Media persecution of Raheem Sterling

tolmie's hairdoo said:
I was at that game and I genuinely don't remember any racist chanting whatsoever from the crowd. I remember that game very well stood on the Kippax. They ran with the chant you're going home in a Manchester ambulance.

Stevie Redmond couldn't even get the gloves on but Nixon was deservedly sent off for punching Wright.

As for Wright, this is the same man who spat at fans at Oldham and once accused Peter Schmeichel of racism, conveniently after a dreadful two-footed challenge Wright put in on him.

In actual fact, in my now 40 years of watching us, the only times I have ever heard a single racist utterance at City was some dickhead in the North Stand who shouted daft ****** at Nicolas Anelka and I had my now wife with me. I was too stunned to say or do anything, as I didn't know how many people around him would back him up.

The next was a derby at the Etihad just a few years back on the lower tier of the Colin Bell. The fella in front of me shouted cheating black bastard at Evra just as the crowd went deathly quiet. He wanted the ground to swallow him up, my brother tried to get down the row and smash him but I held him back as this guy had his two young daughters with him.

Poor girls had to be looked after and were crying as their stupid old dad held his hands up and said it was heat of the moment as he was led away.

Things like this are very rare in my opinion, thankfully, which is why these incidents stay long in my memory. No doubt you witnessed the Palace game in a different light but I certainly don't recall any racist abuse in the Kippax that day.
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I think I was in the North Stand that day (think it was pre the Platt Lane rebuild) and never heard any racist abuse.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
Absolutely correct.

Barring the rare knuckledragger, the persecution has absolutely nothing to do with racism.

I have been in plenty of newsrooms where Sterling has been discussed.

He sells papers and is seen as high profile target because he sometimes has a colourful life off the pitch.

There are plenty of top black players in this country who don't get the scrutiny Raheem does.

He plays for the top team in the country and had the temerity to leave a cult club in Liverpool, who have such a hold over narratives through their huge fanbase, the basic resentment amongst other fans towards City hitting the big time, and the guilt over Hillsborough and eggshell treading in sections of the media.

Raheem keeps up his form, it will be someone else, white or black.

Ask Gazza!

Ian Wright, as a black person, does this debate no favours, as he gives legitimacy to the racism narrative, without any real evidence barring it must be because he has no other explanation for it.

Go to Liverpool, Ian, ask them what they think of Raheem and you working for The Sun.
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There is not one sole reason why Sterling receives the hate he does. It is not a case of it being solely because he left Liverpool therefore it cannot be racism. In my opinion it is a mixture of both are there is definitely a large element of racial undertones to the stick Sterling gets. I also think it is driven by the fact Sterling is Jamaican born rather than the colour of his skin.

Rooney, Tevez, Van Persie, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard, to name a few, were all involved in high profile cross PL transfers but not of them received any stick aside from off the fans of the club they had left. Raz on the other hand was booed up and down the country at places like Stoke and Burnley who have no connection with Liverpool or Sterling. Even now, four years after Sterling left Liverpool he is still a national hate figure, you'd would think these neutral fans wouldn't give a shit about how he treated Liverpool and had moved on. Yet the media used the beef between Liverpool and Sterling to assassinate his character and turned him into this hate figure.

Aside from one incident, where Raz was caught inhaling laughing gas, something players like Jack Grealish has also been caught doing, I cannot recall him doing anything wrong in the public eye. So I'm not too sure when this image of Sterling living a colourful life off the pitch comes from. Yet he still has this gangster, playboy and full of bling image which people seem to hate. This stems from the perception the media give him. They link Sterling in articles about drug dealing and stabbings, publish fake stories about his love life and obsess over his spending habits.

You stated that 'barring the rare knuckledragger, it has nothing to do with racism'. However, the likes of The Mail and The Sun appeal to a fair share of kunckledraggers. By associating Sterling with knife-crime and drug dealing it reinforces the negative black stereotype of crime and gangs when Sterling's life so far should be bright light for the fight against crime and gangs.

It's a common narrative on this forum that United and Liverpool get positive media coverage because the papers are appealing to their target audience, yet could the same not be said of The Mail, a paper with well-known views on immigration, setting an agenda against a high-profile success story of immigration?

Also, the only players I can recall who got as much stick as Sterling is Beckham, Rooney, Ashley Cole and Gazza, yet all of them had well-documented problems or married a star/craved the celebrity lifestyle. Sterling seems to keep himself private whereas the other players mentioned did the opposite.
 
OB1 said:
I think I was in the North Stand that day (think it was pre the Platt Lane rebuild) and never heard any racist abuse.
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It was certainly a game that still stands in my memory. I took out a reference to Wright being a nasty piece of work and his previous accusations of racism towards him, as I don't think it was particularly relevant to what he has tried to introduce today.
 
I don't think the treatment of Sterling is racially motivated. Liverpool and their supporting media have thrown everything at him and unfortunately a mass of the population read those articles and buy the opinion. He has a blinding season but received lowest ratings of any starter for England during the WC because, again, Liverpool fans crawl all over the BBC because of their love in.

He played really well in a City shirt against Arsenal to pick up where he left off. In a team that allows him to play where he wants to he will thrive. In a team that prioritises Lingard and Alli ahead of him and plays him too narrow he will not. He is best coming in from wide positions. Not starting centrally and being forced to stay in those areas.

It is good for Wright to have his back and say what he has. Mainly because now the press will fear to write anything negative about Sterling in case the racist tag is thrown at them.
 
I don't think the constant attacks on Sterling stem from a racist outlook, but I feel his (almost) permanent place in the tabloids gives a platform to those who may harbour racist undertones towards him, to weigh in and attack him. You can't really prove it though, I just believe it's a culmination of a myriad of factors.
 
They are targeting sterling we all know that.
There was a racist attack on sterling
Racists like everyone else are influenced by the media
The targeting of sterling by the press continues!

It isn't racist directly, but it certainly contributes, as well as makes money for the press. Good call Ian Wright
 
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