A terrible day
What follows is an account of the events that
took place during our game at Carlisle last season
After a terrible journey I arrived at the ground
slightly late, and sat in the corner. Carlisle got hold of the game quite early on. This
meant that a black player of theirs got a lot of the ball on the side nearest us. Each
time he touched the ball the people around us made monkey noises. After the first few
times, when it became obvious that they were going to keep doing this, I, like other
people around I guess, sighed and thought about moving. I didn’t want to have to put
up with this, but I was resigned to it. One man wasn’t, however, and to his eternal
credit, went to speak to a steward. He asked him to enforce the law and eject the
offenders from the ground. After some discussion, stewards approached the offenders and
warned them that if they carried on they would be thrown out, but did not eject them.
This left the man who had complained in a
difficult position, sat alongside the very people he’d complained about. These people
quickly became intimidating. One supporter in particular became aggressive, and told the
man he shouldn’t have complained, because this might mean Burnley supporters got
arrested. The man replied that if they acted like that they deserved to be arrested
regardless of who they support. This was met with a torrent of abuse, in which other
people joined. Their manner was clearly intended to be threatening towards the man and
those couple of us who took his side. I was told by one man that racism was all part of
the game, and if I didn’t want to hear racial abuse, I shouldn’t come. When I
disagreed, and said I accepted swearing and chanting but couldn’t see that racism had
to be part of this, I was told "it’s dicks like you who ruin it for everyone
else."
Meanwhile this crucial game was going on
unwatched.
At half time I met up with the man who had
complained underneath the stand. There, near where we stood, a group of the people we had
argued with formed. They started pointing and shouting at us, identifying us as "paki
lovers." Incredibly, they then started singing "we hate niggers" and
chanting "nigger lovers" at us. This was near the food counter, within earshot
of many Burnley supporters, including a black supporter in the queue. I wonder what they
all thought of it.
The stewards clearly did not feel like enforcing
their "final warning." The man who had complained was now in a position of clear
vulnerability. There was no escaping the hostility of these people. He did the only thing
possible in this situation: he removed himself from the firing line. To calm the situation
down, he was forced to ask the stewards to move him in with the home fans. This they did,
which we may take as an acknowledgement that the situation was serious. Here we were, in a
place with some reputation for trouble, where a Burnley supporter had to ask to be moved
to sit with Carlisle supporters, to protect him from Burnley supporters. I had no problems
with Carlisle supporters before or after the game. The only time I faced hostility and
felt threatened was from my fellow Clarets. I should stress that there was a definite
chance of violence towards us at half time.
Here was a group of people flagrantly breaking
the law, and one man trying to see that it was enforced. It is interesting to note who had
to move.
Moving himself took the heat off the rest of us.
Some of those who had been chanting, and many of those who had come to their support, also
moved, to the top of the stand. I wondered if by doing so they became the responsibility
of a different steward, and how many times had they done this before?
All we had to put up with now was low-level
abuse. The people behind us didn’t have the guts to call us to our faces, but they
chundered on with ham fisted sarcasm throughout the second half. Their favourite joke was
to pretend they were about to call a player a "black bastard" but then to stop
and say, "we’re not allowed to say that" and then say an alternative, such
as "coloured person". They repeated this witticism ad nauseum. Normally I might
have turned round and said something, but I was not in the mood for any more rows. I just
wanted the game to end and to be able to leave. I might have walked out, but we’d
spent all day coming here. I suppose many supporters face such dilemmas and take the path
of least resistance. I’m not proud of doing it, but I can see why people do.
My favourite moment came when one of the blokes
behind us, perhaps tired of saying coloured person fatuously (like it’s an insult)
reached for inspiration and shouted at black player "you person obviously not born in
this country". That told me all I needed to know. I wonder if Gerry Harrison, born in
Lambeth, heard, and what he thought.
By way of a change, they took to calling
Carlisle players "Scottish bastards," until a woman in the stand turned round
and said she was Scottish. They apologised profusely. I found myself wondering what they
would have done if confronted by a black person.
By the end, I couldn’t even care who might
win. I couldn’t get caught up in the play, such was the distraction of racist chatter
and occasional monkey chant at my back. I couldn’t fool myself it mattered any more.
When Carlisle scored I felt nothing. What a position to be in at a crucial game in a
relegation season, on a day when I left home at seven to get back at midnight, most of a
hundred quid lighter. How those few people had the power to spoil it.
In stoppage time we had a corner, and pushed
forward for our last chance. The people behind me were busy abusing the stewards. Pity
they couldn’t bother about the game.
It was a thoroughly shitty day. I felt happy
with the idea of never going again. I expect the man who had to ask to be moved felt the
same. Of course, we might feel differently in the morning, but if we did not, that was two
honest Clarets lost to the club. What more could we have done? At half time, he said that
when he’d spoken, he’d thought other people might back him up, but they just sat
there and watched the game. The same thing has happened to me in the past.
The people who revealed themselves as racists
were a mixture of unfamiliar faces and regular attenders. They all probably believed they
were supporting the club that day. But how is racist chanting supporting the club? Who
does that help, exactly? If they can waste energy on such nonsense, why not cheer the team
instead? If I had gone to that game and criticised Waddle, I am sure some of these same
people would have accused me of not supporting the team. But what were they doing?
No one wants football to become a sanitised,
middle class game, but to be told that if you can’t take racism you shouldn’t go
is ridiculous. Swearing and racism are not two sides of the same coin, and to accept one
doesn’t mean we have to take the other. I am not expecting anyone to be perfect. I
can forgive someone shouting "black bastard" in the heat of the moment, just
about, but the premeditated stuff, like monkey chanting, and songs, is beyond the pale. No
one should have to put up with that as part of a day out.
If racism continues unchecked, it will stop
people going to games, and they will be the kind of supporters we cannot afford to lose. A
club very quickly gets a reputation for racism, and right now Burnley has a problem. This
cancer in our midst is not going to be eliminated by stewards or laws, although those will
help. The only way we will drive it out is by peer pressure and solidarity between
like-minded people. If one person who reads this decides to support those who take issue
with the racists next time rather than staying silent, this will be worth while. Neither
me nor any of the other few people who got involved in this are prepared to start a
campaign. We cannot fight this battle. The main role for taking this threat on should rest
with CISA. They are committed to tackling racism in their constitution. They should make
it a priority.
It is to be hoped that they could do so with the
support of the board, whatever their differences on any other matter. If Burnley
supporters stop going to games because they can no longer tolerate abuse from other
Burnley supporters, what does it matter who owns the shares? A club tarnished by racism
is, in any case, not a particularly attractive investment.
Firmo
April 1998
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