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[Football] Whites vs Blacks. How football changed a nation



pauli cee

New member
Jan 21, 2009
2,366
worthing
Not a fan of Adrian Chiles, but interesting documentary on racism in football in the 70's.

Very glad I grew up in the late 80's / early 90's, really not my bag....

(BBC 2, now)
 




WATFORD zero

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 10, 2003
25,675
I grew up watching football during the 70s and it was every bit as bad as that documentary showed.

Of course, one or two on here will tell you differently. I wonder what aspect they miss ???
 




Official Old Man

Uckfield Seagull
Aug 27, 2011
8,486
Brighton
I was around and have to admit to monkey chants whilst stood in the West at the Goldstone. Ashamed of it now but in those days it was normal.
Watching Death in Paradise with Daughter (29) and explaining how Don Warrington who plays the Commissioner played a black kid in Rising Damp who had insults thrown at him about going back to the jungle, and we all laughed. She was astonished.
 






Peter Grummit

Well-known member
Oct 13, 2004
6,769
Lewes
I was around and have to admit to monkey chants whilst stood in the West at the Goldstone. Ashamed of it now but in those days it was normal.
Watching Death in Paradise with Daughter (29) and explaining how Don Warrington who plays the Commissioner played a black kid in Rising Damp who had insults thrown at him about going back to the jungle, and we all laughed. She was astonished.

I'd challenge the word normal. It was commonplace but most people were not racist, and it was challenged vigorously by many who didn't regard it as normal, including those such as the Anti Nazi League.

I have very few, if any, memories of racist abuse at the Goldstone (I'm not saying it didn't happen). One notable incident was when Justin Fashanu when playing for Norwich broke Andy Rollings' nose, then elbowed him again and Rollings was sent off for retaliating. The North Stand was apoplectic, but primarily because of the injustice of it rather than because Fash was black - although some racist comments were used.
 


DavidinSouthampton

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jan 3, 2012
16,538
I was around and have to admit to monkey chants whilst stood in the West at the Goldstone. Ashamed of it now but in those days it was normal.
Watching Death in Paradise with Daughter (29) and explaining how Don Warrington who plays the Commissioner played a black kid in Rising Damp who had insults thrown at him about going back to the jungle, and we all laughed. She was astonished.

To be fair about Rising Damp, though, it was Leonard Rossiter's (brilliant) Rigsby who was always shown up as the plonker, and Don Warrington's African Chief(?) who was the suave, intelligent sophisticated man about town.
 












Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,110
Surrey
41.
Started going to the football in '86, so although it was still around a bit, it was a pretty small minority, and nothing like as shown in the documentary.

I'm 46 and would say that it was rife when I started going regularly in 1983. But yes, I'd agree that it was thankfully on it's way out 3 years later when you started going - definitely less prominent.
 




Eeyore

Lord Donkey of Queen's Park
NSC Patreon
Apr 5, 2014
23,381
I remember standing in the away end at Wimbledon as a lad in 1986. There was a bloke standing there, unchallenged, howling racist abuse all afternoon. ''We don't get black players at Brighon he said- we just get coloured blokes'' he said that to the humour of some and perhaps the quiet embarrassment of others.

Looking back, I don't know how I reacted. I know it wasn't with disgust- let's not pretend otherwise. I was a lad. If adults thought it was funny then it must be.

Same year I remember going to Palace away and seeing one of our fans run up to a bus and bang on the window hurling racist abuse at a female passenger. It was a group I had linked up with during the day. I do remember walking away rather upset at that one. But I'm not going to pretend that I have had a pious view of racism forever. I was brought up in a culture that endorsed it by its lack of condemnation. It was-... normal.

But now we see things through a clearer glass and some of us may feel ashamed that perhaps, at a very minimum, we didn't challenge it. I think feeling a little ashamed is okay but we are products of our conditioning. As long as we resolve to super impose something better then that is amends. When I was young I witnessed some appalling incidents of hate that went unchallenged. I'm just glad it's different now.
 




jabba

Well-known member
Jul 15, 2009
1,320
York
Must admit that i still feel strange about positive discrimination, eg. trying to get more BME managers and coaches. Does anyone suggest that because about 25% of footballers are coloured that we should have a white quota for first teams to more accurately reflect the population? The racism that abounded in the past is nasty, but the current landscape is also strange.
 


mr sheen

Well-known member
Jan 17, 2008
1,552
I recall being at a game as a small child in the 80s, and hearing the old gent in front explaining that the reason we were struggling was because our nignogs weren't as good as their nignogs.
 


Mar 24, 2011
71
I can remember a banana being thrown on the pitch when Darren Moore got sent off for Doncaster at the last game at the Goldstone.
 






Jul 7, 2003
8,573
Goldstone during the early 90s was still not immune. Closest I ever got to a punch up in the North Stand was when some idiot starting yelling racial abuse at Robert Codner. Dear old Bob could be frustrating to watch at times but this idiot took things too far.
 


The Large One

Who's Next?
Jul 7, 2003
52,343
97.2FM
The one who springs to mind most for copping the North Stand racists' abuse was Alex Williams, the Manchester City goalkeeper in about 1983.

And let's not sugarcoat this - it was a sizeable minority making the monkey chant noises and singing inappropriate songs, and it all going largely unchallenged.
 



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