When racism happens, you are never ready for it, you don’t know how to react

“I still get the ‘where are you from? Where are you really from?’ questions,” says Eileen Chan-hu.

“I was made in Belfast,” she laughs, “which is hard for people to comprehend.”

Eileen runs Craic NI, a social enterprise that provides training and educational programmes in inclusion and diversity.

The acronym, she explains, stands for Cultivate Respect, Appreciate Inclusion in Communities in Northern Ireland.

“We work towards a more understanding and tolerant society. Our team is made up of about 15 different nationalities, including those from the indigenous community.”

Eileen’s parents moved to the UK from Hong Kong in the 1960s.

“My dad was a businessman. He first went to London to seek his fortune, but was told Northern Ireland is a beautiful place and less competitive. This was before the Troubles.”

The family lived in Belfast and Ballymena before settling in Carrickfergus.

“My parents had difficult lives coming here and bringing us up, but they were very strong and resilient. I saw my mum chase boys away from the take-away we owned in Ballymena for calling them names.”

Mum-of-two Eileen recalls her early years and her own first taste of racial abuse.

“I was the only ethnic Chinese child in my primary school right up until my P7 year. I remember two boys in the playground calling me names. We were always taught at school to report it and I did tell the teacher. She went straight to the headmaster and the two boys were caned and were shown up as an example in assembly.”

Later at grammar school she “lost confidence”.

‘‘People used to throw bags over lockers as I walked past. Sixth formers used to put their legs out so I would trip over.”

As a teenager she would take the bus into Belfast city centre to go shopping and recalls one horrible event.

“I remember being kicked at the bus stop by a boy who was in his early 20s. He had two girls behind him who were just laughing. They sat behind me on the bus and kept on torturing me. No one on the bus said a word.

“When racism happens, in any scenario, you are never ready for it. You don’t know how to react.”

Eileen says she has only felt overlooked once in terms of employment.

“It was the first time I went for a Saturday job. I was 17 and it was in a shoe shop in Belfast. I didn’t get the job but the guy who interviewed me did phone me. He said ‘If it was down to me, you would have got the job’. I asked what was wrong and he said, ‘They weren’t used to employing someone different.’

“In those days I didn’t know things. The Equality Commission hadn’t yet appeared. Race discrimination wasn’t there.”

But, she says, “things have moved on” since then.

“There’s been the Race Relations Order, there’s legislation that I was involved in through the Equality Commission. The equality legislation is quite strong under Section 75 of the Good Friday Agreement. I couldn’t use that legislation about the shoe shop, but today you can.”

But she does believe politicians and leaders “could do better”.

“They could educate themselves. I have been trying to promote inclusion and diversity in the community and I have better uptake from private businesses at the minute, they are taking it more seriously than political leaders.”

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