The Wokeness Thread

[Geoff Parkstone]

Compare and contrast to the necessity for the Rooney Rule (no, not him) in the NFL where the proportion of black players ways outstrips the proportion of the population, but at coaching level there is under representation which they are trying to cure by affirmative action. Hope we never get into that position.

[ramAnag]

Tbh I would love it if we could just get to the stage where the colour of a person’s skin was no more important than a person’s eye or hair colour and I genuinely have no idea of how many of the Lionesses, or the male equivalent have blonde/dark hair or blue/brown eyes.

Unfortunately we are some way off because racism continues to weave its pernicious spell and if anyone doubts that then I suggest we open up a proper O/T thread to discuss ‘Racism’ openly and freely rather than via reference to random in thought through comments and the frankly foolish ‘woke’ thread.

[swaledale]

"For the record I suspect that the comments about the Lionesses being ‘too white’ were poorly made, ill advised and unfounded"

For the record I agree too, it was simply an opportunistic attempt to hijack the massive publicity the Lionesses' success created. As TTR noted, if some white BBC pundit (if there are any) had observed that there were too many black payers in the men's team, I would hope that said pundit would no longer be working for the BBC.

Like Harry Potter's dementors, this sort of thing must have sucked all the joy in the team's triumph out of the occasion.

On the other hand it could just be a bunch of right wing "commentators" who like stirring up ****e for the sake of it - Liddle, Hartley-brewer, Morgan, Tucker Carlson in the Us, they will seize on any remark and amplify it for their own agenda.

There is nothing wrong or ill advised about wanting to ensure that there are opportunities for all and the only way we actually get to think about whether there are opportunities for black or brown people, women, disabled people is by raising the issue so that there is awareness. Thats all that happened and fair play to her.

How it equates in any way to a white pundit saying there are too many black players is beyond me! But then only an old white bloke would have sad that! Thats utter *******s, because clearly for a start, white players haven't historically been discriminated against!

This is not wokeism, not that such a thing exists except in the mind of the right wing, wanting to distract people from what's really happening, its a familiar trope being used to attack the BBC.

What Thicky fails to understand, and to an extent do the others wringing their hands on here - is that these dog whistles are designed to get the dim people frothing at the mouth, these people don't give a **** about you, they don't have your interests at heart. And guess what - if as a result of these comments, every effort is made to ensure that women from an ethnic minority background are given the same opportunity to play elite sport as white women you won't be affected in any way what so ever, but the England's women's football team might just avoid overlooking talent!!

People must have very sad lives to get excited about this sort of thing and then it gets repeated in various media, (which is the intention of stirring it in the first place) as they all feed off each other repeating nonsense and various inaccurate interpretations of issues.

[swaledale]

Wow lovely rant.
Obviously the point being made about wokeism , only suits you when you are saying it.

Is being WOKE wrong- no
Is it hijacked by certain radicals / organisations? YES.

The BBC being one of them.
Had someone made the comment that the Mens England team had too many black players in it, the roof would have come off.

The story from the BBC had a sob story from black woman saying she couldn't get attached to the womens team because she felt excluded by not having black ladies running around in it.
Exactly the sort of divisive stuff, you are throwing at me.

The truth is, football supporters don't give a hoot what colour the players are. Its all about ability and results.
The easier question would have been, do black women try in engage at a root level?
If not, why not?

Don't throw a political divisive story out there, just to provoke an emotional reaction for something that isn't there.
The Prem is full of black players, mostly imports. Is that a motavator or a reason the BBC will claim is suppressing the native black population?

Any excuse for division can be rooted back to the BBC. From Lineker to Munchetty.
I am waiting for the first non league man footballer, to identify as a woman and be pushing for an England place, with the full backing of the BBC.

I coud quote an earlier post of yours, where you said being woke was a good a thing, but too many extremists hijack the cause for themselves. It works both ways sunshine. ]

Seig Heil.

Nobody has hijacked anything you thicko! It was a right wing **** stirrer who seized upon a comment, thats now gone around the media because that's how this *******s gets repeated on the internet.

Its not ****ing woke to comment that maybe there is an issue with diversity with the England's women's team, its an observation and a perfectly valid one, the fact that right wing people are wetting their panties over it suggests more about their sensitivities than any "extreme" views.

