On the Holt thing I agree with you. He loves it, but you play to that. It happened last year with the twitter fiasco and he went and scored double. Your fans shouldn't chant and he wouldn't do it.
I reckon we need more people thinking like us Thai. Football would be far better for it, banter is fine racism is not
Footballers of all race have to deal with crap every single game - even before any particular player winds up any fan - but as soon as one of the players gives a little back, its wrong. This has always wound me up. Of course, Holt endured no taunts at all up until he started winding the Swansea fans up, in fact I'm sure they clapped every time he touched the ball.
i agree that the kick out racism campaign is a joke, and arresting individual fans is not going to create a seachange of attitude. Bassong and Holt were both up for it and celebrated with gusto. Because of that they were bound to get a bit of verbals from the home support. I'm sure Holt got called a fat inbred every time he was in earshot. I'm also sure he expected that and didn't have a problem with it. I think Bassong would have expected to get banter thrown at him too, and undoubtedly did for much of the game. The only thing he raised as unacceptable was the person who denigrated all black people as being sub human apes. This isn't the same as calling east anglians inbred, or the welsh sheep shaggers. Sure they're both insults, but those carry a much less sinister history. To call black people monkeys is to reference, and indirectly agree with, the suppression, exploitation and misery inflicted upon a great many people, not all that long ago. Its supporting and giving life to an attitude which still leads to racially motivated attacks and discrimination today. For that to stop, new generations must not grow up thinking that 'black people are sub human' is an acceptable belief system to have. The law reflects the need to not allow this sort of incitement to take place. And to suggest that the guy whose celebration prompted the racism is guilty as well, and then balance that equation by saying he earns over twice what he actually does is trying to use general dislike for 'wealth' to square a very round circle. (Also i'm going to take a wild guess here and say that the fan was a racist long before Bassong arrived in Wales, let alone did his dance) Calling people inbred or sheep shaggers is offensive, but it doesn't harken back to a time when these terms where used to justify the torture of thousands upon thousands. Hence he gets arrested, and everyone else in the stadium that day doesn't.
SERIOUSLY? **** me...he could have called him a ****er, flipped him the bird or shouted **** off but instead he CHOSE to be a racist ****. And you are defending him???????? Fans make me laugh...we can slaughter a player but if one has the nerve to rub our faces in it we think we are justified in doing anything we want. Your players celebrated scoring at white hart lane...in front of our crowd...NONE of them deserved abuse for celebrating a goal let alone racist abuse. you are way off the mark mate ...
What is even more disturbing is that we are commenting on something yey we dont actually know the truth !! ive heard thst the guy was actually making "fat man " gestures at Grant Holt and not directing anything to Bassong, who as pointed out had his moment of glory a while back in the game, we need to be very careful here. Holt gets the fat man abuse quite regular off our fans, it does fit that somebody would make a gesture to him,as he also loves to windd up opposition fans. Im not defending the guys actions if it was racially motivated but if he was making a gesture with his arms to impersonate a fat man there can be an area of confusion! especially in the recent publicity racism has been bringing into football. Subconciously the first thing people assume nowadays is race hate!! its been pushed to the front of media and is now the flavour of the month with tabloids etc etc, what people are forgetting here is that the guy may not have actually done anything racially motivated yet he is being presumed guilty until proven innocent, that is fundementally wrong !! SCFC were very quick to act on this report but as of yet nobody really knows what they were acting upon, if a black person says they are being abused racially it is taken as them being 100% totally correct no questions asked lets get the ****er that abused him quick !! nobody thinks to ask "are you sure ?" Thats what the Chelsea episode told us didnt it? false accusation almost ruined a guys career!! we have to be careful what we say and do but in all walks of life things get misconstrued and people often mistake one thing for another. Make no mistake if this guy admits he did it and its proven he did, throw the book at the ****er !! But if the rumours i heard are true,that he was making fat man gestures to Holt then the likes of SCFC,Bassong and everybody else need to be taken to task also. People talk about race and how bad it is but i notice it seems to be perfectly fine to abuse Welsh people, that is classed as "banter" according to some people,if you want all things equal then your wrong,there is no difference its a race issue and should be treated as such. Personally i dont give a **** if im called names for being welsh, but you cant have a situation where one issue is more racist than another, people that assume that are indeed more racist than they think
I agree that if hes innocent then people need to be accountable for the trouble it will have caused him. my understanding was that the fan was found on video and identified making the gestures before he was arrested. I would hope the images were conclusive for them to have taken action. I disagree with you that sheep shagger/ inbred are racist terms however. They are archetypes, used to make fun of people, but which are based on little but apocryphal evidence. Crucially, i don't think they are intended to force superiority over or inferiority of, the recipient. Thats a core tenant of racism i think. The desire to belittle an ethnic group. I think most of football 'banter' doesn't possess this power, or desire.
I really can't believe anyone trying to make any justification for this idiots behaviour. If celebrating a goal is classed as incitement then I no longer want to watch football. Shall we get FIFA to now ban away teams from celebrating a goal ? If it was incitement, then how come 18,000 people didn't make racist gestures ?
Some good posts and glad to see I'm not alone in the 'celebrating a goal away from isn't incitement.'
Why's every f*cking thing called racist? Holt was getting sh!t all game. Maybe he did the monkey gesture because Bassong is an ugly unfortunate looking f*ck. F*ck Bassong run to your own fans after you score, cheeky c*nt. Man up instead of crying you pussy.
Abusing a player because he is celebrating in front of the homes may JUST be acceptable, but when it makes racist it certainly isn't.
Oh look out the online racist police go join the UAF you sad c*nt. Your fans throw sh!t at us all game, who gives a f*ck it's just banter, Bassong should man up.
You can say whatever you want if the people on the receiving end are white. Who the f*ck associates black human beings with monkeys anyway they look nothing alike it's all in their head, if he'd done it toward Holt would that have been errr "racist"?
**** me, I cannot believe this situation is being argued. One of our own racially abused a black player of the opposition. This "fan" deserves everything he gets. I wasn't around in the days of proper hooliganism, but were in the 21st century ffs, not the 1980's. While I will openly admit that I do get riled up at a footy game, and I do shout abuse, I would NEVER use racism as a way of abusing ANYONE, no matter how much they "incited" me. Bassong rightly celebrated a "team" goal, and wether at the home or away end, he has a right to do so. Were we right singing "Luis Suarez, he looks like a rat"? Was Pratley right doing the swimaway by Cardiff fans? NO. But we loved it. Was there an racial abuse hurled at him for that? No. The fan will get banned for life, and rightly so. ****er.
