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Historical Racism Accusation


Woolford's Hairband

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You cannot make light of any racist accusation and clearly it must be investigated by the club although it would be difficult to apply sanctions to a member of staff who presumably left the club years ago. I am just amazed it has taken so long for said player to mention something that allegedly  happened 13 years ago.

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7 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

You cannot make light of any racist accusation and clearly it must be investigated by the club although it would be difficult to apply sanctions to a member of staff who presumably left the club years ago. I am just amazed it has taken so long for said player to mention something that allegedly  happened 13 years ago.

Perhaps it was dealt with at the time, which is why there was no shouting about it until now.  You know what the press is like - a throwaway comment blown up to something bigger. 

It was definitely abhorrent, and I am not defending it in any way.  Just more making the point that it possibly was investigated and handled as many seem to be assuming that no such investigation has taken place.

Osei may have been happy with how it was handled by the club at the time and is just mentioning it in a wider conversation about what players have had to put up with in the past.

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16 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

Perhaps it was dealt with at the time, which is why there was no shouting about it until now.  You know what the press is like - a throwaway comment blown up to something bigger. 

It was definitely abhorrent, and I am not defending it in any way.  Just more making the point that it possibly was investigated and handled as many seem to be assuming that no such investigation has taken place.

Osei may have been happy with how it was handled by the club at the time and is just mentioning it in a wider conversation about what players have had to put up with in the past.

Also has anyone wondered whether this is just a load of old nonsense? 

The OP suggested the article had many references to the c word, and there is no internet source mentioned.  I've just spent five minutes searching on Google and cannot find a single mention.

I have found an article last year on the City web site where Osei Sankofa was working with the club, advertising positions within the Kick It Out initiative.

This thread could just be pure fiction, or a random attempt to drag City into some type of racist cloud once more (like the twitter stuff last week). 

Woolford's Hair Band, how and where did you find this profane article?

Let's be honest, It's not even that bad, is it?  I often used to take a bunch of bananas into the FitnessFirst gym with me in Broadmead to eat after my training session, I would leave them on my bench in the locker room.  The 'incident' mentioned could have been a similar situation, just something to consider...

I mean this seriously, if this did happen, the bananas could have been a gift.  They are a healthy, delicious fruit - doesn't mean someone is trying to racially offend a black man.

 

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11 hours ago, RedM said:

I can’t believe this happened in 2006. ‘76 or even ‘86 perhaps but not 2006. Didn’t we have several black or mixed race players back then too? 

It does seem strange considering this, maybe it was some other type of joke made by someone with a poor sense of humour or very little intelligence. I would prefer to believe this, but it does look bad.

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3 hours ago, Andy082005 said:

Don't apologise mate. To be fair, it's such a vague accusation, unless someone explains the situation a little more....I'd feel pretty pissed off if I was Lansdown hearing that 

Bristol is one of the most diverse Cities in the country. Some of the most promising players we have bought through our academy have been black. Players like Aaron Brown and Matty Hill were way before this accusation 

I'd like to hear a bit more around the situation , just to understand if it really was racially motivated and if there were any other incidents....or, whether it's just a complete over reaction to something completely innocent 

Let's be fair, there have been plenty of both in recent times 

 

 

19 minutes ago, reddogkev said:

Also has anyone wondered whether this is just a load of old nonsense? 

The OP suggested the article had many references to the c word, and there is no internet source mentioned.  I've just spent five minutes searching on Google and cannot find a single mention.

I have found an article last year on the City web site where Osei Sankofa was working with the club, advertising positions within the Kick It Out initiative.

This thread could just be pure fiction, or a random attempt to drag City into some type of racist cloud once more (like the twitter stuff last week). 

Woolford's Hair Band, how and where did you find this profane article?

Let's be honest, It's not even that bad, is it?  I often used to take a bunch of bananas into the FitnessFirst gym with me in Broadmead to eat after my training session, I would leave them on my bench in the locker room.  The 'incident' mentioned could have been a similar situation, just something to consider...

I mean this seriously, if this did happen, the bananas could have been a gift.  They are a healthy, delicious fruit - doesn't mean someone is trying to racially offend a black man.

 

 

34 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

Perhaps it was dealt with at the time, which is why there was no shouting about it until now.  You know what the press is like - a throwaway comment blown up to something bigger. 

It was definitely abhorrent, and I am not defending it in any way.  Just more making the point that it possibly was investigated and handled as many seem to be assuming that no such investigation has taken place.

Osei may have been happy with how it was handled by the club at the time and is just mentioning it in a wider conversation about what players have had to put up with in the past.

So, looking at our squad at that time. And it was September 2005 (not 2006)  that he joined us on a short loan, before returning to his parent club, Charlton, EDIT: He has returned from loan by November 2005. So he wasn’t even at our club in 2006! Of course that doesn’t mean that the allegations have no basis, but it does suggest that his recollections aren’t as accurate as they are first portrayed.

