Encouraging Harassment and Racism: From Celtic Park to the Mass Media.

04 March 2011 14:55
It may just be people who drink spirits in pint glasses before lunchtime who believe the media to be racist when it suits. But there’s a curious aspect to the coverage of El Hadji Diouf’s time at Rangers, especially among those who are paid to offer opinion. We’ve previously highlighted the peculiar attitude of ESPN co-commentator and NOTW columnist Craig Burley whose particularly offensive objections to Diouf’s employment in Rangers blue twice centred on a desire to see him leave “back to where he goes” stating “The sooner he leaves our little island here in the UK on a single ticket” the better. Today, the English language pioneer Charles Nicholas demanded: "Get him out of the country.” The two ex-Celts seem obsessed with the idea of removing the Senegalese player from the UK. Twice in recent times EHD has been the victim of quite appalling racism at the home of the Scottish Premier League’s runners-up. First time round it was front-page NOTW news - monkey chants and gestures – and on Wednesday night it was the audible discontent toward the player expressed in terms of his race, all captured for posterity by the Sky microphones. The number of home arrests for racial offences is alarming - one released on bail today, Gerard Fulton, even allowed himself to racially abuse a police officer. The manager of Celtic was also caught up in the atmosphere, and shown to be ranting and raving at EHD. It’s interesting that Bartley, Bougherra and Diouf were the three most affected by the foam-flecked rants from the now-banned Celtic cheerleader-in-chief and half-time addendum from Lennon’s chum Johan. Why, we may reasonably wonder, was Ally McCoist so incensed by the comments in Lennon’s rhapsody in green towards Diouf? Rangers have lost to Celtic before, players have been abused before, and if McCoist is to be here for the long-haul both will continue. So what was it that Lennon chose to use as the focus of his foul tirade which shocked even the fellow Celts in the technical area? This, as if you need reminding, is someone with a history of sectarian offences as a player and yet one individual quick to claim that his unpopularity across the breadth of Scotland is due, exclusively, to some form of anti-Irish ‘racism’. In general media we see quotes from The First Minister,  MSPs, The Moderator, Bishops, and all sorts of Police representatives, most of whom seem obsessed with drink, religion (so long as we aren’t talking about apartheid-style schooling) and general social ills. The level of inaccuracies involved even in the reporting of events – and this extends to national BBC Radio claiming EHD threw his jersey into the Celtic fans and BBC political anchor Andrew Neil suggesting McCoist and Lennon were brawling on the pitch – is quite staggering so it can hardly surprise if comment and interpretation is a little inconsistent. Today we had Margo MacDonald on BBC Radio Scotland interrupting an audience member suggesting the media deserve a share of blame for the campaign against Diouf to exclaim: “He deserves it!” El Hadji Diouf joins a long list of players sent off against Celtic – including such maniacs as Mark Walters, Claudio Reyna and, err, Rod Wallace. All the sort of men you’d expect to see in the Bar-L. He hasn’t assaulted anyone; racially-abused anyone; called anyone a (insert sectarian term) nor stuck the head on anyone, unlike some people at Parkhead. So what lies at the root of this outpouring of bile? No doubt we will be told it is because of his ‘attitude and behaviour’ – strange that this argument is never applied to explain the consensus toward the once captain and now coach of Celtic, whose defence of ‘racism, racism’ is accepted without question. It speaks very poorly of modern Scotland if there exists a widespread willingness to encourage, condone and promote an attitude of racially-motivated harassment toward an individual simply because he plays for Rangers. Those so vocal in chasing famine lyrics seem struck mute by the colour and shape of this discordant symphony.

Source: FOOTYMAD