This was a difficult week for a lot of us; I spent much of it aghast at the reaction of a section of our support to the suggestion – Jermaine Defoe’s suggestion – that the players of every club take a knee for the Black Lives Matter campaign.
It does not matter to me that it was a minority of our fan-base which shamed itself.
Even one of those people is one too many.
Over in Sevconia, the response has been almost volcanic.
Honestly, it has to be seen to be believed, and not just on the toilet floors of the forums, where they can lock threads behind Members Only protection to save some of the embarrassment; look at Twitter for a sterling example of how many of their supporters live in the gutter … it is something to see alright.
There are elements of this which actually seem to have little to do with casual racism – although that’s definitely there as well, and you don’t have to dig too deep for it. In fact, it appears to be more about how Black Lives Matter is “a lefty cause” and something promoted by the Scottish Government – a quite bizarre assertion but an instructive one.
Added to this, there is general fury that Defoe has sided with a campaign which is supported by The Green Brigade; this makes me wish more Sevco players jumped into politics because it was be so easy to separate them from their support at a time like this.
I said in the article I wrote on this matter that Celtic fans should be wholeheartedly behind this campaign, for reasons I laid out in some detail.
The discrimination black Americans suffer has a lot in common with that which the Irish have suffered right here in Britain (and back in the day, in the south and places like that in the US, the No Black signs had No Irish ones right beside them, in case you needed further examples of the similarities) all the way up to the killing of Irish citizens by thugs in uniforms and backed up by the state.
But I knew too how Defoe’s comments would go down in Sevconia, and so this venomous response over there has not been in the least bit unexpected.
But for that handful of utter morons in our support who refused to endorse the suggestion because it came from one of the Ibrox players as well as those who plainly hold views which in my opinion are utterly incompatible with our club, the contrast would be absolutely devastating.
Indeed, I think it is anyway.
Sevco has always had a problem with sectarianism; we all know this to be true.
But I think this growing trend towards the dark pools of neo-fascist politics is a far bigger problem for them.
Sectarianism doesn’t get much play here in Scotland by the media which has long ignored it and anti-Irish racism is such a peculiar thing that most of the outside world isn’t watching for … but obvious linkage between their club and the swelling far-right is deadly.
It is a matter of time before that shameful linkage causes them trouble of the worst kind.
They have been warned. Repeatedly. And it is not getting through at all.
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