How hard are Black and Irish fighting for MLK's dream?
Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr day, we all celebrated the legacy of Dr. King, he was not only an influential figure to the black community in America but the whole world.
Every year we reflect on Dr.King’s famous speech “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” We can all agree that we have come a long way since the movements of his civil right, while a lot has changed throughout the world when it comes to racism, we can also agree that there is still a lot of work left to be done to truly fulfill his vision. When I think of Dr.King, the first word that comes to my mind is “hope”, hope that if we thrive to fight for justice by being brave, fair, and open, a change is possible.
Racism has the power to hide, having lived in Ireland for 15 years (longer than where I was born in Eritrea), I have seen so much blatant racism growing up in Ireland, and for most of it, I was never confident enough to address it because racism is the kind of thing that was kept quiet and hidden under the sheets. Usually, when the topic of racism is brought up in a conversation with friends, a common phrase I hear is “there is no racism in Ireland”.
As harmless as this phrase might sound, unfortunately, this results in a negative impact on people within the minority groups. It comes across as invalidating someone’s experience when it comes to racism.
The above also highlights another issue that we have as an Irish society, which is the lack of mainstream platform opportunity for minority groups to discuss social issues. To my fellow Irish people, if you are coming with good intentions, please rephrase it with “Is there racism in Ireland” and this will set the right tone, allowing for open conversation.
An incident that unfortunately reminded me that we as an Irish society still have a long way to go in terms of racial issues, is the recent incident of George Nkencho who had a mental illness and was tragically shot on December 30, 2020. While the case of George Nkencho’s death is being investigated and I cannot confirm if the incident was racially motivated. The incident has caused so much hurt and anger to the black community. How the mainstream portrayed George Nkencho as a “Thug” and was so quick to spread false claims that “he had 32 convictions”, While the people that responded with hate on social media are one of the core issues that need to be resolved in Today’s society, the silence we have witnessed from our white peers is something we need to work on, as for silence is compliance.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemy, but the silence of our friends.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
The lessons we need to take from this incident are:
- We have to do a better job at looking at our mental health, we need to start prioritizing mental health, as from my experience we don’t talk about mental health especially in the black community, we need to end suffering in silence.
- We as an Irish community need to make sure incidents like this don’t further divide us, we need to put our focus and work towards uniting the Irish community.
Racism is an invisible disease that exists in today’s society and for us to fight this disease, we first need to acknowledge the complexity of racism, and it is then we can have an open conversation on how to resolve the core issues.
Dr. King was a voice for many and this day should remind us all to be the voice for the voiceless and not be silent on all the issues that exist in today’s society. Let us all continue MLK’s legacy by continuing to fight and strengthen equality rights for everyone.
