Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Site stuff

Join our Innovation Panel to try new features early and help make Mumsnet better.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

“Racism” towards the Irish on here

581 replies

Giantbanger · 30/10/2018 10:09

Can we please talk about it and can you please get your mods some training.

There was a thread that stood from yesterday. The op was goady and people were reporting the fuck out of it from yesterday.

It went this morning because the op was previously banned for being goady. No surprises there then.

But it contained a post from a member of MNHQ that really bothered me and I would like to discuss.

Add message | Report | Message poster EstherMumsnet (MNHQ) Mon 29-Oct-18 19:43:38
Hello!
Thanks for all the reports on this one. We'd like to leave this up as it's a pretty interesting discussion - one for the colonial/post colonial literature experts perhaps (yes - we know there's an argument over whether Irish literature counts as such!) - so please keep to the spirit of the site when discussing this and make your points politely. Thanks

So if there’s a “racist” thread about the Irish, it is an interesting discussion and the Irish need to be polite when telling racists they are racists.

(And Yes. I know in the dictionary definition Irish isn’t a race. It’s a subset ethnicity of Caucasian but the term is used more broadly in general use than the dictionary definition.)

OP posts:
Original poster
giantbanger · 30/10/2018 20:52

*believe

OP posts:
Original poster
giantbanger · 30/10/2018 20:50

I can’t beleive I haven’t had a response from mnhq. I’ve reported and I started this thread. And. Nothing.

OP posts:
Devillanelle · 30/10/2018 18:54

And MNHQ would you ever just trust us when we tell you that we find something offensive. It isn't for you to decide what is and isn't offensive, if we tell you something is racist then bloody well listen to us, eh?

Devillanelle · 30/10/2018 18:52

I have reported posts before that have made comments about members of the IRA etc (lauding them in some cases) and they haven't been removed. There does seem to be some kind of hostility towards Irish people here.

ElspethFlashman · 30/10/2018 18:49

I agree, I happened upon the thread after the MNHQ post. I saw it, I was horrified, I ran.

MN is absolutely 100% allowing repeated xenophobic offensive stuff about Ireland and Irish people to stay up every single week. If they're trying to broaden MNs appeal beyond the Women's Institute Little Englander Brexiteer stereotype they're not giving that impression.

And yes to whoever said the Baby Names topic is a racist shit show.

JaneJeffer · 30/10/2018 18:46

I'd love to hear that discussion. MN deciding whether it's worth appeasing the Paddies.

Original poster
Giantbanger · 30/10/2018 18:44

Yes Istand I honestly think it’s really poor.

That mod post was totally “beyond the pale”. And I’d like to think that someone at hq could at least have come along at some point today and apologised for that at least.

OP posts:
IStandWithPosie · 30/10/2018 18:42

It’s a pretty poor show that they can’t even post that on the thread itself isn’t it.

Original poster
Giantbanger · 30/10/2018 18:42

I am too. Every time.

OP posts:
Original poster
Giantbanger · 30/10/2018 18:40

That’s good Istand but I haven’t and they haven’t said anything on the thread here.

OP posts:
IStandWithPosie · 30/10/2018 18:40

Please do broomstick, it’s what I’m going to do from now on in the hope that HQ realise just how prevalent this stuff is on here.

IStandWithPosie · 30/10/2018 18:39

I’ve had an email saying they are discussing this in the office and hope to get back to us soon

Original poster
Giantbanger · 30/10/2018 18:37

We clearly aren’t going to get an answer today. Not even a “discussing in the office will get back to you” and that feels incredibly rude and dismissive.

OP posts:
BroomstickOfLove · 30/10/2018 18:35

I usually just ignore posts and let them go, but I think I'll start reporting the anti-Irish stuff when I see it.

Original poster
Giantbanger · 30/10/2018 18:28

I still have no response on email.

I’m really quite disheartened. If it isn’t even worth an answer there’s no hope for an attitude change.

OP posts:
DioneTheDiabolist · 30/10/2018 17:32

I was reading it this morning when it went pop. I wasn't at all surprised by MNHQ's comment or the blatant anti-Irish sentiment. MNet have a habit of viewing anyone not white, MC and English as "other" and somehow less.Halloween Hmm

IrishMamaMia · 30/10/2018 16:42

'I have no problem with the discussion as a discussion - it was the racist tone of the OP and some of what the OP and others said.'
Totally agree with you @giantbanger
It wasn't posted for an informative discussion. It was posted to be intentionally provocative and the mod message was just not on.

acivilcontract · 30/10/2018 16:40

bobbybobbins to be fair I heard both John Major and Tony Blair talk about the border and the GFA before the referendum. I think there were NI politicians talking about it as well.
I am agree with maisypops about the discussion.

CraicMammy · 30/10/2018 16:33

Thank you for this thread, I too was disappointed in the response MNHQ provided. A large number of people were offended by what was said regarding writers from Ireland’s “Britishness”. MNHQ failed, through ignorance, or indifference, in my view, to understand the reasons that offence had been caused, and minimised it by dismissing it as an academic argument about literature.

I would encourage MNHQ to seek training for its mods on the issues arising from the UK’s rule of Ireland, that legacy is alive and kicking. It is an issue of particular sensitivity for me, as a dual Irish/UK national, happily married to someone from a different Irish background. A very hard won peace is in peril, due to too many people ignoring the impact Brexit would have on the Belfast Agreement, I believe MNHQ has a duty to ensure that discussions on this forum recognise the magnitude of the situation and not enable anti-Irish sentiment to be published without check.

Original poster
giantbanger · 30/10/2018 16:21

I'm getting responses to other reports, so it's only this thread that is being ignored.

OP posts:
Original poster
giantbanger · 30/10/2018 16:03

I've reported the thread to see if we can get a response.

To be very honest, I'm disappointed in the lack of a response to us.

OP posts:
LivLemler · 30/10/2018 16:01

@MNHQ are you going to respond to this thread?

PennyMordauntsLadyBrain · 30/10/2018 12:34

There was some shocking opinions said over the course of the Ashers bakery threads which really showed a lot of ignorance to me.

Of course, they weren’t deleted as accusing the entire population NI of being backwards knuckle-draggers is totally acceptable.

Raydan · 30/10/2018 12:25

Not on the subject of literature but I have been shocked at the attitudes towards the Irish border following the Brexit vote. So dismissive. The fact it wasn't even mentioned by either side during the campaign says it all.

@Bobbybobbins a lot of British people just don't even understand what Northern Ireland is and its relation to the UK. It's wild Hmm

TheresAnOliveOnMyPizza · 30/10/2018 12:24

There is casual anti-sub-Caucasian stuff in here all the time. All the anti American anti Irish anti Australian things that are said. It appears that because they are predominantly white it is ok. Which it isn’t. There are posters from all over the world in this site and to have your whole nationality bashed repeatedly because this is a UK site really turns you off. Very insular. Fine if your target demographic is only the U.K. but then what is that representing the U.K. people as to the wider world? You call Australians racist but wow take a look at what is said about Aussies on here!