| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation 08:49 - Jun 30 with 2104 views | BLUEBEAT |
The current England team is both the most diverse and the most politicised of any I can remember. Our top goalscorer Raheem Sterling was born in Jamaica and only moved here at the age of five. Bukayo Saka's folks moved here from Nigeria as economic migrants. Marcus Rashford, born in Manchester to a family of St. Kitts heritage, has been more involved in ending food poverty among schoolkids than the leader of the opposition. The team have chosen to collectively take the knee to show their opposition to societal racism — a decision supported by manager Gareth Southgate, a man who recently penned a profoundly moving open letter stressing the importance of recognising a diverse range of ways of feeling English.
Folk like Stormzy and Ian Wright have no problem getting behind them and round where I live, cars showing the England flag are just as likely to be driven by Muslim girls in headscarves as old white blokes who look like me.
Yet still many of my friends of acquaintances struggle to get behind the team or to express any vocal support for them . . . because a section of the England fan base are idiots.
I understand the desire to not feel represented by meatheads who seriously think taking the knee is somehow 'Marxist' and who come covered in bulldog tats. This is why it's important less bigoted folk also follow the team as without us, we hand over full representation to the goon squad.
However, if you're going to boycott the national team simply because racists like it, here are some other things you should probably cut out of your life:
- chips
- beer
- Northern Soul
- the English countryside
- pies
- Spain
I could go on.
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 08:57 - Jun 30 with 2048 views | jayessess |
It's not obligatory, is it? Football support is a gut feeling and you either have it or you don't, I think. Personally, I have always had that feeling for England, even if at times I wish I didn't, but no skin off my nose if some people don't.
Other thing I'd add is that lots of people's experience of the flag of St. George is as a symbol that historically might indicate places they'd be made to feel unwelcome (or worse). Those kind of feelings are hard to dispel, especially if it's something you felt as a child. [Post edited 30 Jun 2021 9:44]
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 09:00 - Jun 30 with 2017 views | J2BLUE |
I love England. I love the flag.
Quite frankly there's a little too much patting each other on the back when people say they struggle to support the team because of an unsavoury element. Take the national team and the flag back from them. Don't just let them have it. The team have made it quite clear where they stand. Support them. |  |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 09:01 - Jun 30 with 2004 views | 26_Paz |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 08:57 - Jun 30 by jayessess |
It's not obligatory, is it? Football support is a gut feeling and you either have it or you don't, I think. Personally, I have always had that feeling for England, even if at times I wish I didn't, but no skin off my nose if some people don't.
Other thing I'd add is that lots of people's experience of the flag of St. George is as a symbol that historically might indicate places they'd be made to feel unwelcome (or worse). Those kind of feelings are hard to dispel, especially if it's something you felt as a child. [Post edited 30 Jun 2021 9:44]
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This is not political at all. It’s coming home! |  |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 09:15 - Jun 30 with 1958 views | BLUEBEAT |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 08:57 - Jun 30 by jayessess |
It's not obligatory, is it? Football support is a gut feeling and you either have it or you don't, I think. Personally, I have always had that feeling for England, even if at times I wish I didn't, but no skin off my nose if some people don't.
Other thing I'd add is that lots of people's experience of the flag of St. George is as a symbol that historically might indicate places they'd be made to feel unwelcome (or worse). Those kind of feelings are hard to dispel, especially if it's something you felt as a child. [Post edited 30 Jun 2021 9:44]
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No, it isn’t obligatory, but my post refers to people who would support England but won’t because of the worry of being associated with a small percentage of ignorant followers.
This isn’t just happening in this country, though… the European Championships are taking place against a backdrop of political uncertainty and increasing far-right activism. Just yesterday, Nigel Farage spent yet another day lounging in bad slacks on a south coast beach filming desperate people arriving in dinghies in order to whip up fear and hatred — and deflect attention away from the wrongdoing of his millionaire paymasters.
Many of you will have seen the incredible Swiss comeback against world champions France, which culminated in a dramatic penalty shoot-out. Right at the heart of the victory was captain Granit Xhaka.
Xhaka was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1992 into an ethnic Albanian family from Podujevo, Kosovo, which was then still part of Yugoslavia. His father Ragip had been a political prisoner. As a student at University of Pristina, he was arrested for participating in a 1986 student demonstration against the central government in Belgrade, and served three and a half years of a six-year prison sentence before being released in 1990. The family moved from Podujevo to Switzerland that year, some of the more than five hundred thousand Kosovans who ended up fleeing the country as war flared across the Balkans, the family of striker Xherdan Shaqiri among them.
