It's long past time that unionists acknowledge the festering problem of unchallenged racism within the community, writes DAVID ADAMS.
A FEW weeks ago, about 130 Romanian people had to take refuge in a church hall after being forced to flee from their homes in a unionist part of south Belfast.
Scores of frightened men, women and children were bussed to safety, with belongings they could carry packed into plastic bin-liners.
Who could fail to have been moved by the images on our televisions and in our newspapers? Who in Northern Ireland could fail to feel anything other than sympathy, anger, and a deep sense of shame? Lamentably, quite a few people if subsequent radio phone-in programmes are anything to go by. At the time, senior unionist politicians and Protestant Church leaders were unequivocal in their condemnation. However, after windows were broken last week in an attack upon the church that had given refuge to the fleeing Romanians, the former were noticeably absent from media coverage of those calling to offer sympathy and support to the pastor and his congregation.
They must have felt they had already done enough.
A few weeks before the expulsion of the Romanians, a Catholic man, Kevin McDaid, was beaten to death by loyalists in Coleraine in a sectarian attack.
Local unionist politicians condemned the murder of Mr McDaid, but were also at pains to point out that sectarian tension had been high in the area for some time. Whatever their intention (and I’m sure it was honourable), this was widely interpreted as offering “mitigation”. The feeling was compounded when, disgracefully, no senior unionist politician saw fit to join local Protestant Church ministers at Mr McDaid’s funeral.
What sort of message did their non-attendance send to the victims and the perpetrators of hate crime? Last weekend, Anna Lo, an Alliance Party MLA for south Belfast, was warned by police that her home was under threat of attack because of her vociferous condemnation of the intimidation of the Romanians.
Originally from Hong Kong, Ms Lo has lived in Northern Ireland for nearly 35 years, and is our only MLA from an ethnic minority. She is a shining example of everything a political representative should be.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning of this week, shots were fired through the window of a house in Ballymena. Apparently, it was the third attack within a month on the (Protestant) couple who live there. Their “crime”, was, as members of the local residents association, to challenge people engaged in hanging loyalist flags from every lamp post in the religiously mixed housing development.
Almost as an aside, there have also been threats made this week against the Belfast Islamic Centre, and against Chinese businesses in south Belfast.
The list of hate crimes perpetrated by members of the unionist community goes back as far as you care to look. It seems set to continue as far forward as we can imagine – if unionism doesn’t decide to do something about it. The reaction of unionist politicians in particular to an attack is always the same: a few words of condemnation, and then move on.
To call this woefully inadequate is an understatement. It is long past time that unionists at all levels acknowledged that there is a major problem with bigotry within their community, and, more importantly, decided upon a comprehensive plan of action to eradicate it.
It’s no good whingeing about getting an unfair press. The media doesn’t invent what it reports upon, if the problems didn’t exist in the first place, if horrific incidents weren’t happening every other week, there would be no room for negative publicity.
Nor is it any good pointing the finger at nationalists and saying, “They’re just as bad”. In all honesty, that doesn’t appear to be the case – and, even if it were, it’s hardly an excuse.
Of course, all unionists aren’t racist, sectarian, homophobic bigots, far from it. And of course there are those within the media and in politics who would like nothing better than to label them all as such.
But the people doing the real damage to unionists are not the media or political opponents, but the virtually unchallenged bigots within their own communities. Unionism is adding massively to its own negative image, almost colluding in it, by doing little or nothing to tackle bigotry.
Besides, image should not be a primary concern. This should not be reduced to a competition between nationalism and unionism. The safety and wellbeing of members of our society is all that matters. Individually and collectively, unionists must become relentless in their active opposition to the poison of bigotry.
Parents and political leaders, church ministers and schoolteachers, and every other unionist with a voice, must constantly be lecturing and hammering home a message of tolerance – especially to children. Unionists must make it clear that bigoted attitudes will no longer be tolerated within their communities. It is nothing short of shameful for politicians and others to make do with a few back-covering condemnatory remarks after each incident.
Bigotry is causing enormous pain and suffering within our society and must be tackled. It’s long past time that unionists took up the challenge.
