Usually when incidents happen, such as the one that involved Chelsea and a black gentleman on a Paris tube station, supporters of other clubs come together to point the finger.
Hell, I have been one of those people from time to time. When I was younger this incident would have had me huffing and puffing and spouting ignorantly that, "This is what Chelsea supporters are, racist morons". Thank God I have grown up a bit.When I saw the Chelsea supporters, arms raised, chanting, "We’re racist and we don’t care!" I was angry. I was annoyed. I was disgusted.
However, I knew it was only 20-or-so supporters and they didn't accurately reflect the thoughts and actions of thousands of blues supporters that were in the French capital that night. These scumbags were most likely scumbags in day-to-day life. Idiots will always be a part of society. Always.
Chelsea fans prevent a black man from entering their Metro carriage
Then my mind switched its focus to the supporters of West Ham and Arsenal. I was thinking specifically of our visits to White Hart Lane. I was focusing on the hisses, the Heil Hitler's and the mocking of Jewish people and the events of World War II.
I know that only a handful of supporters have been involved - but those 40 or 50 people are West Ham United supporters. Those supporters are our brothers, our sisters, and our children.
This is disgusting behaviour for someone of any age, let alone grown men. I am not preaching that we should bleach supporter behaviour and I am definitely not saying that we should do away with with - for lack of a better term - 'banter'.
Self-governance is key. When I was working with Sheffield United I had the opportunity to work closely with the organization Kick It Out and created their Equality Standard report. This is a report that the clubs from the Conference to the Premier League create to show off their work within the local community to be more accessible.
It also shows what they do to fight racism, sexism, and homophobia - but the things the clubs do isn't going to rip racism out of society. Racism is endemic of the society we live in and to remove it from football, we would first have to remove it from society.
Basically, I think too many people look for football to cure society’s ills when in reality football is only a vehicle that reflects our society, the good and the bad.
When you see these boys singing about being proud to be racist don’t look outward and place blame. Look inward ask yourself what you are doing to help the cause. Maybe next time you see someone misrepresenting you, your family, and your club you will do something about it.
For more information about Kick It Out check out their website at http://www.kickitout.org.
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