MNHQ Racism policy

Yes I thought that MN's bar should be higher than this. I do hope when HQ do post it comes with an apology and something worthwhile and crystal clear.

I know it's Bueller - just testing

Buellor? Buellor? Anyone.....?

Oh, I'm Irish and living in England, Little, so it's no surprise to me at all. Plus I've been here since the days when we were the Terror Threat du Jour. Even leaving that aside, I could write a fairly extensive thesis on highly unpleasant current attitudes to Ireland as expressed in middle-class dinner party chitchat, often beginning 'Oh, you Irish...' . As you say, a refusal to laugh along is resented. Also, the combination of an Irish accent and two Oxford degrees reveals quite a bit. You would think I was a talking pig.

Somehow, I expected higher standards from Mn, given it's praiseworthy attitude to disablism etc.

You're right, though, I should hide threads about Ireland.

I've not read the other thread, for health reasons and not wishing to be suspended or banned. I get the jist from what I read here.

IF the same discriminatory nonsense was spouted with mock-W/Indian 'friendly' banter there'd be lots of dished out.

Wonder where HQ are up to with 'deliberations'. after all HQ have said it's very important to them..

I didnt see the thread in question. Am marking my spot though, as a welsh poster I am intrigued to hear mnhqs position on this :)

suggests a bizarrely unenlightened culture of ingrained ignorance, indifference and dismissiveness towards Irish people, issues and concerns.

I doubt that would be a surprise to anyone who has lived or worked in GB with an Irish accent of either variety. Even in an environment where the majority were fairly highly educated I was still expected to chuckle along with the "stupid Paddy" hilarity, but not allowed to respond with observations of my own.

This is why I have started hiding any thread which "Irish" or "Ireland" in the title as they tend to degenerate into spectacular ignorance and I would hate to have to be impolite. Obviously HQ won't do a damn thing about them.

I don't think that thread amounted to 'racism' either - and I do agree, Squoosh, that there have been far 'worse' threads in the past, in which I also spoke up.

BUT I do think it's tiresome and cumulatively damaging stereotyping, though, which, coming hard on the heels of the NI thread, and MnHQ's deafening silence on the matter, suggests a bizarrely unenlightened culture of ingrained ignorance, indifference and dismissiveness towards Irish people, issues and concerns.

There's a continuum between stereotyping and actual discrimination, for crying out loud - they are closely related phenomena, not unrelated. The existence of Page Three girls aren't the 'cause' of the pay gap between men and women, or the pitiful rape conviction rate, but they are a symptom of a society in which considerable gender inequality still exists.

Yes it's a fight worth fighting but don't leap on every mention of things Irish as being racist or assume that people who disagree with you on this matter are anti Irish.

I said nothing about anti irish. But I do think a lot of posters on this site are extremly patronising and dismissive about certain topics, and entirely irrational about others. Why they feel they can pick and choose who deserves to feel discriminated against is beyond me.

In any other circumstance the offensive remark would be deleted or edited. I also think its very clear MNHQ thinks that we should suck it up and get on with being made fun of,being implied we are drunkards,workshy and terrorists. We should get over the whole 800 years thing.
Would the same thing be tolerated if said about any other nationality?

'The OP on the dublin thread was mildly offensive. The attitude displayed towards youre and nigellasdealer by other posters was downright shameful.'

In your opinion. I wasn't at all offended by the OP but did find youre's and nigella's posts to be ludicrous. Truly.

But I won't derail this thread any further as there have been Irish threads that have pissed me off in the past, and I've spoken up loudly in those instances. I save my fighting for times where actual racism was being displayed, in my opinion a nonsensical Oirish phrase like that isn't racism.

Yes it's a fight worth fighting but don't leap on every mention of things Irish as being racist or assume that people who disagree with you on this matter are anti Irish.

Because people from Northern Ireland and ROI are not being listened to when they say they are offended. They are accused of being PO or ridiculous, or having their knickers up their arse, or needing to lighten up. Yada yada.

Fact is, some people are sick of these threads coming up either having a go or just using daft stereotypical phrases. Its not necessary. There have been many threads where people ask for advice when coming to this island, and people are more than happy to help. Do they need to spout "irishisms" to get the point across? No they don't.

And anyone who speaks up is met with a torrent of abuse from other posters who want to prove just how easy going and fun they are.

The OP on the dublin thread was mildly offensive. The attitude displayed towards youre and nigellasdealer by other posters was downright shameful.

I am reading and good points are being made but I still fail to see how I personally am proving your point purely because I disagree with people who think that the phrase 'Top of the Morning' is racist.

There are 9 pages here outlining our point.

Have a read.

That thread alone might not have been offensive, but added to the thread that was deleted last week, and MNHQs attitude on the deleted thread and on this one, it is all adding up to a bigger picture.

Yes, I'd have loved to have read the other threads, I'm the first to jump on examples of anti Irish racism.

And what is your point?

She brought it up because MNHQ asked to have a discussion about all this (they have gone AWOL which is disappointing) and that thread is relevant to this discussion.

As is your attitude. So keep going. You are proving our point quite well.

Why can she post her views on both threads but others can't?

And surely if I find her stance ridiculous I'm allowed say so. Report my posts if you find they are hampering your thread.

Squoosh, I don't think its appropriate to follow a poster on to another thread to tell them they are ridiculous.

This thread is specifically related to the issues that some people were trying to highlight on that thread. If you don't agree with it, that's fine, but there's no need to call any of it ridiculous.

Also, you're not the thread police.

You're not having the thread hijacked? Well then you shouldn't have brought it up should you?

Sorry that was to squoosh. I agree wanna.

As i said- im not having this thread hijacked by that one. It's all been said on there. No need to bash it out here aswell.

MNHQ are we ever going to have any kind of meaningful discussion about this, or are we to just "get a grip" as advised on that thread?

This whole thing is disgusting.

BTW youre I agreed with everything you said on that thread. But there's no point trying to talk to people who want to be ignorant to the issues that are being highlighted.