Racially abused

LegacyUser

I'm shaking right now as I type this. Yet again, I have been the victim of scumbags attacking me and racially insulting me but get this, I'M WHITE!!! Not that anyone deserves to be attacked, but I'm as Irish as they are and this is my home. Normally I just get a bit of bother (I'm female), people asking me stupid questions and saying i cant possibly be Irish, but sometimes people throw things at me and this time I was on the top of a bus and four men sat around me and started asking me where I was from and saying I should go home. When they heard my Dub accent they started saying 'you think you're Irish now, do ya? Everyone knows you're not Irish' and they were calling me a Paki. I've never been near Pakistan in my life and both my parents are Irish, I had one great grandparent from Spain but thats very far back, but for some reason I do look quite foreign, people always think I'm adopted, but I'm not as I look like my dad, only a bit more foreign. I told my mam and she said to stop overreacting and at this I lost my temper as I dont think Im overreacting! I'm totally sick of it and I fear for my safety now with all these white supremacist freaks around! I met a friend of a friend last week, he was nice to my face and later told my friend he didn't want to be around a n*gger again! Its terrible! My mam doesn't understand as she looks white and shes never had it happen to her. In a temper I screamed at her that it was her fault for marrying someone 'tanned' and if she'd married someone pale this wouldnt happen. I know this is terrible and ive apologised but she's still angry at me. But I was so upset. I went to my room after and cried for an hour. Im just so sick of being worried about peoples reactions to me and wondering what theyre thinking about me when I'm no more foreign than anyone else!

fend

Unregistered wrote: »

Im just so sick of being worried about peoples reactions to me and wondering what theyre thinking about me when I'm no more foreign than anyone else!

Who gives a **** what people think. You sound quite young, the best thing to do is just pay no heave to them if they make comments...

People PAY for a tan.... Count yourself lucky in my opinion... As you get a bit older and into your 20s, trust me, you won't give a hoot... And you'll be thanking your lucky stars your tan doesnt wash off int he rain on a night out!

waitinforatrain

fend wrote: »

Who gives a **** what people think. You sound quite young, the best thing to do is just pay no heave to them if they make comments...

People PAY for a tan.... Count yourself lucky in my opinion... As you get a bit older and into your 20s, trust me, you won't give a hoot... And you'll be thanking your lucky stars your tan doesnt wash off int he rain on a night out!

It's not about what they think. Racism isn't about just about what people think, it's about how far they'd go to intimidate people for their bigoted small-minded ****ing views.

OP, I'm very very sorry to hear what happened to you.

Latchy

A horrible nasty expierence for you OP and your anger is understandable . Those guys were out to intimadate you but as you said yourself ,you are as Irish as they are and have nothing to prove .

I am also very sorry to hear what happened to you

tfak85

sorry to hear about what happened OP.

how dare a group of four men say anything to a girl alone on a bus, it would intimidate anyone, whether they were being racist or not.

i'm continually shocked by the racism i hear in this country, i quite often feel i am on a one woman quest against it!
people will start to grow up soon, i hope.

mood

You should inform the guards if anything like the bus incident happens again. It must be hard to deal with.

MizzLolly

What happened this evening has nothing to do with your tan. It had absolutely nothing to do with your appearance at all, I can guarantee you that much! Those guys are just scum, they've got nothing better to do with their lives than gang up on one girl on her own. If I had have been sitting there instead of you I can promise you that they would have done the same to me, probably taunting me for being small or for wearing eyeliner or whatever.

How you look has nothing to do with how these people behave, they're scum, pure and simple. Likewise for the guy who passed the 'N' comment. Scumbag.

Just remember that it isn't you, it's them and you don't need to change a damn thing!

[-0-]

MizzLolly wrote: »

What happened this evening has nothing to do with your tan. It had absolutely nothing to do with your appearance at all, I can guarantee you that much! Those guys are just scum, they've got nothing better to do with their lives than gang up on one girl on her own. If I had have been sitting there instead of you I can promise you that they would have done the same to me, probably taunting me for being small or for wearing eyeliner or whatever.

How you look has nothing to do with how these people behave, they're scum, pure and simple. Likewise for the guy who passed the 'N' comment. Scumbag.

