I stand with Raheem Sterling

74 comments

1. I stand with Raheem Sterling. It is unfortunate to see people living in their own bubbles and there is very less motivation for people to understand or interact with different cultures/viewpoints. Especially has sped up in the last decade or two.

   1. Appreciate the post.

2. “Wojciech Szczesny built my house”. Also how Fabianski tore it down. The song ends with “they are Polish.”

   Can I just say that as someone who was borne in Poland I find this song hilarious.

   My father built his house from scratch and he wasn’t even a builder.
   He did a decent job too.

   1. But you also understand that it’s racist.

      1. Yeah, I don’t think anyone is NOT standing with Raheem Stirling if this is the reference that is in question:

         https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/dec/10/chelsea-fans-banned-raheem-sterling-alleged-racist-abuse-manchester-city-football

         What you have to wonder is what is going through the heads of the people who keep doing this. I really don’t get it.

         1. Whoops, that was meant to be a reply to 1Nil.

            My reply to this comment is I don’t think we can use the same word to describe shouting racist abuse at a player and to describe singing witty songs about Polish people. I see what you’re saying about it being stereotypical and how generalizing based on background is vague similar but it’s just not in the same zip code for me, never will be. It’s the intent that separates the two. The former is meant to be abusive, clearly designed to wound and malign. The latter is meant as a token of support and implies familiarity and yes, even love toward the player from the fans. How can we possibly use the same word to describe these two things?

            1. Because “Polish people are builders” is racist. It’s not at all about love and respect for Polish traditions. It’s about them being classified as second class citizens, stealing jobs from good, hard-working Brits. You really don’t know that?

            2. Yes, I kind of agree, that is a really broad definition of “racism”. I wouldn’t call Poles a race, rather a culture. If you went to any shopping centre you’d have a hard time pointing out the Poles or for that matter, the Croats, Germans or Belgians. Without excusing it, regional biases are part of humanity; northern Italians look down on southern Italians, Czechs consider Slovaks as 2nd class, even here in Canada we make fun of “Newfies’ as being rubes. When Americans want to portray someone as a low-IQ hick on TV they attach a southern accent to the character. I wouldn’t call this racism. Negative stereotyping? Sure, and no doubt it carries its own pains. But it’s a fair distance from the abuse and discrimination people who are visibly different from the majority might experience.

            3. Jack’s defence is exactly what I hear, from Trump supporting Americans in particular, about anti Muslim sentiment. “Muslim is not a race”. Racism and bigotry isn’t simply a function of skin colour, folks. This is 2018. We should know this by now.

               Racism also isn’t negotiable. When the recipients of even unintentional racism tell you that it is, it’s the wrong response to tell them that it isn’t. So while I hear Tom on this, other Poles in London feel very differently.

               Doc, witty is relative. Im going to guess that singing “Alex Rodriguez cleans my room” at a baseball game would not sound witty to A-Rod. It would in fact, sound racist. And it would be.

            4. No, I don’t know that. I didn’t ask the people who wrote the song or those who sing it. I didn’t subject them to a lie detector test about it. I didn’t interrogate them about their biases towards Poles. Nobody has, but how else would you know what they intended? Terrace songs are about support for the player, so if we can impute intentions, that would be my conclusion. The difference is that you’re assuming the worst and I am not.

            5. I don’t think it matters whether you’re trying to be insulting or supportive.
               Once you start employing racist stereotypes then you’re necessarily swimming in the racist pool. Say a group of fans decide to sing a song about how one of their black players has a massive d#ck. It doesn’t matter that they see it as complimentary or supportive, it’s still clearly employing racist stereotypes.

            6. It may present as banter or jokey good humour but where does it end up? Ask the Irish about their historical relations with the Brits and it quickly becomes clear that the skin colour may be the same, but xenophobia is just as toxic as racism.

               Xenophobia is quite complex to decipher because it’s part racism but mainly cultural, religious, or social resentment laced with bigotry. It’s all fun and games… until it isn’t.

            7. Can we agree that the fans who sang about Polish builders should not be painted with the same brush (labeled “racist”) as the ones who shouted abuse at Sterling or the ones who throw bananas? ?

