YOU know that moment at the end of a film, when you think the good guys have won, when a creepy tendril curls out of nowhere, or the bunny boiler who you thought was dead rears up out of the bath?
The real horror is that the battle may have been won — but the war goes on.
Racism on the terraces feels exactly like that to me.
Every time you think that the aliens have been vanquished they burst out of some poor innocent’s chest ready to wreak havoc again.
It made me feel sicker than any number of parrots after a 6-0 defeat.
There can be no excuse for the abuse hurled at Raheem Sterling, or the kind of racist chanting we’ve heard about Man United’s Romelu Lukaku or Everton’s Yerry Mina.
Even the influence of the media, blamed by Sterling himself, needs to be viewed with caution.
Football fans — most of us anyway — are not morons. We have minds of our own, and we need to take responsibility for our own actions.
The reappearance of naked prejudice on the terraces can’t be blamed on anyone other than the racists themselves — and the other fans who stay silent instead of calling out the racists.
These people should be named and shamed. Social media could be put to good use by posting a rogues’ gallery on every platform and the faces of the bigots should be prominent, so that their wives, mothers and children can see what they’ve done. Roll on #stampoutracism.
But the mystery is why there is an upsurge in such incidents right now.
I, for one, thought that with the determined efforts of the clubs, led by the Kick It Out campaign, such scenes would cease. But I should have known better. Back in the early Seventies I lived ten minutes from Stamford Bridge — but I never went to home games.
When it became fashionable to throw darts at our own fans, a black face standing in the Shed was nothing less than a walking bullseye.
By the mid-Nineties I hoped it would be OK to bring my seven-year-old daughter and her pals to a game.
Surely, there could be no danger in seats below the directors’ boxes, away from the common herd?
It took 20 minutes for me to learn the truth as two men in front of us leapt up to abuse the Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Carlton Palmer, screaming “You lanky-legged black ****”.
I tapped one on the shoulder. He looked around, saw my face, and immediately apologised profusely. But the damage was done.
Three weeks later, I attended a dinner at the City of London’s most glittering venue, the Guildhall.
Suddenly, I found myself confronted by a familiar face — one of the same two men who had sat in the stand in front of us.
A true racist, yet here he was, suave, suited and booted, at the heart of the British establishment. So much for the idea that all racists are ignorant, lower-class idiots.
So what’s happened?
It seems bizarre that the Premier League, dominated by foreign players, many of them black, should still suffer from prejudice.
And with top teams regularly playing in Europe, plus a successful England team nearly half of whose members are black or mixed race it’s hard to see why fans should start throwing bananas on the pitch again.
But the truth is that many of the factors that drove racism on the terraces have never gone away, and have never been challenged effectively. Yes, recent political arguments about the EU and about immigration have allowed some of the scumbags who the game thought it had chased away to resurface with renewed bravado.
It’s also possible that the increase in the number of fans from Eastern Europe, where attitudes to diversity are decidedly less tolerant, may have had an effect.
Perhaps some of the brilliant players from Europe who now grace the English game might put themselves in the front line of their re-education.
But if the game wants to stamp out racism for good it needs to take a long, hard look at itself.
In the Premier League, around one in five players are black.
The number of black owners and coaches is negligible. This is sending out the worst message imaginable.
I welcome the advent of great players like N’Golo Kante, Romelu Lukaku, and Dele Alli. But this is a sport owned and run almost exclusively by white men, who buy and sell black men at will.
Yes, of course, the heaviest weight that the players have to lift is their own multimillion-pound pay packets, so I don’t seek sympathy for them.
But basically, football looks like the 18th-century plantation economy of the American South.
It’s time for the game to start taking steps to make sure that its owners, their boards of directors and their executive and coaching staff look more like modern Britain.
SUNSPORT is committed to stamping out discriminatory behaviour in football grounds across the country.
Here are the numbers that football fans can use to report any racist or homophobic abuse for today’s games. Include block and stand details with call/text.
Arsenal v Burnley
Emirates Stadium: Text 67777
AFC Bournemouth v Brighton
& Hove Albion
Vitality Stadium: Call 0344 576 1910
Chelsea v Leicester City
Stamford Bridge: Call 0371 811 1955
Huddersfield Town v Southampton
John Smith’s Stadium: Call/text 07741 528949
Manchester City v Crystal Palace
Etihad Stadium: Call 0161 444 1894 (Option 1, then 3)
Newcastle United v Fulham
St. James’ Park: Text HELP followed by stand, row and seat of the offending supporter and nature of offending behaviour to 60070
West Ham United v Watford
London Stadium: Call 0208 522 6001
Cardiff City v Manchester United
Cardiff City Stadium: Call 033 33 11 1927
If the people at the top of the game seem to think that it’s OK to treat black people like field slaves, why would they expect the fans to treat the players with respect?
I saw my first game — Arsenal vs Leicester City — at the old Highbury ground.
My dad wanted me to see his hero, the great inside-left George Eastham, in action.
He realised that I was too small to see over the parapet, so we took the biggest book we had in the house for me to stand on. I watched Eastham while standing on Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the bestselling anti-slavery novel that had touched off the American Civil War.
MOST READ IN OPINION
Maybe every owner needs to be sent a copy of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book to remind our contemporary plantation bosses that it’s time for them too to confront the bigotry written into the game’s soul.
Football’s racism hasn’t gone away, and it never will until we all look at its evil full in the face.
- Trevor Phillips is a former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/we-cant-blame-the-media-for-the-bigotry-of-football-fans-we-need-to-take-responsibility-for-our-own-actions/
News Pictures We can’t blame the media for the bigotry of football fans — we need to take responsibility for our own actions
You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
TEENS
Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st
To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.
Hayden says: “I don’t have a model’s body, but I’m not one of those crazy girls who thinks that they’re fat. I’m OK with what I have.”
Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”
kim cattrall
Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb
SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/NINTCHDBPICT000455859118-e1545439458208.jpg?strip=all&w=960
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий