To properly explain how I feel on this.
100 Romanian refugees rehoused due to appauling racist attacks in Northern Ireland.
Any attack that stems from racial ignorance and intolerance is inexcusable. Anything that forces people from their homes and causes them to have to be “housed” in community centers or whatever is something I’d never want to go through, or wish on anybody else for that matter.
I haven’t read every article or watched every report, but the gist of everything I have noticed is that 100 people were attacked and so moved out for their safety, namely a 5 day old baby.
Fair enough, if people are in danger, get them out.
But here’s where I may lose you.
I doubt that all 100 were attacked. This doesn’t mean that no one was attacked, nor does it condone those who were attacked.
If a person is attacked does it have to make it an attack on an entire race?
I don’t know a single Romanian person. I’ve experienced lots of them in the form of beggars that harrass me to the point of wanting to use physical force to remove them from my personal space. I’ve witnessed them picking pockets, shop lifting and then denying any knowledge of the English language when the authorities turn up.
When they’re the victims of attacks, or they go to claim benefits, they’re more fluent in the language and laws of the land than you or I.
I’ve witnessed this in a number of foreign races to our own while living here. I also know a couple of people I wish I didn’t who have acted the same abroad. So I suppose some people will try to get away with acting the prick if they think they can.
So it’s at about this point that your blood is boiling. You have me pegged as nothing more than a petty racist who’s on a small minded uninformed rant. Maybe I am.
Or maybe we’re not getting the full picture as always.
I’m not racist, but of course you’ve been expecting that line all the way. I draw conclusions based on experience and in my experience there’s no smoke without fire or no stereotype without basis.
Of course not all Romanians are thieves and scammers, no doubt there’ll be tons of comments about how people know of Romanian saints and charity workers and salts of the earth.
But there’s no smoke without fire. So were these attacks the frustrated (but wrong) reactions of a community sick of pick pockets and thieves? Or were they out of the blue KKK style attacks as the media would have us believe?
Once again, it’s not right but I suspect that a community that is still divided in itself with paranoia and memories of violence in every man, woman and child brought by their own neighbours and families, figures it has enough to deal with already.
It’s not something that has been mentioned, but I’ll bet everyone has asked the question. If not in public then just to themselves. What provoked these attacks?
They call these race attacks and the headlines are awash with variations of “Ireland attacks Romanians”, “Vicious race attacks in Ireland”, and one I read online “Ireland is the most racist country in Europe”.
That’s a different kind of attack.
That means that I’m a racist (which you no doubt think by now anyway), you’re a racist (which you’ll say you’re not too) and so is everyone you know. We’re all racists.
We’ll do what we always do and roll over and take it. The next time you see a Romanian selling stolen roses you’ll buy two. When you see a Romanian beggar you’ll empty your change into their hands. Why? Social guilt.
Ask any victim of any attack what they did to provoke an attack and they’ll always, without fail respond, “Nothing, I don’t understand it”. That’s all I heard on the news today while the reporter sympathised. While I’m sure most of them didn’t do anything, someone(s) did.
Today the media, the internet and people in general pissed me off. They generalised and called me racist for being Irish. So that must mean then that I can generalise and call all Romanians no good blood sucking thieves.
But I can’t.
I wonder if I could sue the media for calling me a racist just because I’m Irish?
But I can’t.
There’s two kinds of people in this world, the acceptable racist and everyone else.
I’ve witnessed attacks on people, verbal and physical. None are pleasant to witness, but they happen and such is life.
A couple of these attacks were on those of a social minority, and because of that they were branded race attacks.
One was over a parking space at Christmas time and the other was over skipping a queue in a post office. The victims claimed race was the cause when really they were just acting the prick, like we all have the capacity to do.
I’ve rambled on, but like I said at the start I can’t find the words to explain properly what I wanted to say. I suspect this is why not a single person has come out questioning why this all happened without calling these faceless attackers low life racists.
If they did, they’d be fired, ridiculed and made to make a public apology to whatever race they had offended and they’d never be allowed to forget it.
This is exactly why I do this anonymously. No matter how many times I say I’m not a racist, you’ll all shout “But that’s exactly what a racist says before a racist rant, you scumbag racist.”
I suppose it is.
I could also go on about how many different races I socialise and work with and call close friends, but once again I’d hear “Yeah, that’s what they all say”.
I suppose they do.
I can’t find the words to properly convey how I feel about this and get my point across without offending every person who reads this. But nothing about race, religion or politics could be written without offending anybody.
If I have I apologise, that wasn’t my intention. And controversy wasn’t my motivation.
If you have been offended is it because you have me pegged as nothing more than a low life?
Or are you offended because if you agree with any single word that I’ve written then that means that by association you are a low life?