               I understand xenophobia and racism are complex. We’ve been over this even on this forum. My issue has always been the absoluteness of the verdict regardless of the level of severity of the infraction. Surely there are degrees and surely not every degree deserves the same punishment and labels. But the word “racist” carries no nuance to convey distinction. It’s black/white and no grey area, even though in reality nobody is whiter than white when it comes to racial bias. But in the court of public opinion, you either are or you aren’t and if you are then there is no recourse for you, you are tainted forever. It’s a heavy mark to place on someone and I don’t think it should be done lightly. Would you call someone a murderer without being sure? Then don’t call someone a racist without being sure. The people who abused Sterling were caught on camera and heard by witnesses saying actually racist things and it’s horrible. The people singing about Polish builders may be misguided but they cannot be equated with that!!

            8. @drgooner
               Racism is not dependent upon intent.

            9. Doc. Not sure it’s only about intent, though the idea that words alone can and should be punished is potentially dangerous too. Plus it doesn’t even hold up because racism can be beyond use of ‘outlawed’ words.

               Racism can be inherent because of history and culture. Harm can be done without meaning to. And it needs to be changed. Where I do agree with you that hypervigilance, reasonable as it may seem as a reaction to some vile people around, is not only not going to work, it will be counter-productive.

               When it comes to racism or xenophobia, I think I’m very much a Christian in terms of hating the sin but not the sinner. Of course there are those who are full blown racists and a danger to society. But as you say that’s where nuance needs to come in. Some guy making a joke to his buddy about race doesn’t deserve to be tarred with the same brush. Besides, the problem is not what he deserves alone, but the effect it has on society and its understanding of race. It’ll just push more and more people to the fringes or underground as they get caught out/have to be extra cautious all the time.

               Social change is always slow. I sometimes get the feeling people think that just because we’ve had this fight for the past few decades this problem should now just go away or else the progress hasn’t been worth it.

            10. Yes, hate the sin and not the sinner, but society doesn’t. Once a racist, always a racist, in’t that the mantra? Innocent until proven guilty or guilty until proven otherwise? I know what I think.

3. Well said

4. Top blogging. All valid points.

   I also will never click on Daily Mail or the Sun.

   Or any article about Mourinho, but that’s only because I think he’s a twat.

5. Tim, the very relevant point that you make is that it comes from our supporters too. Chelsea has traditionally had a core of racist support that we don’t, but the incidents are unacceptable. Arsenal is one of the most inclusive clubs in England, but our supporters are not above it.

   I heard a regular contributor on AFTV, an Arsenal supporter, refer to Spurs supporters an “inbred m*********” or some such. It went by quickly, but it’s a clear anti-semitic smear against Spurs Orthodox Jewish support.

   1. There is another subtext here as well: note how few times I actually stood up to the racists. Just once. The rest of the time, I let it happen without saying anything. I’m not accusing anyone of anything that I haven’t been at the least a passive observer. Which is a shame.

      1. I’ve read you on this blog talk about your personal background and your journey, and outline in stark terms how insidiuous racism is and how all of us can be complicit in it.

         Being passive in those situations is understandable. But you’ve staked out in very clear terms, repeatedly, how and why racism is unacceptable while others on this forum veered off into reflexive whining about “the stain on my Calvinist soul” that would come with accepting that they’re also part of a structurally racist society.

         For a football writer in today’s climate, you’re about as courageous as it comes, and you have my undying respect.

6. Good article Tim.
   You’re absolutely right; Arsenal supporters are equally as bad as those of Chelsea & West Ham. I heard plenty at Highbury, but none at The Emirates, although my season ticket was in the family section, so might have been cushioned against it.
   Not reading the Mail you probably wouldn’t know that Martin Samuel has suggested that the Chelsea racist said ‘Manc’ & not ‘Black”. You couldn’t make it up; except that he did.
   I moved away from London nearly ten years ago because it was becoming too dangerous, and where I now live in the West there are mostly white elderly Brexit types and casual racism is an almost daily occurrence.
   You just can’t get away from it in England.

