Didn't say it upset me, or that I found it offensive. Anyway, aren't you the guy who got upset about the German stereotype? Slightly hypocritical then...
It'd be interesting to know if anyone complained. I think it's perfectly fine, but I do agree with OP that you don't expect to hear it.
I guess when you say "[adjective] black guy" you have to be careful. It could be inferred that you are conflating the two things together. "Big black guy" perhaps isn't so bad, but consider "lazy black guy" or "aggressive black guy", which are much more offensive than simply "lazy guy" or "aggressive guy" and you can see why people tend not to use these constructions I think.
Also people might wonder why he felt the need to point out his skin colour out at all. I doubt he'd ever refer to Rickie Lambert as "the big white guy". I'd like to know if there were any black people who were genuinely offended, or just white people acting offended on their behalf. But even then, one offended black person can't speak on behalf of all black people. Offensiveness is tricky.
For clarification reasons, I guess. I don't think they were playing another black guy (Pienaar is black-ish, but nowhere near Anichebe), so pointing out "the black guy" is obviously referring to only one person. Similarly, if you didn't know Fellaini's name then you might say the afroed guy.
At around 17 minutes in... Merrington: "Since they've brought on the big black guy, he's done brilliant for them." Like I said, it isn't malicious, just careless.
I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but I'd be surprised to see anyone on Match of the Day come out with it. Good old Dave, eh?
I guess it reveals a certain personality quirk (if you're being kind, flaw if you aren't) that you would think of his colour as a good defining characteristic. It wasn't necessary in this case. They had only brought on one "big guy" so that would have sufficed.
Tim Howard is also darker. If he had said "the big guy up front" you wouldn't have known whether it was Fellaini or Anichebe. I didn't even think twice about it when he said it. He certainly is big, is black, and most likely a guy so don't see what the fuss is about.
And Wayne Rooney's undeniably an ugly bastard but it'd raise a few eyebrows if the commentators referred to him as "the scrote-faced forward" or something, wouldn't it?
Skin colour and attractiveness are slightly different are they not? Is calling him a big black guy derogatory? Calling Rooney a scrote-faced forward is in my opinion, as much as he does look like one of Shrek's relatives.
Its not racist or even that big a deal but you cant honestly say it isnt a strange thing to say. And no way would they say it on match of the day haha
You're moving the goalposts now; you said it was fine because he is big and black, but calling Rooney ugly isn't fine even though he is? Which is it to be?
While I agree with your overall argument, I don't think this is the best example. Ugliness is an undesirable trait, and of course it's subjective. Being black is neither of these things. Even if a person is ugly in your eyes, it's not nice to call him ugly.
You're following the moving goalposts. I used the Rooney example to respond to his contention that because Anichebe is big and black, there is nothing wrong with calling him that. It may well be true that there is nothing wrong with calling him that, but that's not a very good justification, as illustrated by the Rooney example.
But you said he was undeniably ugly; that is purely your own opinion, his wife/mother (probably) don't think he looks like a scrote-faced whatever.
