Apologies for the delay redlamb. Re the bolded. An important point missed here in the expected and predictable melee is that I called the thread in question as being full of casual racism. This was denied vehemently by a majority of posters, again not unexpectedly, whilst simultaneously showing a lack of understanding of the nature of casual racism as a form of racism itself. At no point have I called anyone a racist. They may be, they may not, I don't know this but what I have highlighted is, in my opinion, a high level of casual racism in that thread and also in matchday threads and in Lukaku's player performance thread. I've pointed out upthread how casual racism can manifest itself and how it can often be unintended or not meant as opposed to more overt racism. I also stated that we can all be guilty of it. I also stated early on that we can all be theoretically described as lazy irrespective of colour. This goes without saying.
There has been a "lazy black player" stereotype in football and as an older fan remember it well from the 70s onwards hence my reference to how far we have moved on since then. One of our former managers has been ostracised from the game for these very views. Is it as prevalent now? That was the question raised for me by the unending accusations of laziness directed at one player in particular. He may be lazy, he may not, but it is the insistent and consistent levelling of this particular accusation that resonated. It partly resonates because it comes in partnership with several other repeated accusations. One is that Lukaku is dumb, another is that he is fat, and another in that particular thread is that he is lying and untrustworthy. The repeated use of the "dumb" word is problematic for me also as for decades black people have been described as being dumb with the n-word attached as a chaser. Ir seems to me we've largely outlawed the n-word but a lot of the sentiment remains. Throughout that thread it's suggested that Lukaku's supposed dumbness has played it's part in him getting fat. His laziness also is implied as being a factor. So he's dumb, and he's lazy, he's fat and then according to multiple posters he's making excuses ie lying. In summary a thread on a Manchester United player develops over pages of what I interpret as casual racism to paint a picture that is, almost to a tee, a present day example of the Coon Caricature posted by
@villain upthread (a good read) A black man employed for his physical prowess consistently described as dumb, fat, lazy, and untrustworthy because he is not performing to expectation.
So I should perhaps have titled the thread "Black player stereotypes" because the casual racism is much wider than mass and consistent accusations of laziness and there's the mob/pack dynamic to it. And the reason I spoke out was because, as this casual racism proceeded unchallenged, the inevitable happened. We got the black man is a gorilla post. Possibly still casual but so outrageous in 2018 that it would be difficult to not classify that as overt and intended and that's the end product of unchallenged, repeated casual racism.
I thought the talksport host was spot on. I'd not seen/heard that but he'd echo my views re the importance of the words we use, why we are using them and in what context. .
I find casual racism is rife on this board. It runs like a vein through the recent Raheem Sterling thread and is never far away from any thread, football or non football related, that touches on BAME players, people and culture. This thread is another example. It's a reflection of what I sense is the prevailing demographic on this board and the fury you get when you poke your head over the parapet and point out the issue isn't enough of a reason to keep silent and let it go. A baying mob decrying that this is an "attack on free speech" by an "extreme left winger"
, "deflecting from real racism", "stirring" etc etc. It's probably just a small taste of what it's like to be black in a white man's world but then a lot of white folk have always got very upset when they get told how they should speak about black people.
We still have bananas being thrown at black players.