I have campaigned on here and on other sites for this foul practice to end and was moved to complain to Chelsea FC when a steward completely ignored disgusting anti Semitic abuse directed at Ben Thatcher - not because he is a Jew but because he used to play for Spurs (he was wearing Man City colours at the time). Now, given Thatcher was a footballing thug, I had no issue with him being targeted from the terraces, but the abuse was all centred around his Tottenham connections and was all anti Semitic and racist in nature. At the time, "Kick It Out" slogans were displayed all around the ground and there were clear warnings that racism would lead to expulsion and arrest.
Now, at long last, the Kick It Out organisation have taken up the cudgel and our old friend Frank Lampard is fronting the campaign. The ex Hammer said, "For some reason some fans still shout the Y-word," in the new Kick It Out video message being sent to clubs. "Some might think it's just a bit of a laugh, but racist chanting is against the law. It's against the law to call someone the Y-word on the street."
Donna Cullen, the Tottenham executive director has attempted to defend Tottenham fans chanting Yid Army but is on a dodgy wicket. The club should take the lead by banning the chant amongst its own fans so an excuse is not given to rivals. "The Y-Word" video fronting the campaign features an internet clip of fans hissing, "Spurs are on their way to Auschwitz ... Hitler's going to gas them again" and Cullen said, "It is unthinkable and wholly unacceptable that in this day and age supporters are subjected to anti-Semitic abuse such as hissing to imitate the gas chambers used during the Holocaust."
She is right, but with Israeli soldiers killing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, you have to wonder at the wisdom of a "Yid Army" chant in the first place.
The easy way to put this into context is to ask what would happen if a team's fans were to take up a chant of "Nigger Army" (because they had an all black team perhaps) and if rival fans responded with monkey and Ku Klux Klan chants. There would a public outcry immediately.
Well done to Kick It Out for acting on this at long last. But why did it take so long?
Seriously, u have too much time on your hands. Go out, get a hobby, take up gardening perhaps? There's much worse in the world.
ReplyDeletejermain defoe Weirdo now
ReplyDeleteNice idea, the problem being that it is acceptable to be called a yid in the street in full view of plod happens at every away game or in a bar if we go one nil down(yiddo yiddo what's the score)personally I would ban the Spurs on their to Belsen type chants and leave it at that. the rest of it smacks of political correctness as opposed to tackling racism. Apart from anything else Jewish people often refer to themselves as yids or restaurants like Blooms as Yiddish whereas black people do not usually refer to themselves as the N word.
ReplyDeleteIt's a tricky issue, but I think you are letting your West Ham anti-Spurs bias influence you. The anti-Spurs hate came first, long before some of our supporters adopted the term; you can't blame Spurs fans for the racist behaviour of others such as your own cheeky cockneys.
ReplyDeleteIf you know your history you will know that Spurs have traditionally had a wide cultural fan base, and being in North London (where we belong ... separate debate!), have for many years had a lot of Jewish fans. Some of the less enlightened supporters of clubs such as Chelski and your own seized on this and started abusing Spurs in anti-Semitic terms (mainly the Y-word). All this came before Spurs adopted the term for themselves, which our supporters did mainly as a gesture of solidarity.
So now, if your fans insult ours by using the Y-word, it has less force. The disgusting hissing and Belsen chants are another matter entirely.
A lot of this spurious uproar, it seems to me, involves lumping in the recipients with the perpetrators. Not every chant involving the Y -word means the same. You won't hear many anti-Semitic chants from Spurs supporters; not in comparison with West Ham or Chelski. I would be interested to know what Abramovic and your Jewish owners make of their respective supporters' behaviour.
Your hypothetical comparison with the arguably more offensive N word is also spurious, in terms of how you have posed it, and also the origin of the two words.
The N word has its roots in the era of slavery; it was coined by white people as a highly derogatory term to describe those who had been stolen for profit from Africa. As such it has always been racist and offensive, although some rappers and the like have reclaimed it. The Y word is probably a shortening of Yiddish: a Jewish language, in other words it actually came from Jewish people themselves, was appropriated by racists as an insult, and has now been taken back by Spurs fans.
The only way a set of fans would describe themselves with the N word would be if, for the sake of argument, the fans of a major club in Brixton, with a significant proportion of black fans, suffered abuse from other fans, and adopted the term for themselves in retaliation. I may hate the word, but I would not question their right to use it.
I agree with most of what you say being Jewish myself and like most of my Jewish friends being a lief-long Hammers fan.
