Quote:
Originally Posted by joeysteele
I like Ron Atkinson, he is an absolute legend to one of my older Brothers as a football manager.
As to the racist issue. I am against prejudice of any kind and I have pulled even some casual friends up on what I felt may be deemed just bordering on racist comments.
However, unless they were clearly racist and I have come across people who are,I am not going to hold one or even a few comments against them all through life and not be able to see the other good sides to them too.
If they persisted in inappropriate comments then I would then cut them off because I wouldn't want to be associated with them because of that.
I don't however see Ron as a racist,he made a silly comment and has been got at ever since,however his actions do not follow a racist path in my view.
People who are really racist,in the main, cannot hide it and they certainly afford no merits or hand recognition to black people,or indeed other races either.
Over his long and varied football career,Ron has not only selected black players for his teams,he has nurtured them too, suppporting them and opening the door to successful careers for them.
That is not the actions of a racist, when they have authority and power over others lives and livelihoods.
Some people however, don't climb down easily, there are times it has almost been like pulling someones teeth out, just to get them to admit they made a mistake or that they were sorry.
I think that could be a problem with Ron, he doesn't back down easily,that may well be a flaw to his character but does not in any way substantiate any racist allegations against him.
I don't see him winning CBB, he may be the first out even but I like him and hope he is in for a fair while.
I don't really consider it fair to brand him a racist though when in fact there have never been any official allegations of racist activity from or by him and although throwaway comments can be offensive,they in themself do not constitute someone is racist either.
To my knowledge,he has not said anything further from that incident that could be considered racist as a comment, so I see nothing from his 'actions' that even indicate he may even be,let alone is.
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great post, completely agree