“Well I’ve Never Experienced Racism In Ireland!!!”
AS PART of its Voices series WWN gives a platform to people we really shouldn’t. This week is the turn of Angela Heaney who is sick of all this over-the-top business of ‘racism in Ireland’ since she hasn’t experienced any of it herself.
“Now I can only really go on my own experiences and, touch wood and all that but I’ve not had a sniff of racism aimed at myself.
Why is that? No one can offer an explanation. There must be a reason, maybe the most logical conclusion is the most obvious; that racism isn’t a thing in Ireland for anyone at all and people need to stop going on and on about it.
Maybe I’m one of the lucky ones, I’m not saying I don’t believe people who say they’ve been racially abused but at the end of the day I’ve not had someone racisming at me so it raises the question, doesn’t it?
And, when you consider it’s only people of colour, people from different ethnics backgrounds than ‘white’ who say they’ve suffered racism, that’s a bit too convenient isn’t it? And when I say ‘eh, hello, I haven’t had anyone be racist to me’ it’s dismissed like it’s some irrelevant point.
Again, I can only go by my experience not because I’m intentionally deaf to other people’s experiences, but because if I haven’t experienced racism I find it very, very hard to believe anyone else has.
“Go back to your own country” – no one has ever said such a thing to me. “N-word this and that” – not something I’ve heard directed at me.
And is it likely I’ve 71 inappropriate names to call Asian people right on the tip of my tongue for when the time comes because it’s all harmless fun that some people take too seriously? It’s not like I have a defining characteristic that precludes me from any of this in Ireland.
I don’t get any pleasure from saying it but you can’t just go on filmed incidences and concrete evidence – rumours like that can cause damage, which reminds me, Karen across the way was saying her hubby’s friend is a garda and he says that them lot make up all this stuff just to get attention.