ReplyDeleteDon't quite see the connection with Israelis and Palistinians though
Racists make me sick. I'd find it very difficult to physically hurt another human being, but along with men that beat women, I'd happily give a racist a good kicking :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe kick it out took so long because it was a term so widely accepted by spurs' own fans. Although we're not privy to what kick it out have been doing behind the scenes of course.
You are right that the spurs fans that use the 'Yid army' phrase are not helping themselves. They're only inviting a certain kind of response from morons who need no excuse at the best of times.
1316, with respect you hit the nail on the head by not seeing the connection. The Israeli army, under instruction from the Israeli government, have caused a good deal of antipathy towards Jews. In the context of the ongoing troubles, I don't think "Yid Army" is a very clever chant even leaving aside the vitriolic anti semitism it provokes from rival fans. Let's just leave "race" outside of football altogether should be the position.
ReplyDeleteI hate to be pedantic, but in your penultimate para...the term is Ku and not 'Klu' in Klux Klan...from the Greek for circle...as in, 'Circle of Brothers'...which is how the name was derived.
ReplyDeleteHissing is bad yes, aushwitz chants are bad yes, but yid! come on! it means jew nothing else just jew! HOW IS THAT OFFENSIVE? Ridiculous. You won't stop me from calling them yids
ReplyDeleteOops thanks Pedant! Corrected!
ReplyDeleteTommy, you really should think before you display crass ignorance. For your information:
The word Yid ( /ˈjiːd/; Yiddish: ייִד ) is a slang Jewish ethnonym. Its usage may be controversial in modern English language. It is not usually considered offensive when pronounced /ˈjiːd/ (rhyming with deed), the way Yiddish-speakers say it, though some may deem the word offensive regardless. When pronounced /ˈjɪd/ (rhyming with did), it can generally be perceived as a pejorative — and is used as a derogatory epithet by antisemites.
The above is copied and pasted. You can add to that:
The name was first given to the supporters of Tottenham Hotspurs as an insult, due to the large Jewish following at the club which is based close to the Jewish communities of North London.
Hopefully, if you use the term in future inside Upton Park it will lead to your ejection and arrest. You might then show more respect to your fellow human beings and, in particular, the survivors and relatives of victims of the Holocaust.
BNP RULES!!!
ReplyDeleteBNP rules? The First Rule of BNP is "If you have a brain you can't join". The Second Rule of BNP is "If you can sign your own name, you can't join." The Third Rule of BNP is "If you can learn how to make a mark in the form of a cross" you can join the policy making committee. The Fourth Rule of BNP is if you can count up to four, you're probably too intelligent to join.
ReplyDeleteLol
ReplyDeleteDid you see Russell Howard's piece on the EDL the other day HF?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFfQiXLOON0&sns=em
I have a jewish friend who I spent years at school with who is a tottenham fan and his nickname is danny the yid. Is he offended by it? no way! And are the jews offended by it? No. Are tottenham fans offended by it? no. Is anybody else offended by it? no. I'm all for "kicking racism out of football" but this is NOT racist. Explain how yid is racist.... No one makes a fuss about this except you.
ReplyDeleteNew York Gangsta types called each other "nigger". Try going into Harlem and hailing one of them with the word yourself and see what happens! The older generation strongly object to the young using that word nigger because they understand what it means. If ONE person is offended, why use the word? And I can assure you that many Jewish people are offended by it. And if it stimulates the hissing, how hideous is it? Why is it so important to you? In the 1970s, West Ham fans threw bananas at Clyde Best and argued it was a joke. I well remember "wags" saying Clyde had "tripped over his spear" when he went to ground. We have moved on. Now let's move on from the antiSemitic use of Yiddo!
ReplyDeletei love the BNP
ReplyDeleteHF you c-ck sucker, no matter how much you slag off the BNP we will always be around, we will always be around forever because of millions of people like me voting for them. like it or not, we ain't going nowhere. god it makes me so proud to vote for them. BNP forever.
ReplyDeleteOy Vey
ReplyDeleteDeane, you're back! I was beginning to think that McBenni had eaten you! How many goals did you forecast he would contribute this season? 5-8 wasn't it? That was the number of burgers eaten at the average sitting!
ReplyDeleteAs for 0009 and 0026, we have two BNP supporters who cannot use capital letters! Says it all really guys - if in fact it is two of you rather than one moron typing two replies. Millions of you? Yep, maybe 2 million in an electorate of 56 million. Not a problem really when you think about it! There's probably more Asians in Birmingham than BNP voters in the whole of Britain! I bet that rankles!
I'm offended when you claim to be a West Ham fan, so why use the F word?
ReplyDelete