Silva charged by FA

[Rileybobs]

It is supposed to look like Mendy as a child...the pic compared is one of Mendy as a child

I know, the picture of Mendy as a child was posted alongside it. The cartoon image looks nothing like Mendy as a child.

[Winstonswhite]

If it’s so bad then why has John Barnes come out and said that it isn’t racist?

[Rileybobs]

If it’s so bad then why has John Barnes come out and said that it isn’t racist?

If you need John Barnes to tell you whether something is right or not then you need to fix your moral compass.

[Cleveleys_claret]

If it’s so bad then why has John Barnes come out and said that it isn’t racist?

Right....I didnt realise John Barnes was now employed to tell us all what is right and wrong. If a fan had tweeted this they would all be up in arms about it. By they I mean the football community

[Winstonswhite]

I don’t. But I’m saying that there’s a man of colour who is pretty vociferous when it comes to issues of racism and has suffered from racism probably on a daily basis all his life who is saying that on this occasion he doesn’t think it is racist- So is there any need to be condescending and patronising to posters who are inclined to think the same way?

[Cleveleys_claret]

I don’t. But I’m saying that there’s a man of colour who is pretty vociferous when it comes to issues of racism and has suffered from racism probably on a daily basis all his life who is saying that on this occasion he doesn’t think it is racist- So is there any need to be condescending and patronising to posters who are inclined to think the same way?

I wasnt meaning to be patronising. If John Barnes had called it out for racism there is a strong chance he would be alienated in the football community. It is easy to call out a fan/supporter/ twitter user but to accuse a professional footballer is walking a thin line for these pundits. He has erred on the side of caution and protected his position.

Quick question not for you but for everyone....what is the difference between this and Danny Bakers tweet that got him sacked?

[Winstonswhite]

I thought Danny baker tweeted a picture of a chimpanzee and said it was of Meghan Markles baby?

[Imploding Turtle]

Just because the victim of racism is ok with the racism doesn't mean it's not racism. If you mock someone for the colour of their skin then you're being racist. Silva was being racist, publicly, and should receive the penalty of any other racist. Maybe next time when he want's to have a joke "with a friend" then he will actually just have a joke with a friend and not include the rest of us in his racism. If he and Mendy want to make racist jokes in private then so ****? By all means, do racism privately.

[Cleveleys_claret]

I thought Danny baker tweeted a picture of a chimpanzee and said it was of Meghan Markles baby?

Kind of but didnt say it was Meghan Markles baby.......he had been using them pics for years for all sorts of jokes...virtually all non racial.

What I meant was two kids being compared to each other...one as a monkey...one as a stereotypical racist pic of a black kid with big red lips and a big belly (a pic which the creator said is racist)

[Cleveleys_claret]

Just because the victim of racism is ok with the racism doesn't mean it's not racism. If you mock someone for the colour of their skin then you're being racist. Silva was being racist, publicly, and should receive the penalty of any other racist. Maybe next time when he want's to have a joke "with a friend" then he will actually just have a joke with a friend and not include the rest of us in his racism. If he and Mendy want to make racist jokes in private then so ****? By all means, do racism privately.

Have you seen the video IT? to me Mendy looks totally unhappy with it and has to call himself beautiful as if defending himself

[Winstonswhite]

Ones comparing to an animal, a monkey. The other is comparing to a cartoon of a kid whose black with big lips. What’s wrong with being black with big lips??!! I’m white with big ears. It’s not a problem. We’re all gods children!

[aggi]

If it’s so bad then why has John Barnes come out and said that it isn’t racist?

I read an article on this the other day.


Comment: John Barnes asks for society to be educated before we address racism in football, but who is educating him?

By Carl Anka Sep 26, 2019 168

It was as predictable as it was frustrating. Pep Guardiola defended Bernardo Silva and then a rolling news channel rolled out John Barnes…

Barnes makes it harder for me to live my life as a black man — both in the professional sense trying to work in football, and in the personal one, trying to exist in the United Kingdom. His default position of “it’s society’s problem” makes him an easy rent-a-quote for people looking to silence others. Others like me.

“John Barnes was on the news saying it’s not a problem, so what are you complaining about?”

Again and again, Barnes is there, ridiculing the racism that young black men face, blithely dismissing our problems, making appearances so regularly on Sky Sports News you can almost set your watch by them. To see a man who enlivened a generation of black football fans repeatedly silence the voices of another hurts immeasurably.

