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A call to action
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Or in modern syntax:
The only thing necessary for triumph of alleged evil is for non gender specific identities to do nothing.
I converted to a modern syntax as a tongue in cheek means of pointing to the ‘woke’ generation. That a sentence like that even exists is evidence that awareness of all things has not only increased but the philosophies and morals have actually been debated and enshrined in a sort of pseudo academic crowd sourced lexicon.
So people care and they know specifically why they care. And there are more good people who care enough to do something.
Racism has been at the top of the agenda recently in football, in Europe and the UK. It exists, we know that to be a fact and it is coming back, maybe.
We’ll get to the ‘maybe’ shortly but let’s first start with the ‘good people’. Its a tough challenge; evil exists because good people do nothing. Probably true but can you blame good people for their inaction? The person shouting racist phrases and words is more likely to be under the influence of alcohol and less likely to be a university graduate. I’m trying really hard to avoid and sweeping generalisations but I’ll let you imagine what a racist man (and its men) looks like.
Now, go and tap him on the shoulder and explain why his actions are wrong. Go on. Oh, you’re still here. It’s not as easy as that is it?
Almost inevitably it’s going to descend into something nasty. At best the crowd around you bail you out but you’re going to take the first hit, it’s you who has to put your chin out there. It’s a sort of social game theory, someone has go first. We are a herd of wildebeest at the river watching the racist crocodile snapping away. When we all go we’re safe but that first wildebeest… less so.
But it seems we’ve found a solution. Cameras on phones. The recent spike in racist incidents have been either professionals explaining their recent experiences or other fans taking video of racist fans. And it works!! Some fans were recently identified and banned!
The herd of non gender specific wildersnowflakes won and no one had to stick their chin out. The good people can now safely do something and we need to keep doing it.
Now, the ‘maybe’. In absolute terms are the number of racist men increasing? Or are they just louder? Or are we just listening more? Or taking more videos? Or collectively do we all just care more?
I don’t know and I’m reluctant to make a statement about increasing racism without being able to answer these basic questions. What I hope is that in absolute terms the number of incidents is decreasing but were better at spotting and calling out what remains, an absolute/relative argument. In my 20 years of match attendance at many grounds around the country I’m hearing it less and less so I want to stay optimistic and hope that what were seeing is this…
… a turning point. Good People are more in number than ever before, they are more informed and educated about the topics. It used to that racism was bad, now we can explain exactly why and it’s that level of caring that makes the difference. And those good people are armed with pocket CCTV to capture these vile people when they stick their racist little heads up.
So good people, recruit more good people, film the bad, make it public. Let the shame and improved police identification technology do the hard work. We can do good and without risk which means there really is now no excuse for good people to do nothing. We’re getting closer to the end than it seems right now so stay positive and take action.
Faithfully,
TM
Two of the recent racism in football cases – the Mo Salah incident with Chelsea fans, and the Kalidou Koulibaly one with Arsenal fans – have used social media videos to evidence and identify the crimes and culprits.
It got me thinking. I bet there’s loads of videos of footie fan morons being racist all over the internet. In this day age that means we’re a few pretty simple steps away from identifying thousands (and unfortunately there will be thousands) of them almost instantly.
An A.I. bot could scrape social media sites and examine the audio for racist slurs… use a bit of human verification to make sure we only identify nailed-on cases. Plug in facial recognition software and get that working with the security cams at all League games… and then start collaring people at the turnstiles.
There’s a question about how far we go back retrospectively… Maybe. Racism has been wrong since before football though.
Rob
Keane on Rice
I have to admit as a United fan I haven’t been too happy with the British players we have been linked with, especially Declan Rice… I thought he was another overrated Brit that we were probably going to over pay for and also over pay in wages as well.
But I saw him against us yesterday and am totally convinced he’s up to the task…he broke up play in the middle ,was mobile and made himself a general nuisance to our attackers….lemme just skip the parables and say I was mightily impressed and I think as long as his consistent average is anything close to that display against United yesterday then if we get him we have a good player and long term replacement for Matic and Keane’s successor in our hands
Kayode Ajaja (City would probably sign him now) MUFC, Nigeria
The chosen Wan
On Jimmy’s mail about Wan Bissaka costing 40m surely that is not true . With the market exploding recently a young english full back with bags of potential should be around 60m -70 m .
Ali(if Liverpool win the double should van Dijk be in contention for ballon d’or)
United thoughts
*There was a mailboxer (is that a thing ) who said De Gea was becoming a Liability. I wouldn’t go that far, he is still the best shot stopper in the league. He does however need to improve his kicking and throwing (that’s three goals in this horrendous run down to him),
* I wrote in on Friday saying maybe we try Lingard at full back, (okay i did say till end of season and definitely Dalot should be) but for these two games where both Shaw and Young are suspended would you still rather use Rojo? I know he’s not played in a year but I’d rather have Demitri Mitchell or Bortwick Jackson. Get rid.
* How hard can it be to replace Nani, I know he’s a bit maligned but he is still the last credible outlet we have had on the right wing . After him there were Tony V’s one move and right now I’d even settle ft for that.
* This was a line up that should have attacked the fact that we got pegged back shows upgrades are needed . At least it was good to hear the manager admit as much instead of Jose’s excuses or throwing specific people under the bus,
Timi, MUFC
VAR please
Decisions like West Ham’s disallowed goal by offside yesterday is one simple example on why I am so looking forward to VAR next season.
I don’t blame the assistant for missing it cos I believe he was blocked. Also it was literally just one human foot onside in a fast moving game but that is why we need technology to help them.
Yaru, Malaysia
No post-season blues
Do not worry when post Season comes because the draw of the Afcon has been done and trust me… There are some pretty interesting match-up. I hope F365 does an AFCON feature just to appease my spirit.
Takunda “can’t think of anything” Make, Harare, Zimbabwe
Pard knock life
Hi there,
Long time fan of the website. A while back (maybe 2 years) you had an article about Pardiola. I think it was a profile on him, one of a series that you ran. There was reference to joop aftershave if that helps.
I used to read this article when I was bored and always got a laugh out of it without fail. Can you send me a link to it (I can find it anywhere) if you know the one please ? I miss it and I need the pick me up.
Cheers
Anon
(MC – can anyone be of assistance here? We can only think of this. And while it’s brilliant, we’re not sure that’s what our friend is after.)
