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The Y Word

Spurslove

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2012
6,627
9,281
Can we put a poll on this thread? I'd be interested in the numbers.

As for my view, it's a mark of our solidarity.
As that previous post said, you can be male, female, black, white, gay, straight or anything and everything in between, but we're all Yids together and we'll stand shoulder to shoulder with pride.

There are more important issues that need to be addressed in football, that affect a far wider section of the population, than this.

Well said. As a Jewish man I fundamentally disagree with those who would have us stop using that word, and believe you me, I know all about the connotations of the word having lost many relations to the Nazi death camps, and I fully understand why some people are upset that we use it. They say they understand our reasoning for using it, but they don't. It's a badge of honour. Most of the people who sing it aren't even Jewish. We sing it with pride and as an instrument of self identification. There's nothing negative about the context in which we use it. NOTHING.

If we all decide to stop chanting that word, will it stop Chelsea and West Ham fans from singing 'I never felt more like gassing the Jews...' and hissing at us across the pitch? Of course not. Anyone who believes that is an idiot. Chelsea and West Ham are two of the biggest culprits of the blatant anti-semitism against us, and both clubs are owned by Jewish men. That's how thick those 'fans' are.

This subject keeps coming back but each and every time, we kick it out of the park. WE are not the villains here FFS and it's about time the people who'd like us to stop using the word really understood that fact.

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SUIYHA

Well-Known Member
Jan 15, 2017
1,723
8,579


I want to follow up on this by addressing a point that's not being discussed as well. Part of the reason that people seem to want to shut the use of our Yid nickname down is because they think it encourages opposition fans to chant it. It apparently perpetuates a stereotype of Jewish Tottenham fans which anti-semites use. "But they call themselves that!" they say.

I must have missed the part where Liverpool started calling themselves the Bin Dippers, West Ham started singing "Pikey Army" and Rangers started chanting "Hunno! Hunno!" at their own players. Surely the only reason people would think it's ok to call a team things like that is because they sing it themselves and people assumed it was ok? It's definitely not possible that there could be dickheads in every fan base that will use offensive slurs against opposition teams, whether they sing that about themselves or not, so they must have started singing it themselves. Will look out for it next time.
 

dontcallme

SC Supporter
Mar 18, 2005
33,986
81,917
Recently signed up to The Athletic. They have a story on the subject. Here is an abstract:

Stephen Pollard has been going to Tottenham since the 1970s and is the editor of the Jewish Chronicle. “I will proudly chant ‘Come on you Yids,’” he says. “You cannot ignore the question of intent. I think it is ludicrous to describe something that is said with affection, by people who mean it with affection, towards people who receive it with affection, as being racist.”
The modern reality of the Tottenham crowd is that only a small minority of their fans are Jewish. Most of the people using these words are not Jewish. So, is Pollard comfortable with non-Jews using this word as widely as they do? “I am not just comfortable, I think it is fantastic that they do,” he says. “I love the fact that they have adopted the word. You cannot ignore the history of it. It started off as a way to remove it of its potency as an insult from other fans. I love the fact that non-Jewish fans now use the word as a description for being a Spurs fan.”
 

Spurslove

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2012
6,627
9,281
I want to follow up on this by addressing a point that's not being discussed as well. Part of the reason that people seem to want to shut the use of our Yid nickname down is because they think it encourages opposition fans to chant it. It apparently perpetuates a stereotype of Jewish Tottenham fans which anti-semites use. "But they call themselves that!" they say.

I must have missed the part where Liverpool started calling themselves the Bin Dippers, West Ham started singing "Pikey Army" and Rangers started chanting "Hunno! Hunno!" at their own players. Surely the only reason people would think it's ok to call a team things like that is because they sing it themselves and people assumed it was ok? It's definitely not possible that there could be dickheads in every fan base that will use offensive slurs against opposition teams, whether they sing that about themselves or not, so they must have started singing it themselves. Will look out for it next time.

It's entirely up to each individual set of fans to use whichever form of self identification they choose to use. If Liverpool want to call themselves Bindippers, or West Ham 'Pikeys' that's entirely up to them, and if they choose not to use any form of self identification, that's also up to them, and if the names they choose to call themselves are used as a badge of pride and honour, and used in a non-aggressive context (as is ours) then why would there be any cause to criticise them for it?