Barnes is wheeled out to discuss any news that falls under the banner of “racism”. But there is a difference between the racist behaviour exhibited by Peter Beardsley from his position of power at Newcastle United’s academy and Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva, which has largely been directed at a friend in what appears to be an attempt at “banter”.

That’s not to say Silva’s tweet was not racist, or to downplay videos in which he described Benjamin Mendy in a black t-shirt as “not wearing clothes“. But whereas Beardsley was banned from football for 32 weeks for making racist comments that made the workplace feel hazardous to a number of black footballers, City’s current situation involves someone being racially insensitive.

When the champions travel to Everton this weekend, there will be a “No To Racism” banner in the Goodison Park stands dedicated to Moise Kean, who was subjected to racist chants last season while playing for Juventus.

Just think about that when you consider Guardiola’s comments defending Silva.

The City boss cited the “four or five languages” the Portuguese midfielder speaks, and it was uncomfortable — Guardiola’s observations implied that racism is somehow impossible for the learned and erudite.

It is important to understand that education and familiarity are not inoculations against racism. It is not an indiscreet monster that rears itself only in monkey chants and online comments, but an insidious, malleable disease which weaves in and out of people’s thought processes, subtly undermining the lives and rights of those less powerful.

Silva may indeed be “like a brother” to Mendy, but brothers can overstep the line.

It is not up to Guardiola or Silva to decide that “the image is not about the colour of the skin”. Incidents such as these are defined by the interpretation of those on the receiving end, not those who send them. To be very generous to Silva, he has made a very private joke — one that taps into years of racial history — to his friend in the very public space of Twitter.

As such, it would be wise for him to offer a public apology and have a private conversation with Mendy about why he goes to that place when he jokes with him.

But it is especially disheartening to see Barnes, who was immortalised in that image of him kicking away a banana, turn around to a new generation of black football fans and say “get on with it”. How did he assume this position in the public sphere, shaking his head and calling young people’s feelings about racism “ridiculous”?

Like Ian Wright and Thierry Henry at Arsenal or Didier Drogba with Chelsea, Barnes is someone who fans of a particular generation and background point to and say,”He’s the reason I support this side.”

The writer, musician and poet Musa Okwonga said on Twitter earlier this month that it is “common for a lot of the pioneers in their fields — footballers like Roberto Carlos and John Barnes, medics like my relatives — to downplay the racism they received, to treat it as an occupational hazard. But when some of them talk about it, the pain is still there.” Okwonga has also said he has been “disappointed by the lack of empathy for younger black players” shown by the former Liverpool and England forward in recent years.


Musa Okwonga
✔
@Okwonga
· Sep 4, 2019
Replying to @Okwonga
Imagine if Muhammad Ali, like John Barnes, had said that "sport can't educate society, whatever I do in my career has nothing to do with the real world". Imagine those words leaving Ali's mouth.


Musa Okwonga
✔
@Okwonga
Sorry to clog your timelines with this - I just can't understand John Barnes' thinking. He says football can't educate society but his own career is proof that it can. Black people in the UK gained a measure of acceptance in football far earlier than in other parts of UK society.

Barnes’ recent “nothing can be done” diatribes have felt especially egregious — especially one particular segment delivered from his bedroom.

There was something about the sight of Barnes, who could not even get dressed and go to a professional setting to throw salt on the wounds of black footballers, that hit home.

His rush to find a supposed counter-argument is wearing thin, whether it is saying actor Liam Neeson should get a medal, that unemployment levels for black men are a means to dismiss racist tweets towards Paul Pogba, or suggesting Jadon Sancho should go “into the real world and see what real discrimination is about”.

There is a consistent feel of “Well, I had to deal with racism, so you have to as well” to a Barnes quote.

He may talk about society needing education, but his “it’s society’s problem, not just football” does little more than end conversations. It feels like a lazy shrug of the shoulder, a full stop on every race-related story.

“Spot on” is the phrase Barnes fans use when they hear his words.

“Sick of seeing all the drama about this today.”

“Why’s it only ever John Barnes who speaks sense in these situations? Spot on my man”.

“I’ve never been racially abused so I can’t claim to know what it’s like… But a Mercedes SLR, 22 bedroom mansion, page 3 wife and more cash than I can eat would probably take the edge off.”

You get the drift (as if financial capital somehow makes being viewed as a lesser human being a more palatable, almost acceptable experience).

People aren’t looking to learn from Barnes, but instead hear something which soothes their qualms and makes them feel their own behaviour is more acceptable. His work allows those who never seek to understand the cause, function and power of racism to go about their day.

It’s society’s fault, nothing to see here.

He asks for society to be educated before we address racism in football, but who is educating him?