You're bigger than a 'nigger'
Published:Friday | December 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM
by Orville Higgins
When FIFA President Sepp Blatter said a lot of on-field comments that we dub racist could be settled with a handshake, he was ripped to shreds, especially by the British media. Here in Jamaica, he was also pilloried. I was among few people in Jamaican media to defend him.
It has always been my belief that black people should try to get past the stage where a white person can insult you and get you all hot and bothered.
Being discriminated against because you are black is one thing; being denied opportunities because of your colour is another. I believe we make too big a deal over so-called racist chants on a football field. Being told that you are a black so-and-so can have absolutely no effect on you unless you allow it, and I have always operated under the maxim about harmful sticks and stones and harmless words.
I took a lot of flak for it on radio. One man said I was a disgrace to the black race. When I said that if you are paying me £100,000 a week to play football, then a white man can call me anything he feels like, I was told I was prepared to sell out my dignity.
The point was missed, of course.
My take is that in the life of the average Jamaican, we put up with a lot, especially during our ascension from humble backgrounds. We pay for services we don't get; we suffer at the hands of inept governments and corrupt cops; most of us find that we can't afford to live even the most basic lifestyle without worrying if ends will meet. We struggle to go to school and to afford medical bills, etc. And yet most of us just put on a brave face and carry on.
On the contrary, the black man who plays professional football in Britain or anywhere else is, in many ways, highly privileged and lives a life others only dream of. He gets a huge salary, stays at swanky hotels, gets top-class medical treatment, flies first class, and is seen, and treated, as a global superstar if he is half-decent on the pitch.
psychological tactic?
All of that for doing something that he loves. If in all of that, his biggest occupational hazard is that he has to deal with a white man calling him a nigger on the pitch, my advice is get on with it and ignore the man who seeks to use that age-old psychological trick to affect your game.
Given the black professional footballer's lifestyle, and comparing it to mine, I am prepared to trade my life with his any day, and I wouldn't be complaining about words on a field!
I was told that I only felt this way because I wasn't exposed to racism and the psychological damage it can cause. Maybe, but I also feel that most black players who allow racist taunts to bother them are not as mentally strong as they should be.
Advice from barnes and ba
I was happy to hear John Barnes expressing the very same sentiments. He played in England for years, was exposed to the same kind of racist taunts as everybody else, but said he just kept on playing. John said he was aware that such barbs were a mere ploy to get you off your 'A' game.
On Wednesday of last week, Ibrahim Ba was on SportsMax. Ibrahim is a black footballer who played for France in the 1990s and for several clubs, including AC Milan. What he said was instructive.
When asked about racist insults made against him, he said in halting English, "I had similar stories happen to me when I was playing ... . Those things happen, and today we are almost in 2012. We need to talk about something else ... . We don't have to take that and make into a big, big thing ... ." He went on: " ... Honestly, sometimes we play at each other, white, black, whatever, and we say things to each other, you know, because at the moment you say something, but you don't have to focus on that."
I agree. As black people, we are not going to get rid of racist slants on a football field by getting upset every time it happens. As every primary-school boy knows, the worst thing to do with a nickname you don't like is to react negatively to it. Ignore the nickname and it's your best chance for it not to stick.
Words are just words. They can't hurt you unless you allow it to happen.
Orville Higgins is the 2011 winner of the Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for Sports Reporting. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.