Xhaka has always been a vocal defender of the rights of refugees and has been heavily involved with Coaching For Life, a unique football coaching model given to Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan.
These are the people we're being encouraged to regard as somehow less human than ourselves.
Fck Racism. | |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 09:42 - Jun 30 with 1871 views | Darth_Koont |
Far too much of our politics and identity in the UK is tied up with resisting tolerance and acceptance and maintaining barriers.
As your example of the England team shows, it’s also about resisting reality and what makes society better. |  |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 10:00 - Jun 30 with 1839 views | Guthrum |
I agree with your sentiments, but is anybody actually refusing to support the team (despite its taking the knee and the other things you mention) because a minority of supporters have been expressing opposition to those qualities with booing before matches?
I suspect that any who do are either working on outdated archetypes of skinhead boot-boys and Stanley-weilding casual "firms" from 30 or 40 years ago, or they are the type to reject all perceived expressions of nationalism regardless of the sport or other walk of life. |  |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 10:03 - Jun 30 with 1825 views | bluelagos |
And join Laurence? No thanks.
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 10:04 - Jun 30 with 1817 views | noggin |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 09:00 - Jun 30 by J2BLUE |
I love England. I love the flag.
Quite frankly there's a little too much patting each other on the back when people say they struggle to support the team because of an unsavoury element. Take the national team and the flag back from them. Don't just let them have it. The team have made it quite clear where they stand. Support them. |
It was great to hear the vast majority at Wembley drowning out the boo boys, when the players took the knee yesterday. F**k the racists! |  |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 10:27 - Jun 30 with 1758 views | MattinLondon |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 10:03 - Jun 30 by bluelagos |
And join Laurence? No thanks.
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As the attention drifts further away from he, Fox becomes more desperate for attention.
I’m pretty sure that GB News will soon have a segment called ‘Nigel and Laurence’ in which they head off into the English Channel looking for migrants, harking back to when England was England and when they could enjoy English tea made in England for English people. |  | | |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 10:30 - Jun 30 with 1750 views | Bluespeed225 |
I can’t take Northern Soul out of my life to stand apart from knuckle draggers. You know only too well how our scene has seen the best and worst of this, complete morons attaching themselves to it with zero understanding of where it came from and how white kids promoted and supported both the music and artists. I dropped off the Runs in late 85’ after seeing how it was going, went deeper into NS. Same as England, can’t stop supporting because of the deficiencies in a section of followers. I have been expecting some group out there to question the NS clenched fist emblem at some point though! That’ll be an interesting debate😀KTF Bluebeat! |  | | |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 11:52 - Jun 30 with 1639 views | Swansea_Blue |
Great post. |  |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 11:56 - Jun 30 with 1616 views | BLUEBEAT |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 10:00 - Jun 30 by Guthrum |
I agree with your sentiments, but is anybody actually refusing to support the team (despite its taking the knee and the other things you mention) because a minority of supporters have been expressing opposition to those qualities with booing before matches?
I suspect that any who do are either working on outdated archetypes of skinhead boot-boys and Stanley-weilding casual "firms" from 30 or 40 years ago, or they are the type to reject all perceived expressions of nationalism regardless of the sport or other walk of life. |
Well, that’s what the third and fourth paragraphs refer to. [Post edited 30 Jun 2021 11:57]
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 12:05 - Jun 30 with 1591 views | Guthrum |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 11:56 - Jun 30 by BLUEBEAT |
Well, that’s what the third and fourth paragraphs refer to. [Post edited 30 Jun 2021 11:57]
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I've just not really come across any myself, or seen it much on social media, so slightly surprised at that attitude.
