Re: Official - Townsend
There are a number of difficult issues here.
My take on racism is that if the person genuinely feels offended by a comment that could be considered as pertaining to race, then prima facie it is a racist comment.
And the CPS supports this view: "A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person."
Note this is not the same as a racist crime which needs to be "where the offender is motivated by hostility or hatred towards the victim's race or religious beliefs (actual or perceived)."
In this case given the slightly left field analogy used, the monkey being fed is Andros, who is apparently on record as saying that he was not offended.
However, according to the press someone else i.e. " any other person" was offended. And, therefore, it was a racist incident according to the CPS definition. The FA, on the other hand, are reported as saying no-one has expressed offence when questioned about the incident.
If they were offended it is sensible to ask, I think, why were they offended, were they genuinely offended, and was it reasonable to be offended.
I can't answer the first two, and I'm not sure who gets to decide that last one. I'm white, so am I the right person do decide what is and isn't reasonable in such an incident.
In common law there is doctrine known as the eggshell skull test, or you take your victim as you find them. if you negligently cause someone to be tapped over the head with a spoon and they happen to have a paper thin skull, and are seriously injured, tough. You are potentially liable for the full extent of the damages they suffered.
Roy may have used an apparently innocuous anecdote about monkeys in space, but if someone took offence, it is potentially a racist comment. Many people have come to Roy's defence to testify that he is not a racist. Which leaves us with a bad choice of anecdote selected in the heat of an English final qualifying match at particularly pressured moment for all concerned. I suspect Roy may be reappraising his list of anecdotes and analogies at this very moment.
So a complicated situation -- but also a fascinating insight into what happens in Roy's dressing room at half time.