Spare a thought for us Coventry fans, Big Ron is only the third worst manager we've had in my lifetime (he was miles better than Phil Neal and I can't think of anyone in the world - alive or dead - who would be a worse manager than Peter Reid). This is a great story, though and for me another example of Ron's tragicomic lack of self-awareness.
I don't think he's capable of having a 'wake up call'. If he hasn't worked out by now, through natural interaction with the world around him, that the language he used isn't acceptable that I can't see how he's ever going to.
The word in question is in a completely different league to some of the more obscure phrases which have been outlawed as a result of 'political correctness' and, gangsta rappers aside, it has no common usage other than as extreme insult to black people.
Ron might be a racist, he might just be an idiot, but either way I wouldn't want him as my international manager.
"I don't think he's capable of having a 'wake up call'. If he hasn't worked out by now, through natural interaction with the world around him, that the language he used isn't acceptable that I can't see how he's ever going to."
Perhaps, David, but Ron has always worked in football and in his own comfort zone (especially at Coventry!). To go from likeable football pundit to being publicly vilified and having all your income sources immediately severed, would be a wake up call to most. I do not wish to defend Ron at all, but I just wondered that if he had carried on with the T&T job, whether he might have really learnt something.
And neither do you Bob but I know what MY feelings are and that I would never say something like that so what does that tell us?
Those NF thugs are just cowards with a badge and enough numbers to feel brave within. Their parents and role models passed their underlying feelings down to them through sentiments felt by big Ron and his ilk.
That's the point I'm making, you have to kill the weed at the root and then the prickly thorns will die too.
I've known many people like Ron. Mostly decent people who have a built-in undercurrent of racism and have never even met or spoken to anyone who was black or Asian or Chinese or even female at any level that could develop some understanding so they just go about their lives, bouncing their borrowed philosophies off each other and generally developing a feeling of superiority.
They'll whisper 'lazy nigger' amongst friends while worshipping the ground that Ian Wright walks on and fail to see the problem.
I watched the original 'secret policeman's ball' tonight. It was filmed in 1976 and Dame Edna was on doing a risque song about 'British Spunk'-all well and good but he/she opened with a few crowd pleasers to get them laughing and pointed out a black man in the front row followed by the line, "I thought it was an empty seat until he smiled"... (big laugh from everyone, probably including the man himself).
Is that harmless? Well on the surface it would seem to be, it's like making a joke about someone who's tall etc, no big deal, except to say that the song then included the word 'wogs' and that the man in question was probably just laughing along because that was what was expected of him in 1976.
it's 2005 now and saying, "oh they don't mind, it's only a bit of fun" is what's keeping those NF thugs in their safety zone. They'll always have some decent folk backstage who will disagree but only to a point because, after all, it's always been the way hasn't it?
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