I've not been to many matches in the last few years, most of my friends are white and I live a middle-class life.
However, I live in a city, have lived through times when it was blindingly obvious that racism was a problem, and recent times when it seems to barely exist. I am staggered about claims that racism is on the rise - either in football or society in general. In fact, I just don't believe it. Obviously there are clear examples of racism. Certain areas like Burnley (or Bradford) that are not well integrated. I hear racist things from older people - often out of ignorance. But nowhere else. Not when I'm out, when I'm at work, when my kids have friends round, when I'm shopping/on the train/the bus etc....Isn't it just a 1950-1990 problem that's just dying out? It's unlikely you can beat out the racist attitudes of older people. That will die with them. Communities that are ridden with race hatred need specific social solutions to sort them out..... but surely there's little point in banging on about having quotas for interviewing black managers, going on some raging witch hunt to find anyone that's ever muttered something that may sound racist on a football pitch or hunting out some stupid occasional knobheads in the crowd. Setting up rival campaigns to "kick it out" etc? The number of racist incidents are so high profile that you know about them and therefore know how rare they are: Ron Atkinson, Suarez, Terry ........ that's three in 5+ years? And how often is there racist chanting? There's loads of foreign managers, loads of black players.... And black managers are starting to appear more often (and there's bound to be more in future with the number of black players these days). I don't get it, but really suspect it's like the mythical rise in knife crime of a few years back, the belief that it's not safe for kids to play out anymore etc etc And yet..... why are sane enough black people in football, like Rio Ferdinand, convinced there is a problem? Maybe I'm just well out of touch? Message: 10 Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2012 11:19:18 +0000 From: Ian Murray <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> To: David Nattan <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Cc: leeds list <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: Re: [LU] vile animals Message-ID: <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" All this hysteria over racism in the game lately is doing my head in. Honestly, when was the last time you heard any racist chanting at a game? _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] PETE CASS (1962 - 2011) Rest In Peace Mate
