I spoke to a friend last night and said I was fed up with this blog. He expressed surprise, suggesting he never thought he'd hear me say that. I explained.
I hate racism. I always have. I have reason to. As someone who appears to have all the characteristics that have offered undue advantage (white, male, etc.,) I have most definitely experienced racism.
Maybe people don't recall now how the Irish were once treated in this country. I lived that experience when growing up. If anything identities you as Irish when you don't otherwise sound it the name Murphy does.
The casual name calling was normal, whether it be Paddy, Spud or whatever.
And I recall the slight implication that with an Irish name, could you really be trusted? I was 11 when the Troubles really broke out, and always proud of my name. And I was unafraid to speak out for the country in which I had some of my origins whilst always condemning violence.
Most especially, I remember the fear that my father never lost that his name created within him, which was that it would always prevent him from being able to assimilate into the society into which he was born of an Irish father, but which he feared would never quite accept him. This tainted his whole life.
That is a lived experience of racism that was pervasive, unthinking and indifferent because I suspect that almost all those who were racist were not in the slightest bit aware of the fact that they were being so - calling someone Spud because they had the name Murphy was just what you did back then, as if causal reference to the impact of a famine deliberately imposed on Ireland at cost to millions of lives lost or changed forever was acceptable because it was normal.
And so yes, I am sensitive around such issues.
And I will not tolerate racism.
Or the casual acceptance of it.
Of course I accept that mistakes happen. I make them too, I know.
Dammit, for years I lived with this situation thinking it was just what I had to do: that this was normal and the price of having an Irish background.
And then I realised it was not. That I had been mistaken. That this was unacceptable.
And thankfully, and in fairness, it has changed. Which gives me hope. My sons, who are more Irish through their mother than I am, will never suffer this.
But the reality is that the causal acceptance of racism goes on. We all know that and see that. And the implications for many are very much worse than anything I suffered, by a massive margin. I don't claim anything else. I am not saying that this has now been an impediment for me: I was lucky because attitudes changed. For many they have not. All I am saying is that this lived experience makes me aware of this issue.
And when I see many on the left claiming that statements are not anti-Semitic when those who suffer as a result think that they are then I go back to that experience of mine and the casual nature of so much of what was said to me, and the acceptance that it was normal as justification; and not even justification, but as the basis for a claim that it does not even exist. Except it did.
And that makes me angry for those who have to suffer similar claims now.
So please don't say that a comment is not anti-Semitic here when some who suffers as a result clearly think that it is. I am not willing to tolerate it. And if you don't like that, either don't comment or please don't call again. The choice is yours. But those are my rules. And I have very good reason for them. And if you don't like them and want to stay on the blog please don't say so. There are some things on which I think intolerance is quite acceptable.
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French = frog, Southerner = soft southern shandy drinker, Scottish = Jock, German = Bosh, From Hartlepool = monkey hanger, British = Poms, American = yanks
I agree completely regarding racism but so called “ offence” can easily move into snowflake territory and becoming victims for the sake of it. Extreme political correctness especially of the left and associated wokism is one reason Labour lost the so called red wall. It’s just plain over the top.
No
It’s racism
Welcome to the banned list
Well said Richard. When I was 19, I had a summer job on a building site. One of the builders called another “paddy” because of his accent. His anger in response made me realise what he must have suffered, encapsulated in a single word. There is a dismissal and downplaying of these single instances, that admonishes the “over-reaction” of the recipient, that’s corrosive and sickening. Things have changed, but years later I worked with housing support services who provided homes for Irish people, as prejudice and discrimination was still prevalent – that too was eye-opening, but saddening as I should have known before. There is no wiggle room here for crap like “political correctness gone mad” and double-downs like “snowflake”, these are the sick laments of the cry-bully when they’re called to account for their vileness and their views are treated with the contempt they deserve.
Thanks
It seems that you took more interest in the troubles in Northern Ireland because you have a part Irish ancestry.
That pretty well is racism. It’s unavoidable. You take more interest in subjects that connect to your identity which includes your racial background.
Taking the same amount of interest in civil strife in countries with lots of brown people would be indicative of not-racism – but only a Martian could be so impartial.
Adam Smith has written well on this.
Welcome to the banned list
I think as long as humans can “see” the superficial differences of skin color, they will react accordingly. If we were all color blind it would be a different world.
Can’t quite work it out. How ‘Irish’ are you? Seems you had an Irish grandfather.
I had a Welsh grandmother but don’t think of myself as anything other than English. I was born and brought up in England. I wouldn’t for a second try to claim some affinity which allowed me to sing sosban fach with authority.
I’ve been asked if I am Welsh because I have a surname popular in Wales. I explain I’m 1/4 Welsh. I think nothing more of it.
I’m not even sure what your small-part Irish background has to do with being anti-racist. You don’t need to be a woman to be anti-sexist.
My other grandmother came from Jamaica. If I talk about the evil of racism, I don’t need to mention that fact.
How many times did you have to listen to the ‘jokes’ that portrayed your country as being ‘thick’ as a child
And it was normal in mine
And you say that’s not racist
Welcome to the banned list
“ How many times did you have to listen to the ‘jokes’ that portrayed your country as being ‘thick’ as a child”
Spot on. To my shame, during my early secondary school years I didn’t even realise how offensive ‘IrishMan jokes’ were. It was only during a school assembly on racism did I realise they were just as offensive as jokes based on skin colour. And I considered myself, at the time and now, to be quite liberal. How shameful it was that telling those jokes was okay, something must have been ingrained in my British Psyche ? My friends as I discuss this from time to time as we agree it seemed normal at the time – I still shudder thinking about this.
From a US perspective, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi discusses the difference between being ‘not racist’ and ‘anti racist’ with Stephen Colbert – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCUOX3NMd4U. “Neutrality is not an option.”
