‘Inherently racist’

prinz

cowzerp wrote: »

well said, i think people should do what makes them comfortable...... either way it's the payer's choice...

So let's say the payer orders a pint in a pub and when it comes to pay they realise the barman is Polish... you think it's the payer's choice to refuse to hand over the cash until an Irish member of staff comes around?

Tbh I've had fantastic chats with foreign taxi drivers, many after a few pints, and so good I can remember them clearly long after. I can't say the same about Irish taxi drivers tbh. Around Christmas time I had an absolute gent from Nigeria drive me home. We had a great chat on a Friday night. So much so he offered to come pick me up and take me somewhere on the weekend that I had expressed an interest in for nothing. A good few years ago I was in a taxi with a dude from Moldova and we had a chat the whole way. When we got to my place, after he had stopped the meter running we chatted away for another good 10-15 mins about Moldova and his plans for going back when he had saved x amount of cash he was after. I've had a Pakistani lad and the two of us ended up singing along to a Bollywood CD with the windows down having a ball because I know a bit about Bollywood films/actors/actresses etc and he was mightily impressed.

The most memorable journey with an Irish driver in the last few years was one pig who took myself and my wife to the airport and moaned the whole way about the immigrants, mainly the Poles for some reason etc etc. There was just one thing he didn't notice..my wife is foreign. When we got to the airport he eventually asked us where we were going and we told a little white lie, said we were off to Poland to visit my wife's family just to píss him off some more. Now I've had a lot of decent and sound Irish taxi drivers too but there you go. You remember the ones who really stick out positively and negatively... and personally I have a lot more good memories of non-'Irish' taxi drivers.

prinz

fishy fishy wrote: »

if you have been using the same company for taxis for the past twenty years, and continue to do so, is that racist?
for instance, if you are at a rank and you see your local companys taxi sign, which you have been using for two decades and you choose this, are you being a racist. Especially if you have been doing it for twenty years, bypassing other taxis in favour of this company.

What would you do if this company hired a Nigerian driver?

TEMPLAR KNIGHT

PrincessLola wrote: »

TEMPLAR KNIGHT wrote: »

So we're constantly being told to buy Irish produce to support Irish jobs...but yet wanting an Irish cab driver is bad? If I'm paying for a service I should get to choose who I get that service from. If people prefer eastern European drivers would that be viewed as racist, I doubt it!

Sure you're entitled to an Irish taxi driver but you are a racist because of this. There is no debate, no ones going to pat you on the head and tell you its not racist. Deal with it.

Not at all...but let's say an eastern European or African man wanted a cab driven by their own nationality would the PC brigade like yourself say it was racist no you would not you make excuses like well they are in a strange land they should keep some of their culture and keep in contact with their countrymen and all the usual ****e really....it's only racist when an Irishman does it as usual!!

Show Time

prinz wrote: »

So let's say the payer orders a pint in a pub and when it comes to pay they realise the barman is Polish... you think it's the payer's choice to refuse to hand over the cash until an Irish member of staff comes around?

Tbh I've had fantastic chats with foreign taxi drivers, many after a few pints, and so good I can remember them clearly long after. I can't say the same about Irish taxi drivers tbh. Around Christmas time I had an absolute gent from Nigeria drive me home. We had a great chat on a Friday night. So much so he offered to come pick me up and take me somewhere on the weekend that I had expressed an interest in for nothing. A good few years ago I was in a taxi with a dude from Moldova and we had a chat the whole way. When we got to my place, after he had stopped the meter running we chatted away for another good 10-15 mins about Moldova and his plans for going back when he had saved x amount of cash he was after. I've had a Pakistani lad and the two of us ended up singing along to a Bollywood CD with the windows down having a ball because I know a bit about Bollywood films/actors/actresses etc and he was mightily impressed.

The most memorable journey with an Irish driver in the last few years was one pig who took myself and my wife to the airport and moaned the whole way about the immigrants, mainly the Poles for some reason etc etc. There was just one thing he didn't notice..my wife is foreign. When we got to the airport he eventually asked us where we were going and we told a little white lie, said we were off to Poland to visit my wife's family just to píss him off some more. Now I've had a lot of decent and sound Irish taxi drivers too but there you go. You remember the ones who really stick out positively and negatively... and personally I have a lot more good memories of non-'Irish' taxi drivers.

