2 CommentsI don’t know what anyone else thinks but in my personal opinion no, I don’t think there is racism in Newry.
I've not experienced any racism whatsoever although i've seen some rare occasions where old men would come up to people from a different background and ask rude racist questions or comments and make them feel very uncomfortable but it doesn’t happen often, or to the point where anyone would think Newry is a racist city.
I guess you could say that’s another positive about living in a smaller city as there isn’t as many problems going on as there would be in Belfast or London.
Newry is just a simple city with a friendly community. Near enough every stranger that walks past you in town smiles at you no matter where you are from or what colour your skin is and I think that’s a thing that not many people realise is wholesome as you wouldn’t see that happening often in large cities.
The downside to it though is there aren't many different backgrounds here. From my own knowledge I think we have mainly Romanian, Polish and Lithuanian here and obviously there’s some Syrians joining but not many. I’d say 99% of the population here in Newry is Christian, so the ones from different backgrounds do stand out and you can’t really blame the people here as they are just not used to it, they don’t know much about different religions or cultures so anything different from theirs can confuse them and may cause them to ask a few questions, but don’t take offence at that, instead educate them! They are not racist or rude they are curious.
Who knows maybe in the near future there will be more people coming in and introducing different cultures that I don’t even know myself, that way we can all learn about different nationalities.
Now what are your thoughts …?
Inas Abdulrazzaq - A Teenagers Perspective
