As with all public gaffes, an apology has already been issued by head of the already corruption-tainted FIFA. Unless you have your head buried in the sand (see my last blog) then you will know of the latest racism football rows. The much-loved, morally righteous, John Terry claims that it appears as if he called Anton Ferdinand a 'black ****' but what he actually said was 'Do you think I called you a black ****?' Common sense would dictate that if you were accused of saying such an ugly thing you wouldn't then repeat it in a whole sentence. Would a footballer behave that stupidly? Hmmm I wonder. Then there's that other much-liked, upstanding member of society, footballer Luis Suarez. If I can be so bold and actually myself stereotype him, he is from Uruguay, and if you know anything about Latin America, it is pretty racist towards black people. It is treated in a laissez faire manner, e.g. calling black people by offensive names casually, which is socially acceptable and selling jet black dolls with have exaggerated and ridiculous facial and body features. But hey, innocent until proven guilty and all that clap trap, unlike in Mexico where you're guilty until proven innocent but that is a whole other depressing issue.
The good thing that has come out of this and recent twitter trends is that the message conveyed is that most people are against racism. Or at least proclaim to be. We all hate racism, so then why are we all at least an incy bit racist? Anybody saying they are 100% not racist is lying, to the Jerry Springer guest who claims they're not racist with all evidence to the contrary because 'my best friend is black' to Sepp Blatter, who belittled racism by saying an insult in football can be resolved with a handshake. He obviously thinks of the footballing incidents as banter to be expected in the heat of the moment, This is totally absurd, hence Rio Ferdinand's well-said and spot on response on Twitter.
If I may be racist yet again, Blatter's comments are typical of a white man. I have always said this and for those who need more persuasion please try and find 'How racist are you?' a programme aired by ch4 about an Australian Caucasian woman who has travelled around the world demonstrating that all white people are inherently racist. Basically, white people belittle racism because they have no idea and probably never will fully comprehend how it feels. They rule the world!! Even seemingly racist things said about white people are actually complimentary! For instance, white people have a tendency to give ridiculous examples as to how a situation they have experienced is akin to racism e.g. a posh Tory boy said to me a few days ago that someone in a restaurant assuming he likes his steak rare, even though he does, 'just because I'm English' is racist. Sorry but wth!! A woman on the programme mentioned said that her rugby loving husband having to not dress scruffy was the same thing as a black man feeling outcasted and embarrassed at picking up his white daughter at her all-white school. Even my own dear husband claimed that him being the only white person when he goes to Southall (a London Asian area) is just like being a victim of racism.
Maybe to call every single person racist is a bit harsh as racism means thinking a race is inferior or superior to another and not very many people can honestly castigate an entire race, but we definitely all stereotype. Stereotypes exist because they can be true, but moreover, we have all had experiences where what we initially thought about a person was completely wrong (a friend once said before he befriended me he thought I was a J Lo wannabee and a stuck-up tart). So although racism is a very complex issue which can be debated about forever, let's just give people the benefit of the doubt. Let's aspire to not judge people on their colour of their skin but on their content of their character or in the above cases, their obvious display of stupidity.
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