Just remember that it isn't you, it's them and you don't need to change a damn thing!

Agreed 100% It was nothing to do with your appearance. Those lads just wanted to prey on someone who was on their own.

Hazys

Dont be hating yourself OP, its certainly not your fault or anybody in your families fault. Dont worry too much about what you said to your mum in the heat of the moment as you were clearly upset and went through a tramatic experience, just apologise to your mum she'll understand and have a chat with her of how you felt when the incident happened.

I know its tough and its eating you up inside and it was a v intimating experience, but dont take what those 4 guys or your freind's friend said to heart. Any guy who gangs up on a lone girl on a bus to racially abuse her (honestly they are proabably the most retarded racists in the world since you are white! it just goes to show the level of intelligence racists have)has a lot of insecurities and probably doesnt have going on in life or ever will. Dont get brought down by lesser people to their level by taking it to heart.

Be proud of the skin you're in, most girls would kill for your natural tan and all guys find darker skin on a girl sexy.

BumbleB

I've seen this happen before on a bus before with a very annoying unpleasant drunk .

This is not acceptable.

This is very worrying trend there's a post similar to this in one of the other forums .

If it ever happens ( and please god it won't) again you should go to the bus driver and tell him to ring the police on the radio and they would have been waiting at the next stop .

Remember nobody has the right to make you fearful. I am caucasian and I've experienced racial abuse too .I'm originally from the U.S .Its nothing to do with colour or anything like that as another poster said its just scumbags .

herya

Latchy wrote: »

A horrible nasty expierence for you OP and your anger is understandable . Those guys were out to intimadate you but as you said yourself ,you are as Irish as they are and have nothing to prove .

Even if she wasn't she had nothing to prove either. These things just should not be happening. I'm sorry to hear this happened to you OP.

vandermeyde

Dublin Bus will have CCTV footage which could be used to identify the men if you want to make a complaint. All they need is the date/approximate time and route you were on and they'll have something for the guards to go on.

Emme

vandermeyde wrote: »

Dublin Bus will have CCTV footage which could be used to identify the men if you want to make a complaint. All they need is the date/approximate time and route you were on and they'll have something for the guards to go on.

Those guys are scum and they were just looking for someone to pick on. If it wasn't race it would be something else.

If you can remember the date and time of the attack you should inform the Gardai and Dublin bus and as Vandermeyde said, Dublin Bus will have CCTV footage of the attack. Good luck.

Dostoevsky

Unregistered wrote: »

I'm shaking right now as I type this. Yet again, I have been the victim of scumbags attacking me and racially insulting me but get this, I'M WHITE!!! Not that anyone deserves to be attacked, but I'm as Irish as they are and this is my home. Normally I just get a bit of bother (I'm female), people asking me stupid questions and saying i cant possibly be Irish, but sometimes people throw things at me and this time I was on the top of a bus and four men sat around me and started asking me where I was from and saying I should go home. When they heard my Dub accent they started saying 'you think you're Irish now, do ya? Everyone knows you're not Irish' and they were calling me a Paki. I've never been near Pakistan in my life and both my parents are Irish, I had one great grandparent from Spain but thats very far back, but for some reason I do look quite foreign, people always think I'm adopted, but I'm not as I look like my dad, only a bit more foreign. I told my mam and she said to stop overreacting and at this I lost my temper as I dont think Im overreacting! I'm totally sick of it and I fear for my safety now with all these white supremacist freaks around! I met a friend of a friend last week, he was nice to my face and later told my friend he didn't want to be around a n*gger again! Its terrible! My mam doesn't understand as she looks white and shes never had it happen to her. In a temper I screamed at her that it was her fault for marrying someone 'tanned' and if she'd married someone pale this wouldnt happen. I know this is terrible and ive apologised but she's still angry at me. But I was so upset. I went to my room after and cried for an hour. Im just so sick of being worried about peoples reactions to me and wondering what theyre thinking about me when I'm no more foreign than anyone else!

I'm really sorry, and not a little shocked, to hear of how you've been treated. I would report it to both An Garda Síochána and Dublin Bus. I'm sorry for your troubles.

Latchy

herya wrote: »

Even if she wasn't she had nothing to prove either. These things just should not be happening. I'm sorry to hear this happened to you OP.

