City= many black players, but at COMS not many black fans

[gazhinio]

Good point marvin, racism is everywhere. I see it on a daily basis in work and I can only see it getting worse (especially with alot of peoples negative thoughts and opinions towards the asian community due to terroism!).[/quote]

British jobs for British workers? How can that be construed as racist? I guess you can't be Black British or Asian British or Jewish British?[/quote]

Sorry, but have I missed your Point here?

 

[Marvin]

Because it's inherently anti-foreign and divisive

 

[Thatchersforearm]

The four tops sit on my row.

LMFO

 

[Shegelu]

One of the more interesting threads even if most of the people who contributed are in denial.

Within the last 12 months we have seen the election of BNP councillors in the North West, we've seen the old National Front slogan of British jobs for British workers adopted by the Prime Minister so I'd say racism is alive and well. When I was a kid, the racists wore Dr Marten boots, and were wildy ridiculed. Now their views are mainstream, but their excesses are frowned upon. But dig a little deeper and the emotions run very deep.
How could it be otherwise when we've got 9/11, British troops returning in body bags from wars which have seen hundreds of thousands of civilian dead which dwarf British casualties in the 2nd World War. All well and good to claim that City are a non sectarian family club - which we are - but we all come to the ground with our views and politics as well as our City shirts and scarves. Whatever your viewpoint, you must admit that Britain is as divided by race and class as it ever has been. The forms it takes over the years change, so why should football be an isolated oasis away from the world of the Recession and War?

Good point marvin, racism is everywhere. I see it on a daily basis in work and I can only see it getting worse (especially with alot of peoples negative thoughts and opinions towards the asian community due to terroism!).

British jobs for British workers? How can that be construed as racist? I guess you can't be Black British or Asian British or Jewish British?[/quote]

Of course, you can be Black British or Asian British. That was not what he was saying at all. "British jobs for British workers" is an example of xenophobia or fear of foreigners. In addition, the slogan was associated with the National Front. Join the dots... Doh!

Btw, I know a few Black British people who express prejudiced attitudes against immigrants, particularly Somalians and Asians. Just because they are Black, doesn't mean they can't adopt racist xenophobic attitudes.

 

[Shegelu]

Firstly "people of colour" is not a politically correct term, neither is coloured. The preferred term nowadays is BME which stands for "Black / Minority Ethnic".

Personally I think there are quite a lot of BME city fans... certainly I think we're probably one of the better represented sides when it comes to the ethnic diversity of our fanbase. In fact I understand that Sierra Leone has quite a few city fans, and even has a team named after us. The club is also actively trying to develop more of a fanbase in Africa - as demonstrated by our pre season visit to South Africa.

As for encountering racists at the game I think there will always be some wherever you go, after all football is reflective of society as a whole. Most racists in football generally cloak their attitudes under cliches of "political correctness gone mad" and often considering it part of their working class heritiage of being a "proper fan" and being able to say whatever they like.

One only need to look at some of the replies to threads complaining about munich chants or chants with racist overtones to understand that some fans sing these kind of songs to separate themselves from what the percieve as an influx of passionless, middle class, "prawn sandwich eating" fans who they blame for ruining the atmosphere at games. Some of these fans seem to take a kind of pride in their stubbornly outdated attitudes...

Obviously London sides will probably have more BME fans just because of the ethnic makeup of the city. Add to that the fact that over the years Chelsea and Arsenal have had more globally recognised BME players like Henry, Drogba, Essien, Mikel, Adebayor, Toure, Gallas, Eboue, Kalou, Song and SWP.

Now that we have the likes of Adebayor and Toure I think we have a better chance of attracting a larger BME fanbase... particularly if we are successful and start playing in the Champions League.

Cambridge Blue - met you so know you are a great guy BUT we do not perfer BME or anything else other than being black and proud :-) People do not get caught up with the PC police because we do not trust them making us the flavour of the month - do what you need to do/say to get though your day job but just be a decent person outside of work and you will be fine, if you make a mistake we will understand.

This is really a funny thread because when City first moved over to COMs I posted on a site that I felt not many of the black fans followed us across town. I based this only that MY friends no longer met up with me before the game because it was too far or maybe I had moved too far south. Well I got so much stick from a bunch of posters calling me racist until someone pointed out that I was a black man from Moss side who still travelled to every home game.

To answer the OP question there is no issues with race at City, no more than you would find in normal life outside the club and very much LESS than we would find at England games - the very reason I never go to England games. All races are welcomed to City games unless you are from the darkside (pun!) and that is reserved for everyone from there.

I think you're right about Black people not going as much to COMS. It's also because East Manchester has not generally been seen as a welcoming area for Black people. Of course, East Manchester is changing now, with a lot more African recent immigrants moving in. I imagine that a few of them will want to see Adebayor and Toure play.

 

[Cambridgeblue]

Firstly "people of colour" is not a politically correct term, neither is coloured. The preferred term nowadays is BME which stands for "Black / Minority Ethnic".

Personally I think there are quite a lot of BME city fans... certainly I think we're probably one of the better represented sides when it comes to the ethnic diversity of our fanbase. In fact I understand that Sierra Leone has quite a few city fans, and even has a team named after us. The club is also actively trying to develop more of a fanbase in Africa - as demonstrated by our pre season visit to South Africa.

