- Jun 4, 2005
- 28,471
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Absolute class from Durham, my respect for him just went up a huge notch.
Just listened to it - starts off well but aside from the first minute or two, I didn’t agree with much of the rest of it. He spent a lot of time saying you can’t call a black player lazy because of the connotations it may have. I genuinely don’t get that. Hoddle was called lazy. In fact some nicknamed him Glenda (can you imagine the fuss that would cause nowadays). People called Ginola lazy as he wouldn’t track back. He used one example in Aguero but there are plenty throughout the years and presently who are ‘lazy’ non-black players that have been called out. I wouldn’t say Lukaku is lazy anyway but I’m not sure how this can be perceived as racist. I’ve never come across that perception concerning a professional black man. I obviously get the ‘famous’ stereotypes like the criminal thing, not having a dad around or eating fried chicken etc... all wrong/lazy stereotypes.... and even positive stereotypes like having a large cock but I haven’t heard the lazy thing. Especially concerning a professional athlete. Calling a black man lazy because he’s black is 100% racist and ignorant but calling Lukaku lazy because it may be perceived that he’s not making the necessary runs needed, or he’s not tracking back or he’s too unfit due to all the muscle/fat he’s gained isn’t racist.
I wouldn’t really want Sterling to be England captain either. He’s far from captain material. Surely what he’s saying is positive discrimination. Wanting someone to be captain just because of his colour. I understand the part about coming through adversity and the admirable way he’s dealt with all the media shit, but that doesn’t mean he’s a captain on the football pitch. There have been many excellent black captains - King, Ince, Vieira etc but I haven’t seen anything on the pitch that makes him captain material yet. Maybe in a few years?
Also, you could argue that Durham has come across as a bit sexist by saying ‘think about your mum, think about your grandma’.... what about your dad? Or is he assuming your dad is the problem? That your dad is the one shouting vile shit towards players? If he’s (rightly) insistent on tackling racism then he should be all over sexism too. I know some may think this point is clutching at straws but this kind of stuff is currently all over social media. Whether we agree or not, what he’s said is inadvertently sexist.
And lastly, the ending is ironic. He talks about why is there so much hatred in football and doesn’t realise that presenters like him who ridicule football teams and football fans are stirring up the hatred every single day of the week, just so their bosses can make money. It doesn’t matter if it’s classed as ‘banter’, we all know lots of fans can’t take it. Obviously Durham and the likes of Cundy aren’t the sole cause of anger in football but fuck me they add to it and he can’t see the irony in his statement. How many times does our blood boil listening to his shit when he’s on a wind up? He slates players regularly, yesterday it was Noble (is he a West Ham legend or does he sum up everything about the club and is just a mediocre player for a mediocre team etc - yeah that’s funny for us but you see the point I’m making). As we all know, Carragher got so wound up he called in when Durham called him a coward/bottler for retiring from England. Wind up merchant causing anger.
So yeah, he starts off summarising it well and I agree 100% with what he says about racism in parts of the media but the rest of it? Nah. I didn’t think that was anywhere near as powerful as Sterling’s own statement about it.