Just about the last football club I would expect to appear in the national media in the context of a case of racism is Norwich City, yet, thanks to the efforts of one idiot at the Emirates who thought it okay to racially abuse boxer Anthony Ogogo, apparently on the grounds that he thought he was an Arsenal fan (as if that justifies anything), that’s what happened this week.
At the time of writing the perpetrator hasn’t been identified even though there must be plenty of people who witnessed the incident and are well aware of his identity, and that’s what inspired me to write this piece, as it ties in with a recent experience of my own.
I think, having grown up in the 70s when monkey noises and bananas being thrown onto pitches at black players were treated as normal behaviour, that the game has made great strides in eradicating both racist and homophobic abuse, and I should say before going any further that I have rarely encountered any issues with City fans. It would be naïve however to pretend that they never occur.
The club must take a great deal of credit for the fact that they have long had a zero-tolerance policy on any form of abuse or discrimination and have backed up their words with actions when the need has arisen. The work of Proud Canaries, who we are delighted to work closely with at the Canaries Trust, is also worthy of high praise.
However, the Ogogo incident, and apparent code of omertà amongst those who witnessed it follows a worrying series of incidents on social media in the last fortnight that followed a City fan tweeting a photo of a man who he claimed had been persistently shouting racial abuse during the Hull game.
What happened next is what worries me. Several people tagged the club to make them aware of the photo and were followed by a number of tweets that not only criticised anyone reporting fellow fans, but also contained veiled, and not so veiled, threats. At least one of these, which read “Snitches get stitches”, was addressed to a woman.
While the vast majority of fans were quick to denounce them, it illustrates a minority view which I find concerning, and which we as a Trust have always been quick to challenge.
In my view, homophobia and racism are issues which you either accept or oppose: there can be no middle ground, and if you don’t condemn them and identify those who promote them then you are tacitly condoning them.
However, actively attempting to dissuade people from reporting them is even worse, and I ended up speaking to the police myself this week after a couple of incidents.
First of all, someone took it upon themselves to search all the tweets I have made since 2011, using discriminatory key words, in the hope of finding something with which to undermine my part in the Trust’s strong public stance against homophobia and racism.
However, this was topped on the morning of the derby when I was sent a photograph (again via Twitter) of derogatory stickers bearing my photo in the away pub at Ipswich. Not only that, but the photo used wasn’t one that was freely available on my twitter profile or EDP column header. It was, in fact, taken from my business website.
That’s relevant because I keep my business life totally separate from my involvement in football and it would have taken someone quite a bit of digging to find a link between the two. While I feel quite honoured that someone would go to so much trouble to belittle me, I do find it slightly sinister as well.
I would like to think that this is down to people who misguidedly think that a sense of loyalty to fellow fans should override everything else, but the events of the last week suggest that there may be something darker at work.
It certainly won’t stop me from continuing to speak up on this issue and I will always strongly encourage anyone who witnesses abuse to report it, because, as John Stuart Mill so aptly put it “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”
If you’re worried about drawing attention to yourself by speaking to a steward you can report anonymously in a number of ways: via the club’s or Kick It Out’s websites, the Kick It Out phone app or by contacting us at the Trust (www.canariestrust.org).
No-one wants to remove the passion from football matches, but people should be able to go without feeling threatened or abused because of their colour or orientation and we all have a responsibility to make sure that remains the case.
Nothing to add – just 100% agreement.
I agree it has no place in society, but where was your outraged MFW piece on how a man got his jaw broken at brammall lane? I know which incident I would rather have levelled at me.
The media, part of the reason we have witnessed such a huge rise is populism, will always let itself down while it’s values are so desperately in need of reevaluation. This bad, not horrific like at brammall lane, incident has dominated the press and your quote below reminds me of a certain chap in Germany who had a penchant for condemning and identifying those that differed in opinion. Very strong words indeed and a concern to me they have been published while peering down from a percieved moral high ground.
