English football still racist

[fatboy]

What colour would the other player be?!?!

Wes Brown - orange

 

[Lord Bracknell]

yes but the Comission For Racial Equality hierachy are all black or Asian, so they are inherantly institutionally racist themselves

Not so, Dave.

Although the majority of the 14 CRE Commissioners come from ethnic minorities - probably because the qualification for appointment as a Commissioner is an ability to bring individual experience of race equality issues to the job.

http://www.cre.gov.uk/media/piclib.html

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

My objection to this lies in the headline: "CRE report reveals racism in football management", followed by the below. In what way is this racism in any shape or form? I would expect a body in an influential postion to at least have a concept of what the term means.



"The main findings include:

Ethnic minorities are severely under-represented in the non-playing side of football: board membership, coaching, training and other aspects of the administration and management – as well as on the terraces.

There are hardly any Asian or Chinese players at any level or in any age group.

The majority of professional football league clubs do not give their staff equal opportunities training. Many clubs still have no equal opportunities policy and where they do exist they are very basic. "



It continues ...


The action plan requires:

Organisations to adopt an equal opportunities policy and implementation plan by July 2005

All organisations to review recruitment and selection by January 2006

All organisations to tackle under-representation and develop representative strategies by July 2006

The FA and All Agency Review Team to evaluate equal opportunities policies and provide further support to clubs


What is this suggesting? That there should be a quota of ethnic minority players in every team? Surely this would mean leaving out players based solely on the fact they are white, which is racism at a more overt and real level than anything cited in this report. Utter and complete garbage, as usual.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Ed you don't seriously believe that do you?

Its about time us whities stood up for ourselves.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Ed you don't seriously believe that do you?

Its about time us whities stood up for ourselves.

Pipe down, CRACKER.

 

[Dave the OAP]

cracker?

is this another hilarious NSP thing?

 

[CHAPPERS]

No it's what you are, HONKY.

 

[Dave the OAP]

shut it ginger

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Ed you don't seriously believe that do you?

Its about time us whities stood up for ourselves.

Sorry Dave.

One reason I get irritated about this sort of stuff is that I used to be a member of a quango that existed (just like the CRE does) to give advice about equalities issues to the government and other agencies. We were constantly being slagged off for not being properly "representative". In reality, most of our detractors didn't give a toss about how representative we were - they simply objected to the recommendations we made, mainly because they had vested interests to protect.

Incidentally, the CRE report isn't recommending that quotas be introduced anywhere in football. So why are people bothering to argue the case against quotas?




As for "time us whities stood up for ourselves" ... I guess you've possibly noticed that the Albion fans in H Block who stand up most of the time are, in fact, almost exclusively white. No surprise there, of course.

You might also have noticed the occasional stand-up rows that happen when brave supporters confront the exponents of racist abuse who sometimes put on a show at Withdean or elsewhere.

Albion (the Club and the supporters) have a reasonable record on these matters - although there is no cause for complacency. But there are other Clubs who really should be taking some note of what the CRE is saying.

 

[fatboy]

As for "time us whities stood up for ourselves" ... I guess you've possibly noticed that the Albion fans in H Block who stand up most of the time are, in fact, almost exclusively white. No surprise there, of course.

And the one who gets pulled up by the police because of it is not white.

 

[Tesco in Disguise]

i'm sure whites are heavily underrepresented inn the stands at basketball matches. its a cultural thing - nothing to do with prejudice or intimidation. deal with it,

 

[beorhthelm]

All organisations to tackle under-representation and develop representative strategies by July 2006

this is the nub of the matter, and the thing these committes always seem to understand. Who says Asians want to play footbal professionally? Or Chinese? or Albanian? Or <insert ethnic group here>.

Maybe they, as a ethnic grouping, are just not actually that interested. This isnt just football but everything. Theres a under-representation of blacks studying physics or history at universities: but they fail to point out that there's a *over*-representation studying IT, Law, Engineering, Business etc. Cultrally (and forgive the generisation, but its borne of experience), the parents encourage their kids to take a practical degree that means a visable job/career at the end of it, rather than the typical middle class parent who are just concerned with Jonny getting a 2:1 from Bristol (subject irrelevant). I digress. Point is, there are cultural forces at work within ethnic groups that are beyond the control of those outside.

Its no good saying you should develop a representive strategy if at the end of the day those targeted just arent interested. There are a shed load of Asians in the Westham area and i beleive Westham are very proactive in trying to get young talent from school sides in to their academy - but they just arnt that interested, its not seen by parents as a noble living or whatever. so what can you do?

 

[Dave the OAP]

I think the Asian question is a tad different, in that football is not a game that is played predominantly.

Visiting my Gran in Dewsbury a few months ago, the Euro footy was on but around the streets all the Asians and there are many of them in the area, were out in the street playing games of cricket. Whereas if you look at so called "black or White" areas, football is the game that is played in the street.

I know what you say Ed, I was being a bit "tongue in cheek" however, I do feel that things like this that appear in the "right on" papers do tend to rub people up the wrong way.

At the end of the day, you are what you are, be it class, creed or colour and to aim for setting quotas to get more people into certain areas is not the way forward. Society has to develop in its own way, not be forced in a certain direction or that force leads to resentment.

 

[Robbie G]

If you want to get a good job these days it seems you stand a better chance if you black and you're gay. "English football is exclusively run by a white elite" well maybe that's because it just so happens that these peope are good at their jobs, I hardly think they were picked because of the colour of their skin, and I doubt they would consider giving a job to a white man over a black man. This pisses me of so much.

It may stem down to the fact that the white people who are in the top jobs are privately educated (middle classed). There is a distinct lack of ethnic minority people in private schools, as the majority are working class (not all of course). Coming from a private school does generally do you a lot of favours when it comes to employment - e.g you are more likely to have "connections" with people in top jobs. Or employers think that these schools are "better" than state schools.
It just seems that there is a distinct lack of people from ethnic minority's in top jobs. Perhaps in this situation, you're correct Biscuit, i wouldn't really know. Im just offering a suggestion as to why there is a lack of ethnic minority people in top jobs

Similar to this...
How many MP's sitting in the House Of Commons are from ethnic minority's?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Very valid points there, beorhthelm. The point is, though, that cultural attitudes change. Football, like any other major industry, needs to be prepared for when those changes happen.

I remember when the banking industry took the view that women shouldn't be working on the counter, because customers expected to see male bank clerks and, anyway, women didn't really like that sort of work, because only men applied for the jobs that were available. Things have changed, no?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

It may stem down to the fact that the white people who are in the top jobs are privately educated (middle classe). There is a distinct lack of ethnic minority people in private schools, as the majority are working class (not all of course). Coming from a private school does generally do you a lot of favours when it comes to employment - e.g you are more likely to have "connections" with people in top jobs.

I'm not entirely convinced that this argument is relevant to football.

 

[Robbie G]

Perhaps not, but it made me sound remotely intelligent

 

[CAFC Matt]

Granted the English game does still have some Racist prats in it but it is much much beter than it used to be. Racism is hardly heard of nowadya in England and at Internationals so basically that article is a load of bollocks

 

[fatbadger]

If you want to get a good job these days it seems you stand a better chance if you black and you're gay.

Stop reading the Mail or the Express or whichever source of complete nonsense you read, and actually look at the facts. It may stop you from saying stupid things like this.

 

[bigc]

yeah totally not true...there is still discrimination. its a very easy notion to claim that there isnt any. but its patently untrue.

these things do go a little OTT, but unless you've experienced discrimination, dont act like its all died down..theres still alot of work to be done