This isn't true though.
Was it racist? Yes it damn sure fucking was. When have you ever seen so much hate and contempt for any other football player in this country? Now answer the same question again within the parameters of whether that player did anything wrong to fuel this contempt. Those excuses for the disparity between these portrayals are ridiculous. Its a running theme within the media and everyone who looks can see it, it's not even just a celebrity thing ffs. It's infuriating seeing so many excuses wheeled out for shit that is thinly veiled racism. Fair but exaggerated... why is this approach taken when it comes to the same people but not the others that are raised as the comparison... that is the racism ffs. The article Raheem spoke about wasn't even about him, it was a young City player who bought a house and Foden bought a house, both for their mums and the way the articles were framed were drastically different. Look at Maguire fighting in another country WITH POLICE and how it's portrayed when it comes to the media. 1000 different excuses were made for him and his mental health and wellbeing was the priority, where is this line of thinking when it's a player with a different skin colour? It conveniently always goes missing and the vile, hate fueled 'how dare they?' approach is taken.
I've lost count of the amount of times i've seen articles written about attacks or violence in which perpetrator 1 is 'a loner who MUST have mental health issues' and 2 is 'a terrorist/gang member, inciting hate and fear and has a criminal history or posed in a tracksuit in a picture'. If this exaggeration is a reason for it, why it is disproportionately used when the subject of the article is black? People should stop pretending this blatant shit isn't done with intent.
The disparity in the way two different groups are reported on is blatant, water it down all you want but it fuels racism and unfair narratives based on the complete wrong things. The thing is children can see these articles and nowadays with the internet its all accessible, growing up seeing people who look like you met with contempt for simply living is extremely damaging. Its funny how you claim this good vs bad stuff you fail to mention bad is near enough always pinned on the same people and good on others
Something doesn't have to simply be a blatant racial slur to be racist, i've had implied racist comments made to me for years, each one could be met with 'maybe this or that'... NO, it's fucking racist, dont try to dilute it or dress it up.
Even people like me from my relatively sheltered world, and who have very limited experience of many of the issues can see that the coverage is racist. It is that blatant. Just comparing articles about essentially the same subject you can see how overt it is.
A few days ago in this thread I did admit I got it wrong in my argument that context was needed until some helpful posters pointed out to me the context that was provided during the interview. Unconscious bias ? Perhaps, but as I say, even I can see the obvious racism in a lot of coverage with the royals, footballers and many other walks of life.
The debate over the last few days has been very interesting and thought provoking for me. The comments about racism existing within ethnic communities is an issue that I was aware existed, but the level at which it exists has surprised me. You live and you learn but ultimately prejudice is prejudice.
What I have experienced over the years is prejudice towards where I am from. I am sure many of you on here have. Only from a select group of people, but in my job I did have cause to spend a lot of time in London with the legal community and others there, and the attitude towards Liverpool/Merseyside saddened me. Not from everyone by any means, but a decent number and the willingness just to say stuff wasn`t tempered at all. I am not comparing that to anything in particular, and am not pretending it has given me much experience at all, but the prejudice, whilst often delivered in an apparently "amusing" way, was nevertheless prejudice. Some of it was vile and you can imagine the references, certainly back then.