Are you even Irish yourself???

I had the misfortune of getting stuck with a Pakistani cab driver a few years back and the c**t robbed us in the fare.

prinz

Show Time wrote: »

Are you even Irish yourself???

Yes. Not that it's particularly relevant to anything I've said.

pabloh999

opinion guy wrote: »

a) Whats wrong with this ? You say they are allowed to work part time. They are here, legally to study. They are legally entitled to work part time. Why should they not work ? Edit: Also - they spend money, often their exorbitant fees are keeping our universities going. They are also NOT getting any social welfare or social support. These people OVERWHELMINGLY contribute to our society. Why should they not be allowed work ? Earning money which they spend again in our economy.

b) What does this have to do with taxi driving ?

ok, you must have missed the point.
Of course if somebody comes here to study thats great and of course they need some part time work (unless they are lucky enough to not need to) to be able to live.
Thats all great.
Now
My point was that if "some student" comes to this country from lets say for arguments sake Nigereia(or anywhere outside the EU) please tell me how the Gardai can do all the relevant background checks on someone who effectively has NO background
Not just students ANYONE here a short while
I think this is a pretty serious worry

opinion guy

pabloh999 wrote: »

ok, you must have missed the point.
Of course if somebody comes here to study thats great and of course they need some part time work (unless they are lucky enough to not need to) to be able to live.
Thats all great.
Now
My point was that if "some student" comes to this country from lets say for arguments sake Nigereia(or anywhere outside the EU) please tell me how the Gardai can do all the relevant background checks on someone who effectively has NO background
Not just students ANYONE here a short while
I think this is a pretty serious worry

You don't get to just come here and declare yourself a student you know

golden lane

how on earth has a green light denoting you are irish...turned into a racist arguement..........

this is the world going completely bonkers.......

prinz

golden lane wrote: »

how on earth has a green light denoting you are irish...turned into a racist arguement..........
this is the world going completely bonkers.......

Sanity comes in the form of little black dots........................................

mikemac1

The people who claim to be the most opposed to racism are the same people who see it everywhere and get offended on others behalf


It's a light, it helps people flag down taxis during the daytime, that's all
They have this in Portugal and Canary Islands already.

thejournal.ie were trolling with their green = Irish spin

golden lane

prinz wrote: »

Sanity comes in the form of little black dots........................................

/


sorry.....i have to dash........

pabloh999

opinion guy wrote: »

You don't get to just come here and declare yourself a student you know

Your happy enough with that? OK. :rolleyes: You must be young and single, no wife? no kids?
No worries so.

What about non student from outside the EU who is here only a year or so? Who are they?
Does Garda Murphy call the background check hotline in downtown Lagos(or other non African city )
Imagine If he did that would be a comical conversation

fishy fishy

prinz wrote: »

What would you do if this company hired a Nigerian driver?

very presumptious of you to think it is an all Irish company - what does that say about you?

Anyway, they do have black drivers.

people here are missing the whole pint - its so easy to call somebody racist (obviously all the racists in ireland are taximen)

they don't bother with the fact that people might want to get into a company taxi so that they can have some comeback if they leave somethign in the taxi, (phone, jacket, shoes, etc) at least they can call that company. If they have a problem with the driver they can call that company and complain.

I have the right NOT to get into an independent taxi - for those who havent a clue, an independent taxi is one which doesnt belong to a company, who is out on their own, - what happens if you leave something behind in this taxi??

please dont come back and say "check the driver, take the reg, check the number" Realistically people jump into taxis and dont bother with any of this.

Its my choice if I want to fell secure in the taxi I pick - I have no problem who the driver is once it belongs to the local company.

However, people seem to want to put it down peoples throat that to use a company you have always used is racist. Because I bypass other taxis to get to the one I want. How stupid.

prinz

fishy fishy wrote: »

However, people seem to want to put it down peoples throat that to use a company you have always used is racist. Because I bypass other taxis to get to the one I want. How stupid.

Who said that?

opinion guy

pabloh999 wrote: »

Your happy enough with that? OK. :rolleyes: You must be young and single, no wife? no kids?
No worries so.

