As a child of Irish parents who settled in England, I grew up a thinking my dad was actually called Paddy ( he was Eammon) that being one of 11 children was something to be laughed about.
We were disadvantaged in that we squashed into a house too small, because the council didn't build bigger houses. we slept 3 to a bed. We had free school meals, and had to hold our hands up and say 'free' when the dinner money was collected. We all of us, left school at 15 to work in unskilled jobs.
We all of us, went to night school, to college, to university.
We are all employed in professional roles, we have Teachers, nurses, police officers and a solicitor amongst us.
Recently a UK holiday company announced that they had blocked bookings from people with our surname. No big debate took place, just a few mumblings and that was it.
As there was never a whisper of the R word when we grew up, we didnt have chips on our shoulders and no woe is me attitude,
We just quietly did what we describe as 'bettered ourselves'.
All of us had a common aim, to make the lives of our children a bit better.
Let them have a bed each, if not a room each.
Were we victims of racism.Should we have shouted about the racism around daddy's given name, being replaced by what is now seen as a derogatory one?
Being white and under privileged, still ranks low on any ability to be included in the racism debates.
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