Working like a ...
Mary O’Rourke’s recent comments about her campaigners ‘working like blacks’ was, to say the least, ill-judged. But it got me thinking; what other phrase or analogy could she have used that would have complimented her workers? Straight away the phrase ‘Trojan work’ came to mind. The Trojans were mad for work, and were proud of it too. If you told someone they had just done some ‘Trojan work’, they would almost certainly take it as a compliment. Consider also ‘working like a horse’. Anyone who has read Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ will be aware of the sterling work Boxer did on the farm. He may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but Boxer would always produce the goods, and be proud of it too.
So what’s the big deal with the phrase ‘working like a black’? Firstly, let us be sure we are on the same wavelength here. When one says they were ‘working like a black’, it obviously means like a slave, most likely in the American deep south. It is not, as some pleb suggested in a radio talk show, a reference to blacksmiths which is region specific to the West of Ireland. So, there is a huge difference here between the above two examples and the ‘blacks’ one. It is this: blacks weren’t proud of this work, it degraded them, humiliated them and de-humanised them. It is a period in their history which they would rather did not happen, but nevertheless should not be forgotten.
Mary O’Rourke says she meant it as a compliment, fair enough. Why would she want to denigrate the people who just won a vote for her anyway? Nobody has a problem with her congratulating her staff, the problem lies in the method she employed. To say one was ‘working like a black’ suggests that blacks work harder because of their history as slaves. Surely this kind of sentiment has no place in Irish society, especially so because of continuing reports of mistreatment of immigrant workers, many of whom happen to be African.
Finally, while thinking of other phrases, I came up with ‘working like a dog’. What work do dogs do? Well, there are sled-drawing huskies I suppose, but the rest of them don’t do a tap.
El Commandant P.
Published by Colm.
So what’s the big deal with the phrase ‘working like a black’? Firstly, let us be sure we are on the same wavelength here. When one says they were ‘working like a black’, it obviously means like a slave, most likely in the American deep south. It is not, as some pleb suggested in a radio talk show, a reference to blacksmiths which is region specific to the West of Ireland. So, there is a huge difference here between the above two examples and the ‘blacks’ one. It is this: blacks weren’t proud of this work, it degraded them, humiliated them and de-humanised them. It is a period in their history which they would rather did not happen, but nevertheless should not be forgotten.
Mary O’Rourke says she meant it as a compliment, fair enough. Why would she want to denigrate the people who just won a vote for her anyway? Nobody has a problem with her congratulating her staff, the problem lies in the method she employed. To say one was ‘working like a black’ suggests that blacks work harder because of their history as slaves. Surely this kind of sentiment has no place in Irish society, especially so because of continuing reports of mistreatment of immigrant workers, many of whom happen to be African.
Finally, while thinking of other phrases, I came up with ‘working like a dog’. What work do dogs do? Well, there are sled-drawing huskies I suppose, but the rest of them don’t do a tap.
El Commandant P.
Published by Colm.
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