I'm sure that's going to make everyone on here 20% happier.

How long before the question is asked "Why have only x% of black/ethnic minority managers/coaches who have been interviewed have got the jobs they applied for ?

I pose this against the backdrop of stating that I would certainly appoint a black/ethnic minority person as manager/coach if I thought that person was the best qualified for the job.I would have NO qualms whatsoever.To me a person's skin colour or ethnicity is not important at all, it is the person within that matters.I have black and asian acquaintances who are the pillars of society and we have laughs as part of light-hearted raillery.

I think Willo is giving his view and it is on Topic.

If he Wikigoogled it and pretended it was his knowledge fair enough. On this occasion it does seem valid - No?

Originally posted by Willo

"How long before the question is asked "Why have only x% of black/ethnic minority managers/coaches who have been interviewed have got the jobs they applied for?"

"I pose this against the backdrop of stating that I would certainly appoint a black/ethnic minority person as manager/coach if I thought that person was the best qualified for the job.I would have NO qualms whatsoever.To me a person's skin colour or ethnicity is not important at all, it is the person within that matters.I have black and asian acquaintances who are the pillars of society and we have laughs as part of light-hearted raillery."

Originally posted by gambler

"Why do you feel the need to state all of this?" (emphsis added)

"And why do you feel the need to state that your black and asian acquaintances are "the pillars of society"? Why wouldn't they be?"

The fact that he does feel the need indicates that many in both of our countries still have "defensive" feelings about racial issues, as if we whites must always prove that we are not racist. In this age of Trump, "the least racist person you'll ever meet" (his words, not mine), we have taken several steps back as a society. We are still a long way off from Dr. King's dream of looking at people "not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character." Those words were spoken when I was 5 years old. I'm 60 now and not much has really changed. We as a society still talk about percentages and quantity, not achievement and quality.

Ron Noades was accused of being racist for comments he made on the TV programme "Great Britain United" in 1991. At the time it was claimed that his comments were not edited. I know they were because when they portrayed a comment of his that black players didn't have the necessary requirements to be managers he was really talking about all players. He felt the player of that era didn't do things like attend matches to scout other clubs and players, among other things. All players, not just black or white or any others. Since I stewarded reserve matches, I know that three Palace players did. They were Gary Thompson, Rudi Hedman and Alan Pardew. The fact that he was talking about all players was left on the cutting room floor. How doI know he was referring to all players? He said the very same thing to me and others in a conversation several months earlier in the Club Shop. Our society desperately needs a serious and mature conversation about race. Had Dr. King lived that conversation could have taken place. Since his death, society has returned to finger pointing and gotcha moments.

When a President of the United States can get away with calling white supremacists, never mind any kind of supremacist, "good people," this son of a Holocaust survivor goes off My family has seen the results of white supremacy, both in the USA and Germany. Sports can be a positive force for social change. Crystal Palace is living proof of that. But we as a society must be willing to embrace that change not just based on the visual level but take that change to the holistic level. The reason why Willo wrote what he did was because, in my view, he felt that if he didn't he would be viewed as racist. We as a society must change that. Cosmetics, like the Rooney rule which was a good start by the NFL back in the day, is not an end. It isn't even the beginning of the end. It may be the end of the beginning. (It never hurts to paraphrase Winston Churchill).

Edited by kenbarr (23 Jan 2018 4.11pm)

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