Very harsh in my opinion. He was basically punished because someone somewhere might have been offended. Funny really, if the fa or whoever's makes such descions doesn't take into co consideration the players cultural background should that also classify as racism? Only joking the whole sorry episode is bollocks.
Tbf he was punished because he broke a rule whether he (or we,) agree with the rule or not. Players know they can't reference a person's colour, race, ethnicity, religion etc. in any communication either on or off field and particularly not on social media. The sweet wrapper on it's own that he posted doesn't pass our strict racial standards. That brand would never be allowed in our country with the historic connotations of the image. Harsh maybe but true.
Harvey Elliot got twice the ban when the non-racist joke he did make in private got leaked on the internet by someone else. Silva himself has now put multiple racist jokes online and got the minimum possible punishment. Absolute shambles from the FA.
He meant no offence, no offense was taken but **** it let's ban him for 10 games. Dont be silly. Again this ****e takes focus away from real problems with intolerance, if everything is punished, if everything is made a big deal out of, the real issues just get amalgamated into the storm of false virtue and tub thumping.
What's the alternative? You can Tweet full on KKK and blackface dress up parties so long as you say "it's just a prank, bro" and tell your black teammates not to complain?
So he had to be punished. The worst part is the FA have now completely undermined international anti-racism. Anyone who racially abuses English players now can just say "actually that's not considered racially offensive in our country so we'll take the absolute minimum punishment like you gave Silva thanks"
While I acknowledge that there are people out there just waiting to be 'offended', by definition, you can't have a private joke on public forum. Whether or not offence was meant or taken by the two involved in the 'joke', and it clearly wasn't, making it public (which Silva didn't have to do), means that you actually do open it up for others to be offended.
To be fair, this is the problem. What actually constitutes racism, sexism etc. You've got a broad swathe of people readily looking to be offended, or even worse offended on someone else's behalf. This leads onto organisations terrified of being seen to do nothing so you get this sort if cack handed approach where something is done, for the sake of doing something. It detracts from an actual approach that may work. Education is the only way forward, punishment does nothing.
I may be mistaken but I'm fairly sure people argued for suarez because in his language the word he said didnt have racist connotations?
The FA said that didn't matter at all to their interpretation, against the testimony of language experts. Changed their tune now, for some reason. #consistency
A general point: While we have a consensus on the unacceptable nature of certain things, there's a danger of this "I'm offended" lark being taken too far, and used as a tool to restrict freedom of speech. I don't want to be misunderstood here, racism, sexism, homophobia, and similar baseless prejudices are quite rightly condemned, but we can't go to the extent where we deem anything offensive merely because someone else claims to be offended. I'm generally of the opinion that offence should not be taken unless offence is intentionally given, though I'm aware that this is a delicate issue and that there are areas where a casual insensitivity can be hurtful even when not intended. It is a bit of a minefield, and I agree that in such matters as a private joke, then it's foolish to publish them on a public forum.
Mate, dont for one minute think I'm holding the F.A. or any football authority up as fantastic mediators in the field of combating Intolerance, they are as guilty as anyone for knee jerk reactions with no substance
Broadly speaking we all know what constitutes racism and sexism. It gets complicated when you start drawing finer lines. You call a player a black *******, that's racist. Leave out the black and it isn't. Easy. Using blackface or Sambo images in this country in this day and age is racist. If you choose to do that with your friends in private, that's up to you just don't make it public. It really isn't hard in the circumstances we're talking about for anyone connected to a football club to leave out any mention of colour either in trash talk on the field or any form of communication off it.
But that doesn't combat racism, sexism, homophobia etc, it just hides it, which does no good at all. The current climate of massive offence gives people the excuse to hide behind "it was only a joke" "you cant say anything now". Treating everything as racist just gives racists room to manoeuvre.
We can only decide for ourselves what we each find offensive and therefore be offended by. We have no control over what anyone else finds offensive, whether or not we believe that they are actually offended, or pretending to be, or should or shouldn't be. Saying you meant no offence, doesn't guarantee none is taken. So saying offence should only be taken if intentionally intended, doesn't work for me. ( I know you mean in a very general sense). Just talking about the issue at hand and not racism generally: what we can control are the rules for what is allowed to be said and what isn't. No mention of colour or creed etc. in this one situation we are talking about really is very easy.
