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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| No tolerance for the n-word? | No tolerance for the n-word? |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| You can thrive and progress and still be brought to earth by a slip of the tongue, or a slipped vocabulary. So many live just one misjudgment away from ruin. Life on a knife edge. No pressure. | You can thrive and progress and still be brought to earth by a slip of the tongue, or a slipped vocabulary. So many live just one misjudgment away from ruin. Life on a knife edge. No pressure. |
| I have met the ex-footballer and ex-Football Association honcho Paul Elliott a couple of times and I liked him on both occasions. He presented socially as he presented on the pitch and then on the telly: strong and upright, smart but not showy. There were high hopes that he would be something of note within the national game, and he was already a big noise in the football anti-racism group Kick It Out. That pleased a lot of black people I know because we like to see someone talented progressing up the slippery establishment pole, and one can only read so many articles about Chuka Umunna. | I have met the ex-footballer and ex-Football Association honcho Paul Elliott a couple of times and I liked him on both occasions. He presented socially as he presented on the pitch and then on the telly: strong and upright, smart but not showy. There were high hopes that he would be something of note within the national game, and he was already a big noise in the football anti-racism group Kick It Out. That pleased a lot of black people I know because we like to see someone talented progressing up the slippery establishment pole, and one can only read so many articles about Chuka Umunna. |
| So Paul seemed set fair. Then he fell out with a business associate, who took an exchange of texts to the Sun and helped them publish a story revealing that during their disagreement, Elliott referred to him using the n-word. "N-word slur by CBE ace," the paper's headline said. A workaday exclusive by Sun standards, tucked on page nine. Ruinous, nevertheless. | So Paul seemed set fair. Then he fell out with a business associate, who took an exchange of texts to the Sun and helped them publish a story revealing that during their disagreement, Elliott referred to him using the n-word. "N-word slur by CBE ace," the paper's headline said. A workaday exclusive by Sun standards, tucked on page nine. Ruinous, nevertheless. |
| One can't make excuses and to his credit, Elliott didn't try to. He resigned his FA positions and his trusteeship of Kick It Out. "As an advocate of high standards of public behaviour, and integrity in public life, I know the use of this word sends out mixed messages," he said. And he's right. Quentin Tarantino peppers Django Unchained with the n-word. Wins an Oscar. Ron Atkinson says it on ITV. Exiled. | One can't make excuses and to his credit, Elliott didn't try to. He resigned his FA positions and his trusteeship of Kick It Out. "As an advocate of high standards of public behaviour, and integrity in public life, I know the use of this word sends out mixed messages," he said. And he's right. Quentin Tarantino peppers Django Unchained with the n-word. Wins an Oscar. Ron Atkinson says it on ITV. Exiled. |
| Is the charge that Elliott was being racist? That's arguable. "I cannot accept that it is racist to use it between two friends and business colleagues in a private text, when both are black, from almost identical ethnic and social backgrounds, and there has been no allegation of racism," said his longtime friend and co-worker Piara Powar. There's a logic to that. But it's the sort of nuance that cuts no ice with the wider public. | Is the charge that Elliott was being racist? That's arguable. "I cannot accept that it is racist to use it between two friends and business colleagues in a private text, when both are black, from almost identical ethnic and social backgrounds, and there has been no allegation of racism," said his longtime friend and co-worker Piara Powar. There's a logic to that. But it's the sort of nuance that cuts no ice with the wider public. |
| Elliott's a good guy and I hope he rebuilds what he had. But if the yen of the British public is for zero tolerance of racial epithets used in anger, that's no bad thing is it? Certainly better than the alternative? | Elliott's a good guy and I hope he rebuilds what he had. But if the yen of the British public is for zero tolerance of racial epithets used in anger, that's no bad thing is it? Certainly better than the alternative? |
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