I have quite an interest in sport especially football and I watch and listen to a lot of sports channels on TV and radio. Here are some examples of racism that I hear sports people talking about. This is information provided by people like Raheem Sterling and Mica Richards.
When a black young player starts to make a name for himself in the premier league and make some money, if he buys a brand new car, he is described as being flash or being a bling boy in the papers. If a white young player does the same then he is described as local boy done good.
If a black player buys his parents an expensive house in a nice area then he is described as once again being flash and showing off. If a white player does the same then he is described as giving back to his parents because they had done so much for him when he was a kid.
Sterling has loads of examples from newspapers of this exact thing happening, and in all fairness he called many journalists out on it.
Patrick Viera and Yaya Toure are always described as beasts, or how strong they were or how athletic they were, this is all true but they were also two players with tremendous football intelligence. But journalists very rarely speak about a black sports personas intelligence its always just about their athleticism, this is slowly starting to change.
What this tends to mean though, is that when a Black player finishes his/her playing career they can't get jobs in coaching or managing because they are seen as just being strong, or fast or tough but not smart enough to coach other players.
I am not a fan of the royal family but just look how Megan Markle was reported in the press compared with how Kate is reported. There are numbers examples of Kate and Megan either doing the same things or dressed similarly but the way they are described is chalk and cheese. Some of the establishment in this country did not want any black blood getting near the royal family.
I started work in the mid 70s and discrimination then was dreadfull, I worked with out and out racists who hated anybody who wasn't white, things are better now but there is still plenty of racists about many hide it in the real world but you see it in forums and various web sites.
I can’t comment on your football quotes because I detest the business with a passion and actively avoid anything to do with it. All I see is black and white players making equal amounts of money and being successful in equal measure. I know there are idiots in the crowd who hurl insults at black players and that’s part of the reason I hate football, the type of people it attracts.
I started work in the 1980s and have never seen or experienced racism in the workplace. Maybe I was lucky. I’ve known people from ethnic backgrounds being senior to me and it’s been the other way around and I’ve never given it a thought, it’s just natural, why not?
My wife experienced one accusation of racism whilst in work. A black South African lady joined her team and almost immediately went off sick after her mother was shot back in South Africa. She returned to work many weeks later, but kept going sick with stress from the shooting. At a conference, my wife happened to meet the woman’s former boss and discovered that the mother had also been shot two years earlier with a subsequent sickness pattern. After a bit more digging, my wife discovered that this same story had been used a total of four times.
Evidence was collected and the South African lady was dismissed. As sure as night follows day, the accusations of racism followed the sacking. All sorts of garbage was thrown in the direction of my wife and the department staff. This woman was a special kind of stupid because my wife was able to prove that on over 80% of the occasions when she or her staff were accused of racist acts or comments, the woman was off sick due to “the shooting.” UNISON bottled suing her for the character damage she did to the staff of the whole department, saying it may deter others coming forward who are subjected to genuine racism! FFS, the woman should be in prison.
I‘ve known white people pull similar stunts to this South African lady, but of course, they can’t claim a racist motivation. It’s acts like those of the woman which cheapen racism, make people sceptical that it genuinely exists and question the motivation of the protestors.
I was listening to LBC a couple of days ago when they ran a phone in about the protests. An hysterical black woman called to say that the police “continually“ pull her over in her car because all the windows are tinted, but they don’t stop white car drivers for the same thing. This woman was spitting venom at the police and was very emotional. The presenter asked her how the police would know that she was black if all the windows were tinted? She was absolutely floored by the question. Totally unable to respond. And that’s the issue, mostly it doesn’t exists, it’s got into the protesters heads via Facebook and other shite media outlets. They are a bunch of twats.
As far as I’m concerned, when I mix with people from ethnic backgrounds, I’m not really conscious of any difference, they are just other people, like I am to them, and a you’re ok, I’m ok atmosphere exists. Why should it be different?
