Thats racist!

Growing up in South Africa, I was faced with it first hand. Sure it wasn't as bad as how it was for people much older than me but still everyone knew what racism was. Apartheid, even though well gone now and South Africa being 18 years as a democracy, there are still signs of racism today. Now why you ask did I bring up such a topic? Well its been a while since I did a blog on my favourite football club and after this weekends victory over long term arch rivals Manchester United, the comments that filled my timeline on twitter deserved one. In fact I was called all sorts of things by one person, daft, prick and told I was stupid.

Luis Suarez & Patrice Evra

Lets start from the very beginning. Liverpool vs Manchester United at Anfield in November last year, Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra have a coming together over something and words were exchanged. In the case held by the English FA, Evra claimed he was hurled racial abuse by Suarez, he who then took to the stand and admitted to calling Evra a "Negrito". Before going anymore further, let us ask google what this term "Negrito" means.

the diminutive negrito is used, as a term of endearment meaning "pal", "buddy" or "friend". Negrito has come to be used to refer to a person of any ethnicity or color, and also can have a sentimental or romantic connotation similar to "sweetheart," or "dear" in English. - Wikipedia

Okay, surely Suarez wasn't calling Evra sweetheart but clearly according to 90% of Google's search results it isn't deemed racist. The FA them self did not say Suarez was racially abusing Evra. The charge was for him admitting to using the word which is why Liverpool FC were up in arms over the decision to ban him for 8 games. Yes there was a case to fight but was it really worth it? In South America the term is used loosely but obviously in Europe it is a bit different. With the modern day game of football having so many nationalities playing in the league itself, we're going to get a culture clash of note. If you still don't understand it, here is Gus Poyet's explanation of it.

Dirk Kuyt celebrates the winning goal

Getting back to yesterdays game, most United fans were upset and claimed Liverpool fans displayed racism, yes there was one tool who was caught on camera making a monkey like figure, unfortunately you do get the odd numb skull. We cannot control these things but he will be caught and will face the consequences. Now to claim the entire crowd were being racist because they booed Evra every time he touched the ball, that's a bit harsh no? Especially seeing that Danny Wellbeck and Antonia Valencia were of the same race as Evra and were not booed at. That's a big statement to make, that 40 odd thousand people support racism. Sure we hate the guy for what he did but support racism? really?

Alex Ferguson

Crowds boo players all the time, Rooney gets booed at Anfield, Mascherano, Gerrard, Torres, Carragher and the list goes on, all have been booed by opposition fans, were they being racially abused? Nani is a black player, he put in a number of dives when playing against Liverpool which subsequently got him booed at Anfield, were we being racist then? I'm not quite sure what brought on this reaction from certain United fans. Maybe it was the result, maybe they're sore losers or it could be penis envy, who knows? The fact of the matter is, none of the managers brought it up, nor did any of the news broadcasters (besides that moron who was caught on camera). Evra himself didn't make mention of it at all, Fergie just seem perplexed how his team lost with the usual comments being "we were the better team"...ahem, as one United supporter told me once "If you believe you were the better team, then why didn't you win?"

Kenny & Steve Clark

Now Liverpool haven't had the best of season's but from the past 2/3 it has been an improvement. We have our ups and downs and this past week we have surprised a lot by beating both Manchester teams in cup competitions both of whom are topping the League table and have brilliant squads. That there is some accomplishment, the Liverpool team is still in a rebuilding phase so most fans know not to expect magic from the word go even though we have the legend that is King Kenny back in charge. We still get frustrated at certain players during the game but in some instances they produce moments of brilliance that get us results.

Moron caught on camera

To end off, yes Suarez isn't the most liked player in world football after what he did in the World Cup but he did get punished for it, he was sent off, a penalty was given but Ghana didn't take the chance that was handed to them. One cannot take away his brilliant technical ability and his eye for taking an creating chances. At the end of the day, "haters gonna hate, Suarez gonna celebrate"

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE