Anyway, the evening wore on, and one man in particular got talking. He works for St.Vincent de Paul,(SVP) a charitable organisation here in Ireland that help out people when they are really in need. Bails people out when they can't go on, gives food vouchers to those who need them etc. etc. Lots of really good work.
But this man said some things that made my skin crawl. He started off
"I know we have many nations living here now, and lots of diversity, and thats fine, but there is one community that will never integrate here. And that is the African community"
He practically spat the words.
Hmm......... I'm thinking, how many integrated Poles (and theres 250,000 of them here, with our whole population being only about 4 million) do you see? I suppose their fantastic integration abilities are the reason that everywhere you go you see signs written in Polish? Or the Chinese community, another fantastic example of integration, hah! And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that its particularly their fault because of their racial background or whatever, but its not like they are really any better at it than the African community (and come to think of it, I actually know quite a few Africans, but I don't know any Polish or any Chinese). So whats his point? Well, it pretty quickly became quite clear that its because they're "blacks".
He told a story, about an African immigrant whose husband had left her and the kids high and dry, who was really struggling.
"And, don't get me wrong, she was a very nice lady, very nice, and quite attractive in her own way, for that type, except that there is the smell of course.......Anyway, she came to me and asked for money to pay for her child's pre-school. Well, I thought, really why did she need to send the child to pre-school, but she was a nice lady and she was asking me so we agreed that SVP would pay half, and she would pay half as long as she brought a receipt and showed us. So she did, but THEN.....then I found out later that it was FALSE. And the child had never been to play school at all!!! Because the play school that the receipt was from had shut down two years before, and someone had signed the receipt for her. Well I thought, thats the last time I'm taken in by a black!"
Now, obviously what the woman did was wrong, but a few people pointed out certain things.
Did this gentleman not feel that the Irish person who signed the false receipt was partly to blame in the whole thing?
"No! No, the white (yes he actually made a point of highlighting the whiteness, unprompted) who signed the receipt was not to blame, because it was her, it was her who decided to scam us."
And would you have given her the money (only 200euros, not the end of the world) if she had told you she needed it for something else?
"No. Absolutely not."
So this woman, being in a pretty tight spot, did something dishonest to get her family out of trouble, because she knew that that was the only way that she could get that money. Fair enough, it was wrong, but it wasn't the worst in the world.
And I can understand why he was annoyed; he gives up his time to give wisely the money that has been donated, and then his trust was abused. That would make anyone angry.
But I got the distinct impression that it wasn't this that really got him. There were other stories he told, such as about Irish Travellers(white as the driven snow!) who had abused the SVP, and he never seemed quite as annoyed about those. No, it was because this woman was black, and in his eyes he had been done by an inferior who should have been grateful that they would even offer charity at all to her "kind"! In fact, he made a point of telling another story about another "black" that annoyed him, just to drive it home.
And so many Irish people think like this. This is one of the things I hate about here.
I thought I was going to have to leave, I felt so sickened. Complete and utter revulsion for everything that p***k shited on about.
But hey, I've been well brought up, one doesn't make a scene in polite company.
I wonder though, what he would think if he met someone like the girl on the right in this photo.
3 comments:
There are many racists out there, far too many than we know of. And there are many diferent kinds of racism, the most clear being to "black-whites" and the less "old-young" of age...
I totally agree with you (as always...!) and I am with you for not making a scene. Such people do not ever change no matter what you tell them.
his organization needs to donate to the "lis fund." we don't care where the money comes from! ;) happy new year, and miss you!
That's just disgusting, it really is. People like that piss me off so much.
Arrgh! Such a frustrating angry post and I wanted to say something really deep but I just can't find the words to. Grrr.
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