Re: FAO: Fans that went to pompey RE: Adebayor chant
I don't believe everyone singing this song is racist, but I am completely fed up with it.
Variation of penis size across race has been established statistically. This stereotype does not amount to a 'myth', and can be verified, albeit it anecdotally, by anyone who has spent a reasonable amount of time on certain parts of the internet. The size of a man's penis has cultural significance for the individual, associated with masculinity and self-esteem. The song has exactly the rough, broad, humour of the type always favoured by football crowds. There is something witty about taking a unambiguously racist song targeted at an individual and turning it into something else. Cannibalisation and subversion of rival fans songs and chants is another element that appeals.
The problem with this song is that some of the people singing it will find the humour and appeal in the 'animalisation' of a black man, and some of the listeners will never hear be able to understand it any differently.
Personally I don't find it offensive, but I think it's the opportunity for different interpretation that is troublesome.
'Racism' is not an issue that attracts subtle interpretation or argument. How many people do you think consider the difference between 'association of a or traits with a race' and 'the belief that some races are superior to others'? stating that 'men of central/south asian ethnicity experience higher rates of heart disease' comes under the first definition. it is the second definition that leads to the horrors of racially motivated crime, state-sponsored discrimination, segregation, victimisation, genocide.
If you sing this song, you are blurring the boundaries between earthy humour and outright bigotry, and unwittingly giving the true racists affirmation that racism in a city shirt is acceptable and normal.
What impression do you really think others have of you when you sing it?
