I would love to reply to richards post but what with the wifes passport and my daughter just arriving back from Washington, I cannot. Suffice to say that a large part of the English working class in the north of the country is of Irish stock.

Me as an example, McLaughlin hardly an English name,very Donegall. Agreat deal of the British army who served in Ulster were of Irish stock. Proud to be English but proud of their Irish roots. Those who are not directly involved in the past troubles of Ulster find it hard to believe.

On a sporting and musical level, the Irish shine through in all departments,something that is not realized by people outside of the country.


I suppose its a little similer in the USA, were you have this Irish American thing, in NY and Boston.

My ancestors fled the famine, which by the way was caused by poisoned pototoes shipped over to Belgium from the USA. The reason the Irish suffered so badly is that their basic diet was the pototo. Most of Europe suffered from the pototo blight, but they had a better diet. Strange but true even today the Irish love their pototos,or spuds as they call them.

Whats really annoys me is the way my daughter was treated at Washington airport by black American airport staff, the words honky and white being used a lot. My daughters case and her friends case were riffled and perfume stolen.

This really annoys me as my daughter is a born again christian, who would NEVER insult anyone black or otherwise,I hope the bitch who made her cry by saying she was not boarding the plane,for trivial excuses,in order to feel important,well one day she will have to answer someone.

Well thats it,this time tomorrow, I will be in the city,that never sleeps.

I don't understand why you or anyone else is shocked at the racism in this city. Most people are racist they just don't have the ba!!s to admit it.

And I don't want to hear about the "melting pot". We may have all nationalities here & while we are tolerant of each other, that does not mean we get along & live together.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2006 12:00PM by bxgrl74.

I agree that it is unfortunate that racism is so alive still with the diversity we have now. I am a white women. I agree I have not had to deal with much racism other than in Detroit, the city I am near which is a primarily black city. but I think one advantage for white people is that even though none of us are just "white" we are all different nationalitles, however since there are not as many noticeable characteristics to pick apart. I am Hungarian, there isn't anything about me that says that just by looking. I think that makes us (white)seem like the majority sometimes, because the skin is similiar, hair, eye color...etc. Nothing to tell us apart specifically. I think in some cases it is sometimes related to employment. Americans are frustrated with the job market, and sorry to say angry with people from other countries coming and being employed here, while they can not get a job. I think as far as the arabic decent, unfortunatley there is a fear because no one can tell from appearances who is good and who is not, so the fear is aimed at all sometimes. I agree blacks take the past a little to far, because no one now does the things our ancestors may have and I personally do not like to pay for someone else's mistakes so that should at some time be put to rest (not racist at all-my boyfriend is black) I am sorry that people who were alive in those days treated others badly that were alive in those days but this is a whole new generation and things being different, I don't think it is any of our faults now. I do not know a lot about the asian culture unfortunately but I assume it is equally racist out there for them also.

Red, I still need to see A Day Without a Mexican. In my personal experience, growing up in California, each Hispanic culture is proud to be known for who they are and where their family is from. My Mom called us her Little Mexericans so we could be proud of our mix. What a great mix

I would say an uneducated racist person might lump everyone who speaks Spanish into one "nationality". You could also be very well educated but, not have an ear for the different dialects of Spanish and just assume someone was Mexican if you heard them only speaking Spanish.

In school, you always knew if someone was Nicaraguan, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Philipino, or Dutch Indonesian for that matter. Part of that was growing up proud to share your heritage. I loved that I could eat at a different friends house each night of the week, and have at least one thing from that persons culture for dinner, or a tradition involved with dinner.

I wouldn't call it racist or prejudice, but what I find myself up against is that people assume because of my looks, or because I can pronounce words in Spanish correctly with a good accent is that I can speak Spanish, and are totally amazed that I don't speak it fluently. Of course I say, your family has a German last name do you speak fluent German. Oh, your parents were born here... Guess what, so were mine. I have this conversation way to many times. My Japanese is better than my Spanish. When my kids move out and I have more money, I will do the same thing as my English immersion students do with my family, I will go to Mexico or Argentina and immerse myself to become fluent in Spanish.