   1. No, we’ve never been as Chelsea on the racism…. err… Front

      1. Perhaps not in quantity (although that hissing gas chamber thing they do takes many to achieve), but equally repugnant.

7. You know, UK is one of those weird ones. I think it is actually quite an inclusive society. My family haven’t really faced any racism there. I’m not sure if I have.

   Of course the old school ’empire’ thinking still exists and sometimes innocently permeates the conversation. But that’s usually among the older folk.

   And this is why I am very surprised at the casual and obvious racism present in the UK media, and possibly other institutions. It’s jarring. It shouldn’t exist, but it does.

   Also, I’ve never heard any Indian folks talk about ‘Pakis’ in the UK. I’ve heard stories of Indians being called that. But honestly this is really surprising to me. In my experience, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis etc get along well generally. But maybe now they react to the news from South Asia whereas earlier they were more isolated and hence had more in common?

   Anyway, it’s sad that players have to face this, and Sterling has done very well to come out with his statement. I see a few in the media are starting to join him in speaking up about their own failings in this regard. I hope that catches on. But then you have people like Piers Morgan, so who knows.

   1. One of the guys who called people “pakis” used to write for 7amkickoff.

      As for your question about not experiencing the racism I have there’s an explanation: are you white?

      I am. Racists often feel very comfortable spilling the racist beans to white people but would be a lot less forthcoming around people perceived as minorities. It’s a very common phenomenon. There was a podcast episode a few weeks ago where a black reporter and white reporter spoke to the same people about Confederate monuments. The black reporter got the official line “these aren’t racist monuments” while the white reporter got much more frank answers which included very racially charged sentiments.

      I have witnessed it both in the UK and here in the USA.

      1. I wasn’t doubting your story about the Indian guys. I was just very surprised by it. I’m Indian, and much as Indians from India tend to dislike Pakistanis (and use their religion as a basis for it), Indians in the UK might too, but I’ve never seen them make use of the ‘Paki’ slur probably because they’ve had it used against themselves at some point.

      2. And good point about the racists letting their guard down in certain situations.

   2. This comment reminds me of the women in Hollywood in the very early stages of MeToo who came out with stuff like “well, *I* had a meeting with Harvey Weinstein and he was a perfect gentleman to me”.

      So most of the racism missed you and those close to you. Congratulations I guess.

      1. Me saying racism missed me is not me saying there is no racism in the UK, or that Sterling doesn’t know what’s up. The point was that because of this, it has always been especially jarring to me to see the media get away with constant race-baiting as a normal thing. That incongruity was the point, and I think that suggests institutional racism is prevalent even as society is learning/trying to break free of that. Although others say it suggests the society is racist. Which is possible too, but it’s not something I would jump straight to.

         And I did say, I don’t know if I have faced racism in the UK. It might be, or it might just be that I looked like I don’t belong there. An outsider. One incident was with a couple of (drunk) Arsenal fans in London.

8. Somebody please help me here because I don’t understand the defiant tone I sense on Tim’s declaration of standing with Sterling.

   What am I missing? What right thinking person wouldn’t stand with him? Did he do something? Is this about him somehow?

   There is no provocation I can imagine that would justify any racial reaction against any player including the young Mr. Sterling.

   One of the many reasons I became a musician in adolescence was because it was easier to stay in my room and play scales until my fingers bled than spend a minute thinking about what I would endure on a weekly, sometimes daily basis from Canadian rednecks. (Yeah, we have those just like any other place).

   1. Well, there are a lot of people saying that Sterling’s statements are false, that there is no racism in football (or it’s just a few bad apples) and that the press (especially the Mail and the Sun) aren’t stoking racism when they very clearly are (they were the target of Sterling’s strongly worded statement).

      I am not really being defiant as much as simply standing up with a black man speaking out against the racist abuse he’s received. You’re right though, it’s literally the least I could do but I wanted to do something.

      1. Ah, ok, so there’s a tabloid element to all this which I didn’t get in in my search queries.

         I like the pugnacious quality in Sterling. Springsteen said it well:
         “Badlands, you’ve got to live it every day
         Let the broken hearts as the price you’ve got to pay
         Keep pushing til it’s understood
         And these Baland start treating you good.”

