After lots of tears and hugs I took out some of the photos I had taken and was showing them to my family. Then within that one second of having my life complete my whole world was turned upside down “Jeysus he’s black” my sister shouted. My dad grabbed the photo and I seen the look of disgust and disappointment in his face as he inspected it. “No Niger will ever step foot in my home and I will certainly not allow any daughter of mine to be seen with one” and he stomped out of the room. Silence fell around the room. My mother asked why I had not told them and I said that I didn’t think that it was relevant. I loved him no matter of his colour race or religion. And I was going to continue to be with him

The day came for Kenny to arrive. I met him at the airport and the love that we had for each other was even stronger than before. He knew that there was something wrong and asked me what was bothering me. The gut feeling I had in my stomach was wrenching I felt like I was going to vomit I broke down in tears “my father is racist” I said. I had never known this before and I had never even spoken the word before, it was all too much. “Don’t worry darling we will stay in a hotel”, Kenny said, because we had decided initially to stay with my parents. When I told my father he told me that if I stayed with him in the hotel that I was not welcome in this house again.

Having to choose between the two men in my life that I loved the most was the most difficult thing I had to do. I had never thought before now, that love could be so difficult, hard unfair and racist. I naively thought that love was equal and just among all.

We spent the next two weeks in a hotel in Dublin and Kenny did not meet any of my family as my father had forbidden it. Although I brushed this aside for the sake of Kenny there were many other incidents that occurred during his visit to Ireland that made me realise how negative people were on accepting people from other countries, and cultures into their society.

Besides all the looks and slide remarks that we got when we were out together it didn’t have any hindrance on our love for one another. One example of theses was when we were walking down O’ Connell street and two white Irish lads made a comment, saying” isn’t your own good enough for you love” my reply was “well not if there like you ignorant f….”. I was not only shocked at their racist remarks but with my own reply as I would never have talked in that way to anyone. My blood was boiling, I was outraged not only because of what the two lads had said but also because of the feelings I felt towards them I didn’t hate those two lads but I certainly didn’t like them either. This was not my character I couldn’t understand it. I’d never had such bad feelings towards anyone in my life before. 

Kenny told me although he had experienced racism before and the majority of the time it didn’t bother him he said that he felt like he was living in a time warp and that Ireland had a long way to go before we could accept that all people are the same no matter what colour, race or religion they are. That was 25 years ago and although our relationship ended because we lived so far away from each other, we still remained friends.

Kenny was the first black person I had ever met. Back in Ireland in the 1980s if you walked down O’Connell street and seen a Chinese, Japanese or black person (which was quite rare) you automatically thought that they were on holidays. Now over 500,000 foreign nationals are calling Ireland home. We have come a long way but we still have a long way to go. Even though we live in a society were multiculturalism, globalisation and cultural diversity is more customary, there will always be those slide remarks, presumptions and in cases violent behaviours that need to be overcome.

As for my father, he is now more aware of not how different people are but how different we can be in realising that we are all the same no matter of race, creed or colour.

Racism in Ireland; An Angled View Through Real Life Encounters

By John Mc Cormack

Racism was something that I once had only heard of. To me it was something portrayed on TV and in movies that how showed African Americans were once treated in America.  As a child and a teenager I believed that these encounters of racism towards blacks, often very inhumane treatments, were records of the past, and were now displayed in a form of historical story-telling that brought tension and interest for the viewer.  Soon, topics of socialization during secondary level education brought to light the realities of racism, and that racist behaviour still existed. Until this point I had still not experienced any racial discrimination on a personal level, or witnessed it inflicted on anyone else.  Having experienced bullying to a large degree, I held a degree of empathy with the hurt that can be endured by the unnecessary treatment from one person to another because of how a person looks or where they come from. The one thing I did not understand was how and why people could possess the evil characteristics it takes to do this.

Years later I travelled overseas, open to accept the ways of other nations. In doing so, I also learned that the racism I once saw in movies and on TV did not only exist as an entertaining form of history, but in the shocking reality of the present.

Two memorable incidents on two distantly separated continents remain very clear. Although both were non-direct, and part of an opinionated conversation the mentality of the perpetrators to hatefully separate humans into very different categories in such a manner shocked me.

