But it wouldn't have been about who he is ... it would've been about what he did. As Marcus Rashford has said ... being criticised for his footballing is one thing, part of being a footballer ... being abused for who you are is totally different.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'd love to know what abuse is given/taken on a football pitch and especially in inter-country games where what's being said isn't obvious because of language. I'd also love to hear Lineker, Shearer et al be honest about what abuse of whatever type they've heard on a football pitch between footballers.
They're just talking to Anton Ferdinand on radio4. Be interesting to hear what he makes of it all after what happened in his footballing career.
@Loxley I have been trying to find birthday cards depicting little black girls (and boys) for the last 14 years.I flatly refuse to send my grandaughter any card with a little blue eyed white blonde depicted. I tried to get answers from these large greetings card outlets,with no replies. They to me, are one of the worst offenders.
Why can't you draw your own - or set up a company to fill that gap in the market? Isn't that what happens? There's a hole and some entrepreneur exploits it. If there's money to be made, someone will do it - unless an ism is stopping them. I would guess that because 85+% of the UK is classed as 'white', then the cards reflect that - that is the majority sold. And if you then had cards with black children, what about the Asian...blah communities. So the market that drives this is just some commercial enterprise isn't it? I would guess that at some point it isn't commercially viable to go down to all the ethnic splits route unless you can corner the whole market.
BUT isn't what you've just said the issue anyway? Conversely,why would I as a 'white' person want a card then with a black person? We both obviously see colour don't we? We don't just say 'oh that's a nice card showing a happy child'. And isn't that then the intrinsically 'ist' part - and everybody does that?
Next time you're looking at kid's books, see how many dark skinned 'Disney Princesses' you can find...
I saw someone suggest that Snow White should be remade with a black princess. It didn't seem to be ironic. Anyway five out of twelve Disney Princesses aren't white. Interestingly if you move away from Disney and look at Japanese manga films (Studio Ghibli etc) all the female leads tend to be white and western for some reason. The films are rich with Japanese culture but the studios seem to idolise the Western ideal of appearance for the heros. Kids' books do tend to be very diverse these days though but you do get the impression it's on the insistence of the publisher rather than the choice of writer or illustrator.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Do you think that is a slightly different issue? Isn't that 'selling the ideal'? I can't comment on the manga stuff mentioned and Japanese culture, but I would guess that in 'the colonies' that because being white was equated with money and power, it became an ideal. To be treated as if you were white (wasn't that the theme of A Passage To India? ...to fit in with the perceived elite?) was the way to go. Even still, after what 70 years?, the West still has that draw.
Pity we don't have time machines as I'd guess there were loads of Brits who wanted to be Roman still after their empire collapsed. Rome was the then power and money and we still use their 'dead' language today as a show of education.
Edited to add: Thinking about that a bit more - didn't the same occur in this country? Until recently wasn't being 'white' the sign of the upper classes as the lower classes were labourers and had then had tans on exposed places. The ideal was to be whiter. Then package holidays came and people chased the sun - and it seemed a waster to spend all that money and stay white. So it reversed - being tanned all year showed you had the money to get away to sunnier climes. Ahh the joys of fashion fads eh?
There's also the class/caste thing in India ... if you're from a lower caste and work outside you're a darker brown than the wealthy or higher caste folk.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Edited to add: Thinking about that a bit more - didn't the same occur in this country? Until recently wasn't being 'white' the sign of the upper classes as the lower classes were labourers and had then had tans on exposed places. The ideal was to be whiter.
The Tudors used to blacken their teeth so they'd look rotten. Only the wealthy could afford sugar to properly rot their teeth though.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I saw someone suggest that Snow White should be remade with a black princess. It didn't seem to be ironic. Anyway five out of twelve Disney Princesses aren't white. Interestingly if you move away from Disney and look at Japanese manga films (Studio Ghibli etc) all the female leads tend to be white and western for some reason. The films are rich with Japanese culture but the studios seem to idolise the Western ideal of appearance for the heros. Kids' books do tend to be very diverse these days though but you do get the impression it's on the insistence of the publisher rather than the choice of writer or illustrator.
I also heard some male Indian friends say " she's too dark "
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.