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150 lecturers at Oriel college can't all be wrong in joining the student protesters in condemning moral obstinacy

BORC overview of taking the knee in Britain and the public and media responses

They say the truth sets you free, don't they ?

The two-tier system that even the supposedly educated, including certain elected officials, are happy to reinforce

"What colour am I? Am I beige? Or is it ochre? Or off-white?"  Answer: Broaden your thought process. Evolve. Think deeper than skin and try heritage instead.

The social media blackout by sportspeople and clubs this Bank Holiday weekend is all very well as far as gestures or symbolism goes. Let’s hope the social media companies get the message. I note BBC pundit and ex-Premiership and England footballer Ian Wright has spent time showing his contemporary, co-pundit and friend Alan Shearer examples of the online abuse he has received and telling him how much this hurts him and how racist terrace chanting during his professional football-playing days hurt him. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/56949360 But my questions to Ian Wright are these: What exactly is it you were expecting from Alan Shearer by telling him and showing him this? Sympathy? No. He’s not of African heritage, so he won’t have experienced these forms of abuse. Empathy? Perhaps. And Shearer was duty-bound to show that, given that the pair of you were doing this exercise in front of TV cameras. He was hardly going to defend it, or commend it, unless he’s more ignorant than you thought, or an unrepentant racist, or suffering from dementia. I suspect he’s already onside (no pun intended). But then what? What else exactly is it you’re expecting ‘Al’ to do? As is often the case when this is presented to peers of European heritage, all this exercise achieved was to make Shearer look embarrassed, wear as concerned an expression as he could, express the obligatory disgust on camera, express his angst about saying the wrong thing and ask you what you thought. Do you not think he’s already aware of racism in the world of British and European football? Do you not think he will have seen and heard racist chanting and banana throwing on the terraces at football grounds around the country in all his years playing in the premiership and for England and as he climbed up the ranks to Division 1 before that? Or heard or heard of racist punditry from the likes of Ron Atkinson in the past? He admitted as much as to what he heard inside British football stadia. How can he not have heard it? Then he admitted to not having spoken out at the time. It would have been pointless asking him why and you didn’t. The online abuse is just a new form of it. What exactly is it that you’re trying to prove to him that he doesn’t already know? How does this illustration to Alan Shearer of your pain, soul-bearing to him, advance the cause of tackling online and terrace racism? “White allies” to quote you? You’ve fed the racists, telling them how much it hurts, and giving them the fodder with the ‘b’-word. This isn’t the route to take. Perhaps you should read this: “Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge, not that I agree with any of the terminology she uses, and I’ll say why in a moment. Where I do agree with you is where you complain the abuse reduces you to nothing but a skin colour…and, I would add, an inaccurate one at that. This is at the heart of the problem and has always been, for this specific form of racism, and here I address the millions that remain trapped in this ancient, European-imposed ‘colour’ paradigm, or bubble, including Reni Eddo-Lodge. Until this system of misrepresented colour in reference to people of African heritage and of European heritage is de-constructed, dismantled, this particular form of racism will continue indefinitely. Taking away “black” in reference to self and referring to the self as a person of African heritage disconnects you from the “I’m the opposite of a “white” person" notion and forces the lazy racist to choose between coming up with something new to replace “black” this or “black” that with, and, better still, giving up completely. There have been footballers of European heritage making statements of solidarity with “black” footballers for years. They are not going to solve it. Crying to Alan Shearer and other footballers of European heritage on TV and radio and online isn’t the solution; the answer is in us. A change of language in self-reference will self-immunise and negate the effects of this rubbish. In other words, short-circuit the problem: remove the tools that are the racists' stock in trade. STOP TRADING IN THE CURRENCY THE RACISTS TRADE IN - the 'B'-word Allswell E. Eno