THERE IS of course no good time to say that racism is not always had, but since we are experiencing our own little convulsions with the incoming Romanians and certain People of A Darker Hue, now is certainly not the time to speak up for racism. So I will do just that. It's about time we gave racism a good name.
Is there any reason not to exult in diversity? Is this world not altogether more interesting that it is populated by so many races? Is it wrong for the Nilotic people of Africa to be proud of their physical beauty? Is it wrong that Somalis cherish the beauty of a race, for whom Iman is merely an average representative? That beauty would not have survived carelessness with the Somalian reproductive tissues. God bless race; long may it divide us, so long as we do not hurt because of it.
Subconscious agenda
In all cultures, all over the world, human beings have a subconscious agenda which is racist. They might find a person of another race sexually attractive, and be desirous of pelvic intimacy for the odd hour or two, but for the most part we are not drawn to people of another race as life- partners. It is this extraordinary attraction-repulsion code working within the human heart which enabled the Norman-English to remain as a separate species within Irish life for so long - long after the Confederation of Kilkenny - and, according to a pet theory of mine, to retain a wholly unconscious identity which finds political expression in Fine Gael.
It was this same feature which enables the Jews of Eastern Europe to remain Jews. For Jews not to have been racist would have meant the end of their race. Is that a crime? Is that wrong? Is that reprehensible? Of course it is not. And though we all agree that, at one level, it is wrong to make judgements about people because of their race, or exclude them as marriage partners simply because of it, at another level, we know we do it the entire time.
Admittedly, much of what we call race is not about race at all but about culture. The eskimo child raised as Hutu will be culturally a Hutu, and will think like a Hutu, and possess Hutu cultural norms. But in practice, as we know, certain racial groups have cultural practices, which are not genetically coded, which depend on nurture rather than nature, and which are inescapably represented, to a greater or a lesser degree, by members of those groups. There is not a human pool from which one can draw neutral humans. We are coloured - so to speak - by the culture which raised us, and both in our own eyes and in the eyes of those who observe us, we associate race and culture.
Identifying the tribe
We can be extremely sophisticated about this, and sharp as dogs. The alchemy of race and culture enables people of Northern Ireland to identify one another's tribe. A North Belfast person can normally spot a bluenose or a Fenian at the drop of sash. People know a Protestant face; they know the features of the Ulster-Scots. In the drumlins and orchards of Armagh the tribes can tell the tribe by a glimpse of an eyelash.
And in the Republic, we have the Romanian paradox. A few years ago, there was a brisk market in Romanian children, who were seen as being close enough to the Irish Mark One human being to be convertible. The skin might be little sallow, the noses rather engagingly Carpathian, the eyes just a touch grey to be those of the true Gael; but with an Irish diet, and a climate of perpetual drizzle, could not this genetic legacy of Rome's easternmost legions not be transformed into something convincingly Irish?
And now we have real, live, adult Romanians in our midst, and we don't seem to like it one bit. The Romanians we like are infantile, incontinent and babbling. Grown-up Romanians we not too fond of. You know something else? They're probably not too fond of us either. They think we're slow, stupid, unimaginative; or something like that. And many of us are uneasy about the tide of black and brown and off-white faces which are entering our cities. No doubt the disdain is reciprocated in good measure.
Such disdain is no doubt silly, but then much of human nature is silly, and defies rational analysis. One of the stupid heresies which informs our race-relations precepts, and our equality industry, is that human beings make rational decisions the entire time, and that we can by good laws, a vigorous judiciary and a wise executive be turned into rational, biddable people. Rubbish.
In this month of all months, we should be aware of the vast distance between reason and rite. We should by this time know how we judge: we think that the rites of a competing tribe are insane, perverse, gratuitous. Ours are merely innocent statements of a cherished and valuable cultural identity which enriches the world. Orange marches good/bad: St Patrick's day marches good/bad. Take your pick.
Facing truths
Not that this is the same thing as racism; it is merely a kindred emotion. But we should not be shy about facing up to certain truths - such as, for example, that we tend to like certain characteristics of our race and our culture, and we are not always sure of the difference. And we permit judgements about one racial group, but not another. I would not be called a racist if I were to deplore the mass immigration of thousands of people from the English Home Counties to the Dingle Peninsula. How would the reaction be if I were to deplore the movement of thousands of Jamaicans to that same peninsula?
There is nothing wrong with exulting in race, provided it is not done at the expense of another race. We would be importing the banal fallacies of a perverted multiculturalism if we deny the genetic truths of traditional Irishness. We will, of course, have to start redefining a generous and inclusive Irishness for the incoming races which will lay claim to Irish identity. But that should never prevent us from celebrating the traditional characteristics of the Irish race; nor prevent Hiberno-Caribbeans from one day celebrating the dark skin and the Bantu noses of their Dahomeyan ancestors.