Oh yes of course , I wasn't assuming that at all .I was refering to OP saying 'as Irish as them ' quote to point out that some people see colour as being a problem when in fact it is ' they ' the 'scumbags' who are the problem . As other posters said and as I myself have pointed out in the past ,if it wasn't that to hurl abuse at her with it would have being something else ie ,the colour of her hair/eyeliner /shoes/ her accent etc .I would have asked for the police to be called and reported the racist abuse .But understandable , it's not easy in the moement when your on your own and intimadated like this .

LegacyUser

I understand your situation as I am mixed race Irish and have dealt with racism my whole life it can be extremely difficult and upsetting. Try your best not to leave yourself in a vulnerable position, I understand that this is so unfair, but you need to be protective of yourself especially with the current level of growing anamosity. I discovered people in positions of autority are not interested in this problem as I attempted to report people several times.

As for your Mother I think maybe you should ask more questions - I was told vague stories about resessive genes etc. till I was in my late teens when I said I was going to get DNA tests done and she finally confessed. My mother had always reacted very agressively to any comment about my foreign looks because she was terrified of being found out. It`s a possibility that her agression might have another base...apparently 1 in 4 irish children do not have the father they think they do?! (ps everyone always said how like my dad I was - not remotely true - he`s a white guy with blue eyes! but I suppose people were trying to be nice or something)

LegacyUser

samesituation im sorry this happened to you as well. In my case I'm absolutely sure my father is my father as we really do look alike. It's not like he's blond and blue eyed, he's sallow as well but has light hazel eyes while mine are almost black (ironically I got the eyes from my mam's side). So i got some features from each parent which results in me looking more foreign than either of them. But you are actually mixed race and your mother tried to make you believe you were white? That's really tough, but im glad you found out the truth and thanks for posting. Its nice to hear from people in the same situation as I find Irish people try to say im oversensitive and its in my head, as its not happening to them! As you know yourself, its not a matter of self opinion, its a matter of safety. I am afraid i could be attacked and hurt because of my looks. I am so self conscious now because of this. I have dyed my hair a lighter colour since the incident but im sure I still look foreign compared to the pasty people who insult me.

LegacyUser

im irish and i was working at a till one time in a shop when i was 17 and these scumbags in british soccer team jerseys came in and start calling me a spic and i should go back to my own country!!!

i never even have any idea i looked spanish or whatever a spic is meant to be?

sarmer

That is absolutely shocking! What I would say is that there are so many scumbags around. These people have no class whatsoever. But the thing is no matter what you look like people will always bring you down. I'm as Irish looking as they come but still myself and some friends got verbally racially abused by a girl in australia last year for being irish. Its my regret that we didnt report it. Just remember these knackers are a minority. They are just jealous because i'm sure you're probably very good looking with your tan which most people would love! I know it's hard but they are nobodies and you shouldn't give a flying f**k what these scumbags say.

monosharp

Of all the bad things in this world, racism and religious fundamentalism most definitely come out as undisputed champions of the stupid pile.

I'm speaking as an Irishman living in Asia, married to an Asian woman. We get looked at a lot, talked about a little.
Personally, maybe I have a thick skin but I couldn't give a f&@k. Actually the f00king stereotypes that are thrown at me are unbelievable, sometimes funny.

Its probably worse for the wife, how do you answer a question like; "Why did you marry a foreigner ?" ?

I'd assume myself its pretty much the same reasons she would marry anyone.

Anyways, OP, just remember the people giving you this abuse are in the extreme minority. The majority of people couldn't care less about race in this day and age.

Out of curiosity, were these people young ? sounds like teenage scummers to me.

Darragh29

Unregistered wrote: »

samesituation im sorry this happened to you as well. In my case I'm absolutely sure my father is my father as we really do look alike. It's not like he's blond and blue eyed, he's sallow as well but has light hazel eyes while mine are almost black (ironically I got the eyes from my mam's side). So i got some features from each parent which results in me looking more foreign than either of them. But you are actually mixed race and your mother tried to make you believe you were white? That's really tough, but im glad you found out the truth and thanks for posting. Its nice to hear from people in the same situation as I find Irish people try to say im oversensitive and its in my head, as its not happening to them! As you know yourself, its not a matter of self opinion, its a matter of safety. I am afraid i could be attacked and hurt because of my looks. I am so self conscious now because of this. I have dyed my hair a lighter colour since the incident but im sure I still look foreign compared to the pasty people who insult me.

