John Terry cleared of racial abuse

[David Johnson]

To me this is another of those verdicts, a bit like Harry Redknapp getting off earlier in the year with his tax evasion case, when you think, Wot?

As far as I understand it, Terry did not deny calling Anton Ferdinand a "black cunt". His case was purely around his defence which was that he only repeated what Ferdinand had said to him.

So presumably Ferdinand could have only said "black cunt" in two situations:

1. He thought Terry had already called him a black cunt and was asking something like "Did you just call me a black cunt?"

2. He was using a bizarre insult where you call white guys "black" cunts.

Either way it doesn't do much for the FA's Respect campaign, does it? Nor offer a brilliant role model for young kids.

[David Johnson]

Apparently, a lip reader had confirmed what Terry had said on the pitch.

So presumbably the only way Terry could get off this charge was with the argument he successfully used i.e. he was merely repeating to Ferdinand what Ferdinand said to him.

This is something that Ferdinand denies and he stated that he only decided he had been racially abused when his girlfriend played him a clip on Youtube.

Mmm!

[mrchapel]

Black cunt isn`t really derogatory or racist.
Ferdinand is black and Terry never made a derogatory statement being black. He basically called him a cunt.
Or if you like we can say it was racist in which case I`ll go sue Stobbarts in Carlisle for jokingly refering to me as "another scotch bastard" and my sister can sue the Pakistani corner shop owner for calling her a "white arsehole"

[max_tranmere]

If this was America, the television media would have done their best to stir it up until race riots exploded in the cities - while all the media exec's are chauffered to their posh mansions up in the hills. The last few weeks would have been "two of the nation's biggest sports stars square-up in what could be the race trial of the decade. Not only does this shine a light on sport, but on black and white issues in society in general". The would employ 'experts' to give their opinions, debate shows would be happening where you could phone in with your views, and they would count it down to the day and afternoon when the verdict was delivered. When the white guy gets acquited, they would talk about how this "is a bad day for race's relations", "can the black community ever trust the Courts again" and "what does this mean for the future of race relations in our country". The build up, the mammoth coverage, and the stirring of the problems by the TV media, would have started days if not weeks before. Within a few hours of the acquital the coverage and what it all might mean will be done so extensively by the TV media they will all be hugely disappointed if the cities are not ablaze by sunset. Luckily we don't have TV media in this country that is like America. Yet.

[jimslip]

Funnily enough, talking about the topic of racism, I saw a rather sad sight today, even sadder because it occurred even after 13 years of New labour PC anti-racist bullying, cajoling, finger wagging and scolding.

I got on a train at Waterloo and a load of school kids, boys and girls, of about 14 years old all leapt on board. All perfectly pleasant. They were all without exception, either black or Asian. I thought nothing of it until I made to get off the train and noticed at the other end of the carriage about 20 kids from the same school, who were exclusively all white!So at one end you had black kids, then a gap in the carriage and then at the other end the white kids.

I was quite shocked that in this day and age, the kids had self segregated. No one had told them to and I expect individually each kid wouldn't give a toss, but as a group they felt the need to segregate.

Of course our New Labour contingent would scream, "Well Jim you pathetic, brainless, fool, it is obvious that the white kids had forced the black kids to occupy another section of the carriage BECAUSE ALL WHITE KIDS ARE BRUTAL RACISTS AND ALL BLACK KIDS ARE VICTIMS!" In fact this would be the standard New Labour take on the situation, but of course it would be utter bollocks like most of the dogma they used to spew out.

These kids were from an obviously good school! For God's sake one of them had their feet on the seat and a girl told her mate , "Get your feet off, someone's going to have to sit there!". I don't know if the segregation was subconcious or deliberate, both groups seemed perfectly happy.

The really sad thing is that when I was at school, many years ago, we had kids from all over the World there and I cannot ever remember on a school trip, self segregating. We all just hung out together, sure with your mates, but I can't remember any kind of bullying or seperation as a result of colour. it didn't seem to matter. Certainly at this school it obviously does.

What a sad indictment of our society and especially after 13 long, hard years of New Labour dictats and dogma.