As for encountering racists at the game I think there will always be some wherever you go, after all football is reflective of society as a whole. Most racists in football generally cloak their attitudes under cliches of "political correctness gone mad" and often considering it part of their working class heritiage of being a "proper fan" and being able to say whatever they like.

One only need to look at some of the replies to threads complaining about munich chants or chants with racist overtones to understand that some fans sing these kind of songs to separate themselves from what the percieve as an influx of passionless, middle class, "prawn sandwich eating" fans who they blame for ruining the atmosphere at games. Some of these fans seem to take a kind of pride in their stubbornly outdated attitudes...

Obviously London sides will probably have more BME fans just because of the ethnic makeup of the city. Add to that the fact that over the years Chelsea and Arsenal have had more globally recognised BME players like Henry, Drogba, Essien, Mikel, Adebayor, Toure, Gallas, Eboue, Kalou, Song and SWP.

Now that we have the likes of Adebayor and Toure I think we have a better chance of attracting a larger BME fanbase... particularly if we are successful and start playing in the Champions League.

Cambridge Blue - met you so know you are a great guy BUT we do not perfer BME or anything else other than being black and proud :-) People do not get caught up with the PC police because we do not trust them making us the flavour of the month - do what you need to do/say to get though your day job but just be a decent person outside of work and you will be fine, if you make a mistake we will understand.

This is really a funny thread because when City first moved over to COMs I posted on a site that I felt not many of the black fans followed us across town. I based this only that MY friends no longer met up with me before the game because it was too far or maybe I had moved too far south. Well I got so much stick from a bunch of posters calling me racist until someone pointed out that I was a black man from Moss side who still travelled to every home game.

To answer the OP question there is no issues with race at City, no more than you would find in normal life outside the club and very much LESS than we would find at England games - the very reason I never go to England games. All races are welcomed to City games unless you are from the darkside (pun!) and that is reserved for everyone from there.

When I said preferred I was speaking about preferred in government and legal circles... similar to the term african american which is the preferred official term over there. As I understand it the reason these terms have gained currency is that institutions are wary of the term black because they are concerned at being seen to define people according to their most obvious physical characteristic. Ultimately I think it's something we've inherited from the slightly more militant black middle class in America who are against the use of the term black.

What I hope you will agree with is the fact the "people of colour" of "coloured" are outdated, the second one in particular reminds me of Alf Garnett from Till Death Us Do Part and the kind of casual racism frequently seen on TV in the late 70's and much of the 80's.

I certainly do agree with you that City is better than a lot of other teams when it comes to racial harmony and I also think there is a lot of truth in what other posters have been saying about a lot of immigrants to Britain since 92 choosing to follow the sky 4. Let's face it it's not been easy to be a City fan as a kid, whatever your race, over the past 30 years, but hopefully that is changing.

At the end of the day the only TRUE colour is blue :)

 

[Shegelu]

Britain is as racist as it ever was, only the targets have moved on from West Indians to Asians as the political scene has changed. Where once there was a pre-occupation with the "mugger" we now have the threat of International Terror, and it's bound to seep into the collective psyche

It always amazes me how many people can be so blind and insensitive to the world they live in. Just because the crowds don't throw bananas on the pitch any more and shout monkey chants doesn't mean that racism has gone away. It's just changed its form

The Celtic "friendly" was only a couple of months ago, and there was plenty of evidence there of similar attitudes.

That said it's got nothing to do with MCFC, and City fans are no worse than any other set of fans who are totally representative of the society we live in. More dangerous for an group of Asians Youth to walk into a pub on a Saturday night. They might if they are lucky just about get away without incident at COMs.

Britain is one of the most tolerant countries in the world to people of many races. Why do people constantly put our culture and country down. Why not focus a little on the millions of asians, blacks, chinese, Irish, Scots, Poles etc etc who get on perfectly well in the UK.The far right has rarely had significant support. Football is 99.9% free of racism, why make out its not?And racism isnt just a white thing as you seen to imply.

It was the Celtic fans who were racist, not the Blues. I was on a bus to COMS and they were chanting "Terrorists" at Asian people as the bus went past.

 

[Brucie Bonus]

Wow. How ignorant to chant "terrorist" at Laotians and Filipinos and Han Chinese!

 

[Cambridgeblue]

Wow. How ignorant to chant "terrorist" at Laotians and Filipinos and Han Chinese!

BB technically Russians are Asian too as they come from the asian continent... the term is a loose one. In Britain it is used to describe people whose ethnicity originates from places like Pakistan and India (what is often termed the indian subcontinent) as well as those of chinese, thai, philipino etc origin (what is often termed the far east or south east asia). British people with Pakistani or Indian heritage often use the term Asian to describe themselves so I don't think the user you are criticising is wrong to use it.

It is true that in the US the term "Asian" tends to refer to people of chinese, korean, japanese origin ect, but then they tend to use the term middle eastern, indian or arab to describe people from Pakistan, India, Bengal, Sri Lanka etc etc which is arguably more ignorant - especially the term Indian which Pakistanis in particular are likely to find extremely offensive.

 

[Corky]

The OP is correct, the diversity in Manchester is not reflected in the stadium. This is down to several socio-economic and cultural reasons, just the same as some pubs in a black/south asian area being mainly full of white people.