After Saturday’s massive anti-racist protest in Belfast, we are publishing a guest article by activist Helen Sky Madden on the challenges ahead and one perspective on how to face them.
Like many people across Belfast, I have watched recent events with a growing sense of sadness and concern. We have seen nurses forced to flee their homes because they could not produce identification on demand. We have seen families burnt out of their houses because of the colour of their skin. We have seen people living in fear simply because they come from a different country, speak a different language, or look different from their neighbours.
Protect migrant workers
These scenes should trouble every one of us. The people being targeted are not strangers to our communities. They are our neighbours, our work colleagues, the people who care for us when we are sick, who teach our children, drive our buses, clean our workplaces and help keep our society running. Many are nurses and healthcare workers who would not hesitate to save the life of someone in need, regardless of their nationality, religion or background. The question we must ask is simple: where does this violence lead?
It does not create jobs. It does not build homes. It does not improve hospitals or schools. It does not solve the cost-of-living crisis. Instead, it leaves families traumatised, communities divided and neighbourhoods damaged. It creates fear where there should be trust.
Racist violence is no answer to Belfast’s problems
If we genuinely want to tackle the problems facing Belfast, we must address the causes of frustration and anger rather than directing that anger towards vulnerable people. Poverty, poor housing, lack of opportunity and political division have affected communities here for generations. Blaming those who have come here seeking safety or a better life will not solve any of these problems.
The vast majority of people in Belfast want to live peacefully alongside one another. They want safe streets, decent homes and a future for their children. Those goals are shared by people regardless of where they were born.
The answer to violence is not more violence. The answer is dialogue, leadership and a willingness to recognise the humanity in one another. We must challenge hatred wherever it appears and support those who have become victims of intimidation and attack. Belfast knows better than most the cost of division.
We have lived through enough years of fear to understand that no community benefits when hatred is allowed to flourish. The choice before us is whether we continue down a road of suspicion and violence, or whether we build a city where people are judged by the content of their character and the contribution they make, rather than by the colour of their skin or the place they were born.
For the sake of our city’s future, I hope we choose the latter.