As the World observed the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recently on March 21 and as the Government launched its national action plan to tackle racism in response to evidence of what the plan describes as “the persistence of racial discrimination across many spheres of life”, myself and my family would like to strongly condemn any form of racism and I was glad along with many others to support “Galway Communities Against Racism and Discrimination” at their rally march last Saturday in Galway City.
We should always counter racism by promoting a culture of solidarity and authentic human fraternity. Over the years, I have travelled around our world and our country quite a lot especially with work. In that time, I have seen and heard of many acts of racism committed against coloured people, especially black and brown people and people of different ethnic minorities, from children right up to adults.
Now, I have to ask myself a question: As a dad of two amazing beautiful children of colour, why haven’t I done more to try to end this, especially when we as a family have experienced it for ourselves firsthand? We must all stand up for those who are persecuted in our country and in our world.
We must listen to those who are harmed and stand with them and protect them. I am moved to hear so many speak of how they need to be more than not racist, but to be actively anti-racist. In a world battling war, hate and ugliness, especially these last few years, we have all realised how much stronger we are, when we work together.
Senseless acts
The senseless acts of racial and ethnic violence in word and deed should have no place in our country and world! So many of us, from all around the world, have helped each other through this virus pandemic and all of us are working together to save lives, exactly as we should be. You will all agree when we all work together, what a difference we all make for the greater good.
Racism is based upon the distorted belief that one person is superior to another, which starkly contrasts the fundamental principle that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Despite the commitment of the international community to eradicate it, racism continues to re-emerge like a mutating “virus”, resulting in a crisis in human relationships.
Instances of racism still plague our societies either explicitly as overt racial discrimination, which is often identified and condemned, or at a deeper level in society as racial prejudice, which though less evident, still exists. Listening to people and indeed some people’s nasty racist rhetoric recently in various cases because of the colour of peoples skin and also the fact that 600 alleged examples of racism were reported in Ireland in 2022, up from 404 in 2021 while also reports of discrimination have more than doubled in that time, one might think that leadership has to be aggressive and confrontational, but consider the following parable about leadership.
‘A student assigned to write an essay about an effective leader wrote this story: “I’ve been taking a bus to school for years. Most passengers keep to themselves and no one ever talks to anyone else. About a year ago, an elderly man got on the bus and said loudly to the driver, ‘Good morning!’ Most people looked up, annoyed, and the bus driver just grunted. The next day the man got on at the same stop and again he said loudly, ‘Good morning!’ to the driver. Another grunt. By the fifth day, the driver relented and greeted the man with a semi-cheerful ‘Good morning!’ The man announced, ‘My name is Benny,’ and asked the driver, ‘What’s yours?’ The driver said his name was Ralph. That was the first time any of us heard the driver’s name and soon people began to talk to each other and say hello to Ralph and Benny.
Soon Benny extended his cheerful ‘Good morning!’ to the whole bus. Within a few days his ‘Good morning!’ was returned by a whole bunch of ‘Good morning’s’ and the entire bus seemed to be friendlier. People got to know each other. “If a leader is someone who makes something happen, Benny was our leader in friendliness.” A month ago, Benny didn’t get on the bus and we haven’t seen him since. Everyone began to ask about Benny and lots of people said he may have died. No one knew what to do and the bus got awfully quiet again.
So last week, I started to act like Benny and say, ‘Good morning!’ to everyone and they cheered up again. I guess I’m the leader now. I hope Benny comes back to see what he started. Maybe all our societies in our world need a Benny!”
All do our part
We should all join in this race for racial justice, to do our part, so that together we can create a new country and new world. The society we live in is the result of human choices and decisions. “We”, the members of humanity created racism and only “We” can defeat racism and that time has come. No longer can racism be tolerated or accepted, it needs to be stopped, and the people who have suffered because of it have the right to finally be free from its grasp.
Racism has no place here in Ireland, it has no place anywhere and until we stamp it out permanently, we will never truly be free. That means that humanity can change things. For what humanity breaks, divides and separates, we can—with God’s help—also heal, unite and restore. What is now, does not have to be. Therein lies our hope and our challenge.
Racism, bigotry, discrimination, sexism, inequality, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, should have no place in our society. Only the recognition of human dignity can make possible the common and personal growth of everyone and every society. To stimulate this kind of growth it is necessary in particular to ensure conditions of equal opportunity for men and women and guarantee an objective equality between all human beings.
Standing up to racism isn’t easy, but it’s the right thing to do. Whether you’re in school, college or the workplace, challenging accusations, assumptions and stereotypes is a good way of letting people know it’s not okay to be racist. Remember, sometimes people can unintentionally make comments that appear racist.
Standing up to these comments can be a great way for people to learn about the negative impact they’re having. It is time, actually it is well past time to end Discrimination, Racism and indeed other situations affecting the livelihoods of people in our country and our world like Homelessness, Human Rights, Children Rights and Poverty.
Let us all take on this work today, every day, always, may it be and may we end it now.
