Racism in F1

  • Thread starter Thread starter DQuaN
  • 96 comments
  • 4,900 views
Well, we can all get them back by playing Sid Meier's Pirates and destroying the Spanish fleets.
 
You misunderstood me. I meant that Spaniards are very open about their feelings... thus, they're always in trouble for calling everyone names at all kinds of sports events. Samuel Eto'o, from Barça is always the target of most of these racial slurs, and whenever there's an Arab player, it gets worse. I remember during the football world cup, they were arguing why none of the players from France were white.

Then I completely understood you. Releasing ones “feelings” at a sporting event or anywhere else for that matter is no excuse for racial abuse not matter what form it comes in.

These people actually took the time to dress up and to paint themselves black for goodness sake. Racism is racism no matter how you try to paint it. There is nothing to understand, and nothing to condone.

There was a time in this country where one could go to a football match every weekend and listen to the racial abuse some players would get during a game. It was sickening and shameful to know that it was mostly ignored because it was felt that nothing could be done about it and therefore ignored. However, if you do it in this country now, and some still try, then you’ll pay the price for your bigotry.

Feelings, my arse.


The best thing Hamilton can do is ignore this sort of things.

See, here another one trying to brush it under the carpet by ignoring it.
 
I don't think Diego was making an excuse for the racists, Sphinx.
 
Yeah I agree racism is a no go!

BUT

no one will object to black people calling white people 'white boy', 'vanilla face' etc.
but say anything remotely 'off center' to the black folk and the world is against you?

I am sure some one will try and educate me, don’t bother I live in South Africa and Racism is rife here but from the black folk or is the correct term - Africans? For Example
Being a white male it is really unlikely to get a 'new' job due to affirmative action. but this is fine? The list goes on.

Trust me I am not a racist I have African friends etc. Yet on principal it is unfair that one Black dude gets uphill from a couple of whites and now the media is up in arms!
 
The best thing Hamilton can do is ignore this sort of things.

See, here another one trying to brush it under the carpet by ignoring it.

No, I don't think that's the case at all. The best thing that Hamilton can do is ignore it. He just needs to get on with his job. The FIA, on the other hand, must act, but carefully.

Yeah I agree racism is a no go!

BUT

no one will object to black people calling white people 'white boy', 'vanilla face' etc.
but say anything remotely 'off center' to the black folk and the world is against you?

I am sure some one will try and educate me, don’t bother I live in South Africa and Racism is rife here but from the black folk or is the correct term - Africans? For Example
Being a white male it is really unlikely to get a 'new' job due to affirmative action. but this is fine? The list goes on.

Trust me I am not a racist I have African friends etc. Yet on principal it is unfair that one Black dude gets uphill from a couple of whites and now the media is up in arms!

Racism against whites is still racism. It doesn't actually matter against whom the discrimination is aimed, if you're making a judgement about someone on the basis of the colour of their skin or their country of origin (or their sex, religion, supported football team, sexual preference, whatever), you're still discriminating against them based on some social ingroup/outgroup phenomenon. It's lazy, and the mental shortcuts that it facilitates are usually wrong.
 
I don't think Diego was making an excuse for the racists, Sphinx.

I believe he's saying that one reason why it happens is because the Spanish tend to express their feelings more openly. Feelings or not, It shouldn't be allowed to happen, and if it does then the culprits should pay the price.

Feelings don't even come into it.
 
I actually doubt that the FIA would loose a single penny from dropping Spain from the calender, they have quite a number of non-European venues lining up with serious funding to step in. That Spain is the home nation of Alonso means very little to the FIA in the long term, they know that support can be fickle in that regard (German viewing figures dropped sharply when MS retired) and will look at the long term. The rumours of the FIA dropping a European event for another in Asia or the Middle East have been doing the rounds for quite a while now, with Bernie mainly threatening Silverstone and Spa, guess we can add another now.

Regards

Scaff

Fair points but I was getting at the attendance records at Barcelona since Alonso shot to fame, I'd imagine if it was dropped in place of a circuit in the Middle East, we'd have another Sepang or Bahrain on our hands where attendances are poor in comparisment.
 
Yeah I agree racism is a no go!

BUT

no one will object to black people calling white people 'white boy', 'vanilla face' etc.
but say anything remotely 'off center' to the black folk and the world is against you?

I am sure some one will try and educate me, don’t bother I live in South Africa and Racism is rife here but from the black folk or is the correct term - Africans? For Example
Being a white male it is really unlikely to get a 'new' job due to affirmative action. but this is fine? The list goes on.

Trust me I am not a racist I have African friends etc. Yet on principal it is unfair that one Black dude gets uphill from a couple of whites and now the media is up in arms!

