Apology accepted and a very eloquent post worthy of the user name.
I’m not sure I’ve said ‘this isn’t serious and let’s sweep it under the carpet’ per se. My point is that it irks me that it is THIS type of thing that tends to bring the big anti-racist guns out. And as a result of the display, everyone pats themselves on the back and says ‘look how big our anti-racism guns are’. And now satisfied that we actually have anti-racist guns, we can all move on with our lives and applaud ourselves for our progressiveness. Like really? This is where we take a stand? Interjecting on two mates language towards each other? So yes, forgive me for having a cynicism towards outrage at ‘trivial racism’.
I would not be surprised to see people in this very thread who have been quick to express abhorrence towards Bentancur’s words display a more indoctrinated position of racism in another thread, probably without even knowing, and obviously without any ‘racist language’. For example, a poster could easily continuously express anger at Pogba dancing or something, and then come in here and chastise me about the indifference to Bentancur’s language. Which is of course a snapshot, but a snapshot of football and society as a whole, and as someone who feels acutely aware of such, I’ve grown to care little about ‘stamping down on racism’ from within institutions that are not even close to addressing the fundamental racist cultures within them by saying ‘you can’t say monkey anymore, it’s racist’.
And yes, you could take my being proud to be Nigerian about identity, but identity alone is sufficient (and a complex paradigm anyway). However, I can honestly say that I would take no offence at all to you asking me ‘where am I from?’ or ‘what’s it like back home?’ etc. And my personal view is that people need to stop taking offence to such. The idea that you are not from the UK is not an offensive one! There are other places outside the UK. And it’s also common sense. I’m black, as far as I am concerned, English people are not black, anymore than Nigerian people are white. This is not America, and the American story is a sad one, yet one British society seems so desperate to emulate in this respect. African Americans are largely there as a product of slavery, and one of the biggest shames of that is that they have been stripped of their identities and ‘American’ is all they identify as. It is a positive thing that the UK is not the same, and there is no ethnic minority in this country really who doesn’t know where they come from, the mass migration was recent enough, and the blacks started coming here from the 60s onwards. I’m in my 30s and my friends are predominantly from the same background as me, and I can say not one of my friend’s parents have an English accent. With the Caribbeans, more likely their grandparents that don’t have an English accent - but none of them have been whitewashed to the extent where they only know themselves to be British. So for me, personally, I actually don’t like to be grouped as no different to a white British man just because I was born here, and never in my 30+ years have I asked another Black Brit what country they are from and they have told me ‘England’. They know exactly what I mean, and the answer to the question is usually the foundation of the connections that we form. So yes, I have no reason being asked where I’m from in England, just as I believe Harry Kane shouldn’t have a problem with being repeatedly asked where he’s from in Nigeria. I think I’ve rarely been asked out of malice, just curiosity, and I’ve always understood why I’ve been asked, and say ‘Nigeria’ with pride. I tend to find that, wherever the person is from, they then share something they know or are fond of about Nigeria and we bond from there.
The above is a micro example, but I do think the sensitivity to anyone being discussed in anything other than their ‘Britishness’ is harmful. Everyone who has a right to be here has a right to be here, but we should be celebrating and learning from the cultures within Britain rather than this constant effort, seemingly in the name of political correctness, to erase it all and say everyone is the same. Everyone IS the same in that we have the same rights as humans and citizens. But we are different in that we look different, having different types of hair, eat different food, have different accents and most importantly, often different stories. I’m a believer in preserving them. I speak to people like myself regularly and we share a sense of disappointment that our children will likely not know our language. Ultimately, the opposite of ‘other’ is the same - and we are far too cosmopolitan a country to identify by nothing beyond our passport.
And back to Bentancur, I can see why it’s considered offensive. And if I’m being totally honest, it’s just western ideals/conditioning IMO that makes people so objectionable to the statement (in my personal opinion). Koreans do resemble each other. A discerning eye can tell the difference between a Korean and a Japanese. Or they may hear someone is Japanese, and say ‘ah, I’d have thought you looked more Korean’. It’s just silly to get all Twitter about it and say ‘are you saying Koreans look the same’. The fact is, nobody has ever assumed that I am Korean! I simply do not look Korean. Many correctly assume I’m Nigerian. Others say I don’t look Nigerian. But not that I don’t look Nigerian in the way Harry Kane doesn’t look Nigerian (even though you can’t say that because technically, anyone can be born in Nigeria so what does a ‘Nigerian’ look like?!).
If we are ready to fight racism, I’ll be the first on the frontline, but I maintain my position that I have little outrage for things like this (personally). If any fight is centred around this sort of thing, then the fight has missed the point completely, and worryingly - seems unaware of the actual enemy it is even fighting! If we want to target these sort of comments as a (small) part of a wider class action suit then fair enough, chuck it in there, otherwise I’m unmoved.