100 Voices #AllAgainstRacism: Wallfella – "I feel like racism is the elephant in the room"

Wallfella,
rapper

I feel like racism is the elephant in the room. It’s a big issue. A lot of people turn a blind eye to it in Ireland. I’ll be honest, I’ve been guilty of that myself. I’ve experienced it a few times – not myself, but I’ve actually seen people on the street who have been racially abused and not said anything about it.

There’s been a lot of education over the past couple of years to speak out about it if you do see it. That’s good. No matter what colour or creed you are, you need to speak about these things if you see them. Maybe in the past people thought it wasn’t their place to get involved, but we’re all human. We need to stick up for each other.

You’re never going to get 100% of the human race to be perfect, but you can obviously get the majority to not be like that. As the generations move on, diversity is massively important in Ireland. So I am optimistic. You have to be.

Read Part 2 of 100 Voices: #AllAgainstRacism in the current issue of Hot Press:

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