What to do when you witness racism?

Join the IRSP. Uniting all the workers of the world is the only way to beat false dichotomies.

How about you mind your own business, Honky?!

I kid I kid I iz honky.

schaffer wrote: »

It's quite painful to see this happen and feel so helpless to react.
At this stage I wonder should/could I have done more.
Should I have defended him more publicly and risked the wrath of the other handful of scumbags sitting nearby.

What is the best thing to do in future?

There really isn't a best or worst thing to do in that situation, it could go a number of different ways depending on a number of different circumstances. You really could only use your own best judgement.

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

A Co worker now friend ( dark skin ) and myself were walking down Street in Belgrade back around 2006

Anyway couple of lads hurl abuse ( the N word came, rest was in non English)at my Co Worker and flung Banana at us which hit me.

He gets banana tells them he delighted they hit me and thanks for banana as he was Hungry.

He still gets kick out of it. In fairness Belgrade ain't place be if your anything but Pale but best thing you can do is take the hit like I did.

Your friend handled that brilliantly!! :pac:


Nice header on your part too btw

Notavirus.exe wrote: »

Telling someone to go back to their own country isn't racist?

The point is theyre just horrible people who will pick out any unique-ish trait about somebody and use it to insult them. Yes it was racist but what he's saying is that they would have said horrible things to the inspector regardless of whether he was non white, he just happened to be black and they picked on that.

As for my story, I was on the luas the other day and this group of spanish students (well mediterrean looking so I assume..) about 11 or 12 year olds sitting at one of the stations all started pointing at a black guy sitting in front of me on the train and laughing and pulling faces which I thought were supposed to look like monkey faces and a few of them put up their middle finger at him. He was just reading his book and they started doing it when he looked at them.

I assume it was racism as I and about 4 other white people were standing around him and it was directed solly at him. He didnt react, just looked back down at his book

mohawk wrote: »

A week or so ago was getting my sandwich at lunch. The was a middle aged woman ahead being completely horrible muttering about how the staff were all foreigners who didn't speak English. They definitely could hear her.

She was dog rough so I didn't dare open my mouth. I hate that I said nothing but honestly who knows what she could of done if she was confronted.

Honestly why do we have so many dirtbags in this country...

I hate when people say stuff like this as if Ireland has a uniquely high number of scumbags, if anything we have less than most countries. But unfortunately every country has lots

I remember being at a football match years ago and a bunch of kids, around ten years old, were messing about. One of them pushed another and the kid said "get away from me, you black bastard!". Cue a bunch of middle-aged men roaring at him, giving him stick about it.

The kid was shocked, didn't know what to do. One old lad screeched at him: "You can't say that, that's racist!" He didn't offer any explanation as to why it was racist and what the problem was and he did it in a very aggressive and authoritative way. The kid seemed pretty shook up, bear in mind he was about ten years old.

While I appreciate the sentiment from the old lads, they went about it the wrong way. They should've calmly explained it to him, instead of barking at him. It wasn't even the kids father that shouted at him, it was just one of the lads in the vicinity at the time.

Racism comes in all shapes and forms. It's not just "Anto from the flats" types. I'm from Bray, spent plenty of time in Dublin over the years and it comes from people from all walks of life.

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

When did all this happen? It's not like that anymore. The only people I've seen engaging in racist behaviour towards people are these "Anto from the flats" types you're talking about.

2011-2012. Not the 1970s, I'm 28 by the way so I'm not gazing back into distant days.

I've also worked a variety of jobs that involved migrants and dealing with people from all walks of life; the one unifying lesson I've learned as that small-minded bigoted c*nts come in all classes, shapes and sizes.

As an interesting aside, I work with a Scottish Mauritian whose cousin lived in Dublin for years and who told me of the abuse he received to the point I nearly died with embarrassment to be from the same country. At one point he had women in Mass try and skip him for communion and had people trying to spit in his pint when he was in the pub.

I find it gas that a white Irish person from Dublin can categorically deny racism is an issue in certain sectors of society when you've never been in a position to witness it happening or have it happened to you.

I work with a girl who is Irish but her mother is from the Cayman Islands. She was frequently told to fcuk off back to wherever she's from and stop taking our jobs, ironically the very people who spout that crap are usually the cohort who have never worked, and will never work a day in their lives.