Racism alive and well

duckysauce · 10-04-2011 05:05PM

El Horseboxo · 10-04-2011 05:48PM

feelingstressed wrote: »

Appear Latino and black depending on who is passing the comments?

Something mad going on here

Mexican mother, Irish father. I have some Indígena in me but no African roots that i know of. Maybe at the height of summer i could confuse some people if i braid or shave my hair. I was told by a Polish person that czarnuch means n1gger but it could be just an offensive term for a dark skinned person. Anyways it ain't rare to be called a n1gger as a latino. Happens all the time in the US.

mikemac · 10-04-2011 05:52PM

Sorry, I'd deleted that comment a few minutes ago as it was a bit personal but thanks for replying anyway

Rodin · 10-04-2011 06:01PM

true-or-false wrote: »

. Also I'm not sure she realises that not all black people are foreign.

have never met a black Irish taxi driver

Pauleta · 10-04-2011 06:45PM

I find Eastern European drivers great. I dont really like talkative drivers but the older ones are really intesting to talk to about before the iron curtain fell and the ones from the balkans are very interesting as well. Overall African drivers are good but ive had 2 experiences where they purposely gone the wrong way to drive up the cost and one of those wouldnt let me out when i asked. I prefer european drivers because of those 2 incidents. I wouldnt purposly avoid african drivers, i would just personally like a european one. Its a generalisation i know but if is see a bunch of tracksuit clad teenagers hanging on street corner i will avoid them because i dont want to take any chances. Everyday in life we make generalisations whether we think about it or not. Its just life.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i · 10-04-2011 07:00PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd put my bottom dollar on more fake taxis and rip offs being carried out by non-Irish (proportionately). Call me racist, I couldn't care less.

It's like bank scams, romanians/nigerians take up a large portion of the people who commit fraud an scams. It's not racism, it's fact.

Dangerous Man · 10-04-2011 07:07PM

There is undoubtedly racism in Ireland but it's not at the scale that some would have you believe. In order for there to be racism 'in' a place, you only need one instance of racist behaviour. The problem is that there are those who for whatever reason want us to believe that racism is rampant. It's not. People need to remember that multiculturalism is a new concept in Ireland. If, twenty years ago, you saw a black person in the street in Dublin, never mind Leitrim,you'd look twice. I don't think as a country we're particularly sophisticated when dealing with matters of ethnicity, but at the same time, we're certainly not racist.

Here's an example by way of anecdote. A number of years ago I was walking with my grandmother on Meath street (a place I miss dearly right now.) Anyway, we passed by a shop and in the window were some minstrel dolls. My grandmother paused and looked at them. She said she liked them but didn't buy them. As we walked down the street I pointed out to her that the portrayal of black men as minstrels was no longer socially acceptable; it was at best stereotypical and at worst downright racist. She was shocked, and not too happy about having he behaviour viewed as potentially racist.

I would wager that quite a lot of 'racist' behaviour is not racist at all - and is simply borne of naivety. Racism is a knowing, deliberate behaviour.

turbodiesel · 11-04-2011 03:30PM

First off I don't have time to read the whole thread.

Secondly I am a part time taxi driver who used to be full time and have been working in the taxi industry since '99 and the transport industry since 1997.

So , to answer the question, I'll say it very simply. Yes we are racist but we are not racist for racism's sake. But rather for the level of customer service we want from the service we are paying for. We make the choice based on the either experienced level of service or percieved level of service that is available by Obviously non Irish Taxi Drivers. I have experience first hand, bad service in the matters of Driving Ability and Customer Service from Both Black and Eastern European Taxi drivers.

I also always thought the matter of "dodgy black drivers" was vastly exagerated until 2 years back after i was inspected for the first time by a taxi regulator inspector on St Stephens Green. The Stephens green rank consists of the original rank starting at the park gates, which overflows onto the newer queue from the top of Dawson Street back towards the top of Grafton Street and the now gone queue in the middle of the road. Combined, these form approx 50 cars. I was about 20th in this when the inspector started checking cars. By the time he got to the 10th car approx half of the cars (mostly black drivers) had pulled off the rank and i witnessed no black drivers joining the rank while this was going on. This for me changed my mind about the "dodgy black driver" mythology. I'm sure there are many hard working black drivers out there but as a bucket of bad apples go, I'd say the basket with black drivers has a higher percentage of bad appes....

Racism alive and well

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