This we don't care about what colour a player is is nonsense, as evidenced by the racist abuse heaped on Rashford and the others last summer. White players wouldn't ahve been vilified in that way, so the neanderthals are still present at football matches.

Jeez sometimes i wonder if you even have the capacity to think before you start posting *******s? But then you are one of the sheep that swallows any old guff and gets worked up about things that don't impact on your life!

[Geoff Parkstone]

"Nobody has hijacked anything you thicko! It was a right wing **** stirrer who seized upon a comment, thats now gone around the media because that's how this *******s gets repeated on the internet."

Shoot the messenger rather than the author, eh.

[ramAnag]

"For the record I suspect that the comments about the Lionesses being ‘too white’ were poorly made, ill advised and unfounded"

For the record I agree too, it was simply an opportunistic attempt to hijack the massive publicity the Lionesses' success created. As TTR noted, if some white BBC pundit (if there are any) had observed that there were too many black payers in the men's team, I would hope that said pundit would no longer be working for the BBC.

Like Harry Potter's dementors, this sort of thing must have sucked all the joy in the team's triumph out of the occasion.

While I stand by my original comment I do not agree that it was an ‘opportunistic attempt to hijack the massive publicity the Lionesses success created’. Indeed the comments were made before their ultimate success.

The fact that you question the existence of ‘white BBC pundits’ does sort of betray where your sympathies lie, and there is a certain irony in your comment about ‘sucking all the joy out of the team’s triumph’ seeing as you were initially more critical than most of the women’s game and seeing as the players (black and white alike) seem to have partied for 48 hours since Sunday evening.

[Geoff Parkstone]

It did mean nothing to me but there was a massive wave of enthusiasm for the success elsewhere from my house which may well have been tainted by the selection criticism - which MA has pointed out was not statistically out of line.

What is surprising is the lack of an open top bus parade etc for the success which, whilst I have no interest in the success, is probably merited in the context of an English team winning a major trophy. The public celebration does seem rather underwhelming despite your saying they "partied for 48 hours"

[Trickytreesreds]

Nobody has hijacked anything you thicko! It was a right wing **** stirrer who seized upon a comment, thats now gone around the media because that's how this *******s gets repeated on the internet.

Its not ****ing woke to comment that maybe there is an issue with diversity with the England's women's team, its an observation and a perfectly valid one, the fact that right wing people are wetting their panties over it suggests more about their sensitivities than any "extreme" views.

This we don't care about what colour a player is is nonsense, as evidenced by the racist abuse heaped on Rashford and the others last summer. White players wouldn't ahve been vilified in that way, so the neanderthals are still present at football matches.

Jeez sometimes i wonder if you even have the capacity to think before you start posting *******s? But then you are one of the sheep that swallows any old guff and gets worked up about things that don't impact on your life!

Ok lets just decipher that
1. a right wing **** stirrer? Really? Can the left only be the ones offended?
2. Not woke? A valid observation of diversity? WOW even I can't believe you typed that. As shown in another reply, there was a 13% ethnic representation, equal to the current ethnic mix ratio?
Could it is simply be, that the black/ethnic players were just not bleeding good enough?
Oh hang on, you're in the proportional over representation camp aren't you, ability shouldn't matter?

I pointed out in my post, that the real question was, do the ethnic girls want/get the opportunity to play football.
Not have it insinuated by a presenter and the BBC that the England set up is racist.

3. The way you imply anything, is that if it goes against your own grand design of ethnicity representation, then shut the **** up and say nothing.
How dare you question an insinuation of representation.

4. I hope you are writing a strongly worded letter to the Guardian as we speak, as the Prem clubs have voted to stop taking the knee.
Have the racists won there as well?

Seig Heil.

[ramAnag]

It did mean nothing to me but there was a massive wave of enthusiasm for the success elsewhere from my house which may well have been tainted by the selection criticism - which MA has pointed out was not statistically out of line.

What is surprising is the lack of an open top bus parade etc for the success which, whilst I have no interest in the success, is probably merited in the context of an English team winning a major trophy. The public celebration does seem rather underwhelming despite your saying they "partied for 48 hours"

Second paragraph I agree with, although I thought you were referring to the team’s celebration rather than the public’s.

[Geoff Parkstone]

No I was referencing the public reception, not whether the players got pissed up - the adrenalin would have seen to that and got them past the backbiting comments from someone whose career was not blessed with international success, and only managed to finish 5th on Strictly!