         1. It’s not just the tabloids though. People tend to, not always unreasonably, not see racism, because it doesn’t have to be overt. In this case the guy yelled racist abuse at Sterling. And that’s at a football match. But it’s possible to use other words, with no racial connotations on their own, to attack someone on the basis of their race.

            I figured that’s why Tim’s stance was so defiant. Because there will be some people saying there is no racism, or that the media doesn’t treat him differently just because they don’t add his race into their headlines.

9. Mate admire you for this post. Raheem Sterling has shot up in my estimation using his plaform to tackle racism. It takes so much courage. Few people are brave enough to take on the media. Some people say that this photo of Raheem Sterling laughing in the face of racist vitriol could be one of the iconic pictures of our age.
   https://mobile.twitter.com/FourFourJordan/status/1071736587854245889/photo/1
   I really think it could because if it was in black and white, it is timeless. An identical picture with equal racial tension could have taken in 1968 or 1938 or 1918 or 1818 or 1718 or 1618. How far ha e we really come..?

   1. Thanks Faith, hadn’t seen that.

      In a way it echoes Maradona taking on 6 or 7 Belgian players in that timeless World Cup photo, only this time the contest is socio-cultural instead of sporting.

   2. FAITH – there is a Trevor Noah netflix special just came out, and he makes a joke about something like this. Still trying to get my head around it – laughing at your abusers.

10. Good shout! The sad part is what else could be done to curb racism in football? I mean, the guy who threw a banana skin at Aubameyang got a lifetime ban. Suarez, who used the N word, was banned for 8 games. And clubs, where racist incidents occurred, had to pay fines and play games behind closed doors.

11. Completely agreed on the racism stuff.

    That said, the use of the C*%t word is different in the UK. In the US it’s about as vile as you can get, moreso than the F-word. In the UK, not so much. Closer to the level of “a-hole” in the US, so use of that word by itself bothers me much less than it would in the US.

    1. Was just about to chip in on this, they are practically different words in each country. The reaction of a U. S. reader to the ‘twat’ in a previous comment would be mine at seeing a ‘cunt’.

    2. I hear what you’re saying about the c word. I’m irish myself I think it’s fair to say we use it in a similar way.

       Saying that, I don’t think you can get away from the intrinsic meaning of the word and what it stands for. That it’s so commonly used as to be a go to substitute for almost any assh#le probably doesn’t excuse it…….and might even make it worse.

       1. Agreed. I lived in the UK and used it a lot. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a shockingly dirty, misogynistic word. I’m not going to go all puritan and say it should be banned or anything, and I’m a big fan of cursing in general. But it’s an ugly, harmful word.

       2. Disagree. At some point words take on their own meaning. The swear word is a swear word. It doesn’t carry much more meaning beyond that, regardless of its origin.

          1. Words can evolve to have different meaning for sure shard but I think it’s different when you’re talking about slurs.

             A recent story in the gaming community was a high profile commentator who kept using the word ‘gay’ to refer to something bad happening……as in ‘That’s gay.’ People took issue with his use of that phrase and his argument was essentially the same as yours….that it was harmless and he didn’t mean it as a slur. He wasn’t insulting a person so it should be ok.

             But people pointed out that it doesn’t matter that HE thinks it’s harmless banter. Gay people have been, and continue to be, shunned and persecuted and even murdered for their sexuality because of the belief that being gay is bad. When your casual banter is that bad things are gay, whether you mean it maliciously or not, you feed into that machine of persecution and hate and do harm.

             There’s a REASON people, and especially women, take such an issue with the c word. That it’s become so commonplace in some cultures doesn’t change that.

       3. I’m super offended when people call me a d*ck. I mean, that suggests there’s something inherently wrong with having male gen*talia! S*xism!

          Anyway, I’ve never called anyone a c*nt in my life, and I’ve never heard it bandied about in even the most crude conversations I’ve had (though d*ck, d*ckface, and d*ckhead feature regularly). This really does seem like a UK thing?

