
Originally Posted by
pineapple stu
OK, fair enough. Yeah, it's an interesting point. One possibility - and I'm just throwing this out for discussion; I don't know if it's the case or not - is that there aren't any overriding reasons for them to be upset, but shouting loudly is a good way of getting things. In that case, there probably isn't a huge amount of tangible evidence to cite for their upset. I don't think that morally, Ireland has any obligation to help those who simply rock up on our shores, or to take in migrants who choose to leave Africa or the Middle East (predominantly) for Ireland. I think mass migration is a very destabilising influence on parts of the world, and does more harm than good.
But leave that aside - if you get refugee status here (and I know not all black people here are refugees), then you're entitled to the same rights as anyone else, including free education, welfare payments, a medical card, social housing, training, etc. That's a pretty good deal.
Is there racism in Ireland? Sure there is. (On both sides, as the events in Hartstown yesterday showed) Is it sufficient to cause huge anger among the black communities? I don't see that's ever remotely been shown. Are they sold a vision of the American dream and then feel let down or even embarrassed if they end up unqualified for a lot of jobs, and end up on a minimum wage job somewhere? Welcome to real life, unfortunately.
But the problem is that if that bad things - like being arrested, or being unable to find a decent job - end up being ascribed to racism, then you potentially set in place a system where you start to see racism everywhere, even if it's not there.
As I say, that's a theory, not fact. But I think it should form part of the discussion.
Bookmarks