Yes, we do love this country but racism is getting worse...
John Meagher meets two African community activists who talk about their experience
Race relations: Eric Yao and Patrick Maphoso believe this country is at a tipping point right now
Saturday April 10 2010
Patrick Maphoso mulls over the question. "About once a week," he says at last. "Yeah, I'd say I experience racism of some sort here every single week."
The South African has lived in Dublin since 2001 and stood as an independent in last year's local election. He failed to win a seat in Dublin City Council, but he achieved nationwide coverage when he spoke of the racism he experienced on the campaign trail.
"I received death threats because of my skin colour. Two men on the North Circular Road told me they would put a bullet in my head. One of them said to me, 'blacks make me sick'. I made an official complaint to the gardai but have heard nothing yet, even though it is a criminal offence to make a death threat to anther person.
"I didn't get elected but I raised the issue of racism in Ireland and that's important. My family and I are very fond of this country but racism does exist and it has got a lot worse since the recession.
"Yes, it's only a minority of people who are racist in my experience but it's the silent majority that I'm concerned about. They like to think racism doesn't really happen in Ireland. But it does happen and an awful lot of it never gets reported."
Eric Yao shares his friend's assessment. The Ghanaian runs the Africa Centre on Dublin's Lower Abbey Street and believes many Irish people do not want to believe that racism is becoming endemic here. "A lot of people are putting their heads in the sand. Even well-intentioned people like to think that Ireland doesn't have a significant race problem, because they look at other European countries and think the situation here is much better. That may be the case but it's a growing problem."
Mr Yao cites an incident that occurred to him just days previously. "I had parked on double-yellow lines on Parnell Street and ran into a shop. I was out a minute later and there were two guards waiting at the car. The male guard asked me if I thought I was better than everyone else.
"I told him he was out of order saying that and I think he then knew he was wrong to say it. But that sort of thing happens all the time -- snide comments, put-downs. It is racism and anyone who can't see that is misguided."
Mr Maphoso says he has had several "depressing" experiences with gardai here. "I come from a country that had a profound race problem and still does to a large extent, but I have been very taken aback by the way I've been treated by the guards. I was involved in a car crash last year and the woman who crashed into me was at fault, according to the insurance company. But when the guards arrived on the scene, they were very aggressive with me. And it was intimidating too because they called another squad car and at one point there were six guards surrounding me with just one female guard with the woman who caused the crash."
Mr Yao is interviewed in the current issue of the international magazine, New African, and the article -- headlined "Black man's burden in Ireland" -- paints an extremely unflattering picture of race relations in this country. Mary Corcoran, professor of urban sociology at Maynooth, is quoted as follows: "Irish people are extremely ethno-centric and are not open to difference and this prejudicial behaviour is also reflected in the reluctance of employers to engage with blacks in the market place."
Mr Yao says: "All the time I am hearing of Africans who apply for jobs and don't even get acknowledged because employers see a name that clearly isn't Irish. It happened to me when I looked for work even though my name isn't typically African.
"We have to confront racism in this country, not sweep it under the carpet. The problem is that many African people -- and other immigrants -- feel they have no voice in this country."
Mr Maphoso continues the theme. "There are 166 TDs in the Dail and not one of them is from an immigrant background. There is only a tiny number of councillors nationwide who are not Irish. Even the immigrant relations bodies are completely white -- at an executive level.
"It's the same with the gardai. It is a ridiculous situation."
Mr Maphoso runs a security firm, but within Dublin's African community, he is much more than an entrepreneur made good. "They see me as a counsellor, a fixer, a go-between," he says. As if to illustrate his point, he fields call after call arranging meetings, dispensing advice, allaying fears. "People phone me about all sorts of things. A black man and his white friend were in a bagel shop recently and when the African asked for the key to use the toilet, he wasn't given it.
"Both of them were very upset and considered going back in to fight the guy in the cafe. I had to go and talk them out of it. I then spoke to the guy behind the counter and he was genuinely sorry for what he had done, but incidents like this happen all the time. It's discrimination."
Mr Yao believes the level of discrimination has been exacerbated by the economic downturn. "Unemployment has hit the whole country but Africans have been particularly hard hit and often they are the first to be let go. We're meeting those people in the Africa Centre all the time.
"They are very despondent because they feel that they don't have much of a chance of getting new work and they are having to contend with people saying things like, 'if the foreigners weren't here there would be more work for us'. They quickly forget that immigrants were needed in the Celtic Tiger."
In order to stem the disproportionately high level of black unemployment, the Africa Centre puts unemployed people in contact with each other in order to foster an entrepreneurial spirit.
Mr Yao says the Government must take its fair share of the blame. "Race issues have been put on the back burner due to the recession. But even before that, the policy documents on racism were drawn up without any input from ethnic minorities."
That's one of the reasons why I will stand for the Dail in the next election," Mr Maphoso says. "We don't need other people to speak for us -- we can speak for ourselves."
He will put his name forward, he says, irrespective of the number of death threats he receives.
"I refuse to be intimidated. Despite these people, there is a lot of support for me from across the racial spectrum. People remember my face from the posters and even today come up to me and wish me well -- and not just ethnic minorities, but Irish people too."
Both men came to Ireland inspired by the opportunities here -- Mr Yao's wife, a doctor, was especially keen to emigrate to this country due to its much trumpeted economic growth before the recession -- and for the most part feel at home in their adopted land.
But the pair believe the country is at a tipping point right now, with in the words of Mr Maphoso: "Something that was always there, deep down, a racism that was always in hearts but wasn't seen when times were good.
"There could be major problems around the corner if more efforts are not made to engage with the ethnic communities," Mr Yao says.
"We can't let ghettos develop like they did in the UK 30 years ago. The situation is salvageable and it is great to see examples of people from all nationalities coming together and that is something to be very hopeful about."
Irish Independent
