Liverpool legend John Barnes has shown some support for beleaguered Chelsea captain John Terry, arguing that even if he is proved to have said what video images seem to confirm he said (to Anton Ferdidand), it does not necessarily mean he's racist.
Barnes, who regularly suffered abuse as a player in his early days at Liverpool, said:
"There are two issues. There is a racist comment and there's [the question], is John Terry a racist?
"I do not believe John Terry is a racist. He could have made that comment but I don’t believe that making that comment necessarily makes you a racist.”
Do you agree?
Jaimie Kanwar
Barnes, who regularly suffered abuse as a player in his early days at Liverpool, said:
"There are two issues. There is a racist comment and there's [the question], is John Terry a racist?
"I do not believe John Terry is a racist. He could have made that comment but I don’t believe that making that comment necessarily makes you a racist.”
Do you agree?
Jaimie Kanwar
The comment system was playing up earlier, and as a result, the comments on this post were unfortunately lost :-( Sorry about that. JK
ReplyDeleteGreat of Digger to come out with this. I am black & in the heat of things on the pitch (play semi pro), things sometimes are said which is just pure adrenalin.
ReplyDeleteI obviously don't condone such language, but the big question is "does it make him (JT) a racist'??
I honestly have said things during a game that you wouldn't ever hear me whisper on the norm.
The man has already proved he can't control himself. If guilty He is defenceless. If this happened in my place of work the perp would be sacked. We've come a long way in our society in the past 40 years, so don't let this man put us all back by accepting it may have been anything other than what it was.
ReplyDeletewell said kid.
ReplyDeleteI agree. As deplorable as the comments are, I feel that a degree of common sense is needed here. I personally doubt that John Terry has the intelligence to comprehend a lot of things, and understanding the greater implications of espousing the grander facets of race-hate would be something that I imagine goes far beyond his training as a 'kick the ball, head the ball' centre-half.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm saying is, there's probably nothing more in his comments than ignorant bravado, so the various ethnic groups throughout the greater London area shouldn't have too much to worry about should these allegations be true.
If they ARE true however, he shouldn't be allowed near the England armband. Surely to Christ this is the last straw for him.
not many people like john terry thats the problem.
ReplyDeletenot at all saying its alright if there is concrete proof.
fair play to sir mylesk
Thats not the question asked. The question is is JT racist. Im as black as they come, born and bred in Ghana till i shifted to Singapore but some of the shit i have heard towards me is way worse that the video replay showed.
ReplyDeleteIts the heat of the moment issue, thats what it is. Should JT be punished, YES, but does that make him racist, NO.
Agreed Felderick! Terry strikes me more as a thoughtless, foulmouthed idiot who likes to use the most offensive epithet his limited brain can conjure up at the time. However whether he is racist or not is irrelevant; his actions are the issue of contention. As you correctly opine in your final paragraph, if JT is found to be guilty of stating the alleged phrase in an offensive manner, he should be stripped of the armband, irrespective of assertions that he is racist or not.
ReplyDeleteMost definately. Barnes would call a spade a spade and John Terry is a racist, no doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder when Terry is wearing the England shirt there is no issue of racism , only at club level.
ReplyDeleteWell said, John Barnes
ReplyDeletethe bit about this that people really struggle to come to terms with is he allegedly said "BLACK c***", so I guess if he just called Anton a c**** then that would be ok, however before condemning the man we need to understand what racism is, so,,using the dictionary for a moment here racism means
ReplyDelete1. the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others
2. abusive or aggressive behaviour towards members of another race on the basis of such a beliefAs we can see, Terry's comments clearly satisfy point 2, however I really do not think he believes in point 1. So in summary, is Terry an ignorant, loud mouthed and utter gob shite, then the answer is a clear YES, but a racist, I don't think so.
In the heat of a disagreement you could call someone a fat c@£t, lank c@&t etc. Does that mean you hate people that are fat or tall? Not really. I don't believe he's a racist or I'm pretty sure that his teammates would have picked up in it a while back. I'm ex forces an have met a couple of racists who wouldn't shower or share rooms with black people as they where racist scum. I think he's came out witha stupid racist comment Rhys shown how his level of intelligence. Remember Ron Atkinsons comments? Very racist, but I don't believe he was racist too.
ReplyDelete