After reading this I had the vague urge to jump to the defense of the broad-minded few(?) here in Eire! As you were saying earlier (in real life, not online just in case anyone’s confused!) this often gets used as more of a rant space - and there’s not much point in ranting about the good stuff that happens! (I suppose it’d be a rave space then, but I\’m getting off the point here).

Anyway, I realise that a lot of people around here can be very close-minded and/or racist, but I think you’ll find that in most countrys - unfortunately there’s idiots everywhere!;)

Just a few counter points to what you mentioned in the post:

(a) Ireland is predominantly white, so there only being two black people in the audience isn’t especially odd. It’s not like there’s loads more black people who aren’t being let into the talk because of a racist door policy.

(b) Ireland isn’t necessarily racist because of that…
Is Harlem racist because the population is mostly black (AFAIK!)?

(c) The ‘monoculture’ may be strange to you, coming from a very different (culturally, that is) country
- Ireland is predominantly white and that doesn’t make it evil. As you rightly point out, there is a growing population of black and asian people here, so perhaps ‘monoculture’ may no longer be applicable…

(d) Also, just because it’s white doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a ‘monoculture’?
Most of northern Europe is white. I don’t think it can be argued that French, Germans, Polish and ourselves (i.e. the Irish)
all have the same culture, even if we are all (well, mostly at least!) white.

(e) Ireland’s geography and history very different to America’s. This may be slightly controversial, I suppose, but the original reason there are so many black people in America is because of slavery. Ditto for Britain. That didn’t happen here, because we were, to get all republican about it, the equivalent of the ‘under class’ in our own country under British rule, and there was no need to import slaves. So while the whole civil war was raging in the US, we were fighting for our own freedom, and only got it well after they outlawed slavery. So the influx of foreign people into Ireland now is almost entirely for economic reasons - and the people who are so racist that you meet are just as hostile to well educated and/or prosperous white people.

So basically, I don’t think it’s entirely fair to judge our society entirely on norms based on a completely different (i.e. US)
situation. There are many people here who are racist ignorant idiots, BUT from all I’ve seen everywhere else I have gone there’s roughly an even distribution of idiots throughout the world (well, perhaps with the exception of Thailand, where pretty much everyone I met was really nice!)

thanks for commenting… because i was thinking the other day about how my recent posts on ireland are basically a ‘rant space’ where i work out my feelings about the negative things i experience here, and that someone reading my blog might think that:

1) i hate everything about ireland (not true!)
2) ireland really is a horrible racist place (not totally true either!)

your points are good ones, and important to keep in mind!

as for point a, b & c: i was one of the two “people of color” in the room that night! the other was a person who appeared multi-racial. i think that comment i referred to in the original post was more to express surprise that there isn’t more integration in irish society since there are a lot more non-white people in dublin, but you don’t see a whole lot of mixing, and that many americans who share my background (regardless of race) also notice this. most of the time i am the only non-white person in any social setting. this doesn’t automatically suggest racism, but being from a very diverse background it does seem strange from my point of view.

as for point d: i should have put quotes around “apparent” - as in an “apparent” monoculture - that’s as much a reference to the aforementioned new influx of international immigration in ireland as it is to the fallacy of the “pure” irish, as well as historic protestant/catholic religious divides.

as for point e) definitely the history of ireland is going to put race issues in a different context. but it’s not just a black/white issue in any of these countries, and people have been migrating to the united states for economic reasons since its inception.

anyway, there are two issues:

1) the history of ireland, which puts a unique spin on the circumstances under which racism develops
2) conditions which have created an economically deprived underclass whose few outlets unfortunately include racial harrasment.

i agree there are idiots everywhere, and statistically speaking, as the larger country and population, there should be more of them in the united states! (and trust me, there are.) but personally speaking it is a true statement that i have experienced more racism in ireland in these past couple of years than i have in the united states. heck, in my first two weeks in ireland i racked up more overt and agressive racist experiences than my entire life back at home! unfortunately that is the truth of my experience here, as much as all the really cool and interesting people i have met, and all the good experiences.

It’s really unfortunate that you’ve had a hard time (well, that’s a pretty big understatement by the sounds of things, but you know what I mean!) from the ignorant people here, and unfortunately I’d imagine you’re far from being the only one who has. Anyway, I see you’ve posted a list of stuff you like here, which is nice ;-).

P.S. Apologies for jumping to conclusions and putting in “two black people in the audience” in my original post, no offense intended!