My lesson in discrimination
Published: Fri, 01/22/21
post permanently. It should have been an opportunity to get into a school where Religious Studies was taken seriously and then apply for my own job later in the year.
The complication was that although the school was supposed to be a combined educational establishment the religious element was very much in the hands of the Catholic side. The RE syllabus was the one used in Catholic schools and somewhere along the line there had apparently been some agreement that RE teachers in the school would be Catholics. As a protestant it was okay for me to help the school out for a year but I could not expect to be appointed to a permanent post because I was the wrong kind of Christian. I actually did the job pretty well for the year and when the post was advertised I applied for the job I was already doing. The headmistress (who was an Anglican herself) refused to accept my application on the grounds that the Catholic bishop of Oxford would be upset if she considered appointing a protestant to the post. Things got a bit awkward after that and I actually left before the end of the summer term.
It was a long time ago, so why describe such an experience now? I do my best to believe that all we experience is intended to teach us something. The more difficult or blatant an experience the more we can learn from it. For me the lesson was pretty obvious right there and then. I grew up with the threat of Irish Nationalist violence hanging over the UK. We would hear of violence and intimidation in Ulster itself on the news. Then there were bombings in mainland UK itself such as the car bomb which exploded out side of the famous Harrods store in December 1983. It is hard to describe now what it was like living with such threats in the UK. It was also hard to understand what the big deal was anyway. Why couldn’t Irish people just get along with each other like anyone else?
Then I suddenly realised what it would feel like to be on the ‘wrong’ side in a conflicted community. In Ulster the communities were almost at war with each other. If young man took an interest in a girl from the ‘other’ community her brothers would threaten to kill him if he didn’t stay well away. Move into the ‘wrong’ street and your neighbours might throw a fire bomb through your bedroom window in the middle of the night. As for employment, don’t even think about applying for a job unless you are the ‘right’ religion. The religious schools in Northern Ireland ensured that the children of each community grew up properly indoctrinated, but never associating with the ‘other’ side. This situation perpetuated the division for generations.
My example of religious discrimination was mild enough compared with what generations lived with across the Irish sea. However, I understood how it felt to be rejected for a job I had already done for several months for no other reason than that I attended the ‘wrong’ church and had not attended the ‘right’ kind of school. (When I spoke to the person who was appointed to the post he told me that he wasn’t really a Catholic but he had been to a Catholic school and apparently that ticked the necessary box.)
I just accepted the situation and walked away from it. As stated above I now regard this episode as a valuable part of my education in that I know why individuals in one community would not care if members of the other community get hurt in some way. ‘Serves them right, now they know how it feels.’ Might well be the response, even if it isn’t said out loud. If the the situation is manipulated by those who profit from strife and discord then angry people are easily drawn into violence and intimidation. Which further escalates the fear and hatred between the communities. This escalation was clearly seen as the situation in Northern Ireland got pretty ugly. It may seem that planting a car bomb is an extreme reaction to being rejected for a job, but every process of discrimination and hatred begins somewhere. All I am admitting is that I know how such a process might get rolling.
You may be thinking that you would never be angry and hurt enough to want to harm another human being. You may think that such discrimination for seemingly trivial reasons could never happen in your community. Don’t be too sure, I spend very little time on Facebook these days. Partly because I really have better things to do with my life. The main reason is that the views that many people seem to feel empowered to express on social media are terrifying similar to the attitudes of anger and division which tore Ulster apart for several decades. I could give examples, but you either get my point , or you don’t.
Just bear in mind that fermenting hatred and distrust between individuals and communities is a weapon which will be used against the many for the advantage of the few. If we react with hatred ourselves then the manipulators win. However, if we can learn from such attempts at manipulating our emotions then we can be the winners.
regards
Graham
PS I have recommended reading Catlin Johnson’s posts before. She and I are a long way apart ideologically but I resonate with her writings on a values level. Her latest post is not unrelated to my theme today https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/01/22/you-counter-trumpism-by-ending-the-conditions-which-created-it-not-with-authoritarian-policies/