          1. You bring up a good point when you talk about being called a d`ck :), which is the different power dynamics at play depending on who calls who what.

             A guy calling another guy a d’ck is essentially a slur shared amongst equals, and concerns a term for a body part they both share.*

             A woman calling another woman the c word is similar.

             A guy calling another guy the c word is a slur between equals….but it’s also a slur between the powerful (men), that employs a derogatory term for (traditionally, and to large extent still), the less powerful (women). In that sense there’s not just the inherent misogyny of the term itself (‘You are acting like a woman and therefore bad.’), there’s also an element of the powerful sharing a slur at the expense of the less powerful and historically more oppressed.

             A guy calling a woman the c word has all the negative elements of above, plus the insult becomes a slur used by the more powerful DIRECTLY against the less powerful .(Historically/ sexually/ politically/ to a large extent that’s still the case around the world).

             (*unless trans.)

             1. I guess what I’m saying is ‘Don’t be a d’ck!’ 🙂

             2. I can’t help it. I’m a total d*ck, unfortunately. Ask Tim.

    3. Reminds me of Russel Peter’s comedy gig on the subject.
       https://youtu.be/E53qBbsxNXs

       1. This made my day 🤣

          Gotta love Russel Peters… more of that guy, less of this “woke” BS. It’s about how you treat others, not about the ways the world was messed up before you were born.

12. I stand with Raheem Sterling. Much respect for putting a stake in the ground once again Tim.

    Seems like the major reason so much football and terrace humour (and the schoolboy humour it stems from) is racist/xenophobic in tone is that for all the glorious history, alchemical “melting pots” and technological triumphs of our culture, it’s still deeply stratified along racial/cultural lines. You could even call it institutionally racist and xenophobic but it’s not politically correct to say that in the current climate.

    1. Dude, pointing out systemic racism these days is Political Correctness Gone Mad!!!!!

       1. I know man, I know!

13. Tim: “Because “Polish people are builders” is racist. It’s not at all about love and respect for Polish traditions. It’s about them being classified as second class citizens, stealing jobs from good, hard-working Brits. You really don’t know that?”

    I’m going to open up a bit here. I had an almost perfect, idyllic childhood. I grew up in a place where I was protected, supported, and have wonderful memories of.

    But there were things. It was the 90s, early 2000s, in the Middle East, and we were were racist. By ‘we’ I mean society. I don’t think that place was any more or less racist than other places in the world, but it was possibly different. There was so much casual racism. It was almost never the hateful, insidious kind – at least not commonly. It was the kind Tim describes, the kind that makes second class citizens of people.

    Indians were imported labor that did all the menial work (still are, frankly). But the caricature was that they were dumb, smelly and talked funny. And so people – kids, adults – made jokes at their expense. And of course we had Indian friends, and of course we didn’t dislike them or anything like that (and I use ‘we’ as in society). But there was always a sense of looking down on. Buddus, mullus, gandus, etc. Even the Indians in our middle class enclaves did the same – made the same jokes about their own, in order to fit in.

    I used the word gandu – a hateful word. I don’t speak hindi so I don’t know the connotations in that language, but the english equivalent is so abhorrent I don’t even want to use it (we used that, too, but that came from rap music, which I’ll get to). We discriminated against gay people, too. LGBTQIA wasn’t a thing then, it was just ‘gays’. And again, it never reached outright hatred or anything like that. But it was a relegation to a second class citizen, one that should be avoided. It became a joke – X person is gay, eww, etc. Two of the people who were in our close circle at the time have come out as gay: one was able to do it after moving to the US, but has drawn a strict line of separation between his friends here and his friends back home. The other one still lives there so hasn’t come out outright, per se, but he signals it in a way that is unmistakeable (and this is on purpose, of course).

    Juxtapose this on actual racism: there was this casual agreement that most Filipino men were ‘gay’. Which again, is crazy and insane. But that was the attitude, and it was no doubt very harmful.