Very good
May be on the blog very soon
It seem I’m probably in the doghouse already (I can’t quite work out whether I was banned yesterday) but, in the hope I’m not (because I value this blog) I have to stand up and say: there is a big flaw in this line of argument, which is its assumption that all Jews think alike on this. They don’t. There’s a Jewish saying: two Jews, three opinions. For every commentator saying Peake’s comment was anti-Semitic, there will be another saying it wasn’t. Why do their voices not count? Yes, they tend to be excluded from the mainstream commentariat (in a way which I would argue exactly mirrors the way you and others of your ‘unconventional’ stance are generally excluded on economic matters whilst buffoons like the IFS are considered authoritative.) Instead, they get called ‘self-hating’ and ‘traitorous’, and campaigns are waged to delegitimise and no-platform them (such as the one to remove Michael Rosen – of all people! – as a judge of a poetry competition about racism in football.) It is a fundamental error to take accusations on either side of this argument (or any other, come to that) without considering the politics behind them. Jews are people too, and subject to exactly the same imperfections and self-interests as anyone else.
Some Irish were indifferent to abuse
Does that mean the hurt of those who felt they suffered it should be ignored?
No
So some Jews are not offended and do not see the anti-semitism here
But many do
And that’s ample enough for me
And I can’t see it any other way
I’ve been reading the blog and comments quite closely over the past couple of days. And while I can certainly appreciate why you are fed up, to me it’s very appreciated to see someone taking such issues seriously and dealing with them in the way you have. There aren’t that many forums in the left/progressive sphere where an open discussion about anti semitism can be handled in the way it has been. Given the sheer level of the problem on the left that has emerged in recent years it is unlikely to properly go away any time soon, but it is important that there are places like this as it will mean that some people will be exposed to alternative perspectives and will ultimately examine and change their views.
Thanks
But it’s bloody tough, I’ll tell you
And the emails are much worse
Great article, Richard. However, I’m afraid that the improvement in English attitudes to Ireland and the Irish is not matched in Scotland. There is clear institutionalised anti Irish racism. There are more Orange parades in Glasgow than all Ireland. “What school did you go to?” is still asked at interviews.
The SNPs reticence in dealing with the issue causes many of Irish descent to oppose independence.
Some label Indy supporters of racism. This is where terms can be so important. I applaud your firm stance against racism. The couple whom you’ve removed above were trolls anyway. Btw, one of my grandparents was Irish, plus six great grandparents, though I firmly identify as Scottish.
I am aware of this, and its seriousness, and deeply embedded nature
It permeates far
GERS was named with a reason and should be renamed for the same reason
Don’t forget the Welsh in all this.
My father was brought up as a small child to speak Welsh, as it was his mother’s mother-tongue. At school, on his first day, he was slapped over the palm of his right hand with a ruler for using a Welsh word – he said he didn’t know the English word, and was slapped again.
My mother, part-German, part-Italian herself, always referred to Welsh as an ‘inferior’ language. I once told her that no language could be called inferior if it was still spoken as the normal every-day tongue in its own country, and told her to visit Machynlleth and other areas of Mid- and north Wales, where she’d hear it on the streets, in the shops and in the schools, as a language used for imparting information as fluently and effectively as was English.
Not only in Wales, but in parts of Argentina, I told her.
But my husband’s sister’s widower said something similar the other day, and I told him as well!
You are right
I had a Welsh speaking shopkeeper apologise for speaking to another customer in Welsh in front if me last year
I protested that this was his absolute right and no basis for apology could be imagined
I was also on the railway to Pwllheli when the guard asked if I minded if he did all the announcements in Welsh only as I knew where I was going and appeared to be the only non Welsh speaker on the train. I was most amused, and readily agreed. Eat your heart out Farage, I thought
Can someone please invent another term for “racism” which you all use. It infuriates me! There is only ONE human race; we all came out of Africa and probably brown too! The continued use of the term allows people to comfort themselves with a feeling of superiority over these lesser other beings. We need everyone to realise that the genes in the other person are near-identical to your own so YOU are quite as capable of evil as she/he is.
No
That denies the issue
Read How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi‎
Sure we’re all capable of evil
But denying there is racism is to tolerate it
we should all remember that suffering has a greater meaning- it means to undergo (a process).
we should meet all persons as friends unless they are intent on doing us harm.We are no more nor less than any other person be they green yellow or blue let alone white. it is unfortunate that prejudice remains in our lives and we must strive to overcome it.despite the contemporary politics we must seek to do good in the world and avoid evil.
The past week has shot me in the foot and left me gasping for help but I wish to offer the author of this blog my support and thanks.
At the turn of the 20th century shops and open spaces had signs up stating No Irish, among other groups. Headlines in the Daily Mail screamed out that Irish were ‘taking our jobs’.
I’d never thought of the anti-Irishness as racism for many years until I found out that choice bit of history.
The people suffering racism need to be listened to, not met with ‘All Lives Matter’.
This struck me as being quite apposite
https://twitter.com/nuwandiss/status/1276948139375759362?s=21
What this thread demonstrates for me is the ease with which language can be used to rationalise the problem out of sight and out of mind. The invitation is made to look closely at some anecdote, or some neat turn of argument or phrase; and the substance is spirited away; out of sight and out of mind. It is the power of Kendi’s distinction between not being a racist and being anti-racist that it makes it difficult to conduct the sleight-of-hand without anyone suddenly noticing the weasel words.
Kendi makes it tougher for all of us; but 287 years after slavery, not just the slave trade (another sleight-of-hand) was abolished in Britain – I think we deserve it.
I think the book is fascinating – and brilliant
There are very many lessons to be learned from it
You have hit a big one