Interesting to note that the lowest common denominator in the Rashford post Europa League final abuse was a maths teacher.... at least not an English one 😀. Curiously this role model is still in his job....
Agree with much of that and I’m not trying to make it a ‘Conservative issue’.
Seems to me that the problems we have in so many areas of society...i.e our lives being governed by the behaviour of the lowest common denominators...has long since spread to the mixed blessing of the Internet, and that’s what we saw last night.
P.S. By ‘lowest common denominator’ I mean morally, not socially, which applies to all sorts of things from drinking and driving to taxes and expenses to online abuse etc.
Interesting to note that the lowest common denominator in the Rashford post Europa League final abuse was a maths teacher.... at least not an English one 😀. Curiously this role model is still in his job....
What can I say? Racists are like shapeshifters...they take many forms and inhabit all areas of society. Fortunately, as the reaction to the Rashford mural would suggest, they are a pernicious minority and decency will prevail. Never got on with maths teachers.
Do you think this one should be suspended/sacked? I see an estate agent who sent racist tweets has been suspended.
Its a difficult one since I assume his abuse was not done during working hours, but he no doubt has to teach classes with students of diverse ethnicities, so his professional position is surely compromised by his actions in his personal life. Rather like if an accountant was found guilty of bank robbery in his spare time. If he had any decency he would have resigned, but in absence of such then yes, fired. I'd love to see the NUT justify taking up his cause for unfair dismissal!
Not a bad thing. And that's without the racists tweets.
But seriously,
I would take issue with a comment you made in an earlier post about there being less racism than in the 60's, I will stand corrected if there's trustworthy evidence to the contrary but I think there's just as much as ever but its changed in nature since the 60's (which I only recall as a white minority schoolkid amongst black schoolfriends). There'sa lot of racial 'tolerance' around but that's on a knifeedge and IMO it doesn't take much to tip the tolerant back to intolerance and for that matter the intolerant back to hate. The inability of the UK media to focus on more than a single aspect of hate at any one time (for instance late 2010s - Muslims, 2020s - Blacks) doesn't help IMO
Time the Jodrells realised there is but one race.............. the human race.
Not sure I suggested there being less racism now than in the ‘60’s did I? It was certainly more overt back then and signs such as ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs’ were relatively commonplace.
Fortunately such written sentiments have been made illegal, but it seems, for all its undoubted benefits, the internet has provided an opportunity for cowardly and invariably anonymous racist attacks to reappear as we saw on Sunday night and see all too regularly where black sportsmen and women are concerned.
I’m genuinely unsure of your phrase ‘racial tolerance’. What does it mean? As far as I’m concerned I barely notice if someone of a different race is sitting next to me at a match, in a pub/restaurant, at a concert/in the theatre/cinema...wherever. Likewise if a black or Asian family moved in next door to me the idea that I should be ‘tolerant’ of them...or them of me...would never actually occur to me. It seems quite patronising to suggest that ‘tolerance’ of another race is necessary. All that matters to me is how people behave.
twas I that suggested that more people were racist in the 60s, but that the fewer racists nowadays have a far greater ability to promote their views through social media and similar conduits. It was a different type of racism I suppose - more direct: skinheads would go "pakki bashing", paint charts would advocate the use of "ni&&er brown" paint etc etc (hopefully swear filter is working). That generation were ill educated on the matter of what is now called diversity and used words now unacceptable without any thought that it was unacceptable to do so: because by and large it wasnt unacceptable.
We are after all talking of the era of the black and white minstrels, the era of Enoch Powel and the infamous Smethwick election win by Peter Griffiths using the slogan: "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Liberal or Labour". A host country ill prepared for immigration facing an immigrant population ill prepared for the different life they had chosen.
Compared to nowadays, that was I suggest way harder than someone posting some monkey images on a twitter post. But its all in the eye of the beholder. And nowadays its more about noise than harsh reality in my humble opinion
Last edited by Andy_Faber; 13-07-2021 at 12:53 PM. Reason: the swear filter wasn't working!