The first incident was in the U.S.A. where an employer was advising me where to find accommodation for the duration of my stay. I was advised not to buy or rent in a particular area because it was “full of n…”....” once they move into an area, they destroy it”. I questioned my employer’s view, only to receive the response that “when you live around them long enough you will know”. 

The second encounter happened in Australia, where another employer, angered by an employee not showing up said “Sure he’s only a dirty Abbo” When I also questioned this statement, the man replied “Yes, all Abbos, Aboriginals, are useless drunks, they’re primitive, they should be rounded up, given some land, fenced off, and let them live there, away from normal people, because they are not normal”.

 Although non-direct or physical, the incidents I described are clearly racial, and I use them because they were my initial encounters of very outgoing racist comments from people I knew at nearly opposite areas of the globe. In both incidents I found the people in question (victims) to be very likable and one remains a friend today.  

There is clearly racism, and discrimination joins it hand in hand. I believe both come in many forms and begin as a mind-set, progressing to a verbal stage (as the two examples) on to actions and physical behaviour. 

But is there racism in Ireland? Let me explain that in a very personal way. Discrimination falls under many categories, often not involving clear race/ethnic differences. I say this because the most outrageous and discriminating incidents I encountered were attacks on myself by fellow Irish men with enormous hatred towards me being from Dublin. The attacks were physical assaults, one causing grievous bodily harm, and the other causing property damage. Both were based on the fact that I was not from the area of Ireland where these attacks took place, and in both cases it was clearly stated that I was from Dublin and did not belong in these rural areas. ‘Jackeen’ and ‘Blow in’ are discriminative terms still used in rural areas of Ireland towards Dublin people or people not born in those particular areas.  Perhaps also here refer to the experiences of travellers? Who despite being of the same ethnicity/religion they are very much discriminated against perhaps in ways that parallel those of black Americans and Australian aborigines

The little country of beauty with some remaining primitive ways, still holding a reputation of being welcoming and friendly, may only hold valid to ‘money-spending’ tourists and certain nationalities.

In the same way that most of the world opened its doors to Irish immigrants to come and share their way of life, when Ireland became part of the E.U. it opened its doors to foreign nationals to come here share our way of life. But the famous Irish welcome may not have greeted all that came. While I did not witness any cases myself, I know there have been many cases of racist attacks due to their exposure in the media. I see good caused by the exposure of racial discrimination in Ireland and I feel there has been a certain amount of fear injected into the minds of members of the Irish public not to behave in a racist manner.

As mentioned at the start, my experience of bullying helped me empathize with the endurance of racism abroad, but now I have empathy towards people of a different race living in Ireland due to the experiences of hate I endured from fellow Irish. What I once had to travel to see, I shamefully see deeply ingrained in many of the people of my country of birth, Ireland.

Although racial acts may have decreased in Ireland, or at least that is what the media portrays, I feel that many Irish people possess the ability to hold a deep hate towards others who are not local. While I think it is great that many of the racist cases were addressed, I feel that discrimination, race based or not, need to be the main focus. I think every act that stems outside the norms of how society should treat each other, no matter who is the victim, needs to be treated for the crime it is.

Absolutely Fabulous? Absolutely Not!

by Anonymous

I was born and raised in Dublin until 1995 when my parents uprooted and moved the family to Amacao de Pera in Portugal, where I would spend the next twelve years of my life. Over there, my parents ran a successful restaurant and with that came long hours and what could have been a lonely childhood. However, I had my amazing older brother, Peter who is fabulously gay with clothes brighter than the sun. He’s amazing, always has been always will be. My week consisted of School, homework, church and the occasional swim, granted Peter would bring me. We used to do everything together just the two of us. Then Gustavo appeared on the scene. He was Peter’s boyfriend who was just as amazing he was. While my parents took care of the restaurant they took care of me.  Everywhere we went people loved them. Everyone in church knew them, my teachers frequently asked about them and my friends depended on them for fashion advice that was much needed at the time. These are the fondest memories I have from Portugal.

