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Racism in football

StephenH said:
I’m old, so what is the correct phraseology?

I would say a ‘black’ player rather than coloured, is that a fail?
Are we allowed short or tall player?

Im sorry but I find this whole event blown out of all proportion.
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This is about the Chairman of an organisation that has just launched a diversity programme using the term "coloured players*", stereotyping Asians as preferring IT jobs to playing football, saying that gay players are making a lifestyle choice (in being gay) and relaying an anecdote about young girls not liking playing as goalkeeper because they are scared of being hit hard by the ball.
No one in a senior management position should be able to articulate such views without approbation. No one who is leading an organisation that struggles with dealing with diversity, racism and homophobia, whilst spearheading a programme to encourage diversity, should be able to keep leading that organisation whilst speaking in those terms.

*The head of Kick-it-Out said this morning that the 'coloured' player remark in itself was not really the issue. It was the whole package of everything he said. Plus there's history from a few years back.
My personal view - if that was all he had said (the coloured player remark) then it could perhaps have been dealt with as an issue of education. Perhaps. Although again, given his seniority and the diversity programme etc. etc., it shouldn't even be necessary. But I think many people might continue to use that term without realising its connotations and without intending any harm. Again in these instances, explaining why a word is an issue is generally the way to go. But this was not such a straightforward situation.

I believe the correct term when speaking about black players would indeed be 'black players'. If talking about a collective of different ethnicities, it might be 'BAME players.' As a white person, I'm happy to take guidance on what the correct terms should be.
 
Glenda's Legs said:
This is about the Chairman of an organisation that has just launched a diversity programme using the term "coloured players*", stereotyping Asians as preferring IT jobs to playing football, saying that gay players are making a lifestyle choice (in being gay) and relaying an anecdote about young girls not liking playing as goalkeeper because they are scared of being hit hard by the ball.
No one in a senior management position should be able to articulate such views without approbation. No one who is leading an organisation that struggles with dealing with diversity, racism and homophobia, whilst spearheading a programme to encourage diversity, should be able to keep leading that organisation whilst speaking in those terms.

*The head of Kick-it-Out said this morning that the 'coloured' player remark in itself was not really the issue. It was the whole package of everything he said. Plus there's history from a few years back.
My personal view - if that was all he had said (the coloured player remark) then it could perhaps have been dealt with as an issue of education. Perhaps. Although again, given his seniority and the diversity programme etc. etc., it shouldn't even be necessary. But I think many people might continue to use that term without realising its connotations and without intending any harm. Again in these instances, explaining why a word is an issue is generally the way to go. But this was not such a straightforward situation.

I believe the correct term when speaking about black players would indeed be 'black players'. If talking about a collective of different ethnicities, it might be 'BAME players.' As a white person, I'm happy to take guidance on what the correct terms should be.
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Bang on the money. Let's not forget it was him who described racism in football as "a bit of fluff" (or something similar, memory is failing on that a little).
 
JerusalemMan said:
I can't help but agree.
When I saw the headline I went to read the story expecting to hear some awful discriminatory behaviour had been uncovered by a sting.
But he's clearly talking about a problem, wanting to deal with it, but just tripping over language without ill-intent.

Just because some people take offence, doesn't mean anything has to be done.
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It's one thing for an average person on the street who has never been told any better to use antiquated and insulting language, if meant perfectly innocently.

It's another entirely for a chairman of a large organisation which has some clear race issues and an appalling history of dealing with them properly to do it.
 
StephenH said:
I’m old, so what is the correct phraseology?

I would say a ‘black’ player rather than coloured, is that a fail?
Are we allowed short or tall player?

Im sorry but I find this whole event blown out of all proportion.
Click to expand...

Tend to agree with you, the world is going mad. Racism is WRONG without a doubt but foolishness like the over reaction to this is not doing any good at all.
 
parklane1 said:
Tend to agree with you, the world is going mad. Racism is WRONG without a doubt but foolishness like the over reaction to this is not doing any good at all.
Click to expand...

I'm sure gay football players who feel they have to keep quiet about their sexuality , or Asian youngsters who might like to pursue their football dream, will be pleased to know that the objections to the comments made by the Chairman of the Football Association are mere foolish over-reaction.
You'd think they would know by now to pipe down. When will they learn eh?
 
scaramanga said:
It's one thing for an average person on the street who has never been told any better to use antiquated and insulting language, if meant perfectly innocently.

It's another entirely for a chairman of a large organisation which has some clear race issues and an appalling history of dealing with them properly to do it.
Click to expand...

That is a fair point.
 
Glenda's Legs said:
This is about the Chairman of an organisation that has just launched a diversity programme using the term "coloured players*", stereotyping Asians as preferring IT jobs to playing football, saying that gay players are making a lifestyle choice (in being gay) and relaying an anecdote about young girls not liking playing as goalkeeper because they are scared of being hit hard by the ball.
No one in a senior management position should be able to articulate such views without approbation. No one who is leading an organisation that struggles with dealing with diversity, racism and homophobia, whilst spearheading a programme to encourage diversity, should be able to keep leading that organisation whilst speaking in those terms.

*The head of Kick-it-Out said this morning that the 'coloured' player remark in itself was not really the issue. It was the whole package of everything he said. Plus there's history from a few years back.
My personal view - if that was all he had said (the coloured player remark) then it could perhaps have been dealt with as an issue of education. Perhaps. Although again, given his seniority and the diversity programme etc. etc., it shouldn't even be necessary. But I think many people might continue to use that term without realising its connotations and without intending any harm. Again in these instances, explaining why a word is an issue is generally the way to go. But this was not such a straightforward situation.

I believe the correct term when speaking about black players would indeed be 'black players'. If talking about a collective of different ethnicities, it might be 'BAME players.' As a white person, I'm happy to take guidance on what the correct terms should be.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for that illuminating reply. I was just focusing ‘wrongly’ on the coloured player remark.
 
I know that somebody somewhere decided that 'black' is the appropriate term.

But in general I'd have thought "coloured" was a more appropriate and less harmful term than "black" because
a) black is often used to mean a bad thing e.g. the black sheep, black balled etc
b) black is the opposite of white, distancing the 2 groups
c) loads of "non-white" players are not remotely dark coloured, they are actually very light coloured e.g. Dele, Son, Lamela etc. so "black" is divisive and a poor descriptor of "non-whites" surely?

BAME makes sense but people don't seem to have adopted the term in every day speech, it doesn't really roll off the tongue. Maybe if they had used BAM it would have rolled off the tongue better and caught on as a kind of cool thing to be.
 
Thanks Jord, my point exactly.

By the way, I heard a few comments saying "some young whippersnapper, some millenial, should have taken the chairman aside and warned him what to say and what not to say".

But that is ageist, you cannot say something like that either. How dare they imply that a younger person would be more able to discern these things!!
 
The man is just an arrogant fool, anyone in a responsible job must be aware that what they say in that role is reflecting that position. There are many people who dislike differing groups for personal reason, I respect their right to those thoughts as long as they dont harm others through their actions, I believe the more we know about others groups the better we will understand them and their aspirations and live together in harmony, we see on here that some get grief for being vegetarians, I couldnt be one as I love meat. There are terrible injustices carried out against some groups and there need to be addressed, it's going to take generations to reach the goal. It's up to all of us to teach our young ones to respect everyone, you only need to see small kids playing together, they dont have any prejudices it's something they learn from us. The more we try to embrace diversity the more we create diversion.
 
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