    And then there is gangsta rap, which I loved and continue to enjoy. But man, were the messages harmful. And we used the n-word liberally. Not offensively, but because we related somehow. We weren’t white, and that’s how they referred to each other, so that’s how we would refer to ourselves. It was stupid, and probably harmless being we were thousands of miles form where that word actually had power, but so stupid.

    There was racism towards Africans, too. Not black people really, because they were usually American or British, and seen as such. But Africans, or those of African descent, were sometimes called ‘slaves’ or ‘children of slaves’. Quite apart from the fact that they often were (slavery was abolished there only in the 2nd half of the 20th century), this often caused real harm because they weren’t people from other countries (Indians, Filipinos), they were local. That made it no joke. I have heard many a Sunni person say they would rather their kid marry a Christian or a Jew than a Shia, because the Shias claim to be muslim (and thus are worse). Same shit. I remember watching football on TV in the mid-90s, and they would refer to black players as ‘al abeed’; the slave. It wasn’t said maliciously in that sense, it was just matter of fact. Like saying the Swede, the German. That makes it worse, I think.

    It was a confused time. Though I haven’t been back in many years, I think much of this still exists. Many of us grew up and were able to escape this thinking, to realize the harmful effects of it and to leave it behind. I don’t think it is especially hard, if you extricate yourself from that atmosphere and have some humility in accepting you were wrong. I think Kevin Hart could have done that, eloquently say that that was then and this is now, that his thinking has evolved, that his old tweets and jokes were abhorrent and he apologizes for all the offense he has caused. His statement was idiotic, self-centered and ham-fisted.

    Anyway, this is a bit of a stream of consciousness response. I just think you absolutely nailed it with that reply, Tim. We may not think it harmful to sing songs like the Polish one or the Adebayor one about our own players, but it does exactly as you say: relegate them to second class citizens.

    Spot on about the C-word, too. And others like it. When I was young and dumb I used to love that word and others because they were strong and shocking. They’re misogynistic, and harmful. The word paki, too.

    My Pakistani roommates in college used to use it. Far be it for me to tell them what to do, but I wouldn’t. They would also call white people Goras or Kaffirs.

    I remember keenly one of them saying something like, “I like X. Too bad he’s a Kafir so he’s going to hell.” As an ex-Muslim I can say this: f*** that s***.

    But anyway, I digress.

    1. I had a friend from the UAE in college who explained that the word “Sudanee” سداني in Arabic, an adjective describing someone from the Sudan, was also used to call someone lazy. He didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with that. But culturally, it was also ok for him to openly make fun of his friends for being fat. And his friends didn’t seem to mind. Doesn’t mean his words were harmless, but there are different thresholds for offense in different cultures.

14. Is my comment in moderation?

15. Hey Doc. Regarding not wanting to lump everyone under the same racist banner to the exact same extent, or on being able to know someone’s intent, this is an awesome video that talks about who when someone says something racist, it’s often better to focus on what they SAID and not on what they ARE. I think it’s very helpful, especially for cases like you mention where there is a degree of doubt. Hope you find it as helpful as I did.

    https://youtu.be/b0Ti-gkJiXc

    1. This is a good video and I understand the message. It’s a good one. To me there is an important distinction though. It’s about who is making the accusation of racism. I took issue with the stuff above because it wasn’t the Poles who were complaining about that song, it was Tim. If the Poles stand up and say, hey, we think this is prejudiced and we don’t like it, I say: OK! Understood. I don’t come from where you come from so to me it might sound funny and supportive but it doesn’t to you and it’s about you, so I get that.

       What I can’t stomach is the false piety crusading by white people who have never themselves actually experienced racism. We can all understand and acknowledge that we live in a world that was constructed by white people and that that comes with inherited racial bias baggage that is inherent in our social structures. That much is beyond doubt. But before we dub something as racist maybe we can have a conversation about it instead of just assuming that everyone should feel that way just because it’s some type of generalization. What I see happening with the woke movement is not people of color standing up and saying: Hey that was racist! What I see is spoiled upper class white people whining about perceived racial biases in their peers and it makes me sick because it’s a type of holier than though evangelistic nonsense designed to make them look super-duper awesome tolerant/progressive/whatever. Whether they will ever admit that is another matter. Of course they won’t.

