Biggus wrote:
I think he was saying just as I said- It's not for you me or anyone to decide if a (usually black) player is insulted, speaking for them is in itself a form or racism as you assume they are disempowered and cannot defend themselves.
If the person in question feels deeply offended and wants to take the matter further there are legal avenues to take.
Then we can all put in our tuppence as we did in the John Terry Luiz Suarez cases.
being Racist or Xenophobic is not about the word used, it's about the context and intent and for that you don't have to use slur words. The fact that you use a perceived slur word doesn't make you racist, that you use a word or analogy that may have racial implications doesn't mean you meant it that way, that you are careful to avoid using slur words doesn't mean you aren't, it could just mean you are a savvy racist.
Therefore it is condescending to think a person of color cannot tell the difference or to think blacks or indeed other races or minority groups are so fragile you cannot use common every day words around them. People should be made to feel free to be themselves, if you aren't racist then you have nothing to worry about. You can't please everybody and there will always be sensitive people, that's more their problem than yours, ofcourse the realities of life are that as a public figure it becomes a bit of your problem but IMHO only to an extent, certainly not to the extent that you can't give a perfectly innocent NASA analogy about a monkey in the presence of a black person.
There are various definitions of racism, Racism for me is about a belief in superiority/inferiority based on color/race. Slavery is not racism, Stereotyping is not racism, stereotyping is a natural human consequence of the fact that we are different and until and unless the world is inhabited by one race, one sex, one religion, etc there will always be stereotypes, there are stereotypes even in terms of professions, so why do we try to make such an effort to pretend we aren't. We are different, we need to deal with it by acknowledging and embracing differences, not by shying away from it. Stereotypes are a frame of reference for entering the unknown that often prove to be false, though some stereotypes are actually the norm rather than the exception, for instance Liverpool fans are delusional 😆.
I digress, my point as Biggus highlighted is when it becomes unacceptable to make references to a monkey in the presence of a black person, we 1) not only perpetuate the association of that word with blacks but 2) one is unwittingly being racist because one is saying these people are not smart enough/too mentally fragile to decipher the intent or the difference and so therefore let us legislate or define what they find acceptable 3) and this is both for whites who are too quick to accuse fellow whites of racism and the fragile sensitive blacks/minorities (of which there are many) that like to overplay the race card at every opportunity, when the world gets to a point where it is spending too much effort watching it's words around minorities, then the natural reaction is reduce the opportunities for such gaffes and one such way is to avoid interaction, a consequence of which is reduced opportunities. So all this crying wolf may infact end up being counterproductive because the biggest blow to the fight against racism is having recognized equality to go full circle and deny opportunities not because of qualification but the perceived hassle involved in dealing with a race.
Blacks and whites can decide whether they want their interactions/relationships to be defined by the actions of their ancestors and thus keep apologizing/playing the victim or or they can refuse to be shackled by things they had no say in and chart their own tomorrows.