 

After twelve years there my father decided it was time to return home, much to my dismay. Little did I know that I was in for the biggest culture shock of my life. Upon arrival, I quickly learned of the prejudices that surround Irish culture. Walking through the airport we were getting odd looks and smart remarks none of which I got too upset about. One of the first prejudices I encountered was when I visited my Grandmother for the first time since I moved back. I was so excited to tell her all about Portugal and Gustavo and Peter. However, when I showed her pictures she let out an exasperated yelp and said ‘Oh, I didn’t realise my grandson was one of them.’ Those words still ring in my ear as it was the first time that I realised people saw my brother as different. He was classified as ‘them’ not ‘us’. It broke my heart. However, after the initial shock, I put it down to my grandmothers age and thought nothing more of it. However, over the coming weeks I began to notice a major difference in Peter. First it was his clothes. The bright colours and bold fashion statements were replaced with jeans and plain jumpers. He retrieved within himself and it got to a stage where his voice even changed to a toneless, arguably more ‘manly’ one. Suddenly, whenever I spoke about Portugal and what Peter and I did I was shushed. Gustavo, Peter’s boyfriend was known as ‘Emily’ Peter’s girlfriend to friends and extended family and everyone carried on as if it was normal. In school, I was judged when I told my ‘friends’ about my brother and his boyfriend. I was met with taunts with words I had never encountered in Portugal such as ‘queer’ which I had an extreme hatred of. Suddenly, my world was turned upside down. Something that I saw as normal was now a secret and to my understanding, in Ireland at least, was wrong. I couldn’t understand it. The entire meaning of being a homosexual was drastically different in Ireland, that was a mere two and a half hours away from Portugal. I soon learned to go along with my families lies and continued to refer to Gustavo as ‘Emily’ not because I was ashamed but because it was what peter wanted. I’m not sure what was worse, the fact that society in Ireland on a whole felt homosexuals were different or that Peter now felt like he was different.

 

It’s four years on now and not much has changed. Peter is now happily engaged to his fiance Ross however, I am the only one who knows. Peter is too ashamed to openly tell his family and friends and Ross is an entire different story. His family disowned his brother in 2009 for coming out and he is too afraid to tell his friends as he fears he will be seen differently in his profession.  

 

With all of these thoughts running through my mind, the secrets, the lies, the stares and the taunts something clicked in my head and my eyes were wide open to the extent of Ireland’s prejudices. I began to think, if this is how the Irish culture views Irish people from their own land based on their sexual orientation, what sort of discrimination do they place upon other races in this country? Was I discriminated against in Portugal? Was I seen as a foreigner that should ‘go back to their own country’? Everyday, everywhere I went I saw people from various ethnicities; African, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, French and an overwhelming feeling of disappointment came over me. All this time I had worried about my own experience that I neglected to see the racism that surrounds Ireland in everyday life. You wouldn’t have to sit long in an Irish pub before you heard someone complaining that ‘they took our jobs’ or ‘they should go back to their own country’. These comments are taken lightly everyday by the Irish, however how does it make people from those countries feel? People who consider Ireland a home are being constantly told that it isn’t and that they should go back to theirs. Racism in Ireland is a topic that I feel a lot of the population is ignorant of due to the light heartedness towards most comments made. It needs to change. United, we can make magic. If we keep letting our differences separate us, we will never progress.

 

Ireland, in my eyes has a long way to come with regards to LGBTA rights something that I feel very strongly about but we have even further to go to combat racism in this country. I do not understand how people from one socio cultural group think they have the right to deem another group different due to their own differences from them. I believe being different makes a difference and that is why I encourage anyone who is reading this to get out there and vote yes to marriage equality in the upcoming referendum. We can combat discrimination together, one step at a time.

The Irish Jewish Community: From the Holocaust to Ireland

by Emer Mooney

As an Irish citizen I have personally never experienced any negativity towards my own race or cultural identity. I would like to feel that Irish society has changed a great deal in the last 100 years in terms of tolerance to cultural difference.