?!?! What does that have to do with anything ?

What about non student from outside the EU who is here only a year or so? Who are they?
Does Garda Murphy call the background check hotline in downtown Lagos(or other non African city )
Imagine If he did that would be a comical conversation

Mostly they are medical students I would imagine who are rich, pay small fortunes to come here, and spend loads of moeny whilst they are here. But thats besides the point.
You don't just declare yourself a student - you have to prove you are a student to get a student visa - which involves time and money.

But once again - where is your evidence that there are fraudulent students in any great number in Ireland ? Please provide links to back up your evidence. Because without that this is just your opinion. And its a bigoted racist one at that.

fishy fishy

prinz wrote: »

Who said that?

the posters who are calling people who walk past a taxi rank until they get to the taxi they want.

in their eyes this is racist.

People who know better, know it's not.

celtictiger32

just a point from the other side, ive driven a taxi in dublin and i can honestly say 9/10 people who get into my car have a look first just to make sure im irish, even a good few will tell me 'just making sure you were irish'. so i think regardless of green lights or tricolours people are going to choose irish if they want. oh and btw i have a relatively small tricolour sticker on my dashboard, every business i have or had has always had an irish symbol attached to it in some way i must be nationalist racist lunatic in some peoples eyes on here!

prinz

fishy fishy wrote: »

the posters who are calling people who walk past a taxi rank until they get to the taxi they want....in their eyes this is racist.

Mainly because of the posters on the thread who said they would walk past taxis on the grounds of race of the driver. Hence racist. Are you going to try and insinuate that the people who said 'I wouldn't get in a taxi with an African driver......' actually meant 'I only use x taxi company' instead?

prinz

celtictiger32 wrote: »

just a point from the other side, ive driven a taxi in dublin and i can honestly say 9/10 people who get into my car have a look first just to make sure im irish..

In fairness before I jump in a taxi I always have a look at the driver too, but 'making sure you're Irish' isn't the reason why.

celtictiger32

prinz wrote: »

In fairness before I jump in a taxi I always have a look at the driver too, but 'making sure you're Irish' isn't the reason why.

and thats fair enough but a large proportion of them will mention it in some shape or form about the irish thing.

Paparazzo

TEMPLAR KNIGHT wrote: »

So we're constantly being told to buy Irish produce to support Irish jobs...but yet wanting an Irish cab driver is bad? If I'm paying for a service I should get to choose who I get that service from. If people prefer eastern European drivers would that be viewed as racist, I doubt it!

A black taxi driver in ireland is an irish job. A job in the irish economy is an irish job, paying irish tax.
And of course you're getting a job done you can pick who you like. But like Molar, if you automaticly rule out people based on the colour of their skin you're racist. You can decide you don't want your children hanging around with black kids if you like to. You can do whatever you like.

IrishAm

opinion guy wrote: »

The fact is they got visas. Therefore they are working as the are legally entitled to do. Simple as. No problem.

Can you back up your claim that non EU workers can obtain a work visa to become taxi drivers in Ireland?

christmas2012

why dont they just start using the green lights too..

opinion guy

IrishAm wrote: »

Can you back up your claim that non EU workers can obtain a work visa to become taxi drivers in Ireland?

Huh ?
I never made any claims. Someone else said they had visas.

stucass

davet82 wrote: »

if the lights were red lets say to show they were african drivers would it be racist to ask to take them down or racist that they have them up?

anyways if they're not apart of the official display take them down, there are plenty of racist bumper stickers that can be bought i'm sure

What if they put up black lights?

pabloh999

opinion guy wrote: »

?!?! What does that have to do with anything ?


.

You will notice how your worries and priorities shift when you have somebody to worry about other than yourself;) You would like to be sure that the person driving your wife or daughter home late at night is not some lunatic.
That is my point.
How do you know the person who only recently came this country is not some axe (machete?) murderer.
Not just students any recent immigrant from outside the EU, and especially countries with vague notions of law and order.

This has nothing , absolutely nothing to do with racism or being a bigot :rolleyes:
Why does having valid concerns about background checks or the lack of equal being a bigot
Absolute nonsense.
If you have lived a large portion of your life here(where ever you come from) it is easy to check your criminal history/background.
If you only came to this country from some far flung place it is very hard nearly impossible to check your criminal history

IrishAm

opinion guy wrote: »

Huh ?
I never made any claims. Someone else said they had visas.

