Longford's Eric Ehigie: The problem with our national conversation about racism

Does racism really exist in Ireland? The question is one that has frequently been raised since the ascendancy of the Black Lives Matter movement, following the killing of George Floyd in the USA.

Floyd’s tragic death has forced us to have a long overdue national conversation about racism and the various ways in which it affects people within our country.

Although it is principally a positive thing to engage in dialogue surrounding the issue of racism, the premise upon which we are having our conversation is inherently flawed.

The question of whether racism exists in Ireland is not really a question but a well-established axiom. The majority of the data collated on the issue of racism in Ireland overwhelmingly suggests that racism not only exists but is having real-world effects on how a great deal of people navigate their lives in our nation.

Consider the following examples. A European-wide study led by Michael O’Flaherty shows that Ireland’s rate for racism in the workplace is at 33%. This is up 11% from the EU’s average of 22%.

Extensive research has also been spearheaded by both the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) and the Economic Social Research Institute (ESRI) in the field of racism and discrimination; their “Ethnicity and Nationality in the Irish Labour Market” study, claims that black, Irish people are two times more likely to confront racial discrimination when seeking work and are approximately four times as likely to be treated in a discriminatory way in the course of their work, than their white, Irish counterparts.

A more recent collaborative study conducted by the ESRI and IHREC found that when asked directly 66% of the Irish public openly support black migration to Ireland but when respondents are able to conceal their identity and answer with anonymity, only 51% are supportive of black migration- heralding a more subtle, clandestine form of discrimination.

These are but a few empirical examples of studies that have been conducted in the area, needless to say most of the others point in the exact same direction.

The evidence is stark and unequivocally asserts the presence of racism in Ireland. Considering this, why is it that our national conversation is solely concerned with questioning the existence of racism and not proposing ways in which we can combat racism and comfort those who are impacted by it? Why are we so unwilling to pay regard to the evidence, which clearly suggests that there is a racism problem in Ireland, that manifests itself in social and institutional ways?

The answer to these questions is surely a multi-faceted one and there probably exists many reasons related to why this is the case; but one major reason of the wider list seems to be the state of denial our nation is in when it comes to merely acknowledging the existence of racism.

For centuries Ireland has been subjected to a form of colonial racism perpetrated by Britain; expressing itself through the oppressive penal law system, a gruelling period of indentured servitude and general subjugation and state violence as a result of religious orientation.

Surely if anyone is privy to racism and its cataclysmic effects it is the inhabitants of Ireland who have bore the brunt of racism for so long. Paradoxically, this very history of dealing with racism seems to be one of the seminal causes for our apathy when it comes to addressing the racism faced by so many in our nation.

For many, it seems anathema to think that a nation that has had to grapple with racism for so long could ever be accused of possessing; let alone possess, even a modicum of racism. This denial-ridden way of thinking sees us using our history as a device to exonerate ourselves from the onus of tackling racism, when instead we should be using it as an impetus to empathise with those who confront racism and engage in efforts to combat it.

The fact that we are thoroughly aware of the impact racism can have from first-hand experience should implore us to protect those who are currently dealing with racism in our country and, in accordance with the evidence and the stories from people who are experiencing racism, lead efforts to rigorously tackle it- not run away from the collective responsibility to do so.

There also seems to be a general inclination to reference the types of racism present in other countries in an attempt to completely undermine the potency of the racism encountered by people within our own backyard.

The “racism only exists in America” assertion is one that is all too frequently utilised whenever attempts are made to kick-start meaningful conversations about the nature of the racism that prevails in Ireland.

This relativist approach of juxtaposing Ireland with other nations in the context of racism- or any other societal issue for that matter- to undermine our duty to address racism is inviable, extremely regressive and unsustainable.

Take the issue of poverty as an example. According to the Central Statistics Office, the poverty rate in Ireland as of 2019 was 5.5%. Comparing this to, say, the poverty rate in South Sudan; which, according to the World Bank, is currently 82.3%, makes the poverty rate in Ireland seem negligible.

Yet few would dare say - at least publicly- that we should neglect our moral duty to tackle poverty in the best possible way but instead, would dismiss such a way of reasoning as absurd.

This way of reasoning could also be applied to homelessness; which is a major problem in Ireland, healthcare and other social issues that our nation faces.

Despite the obvious flaws of this relativist approach, we seem to have no problem with applying it to racism- ostensibly allowing ourselves to completely disregard the uniqueness of the racism that people face right here in Ireland and to allocate the burden of fighting racism to other nations, instead of rising to the task ourselves.

What our national conversation needs is a complete restructuring. We need to reimagine racism in a manner that is empirically verified and in tune with the sentiments that emanate from people and communities who are most affected by it.

We cannot make space for delusion or speculation in our deliberations but must instead, divert our focus to action and the ways in which we can suppress racism.

Racism is not an issue that is specific to any one particular community but is faced by a plethora of different communities; from migrant communities all the way to the travelling community, therefore neglecting our collective responsibility to fight it places the burden of dealing with it upon the communities that are impacted by it most. Instead of shying away from our responsibilities, we must own up to the problem of racism and see it as an Irish problem that affects a diverse range of Irish people, which requires a unified Irish effort in order for it to be appropriately addressed.

“We have beyond us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilisation” is what the great Martin Luther King Jr stated at the zeitgeist of the civil rights movement in the USA.

We are at a defining stage in Ireland in terms of race-relations and must choose to inject our national conversation about racism with empathy, realism and a genuine- if utopian- aspiration for a progressive, racism-free Ireland.