Letters to the Editor: Racism is learned behaviour — we must stop teaching children that it's acceptable

Irish secondary school pupils speak out one year on from the death of George Floyd in US

Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, talks with reporters with other family members after meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House, this week in Washington. At left is Rodney Floyd. Picture: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Last year, on May 25, the death of George Floyd was caused as a result of police brutality. Many of us have seen the footage of officer Derek Chauvin kneeling down on Mr Floyd and killing him.

I have known for a while now that incidents like these take place in our world, but no matter how often you hear about these things, your heart still breaks when you learn that another person has fallen victim to racial injustice.

Incidents like these have been happening for centuries but more people are finding out about them now.

Actor Will Smith explained it the best: 

Racism isn’t getting worse, it’s getting filmed.

Every time someone witnesses such disturbing events, the first thing they do is get their phones out and film what is happening. That has many benefits and disadvantages, the benefit being that the video will get spread throughout social media, and people will react to the incident and try to help.

The disadvantage being that the public will only believe what has happened only when they see video proof.

Why is it that when it comes to someone’s skin colour, they are often treated differently? Why are black people automatically assumed guilty in some situations?

Why do we have these double standards?

Society needs to stop pigeonholing people. Stereotyping creates unnecessary tension between races and puts us up against each other.

Every problem has a solution and so does this, but the solution isn’t easy, it’s never easy. One thing that we all need to remember is that people are not born racist. 

Racism is taught by one’s family and society. We need to teach kids from a young age that people are equal and that they shouldn’t be treated differently because of their skin colour, religion, or ethnicity.

What the grown-ups can do is listen, learn and change. Everyone wants change to happen, but only a few are willing to be part of the change. We need to listen to the victims of racial discrimination.

We should learn to speak up about crimes like this, call out the culprits and learn to stand with the victims. The very least we can do is hope for, and help to make, a positive change in this world.

Dona Jaison

Transition Year student

St Mary’s Secondary School

Nenagh, Co Tipperary

Racism everywhere should be nowhere

“We can not tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism or exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.”

These are the words of Pope Francis following the tragic death of George Floyd. This statement is very powerful and truly gives us a look into how certain people of a different colour or race are being excluded.

Racism has a huge impact on many people’s lives. It can make them think that they will always be hated because they have a darker skin tone than others.

We live in a world where acceptance and tolerance depend on your appearance: How tall you are; your weight; your hair; the colour of your eyes, and most of all, your skin tone.

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None of this should matter. What truly matters is the type of person you are. Whether you are the person who will open the door for someone or if you just close it behind you and let them open it for themselves. This is what we should be judging — this is what needs to be important.

George Floyd’s death is a tragic story of humanity turning on itself.

There aren’t just two types of humans — those of colour and those not. Humans come in all shapes and sizes, so we shouldn’t judge, or treat differently, those who may look a little different to ourselves.

Nobody will ever be perfect, so we just have to tolerate and get along with one another as God tells us to.

Racism is everywhere when it really should be nowhere. Treat others how you would like to be treated because we are all the same at the end of the day.

Emma Nolan

2nd Year student

St Mary’s Secondary School

Nenagh, Co Tipperary

We must strive for social equality

George Perry Floyd Jr was suffocated to death by a police officer in the US.

Racism, whether historical or present day, has an effect on society however minor or drastic that may be. I think someone who has experienced it, builds up a lot of anger and frustration and demands change by any means they see as necessary.

In the period following Floyd’s death there were waves of riots and protests across America.

Martin Luther King Jr said: “Violence is the language of the unheard.” I think we all need to do a lot more listening so that people don’t feel like they have to resort to violent means in order to be heard and to achieve equality.

People in Minneapolis during a moment of silence on the one year anniversary of George Floyd's death on Tuesday. Picture: AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa

I don’t think there is any one solution to racism but I think certain people need to be willing to change their prejudicial ways, to always encourage diversity and to strive for a non-violent social change.

Racism really just filters down to the self-deception of being held in a higher regard than another person. Narrow minded ideals such as racism should have been extinguished with inter-racial mixing and the increase in the numbers of educated people.

That being said someone cannot use racism to justify their wrongdoings or play that card when they don’t get something they want. For example, in America if an African-American man was refused service at a family restaurant for a valid reason such as being intoxicated, he might decide that he is being racially profiled

Many videos emerge on social media platforms of similar kinds of scenarios and people can be deceived and take sides without getting the full story.

Racism is something that is taught, people are not born with it, it is a reflection of those around us. We must make a change now and influence the future generations to work towards social equality always.

Samantha Howard

2nd Year student

St Mary’s Secondary School

Nenagh, Co Tipperary

Technology can be a blessing and a curse

I have been wary of the electronic patient record (MN-CMS) from its inception and was in a minority by not championing Cork University Maternity Hospital becoming the “first fully digital hospital in Ireland” a few short years ago.

Whatever its advantages, it is indecipherable to the outsider. It consists of a series of computer-generated material on sheets of paper, generally undated, with unhelpful titles such as “Miscellaneous Notes”, “Scanned Documents”, “Orders” and “PowerForm Textual Rendition Notes”, etc.

Very few of these notes contain any handwriting or any recognisable input from a person. Instead, they appear to be computer-generated material whose origins are not evident to the reader.

While such a method of notation may be intelligible to those familiar with its use the system is, for all practical purposes, completely unintelligible to the outsider.

In particular, it is very difficult to recreate a chronology from such isolated pieces of paper.

Once in hospital, a patient is subject to this form of disjointed record keeping. I am sure clinicians find the electronic patient record a challenging system to navigate. 

It is difficult to find key information such as risk factors which do not appear in the banner bar. If this is so, how can a patient injured by negligence be expected to establish the facts and prove her case to a judge in court?

Similarly, how can a hospital death be properly investigated by a coroner when it is near impossible to construct a narrative from the medical records?

Technology can be both a blessing and a curse.

Sadly, we are now seeing the downside to going paperless. I hope that this current crisis resolves with minimal damage and that the HSE can learn an important lesson from it. My thoughts are with all those affected.

Doireann O’Mahony BL

Courthouse Chambers

Washington St, Cork

No meaning left in Eurovision contest

The Eurovision Song Contest began as a way to draw fragmented European countries into closer fellowship after the Second World War and parallelled political developments like the EEC. Entrants often wore national costume, sang in their native language or otherwise made it obvious which country they represented.

Somewhere along the way it morphed into something else. Geography was disregarded and countries clearly not in Europe were permitted to participate.

The national costumes and languages have all but disappeared to be replaced by ubiquitous English and pop standards.

The crop of singers this year all sported the same nasally shouting whine beloved of American hip-hop and pop artists.

It could have taken place anywhere in the world. It is no longer meaningful to call it a Eurovision Song Contest, or even a contest, for to be a contest there would have to be some difference between the songs apart from underdressed costumes and showy pyrotechnics.

Eyes closed it sounds like any regular radio charts.

Nick Folley

Carrigaline

Co Cork