Now when I reflect as an adult, I really appreciate the choice my parents made to place me in a non-denominational primary school. As child I never knew what religions my friends were: those who made their communion with me or those who stayed in school whilst we practised our prayers in the local Catholic Church. To me it was never something I questioned when looking for a friend to play chasing at break time and it was their absence that I noticed when they weren’t there to see my pretty dress on my communion day, but that didn’t matter to me, as I could show them photographs and tell them all about it.

When I made my First Holy Communion my Grandmother attended the ceremony and was without my Grandfather at the time. I was so overwhelmed with the whole day that I didn’t question his absence. It was only when my Mam told me when I was a bit older that my Granddad was Jewish and my Granny was Catholic and told me about how they met that I realised my Grandfather was different by religious definition to my Grandmother. This however as a child represented to me that it didn’t matter what religion you are, you fall in love with whoever you fall in love with. 

When I made the huge jump from primary to secondary school there were major changes and my priority was making friends. People who I spoke to from different primary schools seemed so similar to me, they were my age, they liked my new shoes and they shared the same music taste as me. In secondary school we took religion and history.

 In Religion class I first learnt about other religions and found out more about mine. All I had known previous is that I sometimes went to church at Christmas time but my family were not religious. In religion class we had discussions and I discovered just how many religions there are worldwide and in my own class, it fascinated me.

In History class we studied the Holocaust and it was my first experience of learning of how humanity can selectively choose a race and feel hatred towards them. It was a completely alien feeling to me, no two people are the same so why encourage similarity and exclude difference? Further in to study, I explored the obstacles the Jews faced with being prohibited from being practising doctors, journalists and other such professions amongst other prohibitions that we are entitled to by human rights and charged right out of their homes. 

As 1933 continued, even grandchildren of Jews were sent to the ghoulish prison camps, this fact really resonated with me. That could have been me if I had lived during the 1930’s, what would I do without my family or worse still if I had to bring up my younger sister in a prison camp without my Mam or Dad? Back then I thought: “At least I’m in Ireland and a horrific injustice would never happen in this country.” Little did I know that previously in Ireland laid Anti-Semitic views and violent behaviour towards Jews. 

For my Grandfather I can imagine Ireland was an extremely different place. My Granddad was born in Dublin after his family emigrated from Russia. Born in 1919 the Jewish community took his family in. By this time Dublin’s Jewish population was rising over 4,800, South Circular Road became a popular place to live for Jewish immigrants and had 6 surrounding synagogues for prayer. The 1911 census shows how out of 1,185 householders,329 were Jewish, like my Grandfather over 80-90 percent of the Jewish population surveyed in the 1911 census had come from the Russian Empire. South Circular road soon became known as: ‘Little Jerusalem’

They were not allowed to feel at home for long as in the 1940’s Irish anti-semitic views became broadcasted with Fine Gael TD Olivier Flanagan expressing that it was time that we ‘rout the Jews out of the community.’ This is a fine example of how another country’s definition of a community: the Germans on the Jews affected the majority of Europe.

The Dreyfus affair sent waves of fear and resilience of Jews across Europe; this included the Irish Jewish community. Most of this anti-Semitic thought was published and spread via propagandists in the Irish media. In 1933 DeValera rose to power in Ireland and Hitler in Germany, through the interwar years the Irish Jewish community blossomed and prospered with the number of Jewish immigrants rising along with the clothing market boom with the help of the Jewish tailors.

My Granddad was one of the lucky ones who had escaped being detained in a prison camp but he still faced discrimination in the country he had made his home in and raised his family. When he died at the age of 93, I think back at everything my Mam has told me about my Granddad and his family and what he must have gone through during those 93 years of his life: related to the memory foam mattress bedding business of Kayfoam Woolfson which by the year of 1987 was regarded as the biggest mattress company in Ireland.

I hope that he felt at home in Dublin because without his parents, my great grandparents, making the decision to emigrate to Dublin in the 1920’s, I wouldn’t be here today. Family are family despite any differences; be that opinion or race. When I have my own children someday I will tell them about their great grandfather and how despite being different to some; him and the Irish Jewish community overcame discrimination and choose and succeed to thrive in Ireland.

