Racism Alive and Well in Belfast

Twenty Romanian families living in Belfast, a total of 100 people, had to be rescued from their homes because of racist attacks last week. Their houses were pelted with stones and bottles, windows were broken, Nazi salutes given and they and their children were generally terrorised.

The Belfast Romanians, as with the most recent wave of immigrants in every city in every age, live in the poorest, most run down part of town and they are at the bottom of the pile. They are recent arrivals so are not quite up to speed yet with the language therefore have to make do with the least attractive jobs – washing cars, selling newspapers – whereas the better educated Poles have monopolised the jobs in restaurants and cafes. However the Romanians are good workers and willing to put their hand to anything, and in time they will be able to integrate.

But evidently not everyone was happy. Those who had a problem with the immigrants served up as much abuse as they could, and to did whatever it took to get rid of the Romanians.

They were successful. Now all but 14 of the evacuees have elected to return to Romania and the racists have won that round.

The reasons cited for anti-Romanian feeling are the usual red herrings. They are taking “our” jobs, putting a strain on “our” public services and they are taking “our” houses. All nonsense of course. Landlords are raking in the rent made from letting out substandard housing which no local people would deign to live in. The jobs the immigrants do they have created themselves, and none of the protesting classes would ever condescend to wash cars or walk up and down between lines of slow moving traffic selling newspapers to drivers in their cars. Those jobs were never traditional in Belfast and now that the Romanians have gone we wonder who will take up the slack.

Belfast’s “Kristalnaght” was vicious, planned and terrifying. However it was also unrepresentative of our citizens and served to highlight the opposite opinion very publicly.

An anti-racist street protest rally was organised in the area by other local people, and for their trouble they were pelted with stones and bottles by the teenagers who had attacked the immigrants. Mooning (mercifully pixilated by the TV cameras) also figured in the racist arsenal of weaponry this time, something the Romanians were spared.

A local Church came to the rescue of the Roma families, providing emergency accommodation in their premises for the night along with blankets, food, friendship and security. The solid bulk of Christian people always rises to the occasion in Belfast, much to the disappointment of the press who prefer to vilify them as hypocritical trouble-makers. The mud just won’t stick, but still they try, singling out the occasional loud mouthed fundamentalist and portraying him as typical.

And revulsion at the racist behaviour towards the Romanians was widespread. All the local politicians were seen to be taking a stand (there’s an election coming up within a year) and they all did the photo shoot – Mayor, local Member of Parliament, and Deputy First Minister – but the most effective anti-racist rally was organised by the local Churches on the Sunday night (attended by the aforementioned politicos). One local Church was used for a community service of worship for everyone where the theme was “I was a stranger …..”. This however didn’t go widely reported (a few mooning clerics might have changed that) since it didn’t fit the press’s stereotyping of Christians, but the point was well made, and the message to the Romanians and all other immigrants was that they are welcome, we want them to stay, but unfortunately these particular families are now gone.

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me into your home.” Jesus.