I look foreign, don't look Irish at all, despite my family being in Ireland for the last 8-10 generations, I've never had a days trouble for looking French however, in fact all I can recall getting over the years are compliments on dark eyes and sallow skin.

Maybe it's the area you live in or something, I can't understand why you would be getting such consistent abuse for looking a bit different in the year 2009 to be honest...

RealistSpy

Hi Op,

I can understand you, you have to hold your head high. You have nothing to prove to this people. They want you to react, you just have to ignore them and move away from them.

Life is full of people like this no matter what country you go. Take care if it helps get an mp3 player and block them out.

GL.

seraphimvc

girl,imagine those people who are real foreigners and get mistreated due to racism and bad stereotyping concept before they even get to know the person - i have many of this first hand experience in all these years living in dublin.

in fairness,ireland is fairly easy on foreigners,their attitude is way better than many countries i went to (eg,UK:pac:).so what happened on you i'd say is kinda rare and those a**holes will probably still picking on you with other reason even if you look pale(white).

dont take it too serious since you ARE irish and try to contact the bus driver next time when this happens,or,if i were you,i will have some mouth fight with them - have some fun on defending yourself and see when they run out of words and turn silent :Di am speaking from my experience!you need to be tough up when you are facing these a**holes.

monosharp

monosharp wrote: »

Of all the bad things in this world, racism and religious fundamentalism most definitely come out as undisputed champions of the stupid pile.

I'm speaking as an Irishman living in Asia, married to an Asian woman. We get looked at a lot, talked about a little.
Personally, maybe I have a thick skin but I couldn't give a f&@k. Actually the f00king stereotypes that are thrown at me are unbelievable, sometimes funny.

Its probably worse for the wife, how do you answer a question like; "Why did you marry a foreigner ?" ?

I'd assume myself its pretty much the same reasons she would marry anyone.

Anyways, OP, just remember the people giving you this abuse are in the extreme minority. The majority of people couldn't care less about race in this day and age.

Out of curiosity, were these people young ? sounds like teenage scummers to me.

But the point is it doesn't matter how she feels about herself. Looking foreign is making her a target. I had the same trouble in Dublin. I like how I look, but I stand out as looking foreign, even though there are loads of foreigners in Dublin. The last thing I ever expected when I moved there was to be worried
about racism and being attacked (I'm white but Mediterranean looking). I was spat at, punched in the street, surrounded by scumbags and called names. I tried not to let it get me down but it was always in the back of my mind that someday someone might really hurt me. There is a real pack mentality against 'foreigners' these days.

Darragh29 wrote: »

I look foreign, don't look Irish at all, despite my family being in Ireland for the last 8-10 generations, I've never had a days trouble for looking French however, in fact all I can recall getting over the years are compliments on dark eyes and sallow skin.

Maybe it's the area you live in or something, I can't understand why you would be getting such consistent abuse for looking a bit different in the year 2009 to be honest...

I assume you're a man though? People will always pick on easy targets. As the guard told me when I reported an incident, I'm female, petite and I look foreign. A scumbag is gonna pick on me before he picks on someone who looks like they'd box his head in. I lived on the north side between Dorset St and Drumcondra but never had a hassle there, all my trouble happened in the city centre, around Dame Street/Trinity and usually in broad daylight. A Malaysian friend of mine, petite girl, lovely friendly girl, used to get hassle as well but I gather it was mainly because she wears a headscarf.

LegacyUser

i lived in ireland my whole life and i have mixed parents....i look mediterrean/asian. the only rascism i ever experienced was from skangers. these knackers are only looking for an excuse to start abusing someone so i wouldn't take it too personally.....you stand out so that makes you an easy target. if you live and hang around areas where there are a lot of skangers, then your far more likely to get rascist abuse. thankfully, i lived in a nice rural where the locals didn;t behave like animals. stay away from the upstairs of dublin buses....they're total scum magnets!