Hi, hope you don't mind a random surfer butting in (I randomly found q10's blog & made my way here from there)
I'm Irish, and since September 11th I have been amazed to note that the only acceptable form of racism amongst 'liberals' in Ireland is to be anti Semitic. Now this antiSemitism is often cloaked in terms of being anti Israel (which equals anti war which equals anti American) but it is to my eyes blatant racism. It's ok to say anything you want about the Jews and their evil plans to take over the world etc. Jokes about Jewish looks and personality traits are acceptable even in company which would never talk about any other minority group (say blacks, immigrants, and our own Irish travelers) in such a way. On the other hand to say something like "I can see why Israel feels the need to defend itself, the holocaust was not so very long ago & an event like that must have a huge psychological impact on a race (or whatever term you prefer). In a way it is similar to our own feelings & reactions to the 1850s famine.” is to make oneself a social pariah. I have had to stop talking to my friends about the Israel issue because I find myself frightened & ostracised by their attitudes. & these are people who you can normally have a rational cool headed debate about pretty much any subject with. People snicker & sneer when news of a suicide bombing comes on the news. They do it in jest but they do not laugh when trains crash, or news of massacres in Darfur come through. Then they respond in an appropriate & empathetic way. I have often challanged people on these attitudes & have been laughed at.
I think there are a couple of reasons why antiSemitism is acceptable. Firstly the Nationalist movement in the North has aligned itself with the Palestinians. (”http://www.scotchirish.net/scots%20irish%20murals.php4”) they both like to portray themselves as freedom fighters against an oppressive state. The Palestinian flag flies in Catholic areas & the Israeli flag flies in Protestant areas. The massive irony of two different denominations of basically the same Christian religion finding themselves ideologically closer to Islam & Judaism than to each other is, of course, completely lost on all concerned.
Secondly, we Irish like to think of ourselves as the underdog & tend to ally ourselves with other perceived underdogs. But still everyone needs a hate figure & the Jews seem to fit the bill for a lot of Irish people (& many other Europeans). It is acceptable to hate Jews because they are traditionally seen as a powerful group in society. We all learned about WWII in school, but not a lot of emphasis was put on the holocaust. For one thing it might have made the British army look good & that is definitely not a purpose of our curriculum! I also think that the fact that Jews are classed as white (from an Irish perspective at least) makes them an acceptable target for racism especially from people who do not regard themselves as biased in anyway.
Thirdly, the war in Iraq has caused a lot of anger in this country. But because of the close ties (economic & personal) between America & Ireland a good portion of the political protest which should more correctly be directed at America has instead been directed at Israel. The antiSemitism is not new either. Our much loved founding father Eamon deValera was (as far as I know) the only national leader to send condolences to Germany on hearing of the death of Hitler.
On the subject of race & whether it is a genetic or social construct there is a very good chapter (The Grasshoppers Tale) in Richard Dawkins book The Ancestors Tale.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-01 03:15 pm (UTC)I'm Irish, and since September 11th I have been amazed to note that the only acceptable form of racism amongst 'liberals' in Ireland is to be anti Semitic. Now this antiSemitism is often cloaked in terms of being anti Israel (which equals anti war which equals anti American) but it is to my eyes blatant racism. It's ok to say anything you want about the Jews and their evil plans to take over the world etc. Jokes about Jewish looks and personality traits are acceptable even in company which would never talk about any other minority group (say blacks, immigrants, and our own Irish travelers) in such a way. On the other hand to say something like "I can see why Israel feels the need to defend itself, the holocaust was not so very long ago & an event like that must have a huge psychological impact on a race (or whatever term you prefer). In a way it is similar to our own feelings & reactions to the 1850s famine.” is to make oneself a social pariah. I have had to stop talking to my friends about the Israel issue because I find myself frightened & ostracised by their attitudes. & these are people who you can normally have a rational cool headed debate about pretty much any subject with. People snicker & sneer when news of a suicide bombing comes on the news. They do it in jest but they do not laugh when trains crash, or news of massacres in Darfur come through. Then they respond in an appropriate & empathetic way. I have often challanged people on these attitudes & have been laughed at.
I think there are a couple of reasons why antiSemitism is acceptable. Firstly the Nationalist movement in the North has aligned itself with the Palestinians. (”http://www.scotchirish.net/scots%20irish%20murals.php4”) they both like to portray themselves as freedom fighters against an oppressive state. The Palestinian flag flies in Catholic areas & the Israeli flag flies in Protestant areas. The massive irony of two different denominations of basically the same Christian religion finding themselves ideologically closer to Islam & Judaism than to each other is, of course, completely lost on all concerned.
Secondly, we Irish like to think of ourselves as the underdog & tend to ally ourselves with other perceived underdogs. But still everyone needs a hate figure & the Jews seem to fit the bill for a lot of Irish people (& many other Europeans). It is acceptable to hate Jews because they are traditionally seen as a powerful group in society. We all learned about WWII in school, but not a lot of emphasis was put on the holocaust. For one thing it might have made the British army look good & that is definitely not a purpose of our curriculum! I also think that the fact that Jews are classed as white (from an Irish perspective at least) makes them an acceptable target for racism especially from people who do not regard themselves as biased in anyway.
Thirdly, the war in Iraq has caused a lot of anger in this country. But because of the close ties (economic & personal) between America & Ireland a good portion of the political protest which should more correctly be directed at America has instead been directed at Israel. The antiSemitism is not new either. Our much loved founding father Eamon deValera was (as far as I know) the only national leader to send condolences to Germany on hearing of the death of Hitler.
On the subject of race & whether it is a genetic or social construct there is a very good chapter (The Grasshoppers Tale) in Richard Dawkins book The Ancestors Tale.