Sir, – Further to "We're a lot quicker to point out the Irish contribution to the American railway system than to systemic racial oppression" (Lucie Shelly, Opinion & Analysis, June 9th), the fact that two commissioners of the Minneapolis police during the Bush years had Irish surnames and that three "in the early 20th century" also did doesn't really tell us how infused that police force was by Irish-American attitudes or, more importantly, how much those attitudes had to do – or if they had anything to do – with the horrific murder of George Floyd.
Focusing on the fact that the last three police commissioners in New York have had Irish surnames and even Irish grandparents tells us nothing about whether one, two, or three of them made the department more or less systemically racist. And pointing out that the policeman who shot a 10-year-old child in Queens nearly 50 years ago had an Irish surname is not the same as providing evidence of “the Irish contribution . . . to systemic racial oppression” unless the author can demonstrate not only that the policeman’s acquittal was wrong – and it may well have been – but that his Irish-American-ness helped prompt his criminal act.
None of this is to deny that a large (though steadily diminishing) portion of many American urban police departments have been made up of Irish Americans or that systemic racism has poisoned police departments large and small across America.
Having grown up in Philadelphia, I also know that racism is not uncommon in Irish America, but I don’t at all know if it more common there than it is among Italian-Americans, Polish-Americans, Asian-Americans, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants Americans, etc. At the moment it’s especially important not to rely on simplifications. Seven of the last eight police commissioners in Philadelphia have been African-Americans, yet the department is often accused of racism. Determining whether the accusations are well-founded won’t be helped by a check of surnames. – Yours, etc,
FRANK GAVIN,
Toronto,
Canada.