“If you don’t condemn them and identify those who promote them then you are tacitly condoning them.”
I can only assume this applies to everyone in society, including those that know someone who is planning to carry out something truly heinous…I doubt it. Equality, the modern paradox.
Ps. Football.
Terrible post Jeff.
Hitler didn’t only discriminate against people who had different views, he sought out and killed people just for being born into a different ethnicity to his. This piece of pond life verbally attacked Ogogo for the same reason.
It’s not a matter of opinion.
The comparison between this and a broken jaw at Brammall Lane is ridiculous, like comparing an apple tree with a lampost.
And yes, anyone from any background who knows of something heinous being planned must report it. I have talked to people from all backgrounds about this and they have without exception agreed. No paradox in equality.
I am 100 per cent with Don on this one.
I don’t care if the idiot was 75 0r 85 – he should have kept his dumb mouth shut.
It is like the so call white supprenists in America that denies that the Holocaust didn’t happen.
We can and do turn a bilnd eye when it suits us and that is wrong in more way that we want to accept but threatening on twitter and other media outlets shows howcowardly these people are.
Nice work Jeff. I challenge racist abuse and you compare me to Hitler? I’m sorry that you think the comment about tacit acceptance is strongly worded but then, of course, at no point in your bizarre ramble have you actually condemned racist abuse and those who condone it, just tried to deflect attention by throwing in the red herring of a totally unconnected event. I wonder why?.
Robin – completely agree with everything you say in this article and I applaud you for taking such a visible and strong stance on the matter. Things have come a long way since the 70s in terms of racism and homophobia in football but a long way is still not enough and that there are people who would protect those espousing these archaic and prejudiced views at out club is very worrying.
Dear old ‘Jeff’ can even find things to quibble with in this straightforward account.
Of course the assaults at Brammall Lane were awful. They were criminal offences. I reported to the police tweets by Sheff U fans which appeared to encourage or endorse the violence. There’s an investigation going on.
But Robin isn’t chair of the Sheff U Trust. He’s chair of our Trust, and addressing our supporters about the behaviour of some of them is very much part of what he should be doing. It’s is an utterly fallacious argument to suggest that his points are in any sense undermined because he didn’t have any need or duty to discuss unrelated incidents in Sheffield.
I’m sure Robin speaks for 99 per cent of NCFC fans in this piece. More importantly, he underlined the fact that the racists and their apologists do not speak for us.
We won’t tolerate them.
Well said Robin and well done all week.
Racism has NO place in football.
Excellent piece Robin – a shame it’s even necessary in this day and age.
Racism is wrong and should not be tolerated in any way by any society that calls itself civilised. I’m sorry Jeff, you are just wrong on this. In just the same way as Mark Sampson’s behaviour was totally unacceptable and should not have been tolerated or excused for as long as it was, nor is this treatment of Anthony Ogogo, and what is clearly an ongoing level of behaviour of which this was just one incident. Racism, as one of the most significant forms of discrimination that exists, causes harm each and every day and thus needs constantly fighting against – particularly by those who are white and male, who, surprise surprise, are largely the main perpetrators of racism too. .
We are going down a dangerous road here with these repeated calls for fans to report other fans ( and no I am not disagreeing with the article ) my point is do we really know that these claims are true ? Are there credible witnesses, if so then fine.The one recently where the photo of the guy was posted on line saying he was shouting racist abuse etc is a good example, if true then so be it….but if it’s not then it’s too late as social media being what it is etc……just saying
There’s one simple answer, challenge it and, if possible, video / photograph it.
Many football fans seem to believe that is acceptable to despise and abuse other people just because they happen to have been born in a different town – what should be rivalry becomes hatred. Message boards everywhere are full of threads referring to “Ipswich scum” or “Man U scum”, and no doubt “Canary scum”.
So it’s hardly surprising if some of those fans also think it’s acceptable to abuse people just because they happen to be born black, or gay etc,
Well said Robin.
