Dave/Maestro, I've deleted the link as what I have unintentially started on the Swansea board is a mess!
Gents, I understand that the line is blurred, but the Welsh sheep shagging thing is racist, as is the Irish being thick and the French not shaving their armpits and smelling of garlic. Many people do actually believe those stereotypes and allow it to colour their judgement. There was a fascinating piece on the BBC site this week about black people just changing their names on CVs and being more successful as a result. I know that I am subconsciously racist against the Irish because I've had some very bad experiences with a few of them and im sure we've all heard people declare 'I hate the French' and equal measures of racism aimed at the Italians and Germans. It's not just about the colour of your skin but also can be toward foreigners too. I know the intent is not the same as the evil racism toward black people but it is also a little different to our regionalist banter and I do think the Swan fan who brought it up was entitled too if he's subjected to it week in week out at away grounds in England.
But calling a black man a monkey is refering to a time period where they were tortured as slaves, fighting for equality, segregation etc. Those stereotypes you highlight are mostly myth. Welsh don't shag sheeps and Irish are not any thicker than other countries. Saying they are thick is not reminding them of what their ancestors went through and the horrendous history their ethnic group may have. Also Wonky, it's just debate, I wouldn't say it's that bad.
This is where I start to wonder just how far the PC brigade has changed the language of my former country. I always thought race was Asian, Negro, White etc as opposed to being French, Irish, German etc The French are French by nationality, not a race - or that is how it was in my eyes. To dislike a nation is xenophobic, not racist, or at least that is what I was taught.
It's a horrible thread to be honest with you. I'm not going to debate it out on there because they're an uncivilised bunch. Hatred directed at a person from a certain country should be classified as Xenophobia for some reason it has crept into the racism bracket.
i think the tone of the conversation went lower than i was interested in so i ducked out. I'm all for discussing the semantics of racism, not just chucking mud though.
The inbred thing is offensive and when taken to extreme like the west ham lot did by singing you're sha""ing your sister non stop for nearly 20 mins really hacks me off I have young lads at the match and they don't need that kind of junk you would not get away with in the street so why is it ok at a football ground
Talk about getting side-tracked, your latest post has me wondering, is the upper-case "G" in Grace, grammatically correct, or should it be lower-case?
Hi Swansea fan here, obviously dissapointed by Saturday's result, your lot definately seem to have our number, a well deserved victory though and a great game. More dissapointing though was the incident with the racist abuse. Glad it was dealt with swiftly and I can assure you the vast majority of Swansea fans make no excuses for this type of behaviour. I don't care what Bassong does upon scoring or where he does it there is no excuse for the abuse he got. I don;t like to see the type of tribalism that results in fans defending anything and everything to do with their club. Obviously there was some nonsense spoken in the previous thread but as a black Swansea fan myself, I don;t get a sense of it being that type of place or club. Anyway, best of luck to you for the following season, hoping we can at last get something out of the return fixture at your place and who knows, maybe even see you at Wembley!!
