Is this a racist comment?

emre43

emre43

Well-known member
Not many of you will have heard this comment because it was on the Football (Soccer) League Show in England.

To cut a long story short a French-born Malian player was accused of showboating because he rolled up his socks whilst in possession of the ball and in a comfortable lead. An English-born player than retaliated by scraping his metal studs down his thigh.

The pundit justified the assault because of the way the Malian player had behaved and added that: "he is not surprised that it was not an English player who did it" (referring to the showboating) - more or less saying that foreigners are unprofessional and thereby insinuating that the English are superior professionally.

I have just been flamed and called a clown on another forum for suggesting that this comment was racist. Am I out of touch or not?
 
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Silatuyok

Well-known member
hmmm. I'm not an expert on the subject, but if it's not a racist thing to say, it's certainly a very elitist thing to say. Since he's not singling out any particular race, I don't know that it would be considered racists, per se. But it's still not a very nice (or smart) thing to say.
 
planemo

planemo

Well-known member
negatively stereotyping a person or group could indeed be racism. it's hard to comment but if the pundit was justifying the English players behaviour than it's certainly uncalled for. where did this happen? in a championship game?
 
emre43

emre43

Well-known member
planemo said:
negatively stereotyping a person or group could indeed be racism. it's hard to comment but if the pundit was justifying the English players behaviour than it's certainly uncalled for. where did this happen? in a championship game?
Click to expand...

Yes Reading vs West Ham. Jimmy Kebe rolled his socks up and Jack Collison responded by scraping his studs down his thigh.
 
Solitudes_Grace

Solitudes_Grace

Well-known member
1. You are not "out of touch." You should feel proud of yourself for questioning this pundit's remark. Don't be ashamed for bringing up the topic of racism. Talking about race and ethnic relations is taboo. The thing is, whenever someone even says the word "racism," people get uncomfortable and don't want to talk about it. That's why all of those people on that other forum criticized you for bringing it up.

2. The pundit's remark was elitist and ethnocentric. But was it racist? I'm not 100% sure, but it I think it probably was. I don't know who these teams are or who the players are, but if the pundit perceived that the French-born Malian player was representative of a different ethnic group from the dominant English ethnic group in England, then the comment was definitely racist. The word "racism" can refer to the belief that a particular race is inferior to another race which "justifies" some sort of social arrangement in a society, and it can also refer to the belief that a particular ethnic group is inferior to another ethnic group which "justifies" some sort of social arrangement in a society. In this case, the pundit seemed to imply that by virtue of this French-Malian player's ethnic identity, he was less professional than the English players, which "justified" the French-Malian player's actions on the field. In this sense, the pundit's comment was racist. Then again, it's also possible that the comment was just ethnocentric and not racist. I don't know if Jimmy Kebe trained in France. It's possible that the pundit believed that French players were less professional than English, which is more a mean-spirited jab at French culture than at any perceived innate differences due to race or ethnicity. In summary, the comment seems like it could have been racist from my perspective, but I am not positive. I can't get into the pundit's head, and I am reading his quote out of context. At any rate, the pundit is a jackass for saying what he did.
 
coyote

coyote

Well-known member
emre43 said:
The English player was white and the French player was black.
Click to expand...

if it was about black vs white then it was racist, yeah

but if it was about french vs english then, technically, i wouldn't call that "racism"

nationalism, maybe - although that's no better when you use it pejoratively
 
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