Absolute tosh, white people still get up in arms when people are racist against them, me being one of them. Then again I'm sure a fair few Caucasians would get up in arms being refered to as "the meat inside a chicken nugget" (to select a term used a few times by a black friend of mine back in college)
 
Bee
Fair points but I was getting at the attendance records at Barcelona since Alonso shot to fame, I'd imagine if it was dropped in place of a circuit in the Middle East, we'd have another Sepang or Bahrain on our hands where attendances are poor in comparisment.

Attendance may be poor (in comparison to Barcelona with the Alonso effect), but the circuits themselves pay for the privelage of hosting an F1 event and viewing figures (and therefore a higher cut of the brodcast rights) can be higher.

The FIA has never let a circuit (with the possiable exception of Monaco) hold it to ransom, and I doubt they woiuld construct a deal that would lose them money (not with Bernie and max at the helm).


Regards

Scaff
 
i don't think it bothers him, he's got his dream job making more $$$ than those idots put together and no doubt dating hot girls... if a bunch of spanish people or whatever hassle me for being asian i don't care i like being asian.
 
Not so, we Brits removed this type of thing from sport decades ago. It's just a shame to see that Spain is so far behind.

You have got to be joking right? UK sport has the worst track record of racism! Football has tons of it! then theres been incidents in cricket, rugby etc etc.. and even worse its the sometimes the players not the fans doing it!

Robin
 
Football doesn't have tons of it. There's been a huge crackdown and those that do offend are given lifetime bans, I remember an incident at Blackburn a season or two ago. We certainly wouldn't have allowed people looking like that into one of our grounds.
 
Maybe at the games but Im talking also about everywhere like in the pub... watching the match on TV.

Average pub comment...

"That was a dirty tackle you (insert obsentity) go home you (insert nationality, ignorantly pronounced nationality, wrong nationality, religion, ethnic group, country or wrong country!) you (insert endless like of racist obsentities, derogatory comments etc etc)"

Robin
 
Then I completely understood you.

Feelings, my arse.

See, here another one trying to brush it under the carpet by ignoring it.

See, I think you completely misunderstood me, and furthermore, your attitude seems a bit over the line.

Also, I'm not Spanish, so I'm not making excuses for it. If you feel the need to further bash the Spaniards and their attitudes, happy trails! I'm telling you how/why it happens, I'm not justifying why it should/shouldn't happen.

Keep in mind, we're also in the Carnival season, where people dress up in costumes... usually making fun of the social issues around Spain. Hamilton isn't the most liked person around, and the Hamiltonfamily costume was quite famous here. It's like me going around saying all Brits are the most racists people in the world because of the way hooligans behave around football matches.-

I'd appreciate it if in the future you avoid jumping to conclusions, especially regarding posts with such a delicate matter as these.
 
For the record, I think you are both right - to an extent. When it comes to racism and expressing racism, I don't think that passion or feelings comes into it - although arguably Spanish and Italian fans are typically more passionate supporters, it doesn't make them any more or less racist. Although I agree with Sphinx that the UK has tackled the problem of racist sports fans much more than other countries, it is certainly not true that Brits (mainly football fans) would (and do) still do it given half a chance. And as Robin. says, it's not even just the fans but the players too... (but that is equally bad in other countries as well as the UK)...

Suffice it to say, there is no evidence that I know of that says Spanish people are any more racist than British people, or that Spanish people deserve to be excused because they get a little more excited than the typical Brit (especially at Formula One) and therefore do these things on impulse more often. Look at what these guys did... this wasn't a spur of the moment incident - it was a premeditated display of racial prejudice. Still, you will always have racist boneheads in every country, and it is up to the organisers of the event to ensure that the competitors are protected (as much as is practicable) from it.

As for the potential anti-Alonso spectators in the UK (as Omnis suggested) with the bushy eyebrows, that would be pretty bad too, but there has to be a line drawn between parody and racism, rivalry and bigotry... but I get what Omnis is saying too. Certainly, the FIA would be extremely harsh to deprive an entire nation of a sport they love just because of the insensitive idiocy of a few jokers.
 
To be honest, it seems to be another case in which the targeted person makes it a big thing. We've seen the Schumacher pictures, effigys and what not with the huge chin. We've seen similar things of Alonso with the huge eyebrows and the teeth. Everyone thought it was funny because that's how they look. We've seen newspapers around the world practically portraying Räikkönen as a reckless alcoholist. Everyone thought that is the truth. Now we see a handful of people who have painted their faces black and everyone thinks it's racism.

Hell yes, it IS racism, but why is it any different from the other examples other than it happened to be Hamilton who was targeted? Somebody give an all explaining answer if there is one.
 
