Racism in football

[Glenda's Legs]

You think we'll end racism through name calling and belittling people? By calling me racist when I haven't made a single bigoted comment?

You did enter the discussion by saying :
“Says the most cowardly, bigoted, deflecting bully on this board.“

Let’s not forget this is not the general politics thread, this is specifically about racism in football. A player has been called a monkey and @veryoldspur has downplayed it (to put it nicely) and called it insignificant. Calling out such a view is not bullying - even more so when being called out by someone who has experienced iracism throughout their life.

You are right that we all need to be tolerant and should be mindful of how we post. But if challenging racism (which is exactly what said poster is displaying) leads to what you call a pile-on, then I take that as a compliment.

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

But if you mock you'll never engage and, in turn, never change people's views.

Anyway, I'll step away now.

Racists are open for mockery by nature of their views. Someone like VOS clearly has no intention of change, given his handle I assume he is very old and therefore his views are entrenched beyond change

 

[Baleforce]

When people tell you who they are, believe them.

That guy is telling us he’s a clam.

 

[thfcsteff]

Says the most cowardly, bigoted, deflecting bully on this board.

The pile-ons on this board are disgusting and you're often the ringleader. Try to recognise that people are emotional, that we all have different life experiences and we all face different challenges. Read between the lines, take off the blinkers that we all have at times and rather than jump to conclusions about an individual, engage with them. Recognise that your words may affect that faceless 'keyboard warrior' and consider whether or not you want to be that person that pushes someone over the edge.

There was a time not too many years ago when our shared love of Spurs gave us grounding for tolerant and engaging conversation, a shared experience that highlighted our similarities rather than our differences and brought people that otherwise probably wouldn't engage with one another together. Let's try to get back to that.

I am personally very studied in those senses, and rarely post in these sorts of threads as a consequence. I have often tried to engage with people here of differing opinions. Some want the discussion, others aren’t interested. I find your comments about ‘jumping to conclusions’ and ‘words’ possibly affecting someone and pushing them over the edge to be ironic in the frame of specific comments being made regarding a poster whose very issue is the ‘importance’ given to ‘hurty words’ (their phrase not mine). You took a giant swing at someone (Luton) who has been effectively singled out on this forum by some simply because of his ethnicity, told their perspective is totally wrong, and who has endured plenty of assumptions. You talk about ‘bullies’…maybe we have a different definition, but bullies by and large go for those who cannot defend themselves or are not interested in trying to out of fear. I think it is fair to say that the person Luton engaged with was absolutely aware of what might come in terms of response.

If you really, really believe the last bold-facd sentence, maybe hold your hands up for your part here and move on.