Kris wrote:'Jock', 'Paddy' etc are terms that people from Scotland and Ireland respectively are happy to call themselves as nicknames because I daresay they probably invented the terms themselves (though feel free to correct me on that!).
It's all a question of context. In Ireland, if we speak of "Paddies," it is often in a self-mocking sense. For example, I might claim that some Irish guy behaving badly abroad was "Paddy the pig." So, even in Ireland, the term "Paddy" is mildly derogatory, if not offensive. However, if I was living abroad, like in the UK for example, I would not feel too comfortable being labelled a "Paddy" by strangers. Again, it's a question of context. Minorities will always be more sensitive to slightly derogatory terms - even if they are often meant in a gentle or playful sense. This has to do with history and a sense of wariness of being "under the thumb." If English friends called me Paddy, it would almost certainly be in a playful, affectionate sense. After all, I've always found English people the nicest in the world in many ways, and am well aware that they often consider us Irish as their slightly eccentric, mad cousins.
Similarly, a British guy living in Ireland might feel a pang of discomfort if his Irish neighbours referred to him as "the Brit." It's all about being a minority and feeling vulnerable in some small way, and these terms make people feel like outsiders. They may already be outsiders, and terms like this reinforce a feeling of exclusion. Whether individuals feel uncomfortable or not is irrelevant, really. People should be aware that calling somebody a "Brit" or a "Paddy" or whatever in the wrong context is POTENTIALLY, if not necessarilly discomfiting. It's a question of manners really. None of us knows what is going on in another's head, so to hear somebody like Ron Atkinson refer to Marcel Desailly as a "nigger" is disconcerting as it suggests the possibility that Atkinson is a bigot. It doesn't mean he is, but it certainly puts doubts in other people's minds. Using that term is basically ignorant and potentially racist. If that was the first term that came into his mind when he saw Desailly, then it is damning. However, I imagine he used it more in a convenient sense, rather than in a malicious sense, as his vocabularly is not particularly extensive. That may be patronising, but I think it is his only defence, really.
Like I said, I think the man is simply a victim of his own ignorance. He is of a certain background, somewhat vulgar and charismatic in turns, and obviously uneducated. I feel some sympathy for him, to be honest, as I think he's just had his limitations exposed. But there can't really be toleration for this kind of thing as it would send out the wrong signal to the real racists in society, and sadly football reflects society in this manner in having a similar proportion among its ranks.
It should also be said that there are degrees of racism related to history and oppression. Some peoples are still somehow oppressed, and labelling them will always be more offensive. For example, calling somebody a "chink" in the West when referring to an Asian person would be far more offensive than calling somebody a "Paddy." It's to do with success in a society really. An Asian is likely to feel far more vulnerable in the UK than any Irishman ever would, as the Irish are completely integrated and largely successful in the UK, whereas many Asians are not for whatever reasons. Calling a German a "Nazi" in the UK would be HUGELY offensive, for example, and rightly so. Nobody could claim the Germans weren't ultra successful, but it is the history angle here that would cause the offence. Germans are often appalled (with good reason) at UK tabloids, for example. It's all just a question of good manners, really.
Then there is the sort of casual, insidious racism that is somehow tolerated unnoticed in society. I find it shameful, for example, that a British Union Jack flag never seems to fly outside Irish hotels when flags of God knows how many other countries that have very distant relationships with us do so proudly. To me, this kind of thing is a sign of inferiority in a minority of people in a country. I'm ashamed to say a hotel flying the Union Jack is likely to have the flag burned by a small minority of murderous fascists, if not the hotel with it. THAT is racism.
Drico.
The pale kid that hides in the attic behind his PC...
