A Link
Not to let you behind the curtain too much here, but the author of today's Mediawatch is white. Thus, we feel rather uncomfortable arguing with John Barnes, a victim of horrendous racism throughout his career, on this particular subject.
However.
Barnes writes an extraordinary piece in The Guardian, the tone of which is set from the very first line:
'I'm not interested in what happened to Yaya Touré at CSKA Moscow - as far as I'm concerned their supporters can abuse who they want.'
Blimey. Barnes does go on to explain that English people have bigger concerns than racism in Russia, given the racism that is still endemic in football and indeed society in this country, which is of course true, but as far as we're aware we don't have a finite capacity for outrage against outrageous things. We can be 'interested' in both things, we think.
Barnes goes on: 'As soon as someone like Touré or Danny Rose gets abused in Eastern Europe there is shock and outrage from players, clubs and the authorities, yet no one is speaking about the people living in inner cities like Brixton who, because of their appearance and their background, have become completely disenfranchised from society...
'...if I was someone like Touré or Rose I'd feel embarrassed if I had to look at someone who was suffering genuine racism and take their sympathy. A millionaire getting booed in Russia is nothing compared with generations of people never getting the chance to better their lives and those of their children.'
Again, there's a point in there somewhere, but it's surely counter-productive to imply that footballers have little right to complain about being racially abused because they are rich and there are other people disenfranchised. Does money give you a racism shield? What's the limit? What level of wealth does someone have to reach before he is no longer allowed to be offended by racism? £1million? £5million?
If footballers like Toure and Rose simply ignored abuse, would that not make it worse for everyone else? If we are to accept the notion that footballers are role models, would them reporting abuse not potentially encourage these people living in Brixton to stand up as well?
He continues: 'Personally, I don't blame Suárez or Terry for what they did - they are simply products of a society and environment that allows them to think it is OK to speak about certain people in a certain way.'
Odd then, that many other footballers and indeed people in general that are products of this society and environment can get through the day without calling someone a black c*nt. Excusing those found guilty of racist abuse because they're a product of a society is, if you'll excuse us, a cop-out.
Of course, Barnes raises a number of important issues in his column, and they are issues that should be debated. In the interests of pith, we have obviously only included extracts from the piece here, so we encourage you to read the whole thing and make your own mind up.
From-
http://www.football365.com/mediawatch/9009657/The-Page-That-Can-Feel-The-Erotic-Energy-In-The-Air