.... well before the end of that season (he played another game for Charlton in the April) 

Non White players in our first team squad were, along with Sankofa, only Clayton Fortune, Guy Madjo & Scott Murray. EDIT: Soccerbase also shows that Kelly Youga (loan) & Bas Savage were also at the club at that time    . 

You can only assume that it was not Scotty, given his continued relationship with the club. 

So that leaves a few potential other targets for this alleged abuse. 

Shouldn't be too hard to investigate. 

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4 hours ago, Andy082005 said:

Don't apologise mate. To be fair, it's such a vague accusation, unless someone explains the situation a little more....I'd feel pretty pissed off if I was Lansdown hearing that 

Bristol is one of the most diverse Cities in the country. Some of the most promising players we have bought through our academy have been black. Players like Aaron Brown and Matty Hill were way before this accusation 

I'd like to hear a bit more around the situation , just to understand if it really was racially motivated and if there were any other incidents....or, whether it's just a complete over reaction to something completely innocent 

Let's be fair, there have been plenty of both in recent times 

 

My response isn’t just referring to you Andy, but others too who have responded querying the outline allegation from thr point of view that Bristol is multi-racial, and that we had black players at the time.  I don’t see at all that the presence of black people in the club, or the wider community, would necessarily lessen or remove racist reactions by one or more people around at the time.  

Indeed, if you were an avowed racist,  the presence of black  or other ethnic minority people could well be an incitement to discriminatory, and/or deliberately provocative and insulting behaviour.  And, of course, individual members of organisations hold on to those attitudes despite official policies against discrimination.  So, it seems to me most likely that racist individuals were present in BCFC - discouragingly so, from the point of view of the club -  and that all black players and staff would have been aware of that fact.

Equally, the diversity of Bristol’s population is, of course, no buffer against racist attitudes and behaviour occurring.  My feeling is that, on the one hand,  racism remains a deeply-embedded problem, and we all have to look inside ourselves to answer to our own actions, reactions, assumptions, and prejudices (especially given the recent rise in populist and far-right identity poloitics), but on the other, we have made progress, so that the more egregious and flagrant examples of racist action (encapsulated in the dispute that lead to the Bristol bus boycott in 1963).

Of course we only have the outline details in the piece in the original post, and most of us will  be disappointed to have the club mentioned as an example of this behaviour, but if it bears greater investigation, it should act as a warning light that we still, and always, have to be on our guard to call out racist and divisive thought and action.

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15 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

Don't even remember him.

We had some forgettable players that season apart from Sankofa and Younga, Who remembers Grant Smith, James Quinn, Marc Joseph, Guy Madjo, Mark McCammon, Calvin Andrew, Tony Grant or Adam Green?

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1 minute ago, Big C said:

We had some forgettable players that season apart from Sankofa and Younga, Who remembers Grant Smith, James Quinn, Marc Joseph, Guy Madjo, Mark McCammon, Calvin Andrew, Tony Grant or Adam Green?

I remember McCammon, he bagged a few goals iirc?

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1 minute ago, devoncider said:

I remember McCammon, he bagged a few goals iirc?

Kind of on topic, I recall McCammon suing Gillingham (and winning) for racism. If he was here at the same time as Sankofa (memory hazy there), it doesn’t strike me that he’d be the kind of man to ignore a perceived or actual racist gesture.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jul/30/black-footballer-gillingham-racism-mark-mccammon

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I don’t think OTIB necessarily represents the fan base as a whole.

Here, I’m seeing shock that a black player was insulted 13 years ago.

While at Villa on Saturday I was forced to stand among fans who thought it was acceptable to yell “this place stinks of curry” at Villa fans.

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Interesting that so many are happy/quick to put negative icons on my initial post (perfectly entitled to do so), which I’ve apologised for, should anyone have taken offence at it...

Yet not many people seem to be questioning Sankofa’s (very vague) allegations, 13/14 years down the line, which he alleges happened at a time when he wasn’t even at our club (2006)..! 

 

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2 hours ago, Leveller said:

I don’t think OTIB necessarily represents the fan base as a whole.

Here, I’m seeing shock that a black player was insulted 13 years ago.

While at Villa on Saturday I was forced to stand among fans who thought it was acceptable to yell “this place stinks of curry” at Villa fans.

I don't think that lot have worked out how to use computers yet.

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On 15/04/2019 at 13:30, Leveller said:

I don’t think OTIB necessarily represents the fan base as a whole.

Here, I’m seeing shock that a black player was insulted 13 years ago.

While at Villa on Saturday I was forced to stand among fans who thought it was acceptable to yell “this place stinks of curry” at Villa fans.

Not sure what's so wrong with this. I was shouting this at the missus the other day....

Lazy bitch hadn't cleaned the kitchen after I'd made a tikka masala .....

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Interestingly Fred Corbett played for city 6 or 7 years before the well documented racial abuse directed at Walter Tull. Where Bristol hooligans used language lower than billingsgate . Corbett was apparently the first black footballer of the early 20th century football league. He made 49 appearances for the city. Far more appearances for rovers. Wonder if any of our older fans can remember the matty taylor type songs when he crossed over the river ! Freddy corbett is a red!

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