Racism in Ireland: It's Not a New Phenomenon

by Rachel Martin

As an Irish national, I haven’t personally encountered any racism towards my own race. I’m currently in my final year, studying cultural studies, I feel that the topic of ‘Racism in Ireland’ is an issue which needs to be addressed. As someone who works in a hotel, my colleagues as well as the customers are different nationalities and I have never experienced any negative incidents. I feel that working in the Irish tourist industry has expanded my cultural experiences. I would hope that Ireland is a welcoming place for both the non-nationals living here and tourists visiting. I wish I could say that racism doesn’t exist in Ireland but when I witness blatant verbal attacks on non-nationals, I have to disagree.  In my opinion, it is clear that racism is an increasing social problem within Irish communities.     

The majority of my family are Irish and from Dublin. However, my grand-father has extremely sallow skin and is often mistaken for a non-national. In the early 1990’s, my grandfather was waiting for my grandmother to finish her appointment in Holles Street Hospital. Normally he would walk through Merrion Square but on this day he took a shortcut and walked through some apartment block. As he was walking through the apartment blocks, he noticed four youths standing outside a small shop. The teenagers began shouting racial slurs in his direction, presuming he was a non-national and referring to him as Pakistani. Firstly, my grandfather didn’t realise that these racial remarks were targeted at him then he began to feel nervous. As the teenagers became more aggressive, using strong language as well as common racist phrase such as ‘Don’t be taking our jobs’ and ‘Go home to your own country’. It wasn’t until my grandfather spoke that they realised he was Irish; he walked faster through the apartments and felt threatened in his own city. As an Irish national, my grandfather had never experienced racism at this level. He thought of what it would have been like to be treated like this every day. He was shocked to experience the other side of racism in Ireland but they gave him a perspective that he was lacking.

Recently, I was on Dublin Bus on my way home from college and I witnessed a similar incident. Three youths approached a young black man, who was sitting quietly on the bus, and began antagonising him with racial slurs. Although there were other empty seats on the bus, it seemed that they deliberately pinpointed this black man. They began by speaking loudly in a fake African accent, what I believe was a deliberate attempt at getting his attention. However, the man carried on reading his book whether he was oblivious or choose to ignore these comment, I’m unsure. The man remained quiet and was clearly uncomfortable. They began using strong language and telling him ‘to go home to his own country’. I didn’t know what to do, I glanced over at a woman beside who looked equally as uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure whether to say something and risk the abuse being directed at me or just put my earphones in and distract myself. I’m ashamed to say I chose the latter. I was conflicted by the whole situation, part of me wanted to do the right thing and stand up for the young man but I felt that this might fuel their anger. The three youths got off at the next stop and I asked the young man ‘Is he was ok?’. I felt I should apologise for their behaviour as it gave a negative impression of Irish people. However, I didn’t say this as I didn’t want to draw more attention to him. The man carried on reading his book and looked completely un-phased by the incident. I was left with a horrible sick feeling in my heart. It was difficult to watch a group of people who believed they had the right and responsibility to say hateful things to a stranger, based on race.            

As I compare my grandfather’s experience in the early 1990’s to the incident within the last few weeks, it is my belief that racism still exists throughout Ireland. I found it worrying to discover that many of these incidents are often in daylight hours and unprovoked attacks. Why is it that these people feel that they have the right to attack a stranger? These attacks whether physically or verbally, are unjustified. Often the hard-hitting and most negative experiences come from blatant verbal abuse, but racism does not need to be overt. It is clear that these experiences leave a mark not only on the people they are targeting but the people who are watching. In my opinion, it’s difficult for Irish people to face the problem of racism as it isn’t a part of their everyday life. The sooner we begin to recognise it, the bigger the difference we can make.           

Ireland Against Racism : Breaking Past Pre-conceptions

by Flavia Woulfe

I was born in Wexford, Ireland where I grew up and my family still resides. My mother’s family is “Wexfordian” as far back as we can trace and my father’s family hails from a small town in Co. Cork. I received a Catholic education in both primary and secondary school, where I struggled with Irish grammar and faked foot injuries to avoid playing Camogie. I associate St. Patrick’s Day with bacon and cabbage and Good Friday with house parties. My skin is fair and littered with fading freckles and my hair, when undyed, is black. Although I don’t know all of the words to the Amhran na Bhfiann, the sense of patriotism when its sang, strikes me as much as the next Irish person. I can say with certainty that I am Irish, through and through.

