The FA have said that 'any' fan who uses the term 'Yid' could face criminal charges. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24057423 Spurs fans have often cited using the word as a 'defence mechanism', reclaiming the word in a similar way that the 'N' word has been reclaimed by some black people. It's a sensitive issue, but I'm not sure Spurs really have a defence to be honest. Partly because many of the fans who chant 'Yid' are not actually Jewish, in fact it has been mentioned that Arsenal have more Jewish fans at the Emirates at any given home game. If Arsenal fans started chanting 'Yid' then the assumption would be that it was being done in a pejorative way, but could be argued that it's completely legitimate if Jews are allowed to chant 'Yid' in football stadiums. So do you allow non Jewish fans to chant 'Yid' too ? or do you ban all fans from chanting it ? Just allowing one club to chant it, is going to throw up all sorts of problems. Can you imagine the problems if fans started chanting the 'N' word claiming it was being used in the reclaimed sense of the word. There would be uproar. I'm not particularly for or against a ban - I can see the argument from both sides. But I don't see how you can allow certain fans to chant 'Yid' whilst threatening prosecution to others who do, whilst not knowing if those fans are actually Jewish or not.
In my opinion this is a load of PC bollocks. My family on my father's side are Jewish and they wouldn't give a ****. I think that our society would be far healthier if people were able to say whatever the hell they want and if someone is offended, well, tough titty.
To an extent maybe, but I don't want to go back to the 80s when words like paki were thrown around pretty freely. Im not sure how much of an insult yid is to be honest, I've never really heard it outside of football
Yid comes from Yiddish, the Hebrew language. Hoow it can be offensive I don't know. I'm sure most Jews don't even give a ****.
I would have thought the 'Yid' stuff comes under the Public Order Act, hence the FA and Spurs having to do something about it. I'm fairly sure that Judaism, like Sikhism, is protected under the law as a racial group for starters. It's maybe a bit surprising that nothing has been done about it sooner (though of course it may have, but had just gone under the radar).
It depends on context and history. Paki is just short for Pakistani, but no right minded person uses that term now. Yid hasn't been an offensive term for 50 years and Spurs proclaiming it positively and proudly helps stop it going that way again.
I can guarantee you that Yid is offensive to most Jewish people just as the term Paki is to Pakistanis.
If the word is used as a form of hatred then yes. Personally I don't see a place for swear words at a football match either. Some of the abuse that goes on in football matches is frankly disgraceful. For example, some of the comments directed at Wenger are probably some of the most appauling you'll ever come across.
Isnt this down to simple ignorance of what is or isn't common sense/ manners? Crowd mentality can make desultory terms seem fairly innocous - however when the same terms are used in other circumstances (e.g. social gatherings, business meetings) they are deemed to be very offensive. The situation opens itself to manipulation with people being accused of playing the 'race card' for instance. Creating institutional rules on what we can or cannot say masks the real issue that people are responsible for what and where they say something and they should learn more about what the meaning/ connotation is. Like most parents of teenage kids, I am hearing my daughter use some terrible expressions. When I challenge her to explain what they mean, she is often ignorant of the meaning and falls back on the old 'everyone says this at school'. Often when I explain the meaning, she is a bit embarrased. other media inflences dont help me much in this regard either and, especially bad language, it is too easy to be adversley influenced these days. It doesnt take much to communicate with each other, it is a responsibility of all of us.
I would assume that "any" encompasses all Spurs (and Arsenal) fans, Jewish or not. This is probably one of those occasions when our opinion is not relevant. If you use the term on the terraces then the club will be fined and you will be banned. Any defence that begins, "Well, I don't think..." probably isn't going to count for much.
As I said, it is about context. This is not a term, in my experience, that is used offensively any more. Not in the same way as other words are used. Would never use a term that insulted a race and I don't believe Yid is one any more.
I have never got why Paki is offensive.....its short for pakistani - their nationality. On that basis - surely 'Aussie' would be an offensive word to an Australian? Why is shortening the nationality ok for some, and not for others bizarre world we live in.
Please don't take this as me being aggressive but... Paki is used as an insult to anyone of a certain colour...those using it refer to Indian, mixed race, Bangladeshi and other asian backgrounds not just Pakistani. When I was a kid there was a song about paki bashing! That is why paki is offensive. I am from London...My parents from the west indies, i have asian, chinese, african and white people in my family history...yet all my life the only racist insult I have ever recieved is paki due to my skin colour and not once have I been called a paki in a friendly way. My mrs has been called a paki lover ... never in a friendly way either! Unfortunately there are a section of racist pricks out there and as you ain't one it's hard to understand why they'd want to insult some one because of their race or skin colour
A bunch of skinheads chasing a little boy who is of Pakistan origin shouting "Paki Bashing" with knuckle dusters and chains is just a joy. Yes indeed, what a bizarre world we live in!!!!!!!!!!!!!! **** me, don't people ever remember what happened 10-20 years ago in England? I suppose if it didn't affect you it didn't happen.
Because many Asians in general are called paki, regardless of whether they come from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, or even the far east. I think its more the fact that the word was contrived with negative connotations, why do we find the word **** offensive? After all, everyone poops. The same argument could be applied to any curse word to be honest. However, I think in this case, the banning of the word could actually have a negative effect, as people again start to see it as a taboo word, and thus use it with the same connotations that they might associate kike with. Soon we won't be able to sing about Cashley for fear of being branded homophobic
Mainly because India and Pakistan are not the best of friends. Same reasons; Irish don't like being called English, or even Brits; Canadians don't like being called Americans; And Japanese don't like being called Chinese.
Spurs supporters trust have released a statement about this: The highlighted text is the crux of the issue really. Therefore it doesn't really matter if they intend for it to be malicious or not, there is no way they can make that judgement and ignorance is not a defence. Also it's not about 'educating other clubs' that is arrogant in the extreme. It is about educating ALL clubs including Spurs. I think they are sincere, but I'm afraid their priorities are completely misguided.
