It’s really sad to read Danny Rose’s comments after the abuse all the black players received in Monte negro recently.. Compare his future resignation to what Sterling is up to and there is no comparison.
Obviously every person reacts differently when verbally abused and as a white person, I totally sympathise with black people when any kind of ‘black’ abuse is directed at them. Being ‘trapped’ on a football pitch puts them in a nasty place with no escape from unchecked abuse pouring from the stands.
It’s surprising firstly that this sort of intimidation is still so evident and even more surprising that ground stewards did nothing to instantly eliminate it.
Rose emotions got the better of him on the pitch clearly exhibited by a late challenge on a Monte Negro player that frankly was lucky to escape a red card. Sterling by comparison handled the situation so much better by almost laughing at the abusers after scoring. However, reagardless of the different approach, I totally sympathise with Rose’s reaction.
The reason for my post is to daringly suggest a thought provoking step forward on this subject. Firstly we need to consider and then really understand why black people get so emotional about the noises coming from the stands. So why do the noises hurled at black players upset them ? Don’t misunderstand this because I know they obviously do, but personally I think the whole underlying issue here to help abusers overcome their outdated chants really need to be explored and understood if we want to finally eliminate black abuse in the sports arena.
Troy Townsend has already gained some traction but he needs to go deeper and further into explaining the hurt this abuse gives to players and why. In Eastern Europe there is still a huge ignorance of black people their history, cultures etc that needs to be shared far more and understood to overcome the abuse. If you look at the abusers, to them they find it funny and almost lightly hurl it in my view.
Whereas to most black folk this really is not amusing at all and is very very hurtful. This hurt needs more explanation and more understanding in my view.
The way Sterling is indirectly countering this is hugely admirable. Firstly his massive support of our late junior player and now his free ticket contribution to over 500 school kids at his former school for Wembley.
In my opinion the racist abuse of black players at football has massively reduced in England. Why? Various reasons but largely because most clubs have significant numbers of black players who the fans respect, get to know, admire, understand and then realise that racial abuse at grounds is somewhat passee and not something they are part of anymore. Sterling’s generous actions in my opinion goes a long way to eliminating abuse. Respect and understanding go a long way on this at large.
At Palace where as a club we have literally hundreds of really decent respectable black employees I think it is fair to say black abuse is in the past. Every home game I am always pleasantly surprised at the amazing respect shown to me by our stewards many of whom are black local guys. I always recognise politeness and respect and our chaps are full of it. I feel like they are properly looking after us at matches. I have huge respect for them.
So rounding off as I said already, thought provoking, but surely Sterling’s recent discreet support of Damilow and now his old school is a big step forward in my opinion to help slowly eliminate black abuse at football through respect. And I really hope next week we show him our gratitude and respect from the terraces.

They have to start somewhere. So maybe don’t chuck out everyone but at least the more vociferous. Like here, it will take years but it is a mixture of understanding, education, respect and actions that will reduce it just like it is doing here.

Racist abuse from spectators seems to be in the past at Palace but unfortunately we seem to have a problem with staff as last week the Development Squad coach was fired for racist comments and we have already had a high profile case with Iain Moody that did us no good at all

This is the first I’ve heard of our development coach being sacked for racist comments so I don’t know what he said. Maybe that might be worth knowing, or not.

COYP

Careful what you say, the thought police are out there......it used to be only the Soviet union that ensured no one uttered an unapproved thought.

Not anymore.

Edited by Stirlingsays (08 Apr 2019 4.43pm)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Can't recall a player walking off or a ref stopping the match because of idiots in the crowd.

Some forms of offence are deemed more important than others.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)