When Irish Eyes are smiling on the Buffalo
For the first time in twenty years the City of Buffalo has elected a new mayor, the Irish American State Senator Sean Ryan. I admit I’m having a hard time coming to grips with Byron Brown not leading this city anymore. It’s like losing an old friend. As far as I’m concerned, he will always be the mayor, until the day I die. Congratulations to our new Irish American mayor, Sean Ryan. By referencing Mr. Ryans ethnicity, I’m mirroring what was done to Byron Brown through out most of his career. Almost every article written always found a way of reminding the reader Brown was Black and somehow different rather than being just the “mayor.” I’m going to say something totally racist, but I have trepidations with an Irish American man running this city. Let me explain.
I have previously writ ten about an incident that happened when I was a 20-year-old col lege student at Boston University. One of the first stories I heard my freshman year was to make sure any visiting parents didn’t make the mistake of driv ing through the poor white Irish community of South Boston—aka “Southie,” because when unfamiliar black people are caught in that neighborhood, their cars were often stoned on site and parents had been dragged from their vehicles and beaten. Keep in mind this was in in early-to-mid seven ties when the city had drawn national attention over court ordered desegregation of the public schools by bus sing. My dormitory was a high rise building that overlooked the school’s football stadium and we could watch games from our window.
One Autumn after noon a South Boston high school was playing for the city football championship, the stands were packed with locals from across the city. When the game ended, the crowd filed out through the campus grounds. What I witnessed left an indelible impression in my mind about Irish people that still lingers with me 50 years later. As the crowds cut through the campus grounds, both white men and women attacked every black person they saw on site, for no other reason than they were black. The hatred those people displayed was some thing I could have never imagined. I could see it all with a bird eye view from my dorm room.
Black students were being viciously set upon by mobs of grown people, many sporting their green shamrock paraphernalia and a bottle of beer in tow. I particularly remember one white man on crutches that used them to beat a classmate of mine. I’m still waiting for the police to come. I can never forget the intense unbridled loathing of black people displayed that day. Since then, I have always looked at Irish Americans with a side eye, wondering do they all have a deep cultural hatred for black people. To top that off I worked for several years at a South Buffalo Firehouse. That station housed three companies, which meant at least 12 men working at all times, mostly Irish men. I could write a book on my experience there, let’s just say I wasn’t embraced with open arms. I learned a lot about Irishmen during that time.
First and foremost, Irishmen are the most opinionated bitching and complaining people I ever encounters in my life. They bitch about anything and every thing, which I found out isn’t necessarily a bad thing; the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Having said that, some of the finest men I ever encountered were Irish men; I mean that with the greatest sincerity. Again, congratulation to Irish America mayor SEAN RYAN. I hope he knows he has big shoes to fill. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and intend to hold him to the same standard Byron was held to.