As you say, it makes more sense to support the team against the meatheads. | |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 12:24 - Jun 30 with 1552 views | leitrimblue |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 10:30 - Jun 30 by Bluespeed225 |
I can’t take Northern Soul out of my life to stand apart from knuckle draggers. You know only too well how our scene has seen the best and worst of this, complete morons attaching themselves to it with zero understanding of where it came from and how white kids promoted and supported both the music and artists. I dropped off the Runs in late 85’ after seeing how it was going, went deeper into NS. Same as England, can’t stop supporting because of the deficiencies in a section of followers. I have been expecting some group out there to question the NS clenched fist emblem at some point though! That’ll be an interesting debate😀KTF Bluebeat! |
Interesting enough, does northern soul still have a problem with racism? What drives it, weird link to 70,s skinheads? I remember there was an issues with screwdriver loving combat 18 types on Rally's in late 80, early 90,s. Had a couple of run ins with um myself |  | | |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 16:03 - Jun 30 with 1387 views | BLUEBEAT |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 11:52 - Jun 30 by Swansea_Blue |
Great post. |
Thanks.
I do make the occasional thoughtful post.
But they often go ignored.
Like this one: Martin Braithwaite by BLUEBEAT 27 Jun 2021 11:59Watching the impressive Danish team sweep aside the tired looking Welsh yesterday, I was struck by the fact there was a Denmark player called Martin Braithwaite, as it's a surname I've always strongly associated with the county of Yorkshire. I had a quick Google to see if there was a connection with him in England and it turns out Braithwaite's mum is white Danish and his dad is black Guyana in the Caribbean.
Historically dominated by the Lokono and Kalina tribes, Guyana was colonised by the Dutch before coming under British control in the late 18th century. It was then governed as British Guiana, with a mostly plantation-style economy until the 1950s. Independence was gained in 1966.
Many of the 1.5 million+ Caribbeans of African origin have ended up with British surnames simply because part of the process of enslavement and detachment from African roots involved becoming the legal property of their owners and that often included the imposition of their surnames.
This meant that they were subject to the whims of their owner and of local slave laws. For example, families could be split up, people could be sold, gifted and inherited as property. The enslaved people migrated with their owners to other countries and were often denied an education and not allowed to attend church.
The past is never dead.
It's not even past.
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 17:52 - Jun 30 with 1314 views | Bluespeed225 |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 12:24 - Jun 30 by leitrimblue |
Interesting enough, does northern soul still have a problem with racism? What drives it, weird link to 70,s skinheads? I remember there was an issues with screwdriver loving combat 18 types on Rally's in late 80, early 90,s. Had a couple of run ins with um myself |
Not the scene itself having a problem, but the ‘born agains who never were’ who’ve cottoned onto it seem, to contain a few dopes who just see the music connected to the scooter scene, which in turn they see has a large number of bald people, most through age, who they think they can blend in with. They have zero interest in the music, it’s origins etc, but like at football, they see it as a place to spew their bile. They stand out like the idiots they are. As you will remember, It’s like the mid 80’s when the NF found footy was not( in most places) a fertile breeding ground, so tried to move in on scootering. I was there at the Desmond Decker incident, i knew I’d had enough then. | | | |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 18:06 - Jun 30 with 1287 views | noggin |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 17:52 - Jun 30 by Bluespeed225 |
Not the scene itself having a problem, but the ‘born agains who never were’ who’ve cottoned onto it seem, to contain a few dopes who just see the music connected to the scooter scene, which in turn they see has a large number of bald people, most through age, who they think they can blend in with. They have zero interest in the music, it’s origins etc, but like at football, they see it as a place to spew their bile. They stand out like the idiots they are. As you will remember, It’s like the mid 80’s when the NF found footy was not( in most places) a fertile breeding ground, so tried to move in on scootering. I was there at the Desmond Decker incident, i knew I’d had enough then. |
I can't talk about the scene in general as I only really attended nights in London. Have to say, I never saw or heard any racism at the 100 Club nighters. | |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 19:08 - Jun 30 with 1206 views | Bluespeed225 |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 18:06 - Jun 30 by noggin |
I can't talk about the scene in general as I only really attended nights in London. Have to say, I never saw or heard any racism at the 100 Club nighters. |
You won’t at nights like that, it’s just the beer’d up, weekend rally events that seem to attract. I stick to selected ‘higher end’ do’s these days. The 100 Club crowd would be a more knowledgeable one! | | | |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 20:25 - Jun 30 with 1142 views | leitrimblue |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 17:52 - Jun 30 by Bluespeed225 |
