As someone who is both a passionate football fan, and a committed anti racist it goes without saying that I find racist incidences at football matches to be absolutely abhorrent. Nearly as nauseating however is the self righteous commentary on the subject from the worlds of media and politics. In light recent of high profile incidents (documented to such a tedious extent that I’d rather watch paint dry than discuss them in this blog) it’s suddenly in vogue for everyone to give their two penneth on the topic.
To give a couple examples; culture secretary Jeremy Hunt (a Freudian slip on Radio 4 a couple of years ago being the most apt description of this character) has announced a conference on ‘Racism in Football’ “to ensure that the sport is not dragged back to the bad old days." Quite how Mr Hunt is qualified to comment on “the bad old days” is beyond me given that he claimed the Hillsborough disaster was caused by hooliganism. Just in case the conference wasn’t far enough removed from reality it will be chaired by Mr Cameron himself.
Despite the obvious temptation to turn this blog into some good old fashioned tory bashing, I should state that I’ve found bourgeois liberal commentary obnoxious. Deborah Orr of the Guardian saw fit to write on February 17th that “Racism, quite clearly, has not been "shown the red card". Racism, quite clearly, has not been "kicked out of football."” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/17/race-is-a-myth-deborah-orr?INTCMP=SRCH)
Until I’ve seen evidence of Deborah Orr, Jeremy Hunt or David Cameron muttering obscenities in Birch Services because they’ve just wasted huge amounts of time and money travelling to watch their team implode at Burnley on a cold Tuesday night, then their views on football are no more valid than my views on nuclear physics.
Despite media hyperbole, racism in football has actually followed a fairly predictable path. It reached its peak in the 1970’s and 80’s. Unsurprisingly this coincided with the far right’s most visible presence in British society since the days of Mosely’s blackshirts. To give a rough idea of the extent to which these were the ‘bad old days,’ a number of clubs including Leeds United and Chelsea had evident links to the National Front. Racist chanting and throwing bananas at black players happened on numerous occasions. From my perspective, given my affection for Celtic, the most sickening of these events happened in 1987 when Rangers’ player Mark Walters was pelted with bananas. It is however incorrect to suggest that everyone attending a football match during this time was a far right inspired racist. It’s interesting to note that even some hooligan firms of the era included members of various races.
Moving onto the situation in recent years and again the racism in football has taken a predictable route. Just as British society in general has adopted ‘official’ anti racism, so has football. This is not to say that racism has ever been completely removed from football, just as it has never been completely removed from society. The difference however is that overtly racist language has become culturally unacceptable. Overtly racist chanting has in general disappeared from British football, to the extent that racist comments are now highly likely to be challenged by other fans at football matches.
Unsurprisingly though, reactionary and ignorant views haven’t disappeared from football, just as they continue to appear in the Daily Mail and other sections of the reactionary press. No amount of empty statements from Cameron and co will come close to challenging these views. Instead these views are most effectively countered by anti racists providing concrete alternatives. The most effective example I know of comes from a group close to my heart, Ultra Sankt Pauli, who regularly invite asylum seekers to attend games with the group. This not only aides integration of asylum seekers into German society but helps to breakdown prejudices others have about the asylum seekers themselves. In conclusion, racism in football can only genuinely be defeated by football fans themselves, obscene political posturing offers no solutions.
And the joke: I was walking through a car park the other day, and saw a sign saying ‘Thieves operating in this area.’ I thought that’s handy for the surgeons, gives them time off to steal people’s cars.
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