The Other's

by James Keogh 

Growing up in 90s/00s Ireland from a racial point of view was an easy task for me. I went to a white Catholic school with all of my white friends. I lived in a white neighbourhood with all white families. Everyone looked more or less the same. Everyone talked the same. Everyone had the same accent (well, expect for me and my Anglo-Irish voce, but that’s besides the point). We were all the same and as kids we knew no different. Sure, there were black people on TV. There were Asian people in movies. But those were American movies and American TV shows. They were another world away.

 

So whenever the kids at school saw or heard someone from another background there could only be one reaction: laugher. Something so innocent, something that’s meant to make everyone feel happy made me so uncomfortable. Now, I’m not saying I’ve got some white saviour complex and that I was the champion of the foreigners, but I felt for them. I understand how it feels to be looked at as something other than normal. That’s another story, but even as a kid I knew treating someone as the “other” wasn’t ok.

 

My most vivid memories of this kind of subtle racism are simply the times when one of the few Asian kids in our school would come from another classroom to deliver a message. And out of the blue, you could hear the sniggers. Not because he had said anything out of the ordinary, not because he was a comical genius, but because he was a different race. And I don’t think this notion of subtle racism amongst my generation was ever addressed. Was it only present in boys? Did the girls in the school across the way laugh when a black girl walked in the room? I couldn’t say. But I do know why they laughed. I remember still even into my teens when a video would be showing in class and the presenter of that video was a different race, the guys would just laugh. It was so unfathomable.

 

It all comes down to the notion of “the other” in Irish society. We are so built up in our Irishness that a lot of the time the others get the runt of the blame. I don’t know how many times throughout the recession the Polish were to blame. ‘The damn Poles are taking our jobs and it’s 100% their fault.’ We get so invested in ourselves as Irish people that it totally alienates everyone else. Delving into my thought process further this subtle racism doesn’t only stop at skin colour. It extends into xenophobia. The attitude that all English people were scum resonated heavily in kids when I was young (and still they’d go off and support Man United or Liverpool or whatever else). Kids who were taught in schools that the English oppressed Ireland for 700 years weren’t given any sort of moral standing when it came to English people in modern society (You know, the ones who haven’t oppressed a nation once in their lives). The education always stopped at “We kicked the English out of 26 counties”. There was such an inconsistency in reasoning.

 

And of course we all adhere to preconceived ideas about a person based on their ethnicity. Even now as an adult, when I meet someone of a different race, I don’t automatically assume they fit their racial stereotype, but I do have my subconscious preconceived notions. It’s not any fault of mine, it’s a by product of growing up amongst solely white people with media that only portrayed different races as their stereotypes. And of course I do everything in my power to fight these notions and base my judgement of a person on their actual attributes.

 

This goes too for reinforcing positive stereotypes. For instance, we all have the subconscious idea that black people are this race of people at one with the soul train whose dance moves are unrivalled. The Irish even do it to themselves, priding themselves on being excellent drinkers when this is just simply not true.

 

I feel this is something we, as the 90s generation just have to deal with. Stereotypes are so ingrained in our minds at this stage that we need to just deal with it and just do our best to be kind to everyone, regardless of race. We need to try not to privilege others or put others at a disadvantage because we grew up in a society where there was just us.

 

It’s only fair to assume these days with an increase in multiculturalism in Ireland that kids no longer laugh at the Asian kid just for existing. I wouldn’t be able to tell you if the xenophobia against anyone not born in Ireland has stopped. I can tell you now that as adults we’re all a lot more comfortable around English people, like decent human beings. Yes, we all have that one friend whose entire repertoire of jokes consists of racial stereotypes, but there will always be that guy.

 

In conclusion, the “Others” are all around us; we are no longer a white Irish nation. We must embrace multiculturalism, and in doing so, try our best to not let the ideas we forged as children determine our relationships with others. We are no longer the kids who laughed at the Asian. We are adults and we are so much better than that.