       1. Well, actually, Doc… I have experienced racism. Both as a giver and a receiver.

          Your positions are very strange to me. I have to be Polish to say that slurs against Poles are slurs? Remember all the “Pollack” jokes from when you were a kid? Those weren’t racist?

          And as for your characterization of the woke movement as just being a bunch of white people, I think maybe, just maybe, those are the only people you’re interacting with. My guess is that you missed all of the Black Lives Matter protests that have been going on for the last 10 years? And as I happen to work on a college campus the vast majority of the people speaking out against racism are minorities. White people speaking out about racism are literally just being an ally and we are a TINY minority of white people.

          Are you really saying that I’m gross for speaking out? That maybe I should shut up? Maybe I should, I do try to let people who haven’t had a voice be heard. But literally all I said here was that I stand with Raheem Sterling and that I have experienced racism as an Arsenal supporter.

          Good lord, dude, for a smart guy you have some really twisted views.

          1. I never came close to asking you to shut up. I’m calling for an objective conversation instead of just assuming everyone should feel the same way you do about these issues. That’s like the opposite of what you just described that I said, isn’t it?

             And you’re not a tiny minority. Most major news outlets trumpet the same language and the same things. BBC, CNN, Guardian, NYT, The Post, I could go on.

             Also, we agree on like 99% of the things you said. I’m calling for some perspective and some temperance on who we call a racist. I guess that makes me a twisted dude.

16. Thanks for this Tim.

    Specifically I liked the way Sterling demonstrated, by putting Daily Mail headlines side-by-side, how the exact same action (buying a house for their mothers) gets reported differently for a black player and for a white player.

    In other words it’s not just abuse or banana skins from a subculture of racists.

17. I wrestle with what I perceive as the anticemitism of this song, an Arsenal favorite:
    The w*nky Tottenham Hotspur went to Rome to see the pope,
    The w*nky Tottenham Hotspur went to Rome to see the pope,
    The w*nky Tottenham Hotspur went to Rome to see the pope,
    And this is what he said: ’F*CK OFF!!

    Low brow witty perhaps, but given Arsenal’s Catholic and Irish history and Spurs Jewish one, it grates as anti-Semitic. That said, much of that is based on my perceptions of history. Others here know more and have considered the issue in greater depth.

    What day you? Is this chant anti- Semitic?

18. *The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.

    1. LOL.

       I’ll get right on saving the world from racism.

19. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/11/raheem-sterling-educate-media-racism-football?CMP=share_btn_tw

    1. From Musa Okwonga’s article linked above:

       “Sterling drew a connection between the negative coverage that black players constantly receive and their treatment by the public.”

       “The existence of such a connection was denied by several media personalities, among them Piers Morgan. The problem is that Morgan and too many other prominent public figures cannot be trusted to take this issue seriously. It was Morgan, after all, who used the occasion of the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony – a moment as unifying and optimistic as many British citizens can remember – to call for the return of the British empire.”

       Yes indeed, Piers Morgan can eff all the way off.

       1. I saw an interview PM did with 2 Black journalists and PM remained obtuse in his failure to acknowledge the journalist points of contention about racism. PM even went so far as to stand by his criticism of Sterling’s gun tattoo as if this Black man needs PM and his ilks acceptance of his personal statement.

          John Barnes has been speaking out very eloquently on the topic of racism in society (not limiting it to football) and said something very telling and I’m paraphrasing here that Black people deal with overt and covert banana skins each and every day no matter where they are.

20. I am very wary of the ‘woke’ left. Their insistence on viewing everything, every interaction, through the lens of identity and power dynamics takes the individual out of the equation, and insists on its right to interpret someone’s thoughts, and determine status as victim or oppressor, based on how they fit into this world view.

    I think it’s like the left-right spectrum isn’t a line but a horseshoe because though it’s an opposite, it’s very close to how the far right views people on the basis of their identities first and foremost.

