The rediculous face of racism

Am I alone in thinking this? I was absolutely stunned at the attention given to the recent John Terry/Anton Ferdinand case! I would be the first to agree that racist chants & monkey jibes are not in the least acceptable but I do feel that calling someone a rude name & including the persons colour is hardly a crime! For a little bit of angry banter, unheard by all but a few, to be investigated by Scotland Yard, no less, studied by the Crown Prosecution Service & then go to trial seems to be to be mad!


Since when has referring to somebody by his colour become offensive, & why? Why is abbrieviating someones nationality racist? There is a Black Police Association, which identifies police by their colour which is not cosidered offensive, so if you think someone who has upset you is a b*****d or whatever, why should adding his colour turn it racist? I don't mind being identified as white or as a "Brit". Both are true.


And why should a little one-on-one name calling end up costing the taxpayer thousands & occupy so much of the medias time?


As a child I was taught " sticks & stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me". Society needs to be less precious about name calling & concentrate on racist violence.

John Terry is apparently a "sporting hero" though goodness knows why. He's always seemed a rather unpleasant young man to me. His behaviour is therefore likely to be imitated by his adoring fans. He therefore should not go round calling his fellow players what he did call one particular one. What he did on the football field would very likely have got him arrested on the street. The sooner the referee is miked up the sooner this sort of "banter", which it most certainly is not, will be curbed as the TV companies won't wish to offend by inadvertently introducing such bad language into the family living room.

Just noticed my spelling mistake! RIDiculous of course.

I think that if I earned, or was paid up to £500,000 PER WEEK (Lionel Messi) I would be able to put up with a little name calling.

You have to remember that these guys are only footballers who provide no real useful function in life so have to justify their wages by some media attention a couple of times a year. In the good old days they would have told by their trainers to go out the back and sort it, oh no that was rugby my mistake.

I think the point with this one is that footballers set an example to the public. Eh, what? But as public figures they are supposed to be exemplary and not go around calling each other things that 'fans' might repeat. For all of that, the reporting has become overblown and why on earth are they repeating what was said because that puts those same words into the public domain? That it is being investigated at such a high level is ridiculous and do tax payers cough up for that? The local copper would have been enough, at worst go up in front of the local magistrate and done with. This is simply expensive public theatre.