Racism in Ireland: “I grew up feeling like I was born with some awful condition”Posted in Articles, Europe, Media Archive, Social Justice, United Kingdom on 2022-03-29 01:39Z by Steven |
Racism in Ireland: “I grew up feeling like I was born with some awful condition”
Her
2020
From online abuse to comments in the Dáil, racism has come to the forefront of the national conversation in recent months. But who is suffering and just how prevalent is it? In a new series, Her asks women living in Ireland to tell us about their real life experiences…
“No one should want to bleach their hair or hide their skin because they’ve been told the way they were born looks ‘ghetto'”
Vanessa Ifediora says that growing up black in Northern Ireland was difficult. “Bullying was rife, mostly instigated by the parents who sent their kids into school with a script of what to say to me,” says the Belfast woman. “Children that young only parrot what their parents teach them.
“When I was 16, the manager at my part-time job showed me a picture of some blonde haired baby whose mother was mixed race, and told me: ‘Keep your chin up, when you marry a white guy nobody will even know your children are black.'”
Moving away from her home city as an adult didn’t put an end to these experiences. Vanessa was also subjected to blatant racism while living in Cork.”It was only seven years ago – I don’t know what it’s like now – but, then, in Cork people would openly walk right up to me and insult me…
Read the entire article here.