Racism is the New Black in London

The fire surrounding the John Terry racism case smoulders on despite his court acquittal on Friday. It appears likely that Terry will now face the resurrection of the FA investigation into his alleged racially-aggravated verbal assault (or 'normal verbal exchange' as it is viewed by the jocular Chelsea defender), which was suspended when the Ol’ Bill decided to ‘ave a word. 

The Ol' Bill investigating racism yesterday

 

Unlike the courts, the FA are not bound by the need to prove that someone has done something in order to punish them for it, instead being guided by ‘balance of probabilities’, in common with much of America’s foreign policy. But the courts apparently had their hands tied in the Terry case, despite the fact that he essentially  admitted doing it. The magistrate presiding over his case said that Terry’s defence was "certainly under the cold light of forensic examination, unlikely,” but the chief magistrate could apparently not discount the spurious defence that he used the offensive term sarcastically to counter the obscenity he claims Ferdinand was accusing him of using. From this I think we can conclude that racism, as long as it’s verbalised sarcastically is fine. Try it yourself and see if someone gives you a sarcastic smack round the head.

 

John Terry, being a former England captain, captain of Chelsea and all-round good egg, has unsurprisingly inspired other football players to indulge in spot of casual racism. And why not? On Twitter, Rio Ferdinand, regarding Ashley Cole’s courtroom defence of Terry, last night compared Cole to a choc ice, a term frequently used pejoratively implying that someone is black on the outside and white on the inside. Evidently though this was not what Ferdinand meant – he was merely implying that Cole was being a fake. Or something. Still, if it turns out to be true that Cole is an illegitimate frozen foodstuff he’d be well advised to stay away from Lambeth.

In spite of a knee injury Arsenal’s Emmanuel Frimpong has also decided to leap upon the bandwagon when he referred to a Tottenham fan as a ‘Scum Yid’ during yet another Twitter-based battle of wits. (Yid, for those of you who are unaware is a derogatory term for Jewish people; Scum is a derogatory term for people who are scummy) The outburst was a result of the ‘Scum Yid’ in question tweeting his desire for Frimpong to break his arms and legs. It is disappointing that Frimpong felt the need to resort to racist abuse in order to respond to a mindless jibe, and equally disappointing that his choice of racist insult, while only consisting of two words, was so grammatically clumsy. 

Moreover, it is not just sportsmen that are involving themselves in the recent spate of prejudice against minorities. Shockingly, it has been revealed that even within the Metropolitan Police there are elements of racism. 

The Ol' Bill indulging in racist 'banter' yesterday

 

Astonishingly, a recent report suggests that racism within the Met is rife and on the increase. The number of internal complaints has almost trebled in the last five years. Racist police officers? I’ve heard it all now.

This could cause problems as large numbers of officers are drafted in to police the Olympics. It is to be hoped that during these additional duties they do not come into contact with any foreigners. But if members of the Met do succumb to the temptation to racially abuse visitors I trust that it will be done sarcastically.