Not the scene itself having a problem, but the ‘born agains who never were’ who’ve cottoned onto it seem, to contain a few dopes who just see the music connected to the scooter scene, which in turn they see has a large number of bald people, most through age, who they think they can blend in with. They have zero interest in the music, it’s origins etc, but like at football, they see it as a place to spew their bile. They stand out like the idiots they are. As you will remember, It’s like the mid 80’s when the NF found footy was not( in most places) a fertile breeding ground, so tried to move in on scootering. I was there at the Desmond Decker incident, i knew I’d had enough then. |
Desmond incident was at one of our local ones wasn't it,Yarmouth? I had a bit of a run in with BNP types at Margate 89/90. Bumped into friends outside the Kent hotel in daytime, seen there was music on there later so we all arranged to meet there. Me an 3 others were the first ones in, it was a bit of a shaven headed, flight jacket audience.Not that rare at the time, what was less common was there were very large union Jack's being paraded around the room and people handing out quite hardcore BNP leaflets. I put it down to the fact it was late evening and we had started session around lunchtime but we never realized we were 4 long haired raver types at a BNP rally. What gave it away was when the band came on and instantly started zieg hailin to the cheers of the crowd. We made hasty nervous exit | | | |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 20:32 - Jun 30 with 1127 views | textbackup |
the groups of Sikhs going apesht outside the ground in sheer joy, head to toe in the flag was fantastic, then on the flip slip of that you had a group of Chelsea gagging to fight anyone, singing anti anything songs to get a bite. |  |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 11:58 - Jul 1 with 914 views | Bluespeed225 |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 20:25 - Jun 30 by leitrimblue |
Desmond incident was at one of our local ones wasn't it,Yarmouth? I had a bit of a run in with BNP types at Margate 89/90. Bumped into friends outside the Kent hotel in daytime, seen there was music on there later so we all arranged to meet there. Me an 3 others were the first ones in, it was a bit of a shaven headed, flight jacket audience.Not that rare at the time, what was less common was there were very large union Jack's being paraded around the room and people handing out quite hardcore BNP leaflets. I put it down to the fact it was late evening and we had started session around lunchtime but we never realized we were 4 long haired raver types at a BNP rally. What gave it away was when the band came on and instantly started zieg hailin to the cheers of the crowd. We made hasty nervous exit |
Yes, Yarmouth in Tiffanys. They got a slap, but it all culminated at the IOW that August. Outside promoters offered money, it got taken, those bands went on, combined with on site beer tent upping its prices through the day, carnage. Public Order Bill came in shortly after? I had first ever holiday abroad that year, Canaries, eye opener. I stayed connected to scene from a distance, House came along, Acid Jazz, JTQ and all that, great time! Still riding today, but listen to all sorts of stuff, easy to avoid the wing nuts! | | | |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 12:06 - Jul 1 with 900 views | clive_baker |
Well said. We're fortunate to live in a wonderful country, with largely lovely people of all different creeds, colours, faiths, shapes and sizes. I love football, and I love supporting our national team at the moment. I think they're about the most likeable, engaged, representative group I've seen in the shirt that I can remember. Say what you like about Southgate, but the way he's conducted himself and his team off the pitch, among huge media scrutiny has been exemplary. He's clearly got his team absolutely wired for success, and it's incredible to see. Made even more poignant as we come out of such a challenging 18 months or so, seeing the fans back in Wembley and putting a smile on people's faces genuinely makes me emotional.
Like any nation, there are some village idiots. As J2 says, the way to not let them win is to drown their voices out with decency.
Bring on Saturday, and without wanting to get too far ahead of myself, a mid week semi final at Wembley next week could be quite special. |  |
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| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 16:21 - Jul 2 with 760 views | BLUEBEAT |
| Supporting England; Meat-Head Affectation on 12:06 - Jul 1 by clive_baker |
Well said. We're fortunate to live in a wonderful country, with largely lovely people of all different creeds, colours, faiths, shapes and sizes. I love football, and I love supporting our national team at the moment. I think they're about the most likeable, engaged, representative group I've seen in the shirt that I can remember. Say what you like about Southgate, but the way he's conducted himself and his team off the pitch, among huge media scrutiny has been exemplary. He's clearly got his team absolutely wired for success, and it's incredible to see. Made even more poignant as we come out of such a challenging 18 months or so, seeing the fans back in Wembley and putting a smile on people's faces genuinely makes me emotional.
Like any nation, there are some village idiots. As J2 says, the way to not let them win is to drown their voices out with decency.
Bring on Saturday, and without wanting to get too far ahead of myself, a mid week semi final at Wembley next week could be quite special. |
Beautifully put. | |
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