Sprinter opens up about his experience of racism and describing the frustration he felt as a child
By Hayden Moore
TALLAGHT Athletic Club sprinter Joseph Ojewumi has opened up about his experience of racism in athletics, describing the frustration he felt as a child.
Joseph, who was born in Nigeria, moved to England when he was six-years-old before relocating to Clondalkin with his family three-years later.
Joseph Ojewumi in action for Tallaght AC against Sean Lawlor of Donore Harriers
The 22-year-old has built up a solid reputation for his rapid pace since starting competitive running as a teenager – being crowned National Senior Indoor 60m champion in 2019 and becoming the first Irishman in a decade to compete in that event at the European Indoor Championships.
With his impressive sprinting reputation on the track, Joseph has been hard at work off the track since completing his studies in pharmaceutical science in Dublin City University.
Now, he works for a company that produces cancer medicine and makes the commute between Newbridge, where he currently lives, and Tallaght to train multiple times per week.
Growing up Joseph suffered racial abuse based on the colour of his skin, and he recently spoke candidly about his experiences while on Local Voices, a weekly podcast by The Echo.
“That was more in your face racism when I lived in Clondalkin, there was a lot of people shouting the n-word really aggressively when there was any little disagreement with anybody,” said Joseph, on the fifth episode of the podcast, entitled ‘Racism in Ireland’.
Tallaght AC Men’s 4x100m 2019 squad, Michael Ogunsiakan, Simon Essuman, Timmy Bada, Joseph Ojewumi and Eoin Doherty that retained the National Senior Championship title
“That’s literally the first thing they turn to, they call you the n-word, they call you black this, black that.
“You can see that if you just trigger somebody in the slightest way, if you just have a little argument with them, that’s their first line of attack.
He added: “As a kid especially it was really frustrating, it’s not that it’s not frustrating now but I would show anger externally when I came across those situations.
“But now, the anger is still there don’t get me wrong like it’s a burning anger still, but I know there’s things I still want to do with my life and I have to carry myself a certain way.
“I can’t even react the way I want to because I’m still trying to do something with my life. I don’t want this to hinder me and that’s a thing that we all go through because we can’t fully express ourselves, because we know if we do it could hinder us in a way that we don’t even expect.
“If we speak out too much and say ‘the wrong thing’, it can come back and bite us with our jobs and certain opportunities we’re trying to go for or accomplish.
“It’s hard because we just want to live, you just want to live like any other person and the annoying thing is if people don’t see it, they think it doesn’t exist.
“If they don’t hear about it, they think it doesn’t happen around.”
As one of the hottest prospects on the Irish running scene, Joseph has been part of an elite group that trains under Athletics Ireland’s National Sprints Coordinator, Daniel Kilgallon.
Speaking about whether or not racist abuse has ever impacted on his ability to perform on the track, Joseph said: “Not on my performance, I have a decent mental strength when it comes to my sport.
“I haven’t had an issue where I got a racist remark and it put me down for the race but it’s more of the little snide remarks afterwards.
“We had a successful relay team back a few years ago, we’ve had really successful relay teams, but there was one team where it was four of us and we’re all black.
“You could see the looks, there was a little bit of animosity in the air.”
Joseph spoke in depth about racism in athletics, the worldwide protests for racial injustice following the death of George Floyd, mental health, becoming the fastest man in Ireland and more on Local Voices 005: Racism in Ireland.
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