You could have been in apartheid South Africa or the Southern States of the USA 50 years ago, except in this case no one was forcing anyone to segregate, they were doing it all by themselves. A bit depressing I think.

Has anyone else witness this happening, or was it a strange one-off?

[David Johnson]

"Black cunt isn`t really derogatory or racist."

Yes, it is more of a term of endearment. If you called a woman in a wheelchair a "cripple cunt" that wouldn't be derogatory either. Merely descriptive.

Only the other day, I said to the 4 year old son of a West Indian neighbour, "Stop kicking the ball against my wall, ya black cunt".

We all had a good laugh about it.

Look! It is always in the context of the words that you can tell if someone is being racist or not.

If I say "Tiger Woods is black" that is not racial abuse - obviously.

If I call Anton Ferdinand "Ya black cunt" that is racial abuse.

The reason is it is designed to perpetuate the notion that blacks are destined to be poor, ignorant and lesser members of society etc etc etc, for that's how they were seen in Britain for centuries.

Cue !shitstorm!

[David Johnson]

Once again, very intelligent post.

I blame New Labour. Racism never happened before Tony Blair got elected. Britain was a multicultural paradise before he got in.

PS Oh just remembered Brixton, Notting Hill etc riots. Maybe you aren't right after all?

[max_tranmere]

This sort of thing is quite rare, mainly because there are so few white kids in schools in London now that there aren't usually enough to form a 'group'. In the 80's and 90's there were mixed schools, now they are almost exclusively ethnic minority. There might be three kids in each year at a school who are now white. We are told this is all a positive, and that it is part of the "rich multi-cultural society" we live in. It's funny how if politicians in Nigeria had a plan to de-black Lagos, and try to create a situation where there were hardly any black kids left in schools in Lagos, no one would view that as a positive thing.

On the issue of racial groups mingling, it doesn't happen very much. There are a lot of very white pubs in London and you would think, if you suddenly woke up in one having been teleported from outside London, that you were in a city where lots of people spoke English and where most of the people were white. You go outside and you don't hear English spoken anywhere - in the street, on the bus, the shops and so on.

I've always been in favour of a racial and religious mix, it is all I've ever known since I was born. There is a difference though between diversity and domination, and we are certainly in the latter catagory now - thanks mainly to New Labour with the tsunami of immigration they allowed and with the fashion now to not integrate, unlike immigrants years ago.

[David Johnson]

"thanks mainly to New Labour with the tsunami of immigration they allowed and with the fashion now to not integrate, unlike immigrants years ago."

Before trotting out the usual factoid (something that is wrong but if enough people state it, it becomes viewed as a fact) read this thread.

http://bgafd.co.uk/forum/read.php?f=3&i ... ply_257118

[max_tranmere]

I've just read that comment. People did used to integrate much more years ago, now it is all the rage not to. An old guy I know whose parents were immigrants said his parents told him and his siblings that this country has 'allowed us to come here and we will show it gratitude by being loyal and patriotic to it, and to view ourselves as being from here'. He does, for example, cheer for the England football team if they are playing against the country his parents grew up in, and he always says "we the English" - like he should.

When people talk about "people from abroad living in London" in modern-speak they generally refer to everyone here non-white. My personal definition of that would be people visiting, people on visa's, students, ex-patriots, and similar. Those who have settled here I regard as now being English and British, and that is how most used to regard themselves. This all changed under the left-wing stance of 'new' Labour, and it seems to have infected the local TV news aswell. You regularly here things on the London evening news about "Brazilians living in London", "Somalians living in the city" and so on. There aren't any - unless one counts only people visiting, people on visa's, students, ex-patriots, and similar - as I've just said.

The main thing that got us the Olympics was that fact that 'people from all over the world live in this city, and every visiting country will have a contingent of people here to support them'. That would be like the old guy I mentioned just now cheering for the country his parents were from - something he thought would have been unreasonable, so would I, and so would many descendants of immigrants of that era. Now it's the cool and done-thing to show no patriotism to the country you've grown up in, and that has given you so much, and instead to look back to where you family came from. I think this is wrong, it smacks of extreme ingratitude and is almost treason.