You said

opinion guy wrote: »

fact is they got visas.

That sounds like a claim to me.

cowzerp

prinz wrote: »

So let's say the payer orders a pint in a pub and when it comes to pay they realise the barman is Polish... you think it's the payer's choice to refuse to hand over the cash until an Irish member of staff comes around?

The pint is poured and the service is given so no I don't, but if he walks in and chooses not order off him then thats his/her business, stupid but again the person's business.

Now to make it more fair, say a polish lad who I did not believe could pour a good pint of Guinness was serving I would have no problem waiting for someone who could.

IrishAm

pabloh999 wrote: »

Not just students any recent immigrant from outside the EU, and especially countries with vague notions of law and order.

Can non EU students become a taxi driver? They can only work 20 hours a week, so would it be financial viable, after they paid for their taxi plate, licenses etc.

Would any of the taxi drivers on here give us a ballpark figure of their earnings, just out of curiosity.

Where To

IrishAm wrote: »

Can non EU students become a taxi driver? They can only work 20 hours a week, so would it be financial viable, after they paid for their taxi plate, licenses etc.

Would any of the taxi drivers on here give us a ballpark figure of their earnings, just out of curiosity.

Somewhere between €100 and €3,000 per week

IrishAm

I wonder if the media, especially Arrrrrtea, would be so quick to label others as racist and celebrate all things foreign born, if it were them in direct competition with the immigrants.

I somewhat doubt it.

prinz

cowzerp wrote: »

...but if he walks in and chooses not order off him then thats his/her business, stupid but again the person's business..

So you walk into a bar, barman asks you what you'd like and you choose not to order off him purely because he has black skin. Is that racist?

fishy fishy

prinz wrote: »

Mainly because of the posters on the thread who said they would walk past taxis on the grounds of race of the driver. Hence racist. Are you going to try and insinuate that the people who said 'I wouldn't get in a taxi with an African driver......' actually meant 'I only use x taxi company' instead?

people can say that for a variety of different reasons. It does not mean that they are racist. Do you actually know what a racist is? A racist is somebody who has a problem with another because of the colour of their skin. Are you trying to say that somebody who bypasses an independent or a taxi with an african driver in it will also not relate to black people on any level, mass, school, hospitals, shops, neighbours.

People are turning a problem with being screwed for a fare in a taxi into some big racial issue.

but its easy to spout out the R word at any given opportunity - nearly as bad as the Bully word.

Continent Simian

IrishAm wrote: »

I wonder if the media, especially Arrrrrtea, would be so quick to label others as racist and celebrate all things foreign born, if it were them in direct competition with the immigrants.

I somewhat doubt it.

Exactly. Like me, I guess you also don't watch those foreign TV channels that came over here in their dozens, undercutting RTE and flooding the market.

Worse still, those insidious foreign TV shows, entering into our Irish channels, turning even RTE into some foreign muck. I don't watch them either.

IrishAm

Continent Simian wrote: »

Exactly. Like me, I guess you also don't watch those foreign TV channels that came over here in their dozens, undercutting RTE and flooding the market.

Worse still, those insidious foreign TV shows, entering into our Irish channels, turning even RTE into some foreign muck. I don't watch them either.

What percentage of the license fee do these foreign stations receive?

What percentage of RTE employees, consist of non Irish nationals?

prinz

fishy fishy wrote: »

Are you trying to say that somebody who bypasses an independent.....

This thread was never about choosing one particular taxi company over another, or a company car over an independent driver until the last two pages when you got bored of using ethnicity and decided you needed a more logical reason to base your position on. Before that taxi company/independent or whatever didn't feature, only driver ethnicity/nationality/colour..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=78725782&postcount=293

You should make up your mind.

fishy fishy wrote: »

....or a taxi with an african driver in it will also not relate to black people on any level, mass, school, hospitals, shops, neighbours.

Just because you 'relate to black people' on some levels doesn't mean you're not racist.

fishy fishy wrote: »

People are turning a problem with being screwed for a fare in a taxi into some big racial issue.....