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teedee

Well-Known Member
Jan 11, 2019
702
1,412


I enjoyed reading Olly Marks's Twitter post. I am not Jewish and I do not use the Y word, but I have no strong feelings one way or the other. The excellent chief sports columnist of The Daily Mail, Martin Samuels, who is Jewish and whose articles I always read and enjoy has very strong feelings against the use of the Y word by Spurs fans and has on more than one occasion written persuasively on the subject. Then again, I believe he supports West Ham! I hope he has read Olly Marks's post.
 

dontcallme

SC Supporter
Mar 18, 2005
33,986
81,917
I enjoyed reading Olly Marks's Twitter post. I am not Jewish and I do not use the Y word, but I have no strong feelings one way or the other. The excellent chief sports columnist of The Daily Mail, Martin Samuels, who is Jewish and whose articles I always read and enjoy has very strong feelings against the use of the Y word by Spurs fans and has on more than one occasion written persuasively on the subject. Then again, I believe he supports West Ham! I hope he has read Olly Marks's post.

Martin Samuels is far from excellent.
 

THFCjosh

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2013
632
2,229
Getting rid of a word that has been used to essentially show solidarity with those being discriminated against just seems completely pointless. We are targeting those protecting and supporting the victims rather than those doing the crime.
@NayimFTHL so you disagree with the fact that we should be targeting the perpetrators rather than Spurs fans?
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,353
87,819
@NayimFTHL so you disagree with the fact that we should be targeting the perpetrators rather than Spurs fans?
He does... I'm going to go so far as suggest that he just doesn't want to be thought of as Jewish, probably for less than admirable reasons. Otherwise his creative narrative makes no sense.

I sit east upper and there's pretty much a whole Jewish family who use the seats in front of me, and they always sing it, and clearly have no bother with me or the Indian guy who sits next to me singing it either.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,353
87,819
You didn't stop to think that a handful of Jewish fans. Fans of Tottenham no less , posting on a Tottenham forum, might be a slightly skewed set of opinions?

For the record im ambivalent about the word. I happily chant it. But I enjoy the idea of grown men being upset about not being able to chant a three letter word over and over again, so I am gonna have to object to it strongly in the questionnaire.

If it is banned can I be the first to suggest Dan as an alternative, Alan partridge style?
There's a fair point in your first paragraph. We don't have exclusivity on having Jewish, or indeed any demographic of fans.

IIRC one of the largest Jewish communities outside London is up in Gateshead, so I imagine that'd give Newcastle a fair Jewish fanbase too.
 

THFCjosh

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2013
632
2,229
He does... I'm going to go so far as suggest that he just doesn't want to be thought of as Jewish, probably for less than admirable reasons. Otherwise his creative narrative makes no sense.

I sit east upper and there's pretty much a whole Jewish family who use the seats in front of me, and they always sing it, and clearly have no bother with me or the Indian guy who sits next to me singing it either.
I'm jewish and have no qualms against it being sung in a football context.
 

Sir Henry

Facts > Feelings
Aug 18, 2008
2,706
2,817
Hell would have to freeze over before I adhere to what some bellend tells me what words I can use. I think the, go fuck yourself is apt at this moment.
 

McFlash

In the corner, eating crayons.
Oct 19, 2005
12,740
45,363
Correct I'm not. I'm English and I'm a Spurs fan which is an English club, not a jewish or Yiddish or whatever u would like it to be. Facts
So, is it only our Jewish fanbase that can use the Y word?
Can we not stand with them?
 

Archibald&Crooks

Aegina Expat
Admin
Feb 1, 2005
55,533
204,721
Im surprised it took so long for this thread to go the other way. The previous TWELVE threads on the subject didn’t take half as long :D
 

doctor stefan Freud

the tired tread of sad biology
Sep 2, 2013
15,170
72,169
Genuine question here: as a non Jewish Tottenham fan is it ok for me to chant ‘Yid Army’? Even if I’m in the shed listening to the radio?

PS- I hate Chelsea
 
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