charlie

Quote: barham red "As I said I was playing purely devils advocate by pointing out those statements and sentiments although adopted by racists are not in themselves racist and merely a comment of anti extremism and calls for control of immigration. I could quite happily support those sentiments and not be deemed racist in any way.

There is a view that there is in fact a middle ground where racism is concerned, its one that is probably ingrained in society and will take an very long time to erradicate. This view is one that eans a person holds view of difference without holding a view of inferiority. they can have friends of all races, wish no harm to other people of differing races yet when the chips are down they still use race as a differentiator whether conciously or subconciously. It comes from years of ingrained latent learning. I'm 42 and my granparents used racist language, that was how they were brought up. My parents don't tend to but deep down they'll have ingrained views that were told to them as a child. I would love to believe that I view all people equally and I think I do but in my sub concious I still notice someone of a different race even if I don;t discriminate, abuse or treat any differently. My kids will be even further down the line of not even noticing hopefully and eventually it will go. But there are different levels of racism. The other extremes being swastikas, burning crosses and the NF.'"

You are a few years younger than me and I can relate to your post, my Nanna once described my sofa as niger brown and my 2 children were left open mouthed! I agree it will take society a long time to educate, hence why I feel it is important that examples are made and set when and where it is appropriate, especially in the public arena like sport.
Personally it is different for me I never actually notice skin colour, though this maybe as my best friend for the past 30 odd years is black, plus I have worked with ethnic minorities and shared their tears and heartbreak at the racist behaviour displayed against them when all they want to do is just get on with their lives like the rest of us....I would like to have seen your club insist that Ben did some voluntary work with ethnic groups, mind you not sure he would have been welcomed with open arms like.