Why is that? Do Irish taxi drivers not screw anyone for a fare? Since when was the thread about being screwed for a fare?

Continent Simian

IrishAm wrote: »

What percentage of the license fee do these foreign stations receive?

What percentage of RTE employees, consist of non Irish nationals?

What percentage of RTE's potential viewers (and so advertising revenue) are lost to non-Irish channels?

It's an outrage, I tell you. A big outrage.

IrishAm

Continent Simian wrote: »

What percentage of RTE's potential viewers (and so advertising revenue) are lost to non-Irish channels?

It's an outrage, I tell you. A big outrage.

Its very easy to support mass immigration and lecture others on the benefit of mass immigration, when your job in not in threat and your employer is subsidised by each and every household in the state.

Continent Simian

IrishAm wrote: »

Its very easy to support mass immigration and lecture others on the benefit of mass immigration, when your job in not in threat and your employer is subsidised by each and every household in the state.

Exactly. This is why we must take a stand against the wily foreign channels. Enough is enough.


As I work in IT, foreigners don't need to immigrate to take my job. This is also true for the local boyos. I'm still safe from thems ladies, though. That's something not to be outraged about.

MOH

I'd love to see such green lights on the roof of taxis. Make it much easier to avoid racist taxi drivers.

Just for the craic, all the 'non-national' drivers should stick green lights on the roof of their own taxis, problem solved.

While the vast majority have been absolutely fine, the only times I've ever had problems with taxi drivers taking me the wrong route or not knowing where to go, they've been Irish, and generally from Dublin. Simply because the people less familiar with the city tend to invest in either a satnav, or a €10 street atlas which solves a lot of problems.

My favourite was the Dublin driver years ago (pre-deregulation) who I asked in Fairview to take me to O'Dwyers in Mount St.
- "Don't know that".
It's on the end of Lower Mount st.
- "Eh, Mount St, where's that exactly?"
Just off Merrion Square
- "Ummm... ah, I generally just work the northside"
:rolleyes:

cowzerp

prinz wrote: »

So you walk into a bar, barman asks you what you'd like and you choose not to order off him purely because he has black skin. Is that racist?

I would not do that, but in my scenario and it is the half of my quote you left out!

If i was not confident they could pour a good pint then i would wait for someone that could, this does not tend to happen though so it is all a bit silly.

Most people who would choose an Irish taxi is not because they dislike/hate blacks, it is because they would be more confident the local driver would know the routes better, have more in common with someone who grew up in the same city as them.

Nodin

IrishAm wrote: »

I wonder if the media, especially Arrrrrtea, would be so quick to label others as racist and celebrate all things foreign born, if it were them in direct competition with the immigrants.

I somewhat doubt it.

Your mask is slipping badly there.

prinz

cowzerp wrote: »

I would not do that, but in my scenario and it is the half of my quote you left out!....

But is it racism or not?.. you said the customer should get to choose etc. and I am asking if the customer chooses not to deal with someone because they are African do you consider them to be racist? Forget about their pint pulling skills.

cowzerp wrote: »

Most people who would choose an Irish taxi is not because they dislike/hate blacks, it is because they would be more confident the local driver would know the routes better, have more in common with someone who grew up in the same city as them.

...and yet the local driver could have been born and raised here, but because they aren't the right skin colour people would choose a different taxi instead. I wonder what would happen if Jason Sherlock was a taxi driver. Let's all stick with who we have more in common with, that's surefire way to promote integration. How much do you have to have in common with a taxi driver anyway ffs. They are driving you from A to B...

opinion guy

pabloh999 wrote: »

You will notice how your worries and priorities shift when you have somebody to worry about other than yourself;) You would like to be sure that the person driving your wife or daughter home late at night is not some lunatic.
That is my point.
How do you know the person who only recently came this country is not some axe (machete?) murderer.
Not just students any recent immigrant from outside the EU, and especially countries with vague notions of law and order.

Plenty of Irish nutters out there.
Listen very carefully - RACE does NOT determine insanity or criminality.
To presume so DEFINES racism.

You are racist. You just don't understand the definition.