My name, however, is another case. Flavia, my first name, translates as “blond” in Latin. My second name is Woulfe, which derives from Norman times and is popular in central European countries such as Germany. On introduction, the majority of people question where my name come from. I chalk it down to eccentric parents with good taste and although most agree, some remain dissatisfied with that answer. In some cases further explanation as to my Irish past fulfils their enquiry, but in other cases, an unfamiliar feeling of distrust is formed. It’s as though I’m hiding something, and this makes me sometimes feel as though I am. 

During my time as a waitress, it was mandatory for all staff to wear name badges. The hotel industry in Ireland is formed by an eclectic mix of staff from different nationalities so amongst colleagues, my name was “average” to many. The formally unfamiliar feeling of distrust that I experienced from time to time began to frequent my life more often while working with the public. “Why won’t you just tell us where you’re really from” “Are you embarrassed?” “But your name is definitely not Irish, so…?” were some of the questions that arose. Other times people would speak very sl-ow-ly and cl-ear-ly so I could understand what they were saying. And in one extreme case, one woman “preferred to wait for the Irish girl” to serve the table to “save time”. I vented my frustrations to my fellow staff. Their reactions ranged from empathy to laughter because, little did I know, this was an everyday occurrence for them. To be made feel like a piece of gum on somebody’s shoe was normal to my colleagues, but how could this be in little old Ireland? 

Us Irish, for the most part, tend to think of ourselves as an accepting bunch who value equality with those who choose to share our country with us. In terms of governance in Ireland, there is little tolerance for racism in that there are no discriminatory laws in place. There are also no representatives for people of colour serving in Parliament. Racism, many Irish believe, extends as far as having a laugh at the British under whom we were colonised for so many years. But it is the more subtle racism that is damaging to Ireland and impactful on its children. The off-hand comments about the “blacks” in the nightclub bathrooms or the “Pakis” that run the shop are the remarks that people view as OK to make. The normalisation of these terms, and worse, is rampant in Irish society. Many people know someone of an older generation who is notorious for making racist slurs, which are memorised and repeated by youth. Although some claim to repeat these derogatory terms in order to highlight the generation gap between “us” (the youth) and “them” (the old), the fact that the youth, with knowledge that times have changed in the past 50 or so years, choose to normalise this language is not acceptable.

A common discrepancy is that because somebody doesn’t understand your language, you are smarter than them. Language is just one of the foundations for communication but when two people can’t converse in the same phonetics, issues can arise. Frustration and a sense of hopelessness can form while trying to utilise broken language/ signals and the result can often be miscommunication. When I built relationships with the longer serving staff in the hotel that I previously mentioned, I soon realised that pre-conceptions are dangerous to forming relationships. Naively I believed that my fellow staff were mostly working in the hotel because of either a lack of qualifications or a passion for the hospitality industry. I would estimate that 70% of the foreign national staff working in the hotel had degrees that they obtained in their home country. Fields such as law, nursing and teaching were popular amongst the staff but, because of differing regulation and practices in the workplace, they couldn’t work in their area of qualification here. On speaking to these people further I gained great insight into a side of emigration that I had never previously thought about.

Although my experience with racism wasn’t actual “typical” racism, it was more presumed racism, the feeling of worthlessness and anger is still the same. To be judged by what you look like, your name or your job is unacceptable in the 21st century. The media plays a role in the way society perceives immigrants because the media is our language provider. Only covering immigration stories and negative news about non- Irish nationals leads the way for society to normalise discrimination and associate minority groups with negative news. It’s time the Irish media began to celebrate the growing diversity of Irish society. “To be” is an arbitrary state, and much like I am Irish, I would like to see multinationals joining me in being Irish too, by facing racist intolerance in solidarity.

