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The Y word

Daisuk

Daisuk

Dimitar Berbatov
https://twitter.com/x/status/1206688854402576384

So, what do you say? If it's really a word considered racist, shouldn't we stop using it?

I only associate the word with Spurs and togetherness, but if a lot of people really find the use of it uncomfortable and even deem it racist, shouldn't we move away from using it? Imagine a crowd of white people shouting n-word army, for instance. Jebus.
 
Daisuk said:
Ah, hadn't seen that. Cheers. :)
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Got a mail a couple of days ago, was surprised it hasn’t been posted earlier. I honestly don’t know where to go with it now, I certainly don’t want to offend anyone but if a zero tolerance on its use at football comes in, then it needs to be matched with by the zero tolerance of the intentionally anti Semitic chants from other teams with the same vigour.
 
nayimfromthehalfwayline said:
Ive always been inclined to think offence should be intended, not sought.

If 60k Spurs fans are singing Yid in unison and solidarity, there really is nothing to be offended about, IMO.

Tone and context really is important, but more and more is not even considered.
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This is clearly a complex matter, but instinctively I very much agree with you. The taking of offence, whether intended or not seems to be on a steady increase in wider society, therefore I am not surprised by the direction that this specific issue appears to be taking.
 
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Interesting that the club make the point that usage of the word in chanting appears to drop with age.

I'd have thought that chanting at football full stop is something that would tend to decline with age, so I'm not sure how much they should be reading into that?
 
nayimfromthehalfwayline said:
Ive always been inclined to think offence should be intended, not sought.

If 60k Spurs fans are singing Yid in unison and solidarity, there really is nothing to be offended about, IMO.

Tone and context really is important, but more and more is not even considered.
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That was always my view -- if 35k fans (now 60k) are chanting YIDDO! YIDDO! at a new player who's just scored a screamer, surely that's fine.

But the survey highlights that a good portion of those fans either aren't chanting at all, or are choosing not to join in with the Yid/Yiddo chants.

Taking some numbers from the article, over 23,000 fans responded, the vast majority of whom attend NWHL regularly.

11% are Jewish (2530 people), and 35% of them consider the term to be offensive -- that's not far off 900 people. 900 fans. 900 Yids.

Overall, 18% do not chant Yid because they consider the term offensive -- that's 4140 people. Scaling up to stadium capacity, that's about 10,000 people in the ground.

As with anything like this, I'd like to see how the questions were worded, but it all seems statistically significant. Kudos to the club for handling this in the way that they seem to be. It hopefully points towards discouragement rather than heavy-handedness.

Sometimes you have to admit that perhaps you're wrong and times have changed. Unfortunately I've only made it to a handful of matches, mostly away games in the northwest, but I'll have to think twice next time about chanting something that I now know makes thousands of fellow Spurs fans uncomfortable.
 
My comment comes from a more general place, than specific.

I think in years past a degree of sense was applied to situations, and people reacted accordingly.

These days? Everything is offensive. Unintended, incidental, clearly meant in another way... I AM OFFENDED!!!

In this instance it just strikes me as frankly odd that someone could see literal support and find offence in it.

Though Im not Jewish, nor of a minority background, so hold my hands up to potential ignorance on my part.

Even so, Im old enough to think of "the old days", and see the difference. As much as things have changed over the years, its not always progress.
 
Jordinho said:
Thought that survey was really poorly done. It was so obvious what sort of answers they wanted.
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I think the survey is clever from a club perspective. They highlight fan scepticism, consider the historical perspective and vaguely point to a future without yid chants without really taking a stance on the subject. Also, of course, they point their finger in the direction of other clubs, making it a broader issue about anti semittism, not only about Spurs fans.

This way the club can point to the survey and say "look - we take this seriously", without alienating their own fans like they would've if they had for instance tried to ban the use of the word. And at the same time they have brought the topic up for debate, perhaps making it likely that fans would be more reluctant to use the word - thus the problem could solve itself.
 
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