Ive just had a really heartwarming read of everyones comments in the initiative about aid for Africa. As some of you know Im not resident in the North East but my history is grounded there and I recognise the voices. They are kind gentle and humane and inspired by a good idea and a great cause.I paused to reply to Syd who was ,in his usual self effacing way, desparaging about his "daft" (but in actual fact great idea of making contact with John Mensah to act as ambassador) I suggested that a first contact perhaps a good initial contact would be David Milliband with his obvious remit of World wide Develpment/past Foreign Secretary connections....but more importantly his connection with local community I have no political axe to grind but I would like to comment on one important thing.If youre serious about booting out racism...and this might be painful I wouldnt "doctor" any of the comments or "clean" any articles (BB) up before sending them to the club Its wholly understandable why somebody would want to do that but its dangerous. In percentage terms the idiot racist actually needs greater exposure He laughs and thrives if you dont expose him ( BB = Be Brave )and send all your responses Show how hurt you were....anything less is a whitewash! In my lifetime I have seen and lived with the effects of totalitarian regimes who manipulate evidence Be brave send the comments "Warts and all" It actually exposes the miscreants and makes the Sunderland voice even stronger. Exactly what Johnny Speight by creating Alf Garnet....Forgive me younger contributors maybe before your time Im coming home for 3 days next week....Monday to Wedesday.....its a highlight of my life................
Very good points mate and you are right, the racist comments are not the important ones, its the responce of the mass to those comments that matter.
To change the subject slightly, I have come across a couple of examples of disgusting racist comments being made near to wear I sit in the SoL, where people sitting next to the culprits seemed willing to ignore it until I spoke up. Once I confronted these morons, then other people backed me up, and to cut a long story short they don't sit there anymore. The point I'm making here is that it is up to each and every one of us to nip this in the bud, and if you don't feel confident enough to confront them, then report them to a steward or the police.
" ...where people sitting next to the culprits seemed willing to ignore it until I spoke up. Once I confronted these morons, then other people backed me up, and to cut a long story short they don't sit there anymore." - brilliant, well done. I think real fans need to stand behind the phrase "Let's kick racism out of football". That means remove it - racial incitement is illegal. What do you do the mindless comments that are racially defamatory? - Kick it out, please remove it. I cannot imagine why anyone here would wish to be associated with people who would express such views.
I had a run in with a Kenwyne basher once when he crossed that line. It's far from rife, but it does exist, which is ridiculous when you look at the core of our side! Re the original article, valid points made, so we all agree the thread shall remain unedited?
With Pride.....copy this with it if you wish to show the depth of consensus and depth of feeling.....
Managed to get to the chelsea game a few weeks back, my only game this season as I work most weekends. Unfortunately I had the experience marred by a moron two rows back who consistently abused the chelsea players calling them 'black this and that'! A couple of withering glares did not have the desired effect on this cretin and in the end I had to have a word and highlight how many of our players are black. It shut him up for the second half but he was probably spouting the same s**t at the next game. Looking back I regret not pointing him out to stewards and his ass chucked out.....next time I won't