Barriers to Communication

by Ciara Campbell

 

 

Ireland is celebrated as being quite a welcoming, inviting and open country, this is our national identity. Home is the foundation of many Irish people's lives and something that, when abroad, we love to acclaim. Our 'mammies' are the heart of the family and our red hair brings happiness to many of the tourists' faces, so the stereotypes say. However, what tourists do not see is the prejudice that some Irish people feel towards foreign nationals living in Ireland. It is not something that makes me proud to be Irish and is something that I witness on a weekly basis. Incidents that I have personally witnessed include foreign taxi men being openly ignored because of their race, Muslim girls being stared at and talked about in school because of their hijab and people under the influence shouting slurs at innocent foreign people passing them by. Although the majority of Irish people are open and welcoming, it is the people who continue to strive for marginalisation that hinder our positive multicultural attitudes.

 

An incident that I have witnessed that affected me greatly was when I was in secondary school. A new girl was brought into my class in second year that was originally from Poland. She had very little English and also suffered with autism. The majority of my class were around the age of thirteen and so we had not been informed about autism and what effect it has on a person. There was no special needs assistant or helper to guide the girl through the year at school which says a lot about Ireland's stance on special needs in schools, however that is an entirely different problem altogether. Due to our young age, we had very little education about multiculturalism, culture shock, adaptation and the many other things that this girl was going through because of her new home here in Ireland. Multiculturalism within Irish primary schools is a relatively new thing and when I attended primary school, there were few to none foreign kids in attendance. This and the lack of education about multiculturalism led to this girl having a very difficult time during her secondary school years. She was not given the assistance she needed to cope in this new school and she was bullied. I am certainly not using a lack of education as an excuse for the girls who bullied her because they did so out of ignorance and stupidity but it would have made a huge difference if we were taught about different cultures in primary school. Cultural diversity is something that is becoming more and more relative to daily life. Every day we are engaging with people from different origins and the education system needs to take this into account in order to keep up to date with Ireland's ever growing multicultural community.

 

There were huge barriers to communication for this girl. Firstly, she had very little English which meant that she now had to adopt a new culture and learn a new language. This would have been incredibly difficult for a girl at thirteen. The girls in my year had already spent first year together and the new girl had to figure out a new class with little English and her communication disorder. Upon reflection, I regret immensely not stepping in to help her through that year. I was not one of the people who bullied her but because of my lack of education on the matter, I also did not know how to communicate with her. Her ethnicity should have been celebrated and taught to us but instead highlighted her difference. Multiculturalism needs to be taught from a young age in order for Ireland to even begin to consider itself as a diverse country because what is the point in having a diverse range of nationalities if people are being marginalised. Our nature may be welcoming but with racist incidents continuing to rise, something needs to change.

 

My father has travelled around the world during his adulthood and he considers himself to be quite rounded and well educated on cultural diversity but my mother is the complete opposite. She would not understand the implications of being different, she is not naïve, but she was never in a situation that forced her to open her eyes to what other people go through due to their ethnicity. This comparison is the basis for many Irish people. Some people like to be oblivious to the harsh realities of foreign nationals living in Ireland but the high number of immigrants means that this attitude needs to change. Nationalism is a great thing to have but if it is being used as a way to block out different cultures, it may not be something to celebrate. The Polish girl that was in my year was dropped into a new school and forced to adapt straight away with no help at all. She was set up to fail when she should have been given the necessary tools to help her settle in. It takes effort to separate oneself from similarity and open oneself to difference but that is what many people in Ireland need to do. There is a lot of space for diversity in Ireland but the mind set of people who continue to marginalise needs to change. For the girl in my year, education about multiculturalism could have made her life a little bit easier but the acceptance of difference also needs to be encouraged.

 

Being different should not mean that you are open to being ridiculed; it should be something that is taught and celebrated. Ireland is a country that prides itself on nationality but we are also home to many different cultures. Education and understanding about these cultures is what needs to be promoted for marginalisation to stop. Barriers to communication could eventually disappear if people open their minds to difference. Not only would it prove that Ireland is the welcoming and open country that it seems to be but it would also encourage people to be more open about their ethnicity and culture.

