When Meaning Is Lost Then So Surely Is The Argument?
Racism is a complex issue. It is somewhat of a buzz word in the football community at the minute and with more issues surfacing on a seemingly weekly basis, it is a subject that has gained wide spread coverage in the media of late.
The latest media saturated story is the Tottenham fan’s chanting of the word “Yid”, a term considered a racial slur towards those of Jewish faith. It has emerged that the chairman of The Society of Black Lawyers, Peter Herbert has publically condemned the use of the word in any form, and threatens to take his and the SBL’s concerns to the police. If Tottenham fans refuse to accept that it is a racist offence, they could be prosecuted under the Public Order Act in court as John Terry was.
Tottenham claim the term was originally used as a defence mechanism against racist chanting from opposition fans. The Spurs faithful showed support for their history of Jewish fans by re-assembling the insult into a rallying cry, and from their perspective switching any negative connotations to more positive associations.
Comedian David Baddiel, a Jewish Chelsea fan, supports the position of the SBL and suggests any use of the term only serves to increase negative, racial ideology who states that “Although Spurs fans consider they are just responding to racist taunts, the continuing use of the Y-word by Spurs fans informs and sustains the racist abuse aimed at Spurs by other fans”. Baddiel made a video that proves the use of racist chanting against Tottenham fans and believes it proves the use of the word should be stamped out across the board.
There is no doubt whatsoever that any form of racist chanting in football needs to be dealt with. First and foremost, it’s illegal, it’s ugly and it is tarnishing the image of the sport. But are Tottenham fans actually being racist? Chanting ‘Yid Army’ is not intended to be offensive, but though their intentions may be harmless there are still people who could be offended by the use of the word.
The practicalities, however, of prosecuting 10,000 people all chanting the same thing is obviously limited. If The Society of Black Lawyers intends to report every offending Spurs fan individually until the chants stop, then so be it but I can’t help thing that would be a complete misapplication of valuable social resources. For me if the SBL is going to prosecute those using the word ‘Yid’ they should start with those intentionally using it as an offensive term.
What is the answer then? How do we make sure this word is not only stopped from being used a taunt for Tottenham fans, and from being interpreted by the Jewish community as an insult from Tottenham fans? Honestly, I don’t know. I have little experience in social reform and complex racial discourse. The term ‘yid’ is an abbreviation of the word Yiddish, a language used by many orthodox Jews around the world, but its meaning is obviously ignored in all contexts of these football chants.
The front page of the Leicester Mercury from Wednesday 7th November reads ‘Footballers Subjected to Racial Abuse During Game’. The team was Leicester Nirvana FC, and under-15 side playing away at Blaby and Whetsone BC FC. Many readers will be completely unaware of these teams. They are just local sides from different areas of Leicestershire.
To think that these kids have been subject to ‘monkey noises and offensive gestures’ is upsetting. It shows that there is a problem at the very grass roots of our society not just our football community.
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November 10th, 2012
I think it only reasonable that if we stop calling ourselves Yids then the Society of Black Lawyers immediately stop referring to themselves as Black
November 10th, 2012
Amen! How many white lawyers are members of the society of black lawyers? Racism is the act of segregating or discriminating on the basis of race. To me, discriminating against anyone for any reason is wrong! This society also want to start an association exclusively for black players, which is wholly wrong. The whole point of combatting racism is to join together all creeds, colours, faiths and nationalities under one banner, not segregate and separate groups. These fame hungry lawyers are just doing what lawyers do, exploit the vulnerable to line their own pockets. As for the “yid” thing, “yid” is not an offensive word. The word itself in Yiddish is not offensive. It’s use in a derogatory manner, however, is offensive. Tottenham fans do NOT use the word as a derogatory term. We do not call other people “yids” in a derogatory way, we call ourselves “yids” as a sign of unity. The sick Chelsea fans that hiss, mocking those whole lost their lives in the holocaust should be the target of these lawyers, not us.
November 10th, 2012
Quite right Stu racism is indeed a complex matter when an openly and institutionally racist organisation ca criticise the public like this. The whole thing has become a farce. You can say Brit, short for British, but you can’t say P+++, short for Palistani. It’s all in the individual mind and whatever someone says is bnd to upset someone else. Shall we ban re-runs of Dad’s Army,because the Germans ‘don’t like it up ‘em, Mr Mannering’
November 10th, 2012
Quite right Stu racism is indeed a complex matter when an openly and institutionally racist organisation ca criticise the public like this. The whole thing has become a farce. You can say Brit, short for British, but you can’t say P+++, short for Pakistani. It’s all in the individual mind and whatever someone says is bound to upset someone else. Shall we ban re-runs of Dad’s Army,because the Germans ‘don’t like it up em Mr Mannering’?
November 10th, 2012
In today’s language Yid simply means Tottenham fan. The word has a second meaning but that meaning is not being used.
Are we to ban black from the language, what about all the black musicians who use the N word in their songs, why has Mr Herbert not tried to stop them?
And why is he allowed to call his organisation the Society of Black Only No Whites Allowed Lawyers?
November 10th, 2012
As far as I’m aware, when the spurs chant Yid army, they are saying if you pick on some of us you will have to deal with all of us. A unification against anti semitism the like of which I have never seen before. On the other hand if there’s some legal aid on the table The society of black lawyers stand to make a lot of cash. I think this is a clear example of lawyers creating work for themselves and they are using the one group of people who have publicly stood up to protect a creed as bait. disgusting behavior from an elitist group.
November 11th, 2012
The Society of Black Lawyers is an inherently racist organization, which is currently trying to make a name for itself with outlandish claims. In replying to its evil nonsense we have to give its proponents the oxygen of publicity, but if we continually point out their inherent racism, and their fascistic attempts at banning the use of certain words in whatever context, we can show these vile people up for what they are.
What next? Book burning? A kristallnacht against those of us who prefer freedom to authoritarianism?