"Yeah, they should knock down all the houses in Tottenham with the scum in them, then send 'em back to the Sahara Desert." He wasn't joking. By the scum he meant local residents, many of whom are black.
I didn't challenge him as I was on my own on my way to meet a mate and he was very big and with his mates. I wouldn't even now know where to start with such a ridiculous statement.
After the riots, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy made a commitment that Spurs would stay in Tottenham. Looking round at the businesses in the area that depend on the trade of 30,000 fans needing food, drink and Spurs merchandise, it's hard to imagine what kind of desert Tottenham would become without the presence of the club.
Spurs is almost by nature an an anti-racist club, situated as it is in Britain's most ethnically diverse area, and one of its poorest. You don't hear racist chanting at Spurs in the main, though there have been exceptions, and I'm not including the chants of "Yido!" aimed at Jermaine Defoe and other players as a compliment every time they do something good.
The worst it gets at Spurs is chants of "You only live round the corner" to visiting Polish or Greek supporters during European matches.
I wonder if the recent events involving Tom Adeyemi, Luis Suarez and John Terry gave my fellow Spurs supporter the confidence to say what he did. It is certainly possible that Liverpool FC's defence of Suarez encouraged a racist fan to target Adeyemi.
Adeyemi's reaction was moving. It showed that racist insults can and do hurt their targets, and that this is reason enough not to do it. I feel this was a turning point in the recent mini-tide of racist incidents. It was a moment when millions of people saw a young lad desperately upset, a moment where people realised things had gone too far. A moment when people realised that the clubs must do more than they are doing to tackle racism.
Kenny Dalglish is a legend, and Liverpool is not a club known for racism - quite the opposite in my experience. But he and the club missed opportunities over Suarez and Adeyemi to put things right. In their actions, they made things worse.
Every recession is accompanies by outbreaks of racism as scapegoats are sought to take the blame instead of those in charge of the economic mess. Each time, it takes different forms.
Millions may hold the views they do about immigration, but this does not translate into millions of demonstrations of outright hostility toward people because of the colour of their skin. In order to change that, role models like footballers must be seen to be doing it on a regular basis and for this to become acceptable, even fashionable.
We must all make sure this never happens by making sure the clubs are under pressure to tackle the problem properly wherever it raises its head.
No comments:
Post a Comment