Ripple

by Tara Flynn


I live in Dublin, but am from Kinsale, Co. Cork and mad proud of it. My husband is from far away Los Angeles, California. But apart from his having been lucky enough to grow up – as far as I was concerned – in an episode of CHiPs, we’re really very alike. Both around the same age, both work in similar industries, both love to see friends, hang out with our dog and cat and watch TV. Neither of us enjoys confrontation and we try to give people the benefit of the doubt. We both like Mexican food but neither of us is too gone on tomatoes. On paper, then, fairly similar.

But I am white and he is black.

The first time I went to L.A., we were just married. I was so excited. Not only were we going to be in our very own episode of CHiPs, but I couldn’t wait to see where he was from. To know him that much better. We visited the graves of his mother and grandma in Inglewood, near where he’d grown up. I met his brilliant sister. I was introduced to his old friends and favourite cinemas. We stayed in a clean-but-creepy motel and bought ice-pops to cool us down in the unseasonably hot weather.

We were having a lovely time when I suddenly, accidentally ruined it with a touristy question: could we drive back to the creepy motel via fancy schmancy Bel Air? We’d be taking Sunset anyway, and I was dead keen to see the fantasy homes with their lush lawns that may as well have been carpet, despite the drought.

My husband’s smile dropped for the first time since we’d landed in California. “Honey,” he said, “do you mind if we don’t? I don’t want us to get pulled over. Not on honeymoon.” “Why would we get pulled over?” (My tiny brain is very slow.) He patiently explained that in our shiny rental car, it was highly likely he’d be pulled over. “But why?” I asked again, quick as ever on the uptake. “Because I’m black,” he said.

And with that, years of privilege I knew to exist but hadn’t fully felt, weighed on my shoulders like lead. My whole body responded: blood drained from my cheeks. My ears rang and I thought I might faint. Nothing had happened, but everything changed: the reality hit me hard that someone I loved, someone just doing a fun honeymoon thing, would be treated differently from me solely because of the colour of his skin. The full realisation was important. I count that awful moment as one of the best of my life.

When someone you love is attacked, you have a visceral response. Adrenaline rushes, your fists clench. You want to stand with them at all costs. You want to fight. Now that I knew, really knew, what my husband faced all the time – some innocuous situations, others undeniably dangerous – I found myself constantly primed. I’m always ready to fight. Not physically – I’m not an eejit and I’m kind of small, plus we do still prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt. But I will not let it stand when someone humiliates someone I love. Because they are wrong.

Walking through Temple Bar recently, my husband slipped on slick cobblestones, and two D4 bucks outside a pub chipped in that he “probably tripped over his penis”. I saw red. Shaking, I called them out. Apparently “they meant it as a compliment” and had no inkling of the reason for my anger. Their eye rolls told me as much. No question of  “Are you ok? Did you hurt yourself?” Those words didn’t enter their minds - they saw a black guy and their heads filled with nothing but penis, god love them.

You may remember what happened when the same husband had racist epithets hurled at him in my hometown. I made a satirical video about a place where people like the epithet-hurlers might feel comfortable: a Racist B&B. Response was generally positive: it got people talking and put us in touch with ENAR and ROI Against Racism, but the trolls came out to play too. They said terrible things about both of us. Violent things. I’m getting used to that now, as my husband always has been. My tiny mind is expanding to meet his experience.

I used to consider myself pretty switched on. I had read about the Civil Rights movement. I knew about slavery. I couldn’t even get my head around the concept of segregation. Miscegenation is a stupid, stupid word, although we cannot forget that it would have been against the law for us to marry not so long ago. I consciously try to check my privilege all the time. But it’s different knowing a thing to living a thing. My journey’s only beginning.

When you abuse my husband, you abuse me. When you hurt a member of someone’s family, it ripples through that whole family and out into the community. Into society. It is impossible to witness the effect of racism on someone’s life, on the very core of their being, without being shaken by it and wanting to do something about it. If all we can do is not stand for idiotic comments, let’s start there. If we can do more, let’s.

The first step is to open our eyes.







Here is the link for the video mentioned in this blog post www.youtube.com/watch?v=J80q7Q3UIEM
You learn more about Tara on her website www.taraflynn.ie or on her twitter @TaraFlynn  https://twitter.com/TaraFlynn