Someone said something similar earlier, but if 4 black / half cast guys painted themselves white and glued houses on to their face for eyebrows I wouldnt find that abusive, i'd laugh rather hard actually.

(I'm obviously missing something)
 
Hell yes, it IS racism, but why is it any different from the other examples other than it happened to be Hamilton who was targeted? Somebody give an all explaining answer if there is one.

Well, I personally found it offensive because making light of a person of a certain descent as a person of another race has always been a sensitive issue, especially black people, given that their cruel treatment in the past has attracted the most attention in the history books. The masks were very crudely constructed, and I saw terrible memories from my past in those faces... In addition, we know that Kimi Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher and the like can deal with this discrimination, having experience with it, but Lewis Hamilton seemed so innocent in the eyes of the media, so it came across as very shocking.
 
As for the potential anti-Alonso spectators in the UK (as Omnis suggested) with the bushy eyebrows, that would be pretty bad too

OAPs not welcome then? ;)
 
it appears the matter has been massively blown out of proportion

Circuit de Catalunya boss Ramon Padreras believes that Formula One's racism row has been blown out of all proportion - and thinks his circuit did everything they could to resolve the situation when it first happened over the weekend.

With the FIA awaiting a report from the Spanish motorsport authorities about what they plan to do to prevent a repeat of the scenes of abuse aimed at Lewis Hamilton, Padreras has moved to play down the mounting controversy.

He has also made it clear that he will do everything he can to ensure there is no repeat of the events in the future.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper AS, he said: "Last Friday, ten people with a megaphone behaved in a unacceptable way against the British driver.

"Right away, we kicked two of them out, we cleared the stands right in front of McLaren's garage and we decided to take measures for Saturday, closing up the terrace right above them. The problem was solved then.

"In no way can the behaviour of ten fans represent the 55,000 who enjoyed the three days and knew how to behave.

"I think that in some cases the behaviour of some 10 or 15 people has been taken out of context, and we are in complete disagreement with that information.

"We are against any racist or xenophobic demonstration, even if it's from a few, and we are not going to allow a repeat of this in the future."

Despite Padreras' comments, the scenes of abuse still remain a big news story in the UK, with Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe saying he plans to write to the FIA to ask what action the governing body is going to take.

"I was shocked by those sickening images," said Sutcliffe. "How on Earth were fans dressed like this allowed into the circuit? Racism should not be tolerated and this isn't the first time British sportsmen have been racially abused in Spain.

"This brings into question whether the Grand Prix should be held at this track. I am going to write to the FIA to ask what action they are going to take in response to this. I am also going to write to the Spanish sports minister to express our ongoing concern about racism suffered by our sportsmen."

England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was also widely quoted in the British newspapers on Tuesday, after being asked about the Hamilton affair in a press conference.

"I'm very disappointed," he said. "The T-shirts, the slogans on the shirts, the face painting. What's going to happen to the people involved? I'm intrigued to see the reaction from the governing bodies.

"There should be no room for that kind of stupidity and ignorance, not just in sport but in society. If there are punishments to be handed out I hope they're severe enough to deter people from going to stadiums or out in public going on like that."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64987
 
Autosport
England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was also widely quoted in the British newspapers...

"There should be no room for that kind of stupidity and ignorance, not just in sport but in society. If there are punishments to be handed out I hope they're severe enough to deter people..."

That's Rio Ferdinand, current England and Manchester United player, once banned for just 12 months after failing to attend three drugs tests because he "forgot".
 
That's Rio Ferdinand, current England and Manchester United player, once banned for just 12 months after failing to attend three drugs tests because he "forgot".
Well it is kind of hard to remember these things when you're snortng a line of cocaine from a supermodel's clevage ...
 
How on Earth were fans dressed like this allowed into the circuit?

That's what needs to be answered.
 
I'm guessing that they didn't turn up like that, but had their outfits in a bag and got dressed up while in the crowd...
 
The other night I was out walking the dog and ran into about six guys dressed as the Village People... it's the season to dress up. My guess is they entered that way, dressed as Hamilton's family and were let in because they saw nothing wrong with it.

Once it went on the six-o'clock-news and everyone made a big deal out of it, it turned out to be oh-so-wrong.
 
The other night I was out walking the dog and ran into about six guys dressed as the Village People...
I sure hope 'walking the dog' is not a euphemism... :sick:
 
'course it ain't
 
Once it went on the six-o'clock-news and everyone made a big deal out of it, it turned out to be oh-so-wrong.

That's because it is a "big deal", and it was "oh-so-wrong" :dopey:

Keep trying to paint over the original picture. :sly:
 
Back