Uly,
musician

From my own experiences with it, it’s all stuff that happened when I was much younger, when people knew an awful lot less. I think as we get diverse as a society, there is an increasing level of tolerance for people from all backgrounds. Then we are very lucky in Ireland that for the most part, except for direct provision, we don’t have inherent systems that pick groups of people out based on their ethnicity or where they’re from, and punish them for that, not like in the States.

In my own experiences, for a lot of people, even if they harbour any misgivings or any kind of prejudices against people, nobody wants to be seen as the racist uncle on Facebook. Nobody wants to be that person.

This might be a bit of a far reach, but I think so many of these issues and prejudices are fuelled by the dissatisfaction in one’s life. People who have health issues, family issues or financial issues – a lot of discrimination can stem from that. It’s a distraction, or a scapegoat.

A lot of it is, rather than there being an issue with how we relate to each other, how we’re all under the thumb of something, and that distracts us from our humanity. It’s all just this weird circle of people hurting each other. Whatever hurt they’ve experienced before ends up being channelled negatively, and everyone just forgets to be a bit human about it, I suppose.

Read Part 1 of 100 Voices: #AllAgainstRacism, in the current issue of Hot Press. Available to pick up in shops now, or to order online below:

Special thanks to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission for their support in this project.