Earlier on, I posted a piece on Sevco’s response to the Black Lives Matter campaign; imagine my surprise at seeing a social media storm break over a speech at one of today’s rallies in support of that campaign from across the water.
The speaker was Richard MacDonald, and he is prominent amongst the Sevco fans because he was one of the featured “stories” in their Everyone Anyone campaign. He is a mixed race supporter, and has previously said that he is pleased to take a stand against racism because of his sons.
It was a message he was at pains to send out today.
He spoke at the rally with great emotion, and his words were highlighted by the Scottish editor of the Morning Star; the ones that have caused such controversy are these;
“Right now I can’t breathe with emotion here today for the support … Rangers as an institution needs to change, but I am here to see it change.”
Niall got the guy’s name wrong, and he wasn’t a founder of the campaign at all … but he got the quote right and there is not a soul who could realistically disagree with it.
As a high profile Ibrox supporter and one who has been prominently featured by the club, MacDonald is a voice that people should take seriously.
He knows that the club still has issues, major ones.
They may have little to do with race – I would suggest that there’s a problem there too – but they are just as bad for the club itself and society as a whole.
This is a guy they should be tuned in to.
His words should have inspired legions of their supporters to start fighting for the soul of their club; he seems determined to and I cannot but wish him well and nor should anybody else. But of course, the general response on social media has not been like that at all. At first they wondered if he worked for the club, and there the call was to sack him. Now that they realise he doesn’t they want him marginalised and silenced instead.
The response from the more vocal sections of their fan-base is spitting fury.
Niall himself recognised this, and pointed it out.
It is not difficult to imagine what Vanguard Scum will say about him, an ethnic supporter who has supported Black Lives Matter and who told a public audience their club still has work to do.
He will be lucky not to find himself on the next iteration of their notorious “enemies list.”
If he gets on there he should take it as a compliment, and so many of those who’ve made it before do. It means he’s doing something right.
When I posted the last article, I lamented that the club itself is stuck with these Peepul because it will not do enough to tackle them.
One of those featured in its Everyone Anyone campaign agrees with that view wholeheartedly, and just said so.
Now the club has a great opportunity to prove wrong all of us say that the Everyone Anyone campaign is window dressing.
MacDonald has spoken. He is being roundly slammed for doing so.
The club can take his side or it can take the side of those who are calling him all the names under the sun tonight. What it cannot do is maintain a gutless, cowards silence. If there was ever a time for showing the world who’s side they’re really on, this is it.
This guy is speaking up for the sake of his kids.
Is Sevco really going to let him do so in isolation?
Or is it going to keep pandering to the bigots and goons?
I think we can guess.
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