    I also agree with Morgan Freeman in the interview he gave to Don Lemon. The more you talk about victimhood and oppressors, the more you reinforce that dynamic. I know saying this is considered sacrilegious on the left these days, but I will never agree with the woke left on this.

    1. 👏👏

       Exactly right. Absolutist thinking is adjacent to totalitarianism whether it’s on behalf of populism or the aristocracy.

       Who gets to be the arbiter of what morally just or unjust? And who thinks they have a right to tell others how to feel about this and then enforce that permitted view? Totalitarian regimes. The Church, Monarchies, Dictatorships, and now, Twitter 😛

    2. It’s probably not a coincidence that rich and powerful Morgan Freeman is anti victimhood,
       considering he’s been accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour and comments by multiple women.

       Just as it’s no surprise that Aziz Ansari, who came to prominence as an ultra liberal, ‘woke’ feminist, started complaining about ultra liberals or whatever, as soon as he came in for criticism himself.

       I don’t think we live in a world where you could OVERSTATE the degree to which, women especially, have been negatively impacted by both wholly inappropriate, and sexually horrific sexual behaviour for CENTURIES.

       People like Morgan Freeman, who complain about a culture of victimhood after a couple of months of women airing their grievances , grievances that INVOLVE HIM, can do one honestly.

       And if you’re still here Doc, while I feel like you’ve your mind made up already, I think what you’re failing to see or acknowledge with your ‘only those affected can call out racist behaviour’ stance is that, if you ask them, a lot of black people in America would tell you that it shouldn’t be up to THEM to solve racism in America, especially by themselves, and that it’s mostly up to white people to sort that sh’t out. And the only way that happens is, as uncomfortable as it is, white people being willing calling out their white friends on their racist behaviour.

       Te expect black people solely, to both solve racism, while bearing the brunt of it, is not just unfair but unreasonable. You’ve got to see that right?

       Glad you liked the video.

       1. Just a few more thoughts Doc.

          I feel like we’re all kind of friends here and I don’t want to push things to far, but I honestly don’t know what people like yourself and Shard, (who I also agree with on a lot of things) are so afraid of. Like, is a world where people are allowed to get away with racist behaviour and rhetoric that ‘isn’t too bad’ so much better than a world where people are taken to task and called out on it?

          Is a world where someone like Tim says he stands with someone like Sterling against blatant racism a case of ‘political correctness gone mad’ or going too far?

          It seems to me like if we’re going to get defensive about a post as straight up and benign as this we’re kind of f’cked……but clearly people like yourself and Shard, and I like you both, see it as unnecessary lecturing and thought policing.

          While ye see it as entirely too much, to someone like me, who’s clearly just high on virtue signaling evangelical nonsense 🙂 it seems jpjd your not even willing to engage with the conversation before going straight to being defensive and looking for what’s ok as opposed to agreeing on what’s not.

          I don’t mean any disrespect, but it’s like conversations i’ve had with people online about sexual assault and rape. ‘Obviously I’m not for rape’…….they’ll start, before writing a thousand words about how it’s women’s fault and how they’re to blame for their own rapes. What I’m trying to get across is that based on how much time they’re willing to spend condemning rape (usually one line) verses how much time they’re willing to spend talking about how women are to blame (multiple comments) it’s difficult not to draw unflattering conclusions based on how much energy they’re willing to spend arguing each side. I think sometimes, even if it’s unfair, you’re comments sometimes come off a bit like that. Like you don’t want to talk about and agree with what’s bad for any length of time, you go straight to a need te defend what’s maybe only slightly bad because of a fear of things ‘going too far.’

          I hope that makes some sense in some way. I’m honestly not trying to insult you or suggest you’re racist or anything. Maybe just a bit too defensive or something like that.

          I’m glad you liked the earlier video so maybe you’ll like this one too.
          It’s a bit by Stewart Lee about political correctness. Hope you enjoyed it.

          https://youtu.be/x_JCBmY9NGM

          1. I wish I correct my misspellings 🙁

             1. Jesus, I even f’cked up the correction..ha ha.

             2. Haha correcting a typo with another typo is peak online.

                Really appreciate all of your comments on this topic Jeremy. Thank you brother

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