Quote:
Originally Posted by Rubato
The Irish were assumed to be all thieving drunks, if you were refused entry into a shop because you were Irish would you feel discriminated against? Of course people will still assume, but just because a problem is hard to get rid of doesn't make it is so virtuous in itself. There is simply no excuse for assuming anything about someone before you've met them.
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Many Irish were a bunch of thieving drunks :P That attitude has died with the legacy, though - I haven't come across any discrimination against the Irish in the year I've been living in the UK. If anything, I've gained on account of everyone seeming to like the Irish over here. If it were to happen to me then yes, i would feel discriminated against, but does it? When was the last time that happened?
@ Jansz, of course he's going to say that, but my point is that the distinction is that the racist won't actually have enough evidence to be able to make that assumption. he or she will be basing it on one bad experience or on what someone told them. As I was saying before, it might seem like semantics, but the difference between that and a position based on personal experience with a large group is significant.
In the case of the Irish Councillor Darren Scully, he stated that every single time he had dealt with the local black african population (and it was a reasonable number of times), they had acted aggressively towards him when they came to him seeking help. He decided that based on the attitude of the community, he no longer felt comfortable representing them and would instead forward their problems on to someone else who could help them. Are there valid reasons for doing so? In my opinion, yes. It could have been the case that these cases were taking up so much time due to the aggressive attitude of the entire subsection of this group that he had had dealings with that it was taking away from his ability to represent the rest of his constituents, who weren't as aggressive. If you have to make a choice, surely you're going to choose the more helpful, whom you might actually be able to help? The above might not be true, but it is at least one form of justification for such a decision.
I understand that there is a very thin line here. I understand how it is a short step from an assumption based on a large body of experience to assumptions based on less and less, until you
are being racist. I will note that I am more than happy to be proven wrong, and I am sure Darren Scully would be happy to be proven wrong, but until such a time as I find an exception to the rule, I am going to assume the rule stands.