Jeff you should be applauding someone who’s brave enough to stand up to the bullies.
Those who hide behind that cowardly ‘snitches get stitches’ should remember ‘crime gets time’ although I doubt the majority of them could cope with a spell away from mummy’s bosom.
Nothing more to add to a great article – other than surely our club and fans are above the infantile behaviour shown to Mr Ogogo. he should be named and shamed by those who know him…
O T B C
Excellent article Robin. Very proud of you.
Hi Robin
Just a very good read and yes I agree with all your thoughts and most of the follow up comments except that the one about abuse/racial abuse is done by mainly white males.
Abuse wether it be physical, sexual, verbal or media based is unacceptable no matter your colour, sex or sexual choices.
It maddens me to read about racial abuse against all non whites being done by only whites, I read recently that a black player was requested to take comments out of his autobiography about the abuse he received from other black players on and off the football pitch isn’t racial abuse classed as racial if it comes from the same colour.
Kick it out does a good job publishing its work against non white footballers but at no time have I either seen or read about them criticising the abuse that non blacks receive.
It is about time the word Racial is dropped most people that receive and report it are British born there parents or grandparents might have been immigrants but being born in the UK means you are British so your race is British or are we going down the American system of having African, Spanish, Chinese or any other nationality put before British to my knowledge the America is the only place you can say you are African having never been there and your lineage there was some 200 years ago.
Robin as I said before a great read any form of abuse is intolerable but as Martin said the abuse must be proven before everyone jumps to conclusions, I am not suggesting that it didn’t happen at the Emirates but why didn’t it get reported to a steward at the game or if it did why wasn’t the perpetrator get dealt with at the time.
Thanks for the comments. Alex makes a very good point about abuse against non whites because it does happen. I remember a game at Whitton United when I was managing Swaffham Town and one of their players (who was black) called one of ours (who was white) a “white bastard” right in front of the assistant referee, whose response was to laugh at me when I pointed out that he should be reporting it to the referee. Whatever the colour of the perpetrator or the victim, abuse is wrong, end of story.
Ha! I remember Darren Beckford walking his dog around Blofield Rec.
He got tons of abuse for being useless, none of which was race-related.
I really thought we had moved on…
In a week in which our club and team has received so much justified credit for its on-field performances against Ipswich and Arsenal this shameful incident really does tarnish all of those positives. My mood on Wednesday morning was one of pride but when I read of this incident at lunchtime that changed to shame that one of my fellow supporters could behave in such a despicable manner.
This seems especially awful coming so soon after the terrible behaviour of a small group of Ipswich ‘fans’ in the Justin Fashanu ‘incident’.
Having lived away from Norfolk for more than 35 years now, but remaining a frequent visitor, I am (sadly) not surprised by this. Growing up in Norwich in the (very) late-60s to (very) early-80s racism and homophobia was rife and completely acceptable; as it was not in other parts of the UK that I moved to in the 80s. To me little seems to have changed and it is immediately apparent that such behaviour is less acceptable in other parts of the country.
I often consider, with limited evidence to support a conclusion one way or the other, whether this a function of the lack of integration and pluralism in Norfolk compared to other parts of the UK.
In closing,
I add my full support to Robin’s article – the person responsible for this act of abuse must be identified and banned for life, regardless of his age.
As for Jeff, well, I simply do not have words to respond in an appropriate manner to his vile allusions …
My 2 cents – having lived through the online hunt for the Boston bombers, seeing many innocent people named, and nobody pinpointing the actual bombers, I’d avoid online shaming. Take pics, videos, witness statements, then send them to the club and the police to investigate.
Spot on Robin. I do feel however that this is a problem that will take a while to remove / go away. Too often people use terminology like “it’s only banter” to get away with being a git to others, especially on social media. There also seems a misplaced sense of school playground loyalty over informing authorities over abuse, or a infantile sense of humour which is not suited to be used at all, let alone on social media, which seems to be the excuse used for posting unpleasant rubbish.