This has nothing , absolutely nothing to do with racism or being a bigot
Why does having valid concerns about background checks or the lack of equal being a bigot
Absolute nonsense.
If you have lived a large portion of your life here(where ever you come from) it is easy to check your criminal history/background.
If you only came to this country from some far flung place it is very hard nearly impossible to check your criminal history

This is a separate issue. But presuming it wasn't. What about the innocent people from these places who have come here ? What about people from within the EU who c=you can't get a background check on. You can't just decide all the people from country X, or of race Y, or ethnicity z are probably criminals. Why not ? Because its, again, the VERY DEFINITION of racist.

Seriously the more and more of these debates come up the more and more I realise those holding racist views but deny don't even seem to understand the basic definition of racism.

IrishAm wrote: »

You said

That sounds like a claim to me.

If you'd bother your hole to read the thread you would see I was merely repeating that as said by someone else. Therefore I did not make a claim.

fishy fishy

prinz wrote: »

This thread was never about choosing one particular taxi company over another, or a company car over an independent driver until the last two pages when you got bored of using ethnicity and decided you needed a more logical reason to base your position on. Before that taxi company/independent or whatever didn't feature, only driver ethnicity/nationality/colour..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=78725782&postcount=293

You should make up your mind.



Just because you 'relate to black people' on some levels doesn't mean you're not racist.



Why is that? Do Irish taxi drivers not screw anyone for a fare? Since when was the thread about being screwed for a fare?

prinz

I have come to the conclusion that you are adament to brand people racist despite the various reasons given on here why people tend to go into taxis of their choice.

You can go on believing that - but as I said before, those who know better, know that this taxi issue is not as simple as you might try to infer. Do you know anything about the taxi situation in Ireland at all, or are you just blindly spouting out the R word because you are a little naive to the situation.

Either way, I'm not here to educate you - your thoughts are your own and you are entitled to them.

Dyr

tbh I don't need any silly green light. The pale, translucent skin of the indigenous cabbie is like a beacon for my custom. I presume that swarthy snake Leo is just jealous.

Some of my mates are taxi drivers, they're born and reared in Ireland but are not white. If they were to let people know that they were, in fact, irish with these jolly little green lights would they be inhewently wacist?

pabloh999

opinion guy wrote: »

Plenty of Irish nutters out there.
Listen very carefully - RACE does NOT determine insanity or criminality.
To presume so DEFINES racism.

You are racist. You just don't understand the definition.



This is a separate issue. But presuming it wasn't. What about the innocent people from these places who have come here ? What about people from within the EU who c=you can't get a background check on. You can't just decide all the people from country X, or of race Y, or ethnicity z are probably criminals. Why not ? Because its, again, the VERY DEFINITION of racist.

Seriously the more and more of these debates come up the more and more I realise those holding racist views but deny don't even seem to understand the basic definition of racism.

Ok so wanting a background check is now racist
Dear God i have heard it all now.
Calling me a racist for wanting the proper procedeure equally for everone is quite insulting

Any potential taxi driver HAS to pass a background check.
No exceptions

Why should any group not have to abide by the rules?
My original question is how are the gardai obtaining these background checks?
There is no answer to this valid question

Edit - i see now that you are probably unaware that every taxi driver applicant has to go their local Garda station where they do a detailed background check

AnonoBoy

After much examination of this topic I have reached this conclusion:


They can f*ck off with their green lights.



There. I've said it. There's no going back now kids.

opinion guy

pabloh999 wrote: »

Ok so wanting a background check is now racist
Dear God i have heard it all now.
Calling me a racist for wanting the proper procedeure equally for everone is quite insulting

Any potential taxi driver HAS to pass a background check.
No exceptions

Why should any group not have to abide by the rules?
My original question is how are the gardai obtaining these background checks?
There is no answer to this valid question

So what is your answer ? Decide who is allowed drive or not based on the colour of their skin/country of origin ? (Edit: this is not my viewpoint - I'm asking is it his)

You can't just assume guilt because you are not able to do a proper background check.

Also some people from a given country might have fine background checks whereas as others not. How do you know those immigrants driving cabs didn't pass their background check ?

fishy fishy

here's a eye opener for you all.

Go out one weekend - and watch for the taxi regulator to do a sweep of the ranks.

See how many taxis you can count pulling away and taking the night off. Now why would they do that I wonder??

Give ye something to think about.