Ross Barkley

[Albert]

10 hours ago, Paul71 said:

For me the racism angle that everyone is jumping all over is what misses the point. He mentions a look in his eyes like a gorilla in a zoo, suggesting a blank expression ,he doesnt once mention the fact Barkley looks like a gorilla because of his background.

For me the offence here is the attack on a young man who Mackenzie probably has never met, this is what i find unnacceptable.

It seems to me that we are so keen to jump all over the apparant racist angle of this article, the actually true context is being ignored, would this article have been less distasteful had it been written about a different footballer (or anyone) if he had no african background? Are we saying it would have been ok to suggest that person had a look in his eyes like a gorilla suggesting he was thick?

Of course he doesn't outright say something racist, the point is the suspicion that he was trying to subtly sneak a racist attack in. 

As mentioned before, comparing people to apes is generally a bad idea as: 1) it's racist history, 2) because it makes literally no sense. Gorilla's aren't particularly thick, and they don't have a blank stare, it's why so many are suspicious. Every other point in the article was designed for maximum offence, yet here it's a weird comment about Gorillas, where the only way it's can be seen as on a similar level of offensiveness is if he was trying a subtle racist attack. 

The "true context" of the article also hasn't been forgotten, people are talking about it, even here they are. If anything, the racism concern has gotten people talking more about it. 

Basically though, I think you've missed the point entirely. People aren't trying to paint him as a racist despite what he tried to do, people are concerned that he made the comparison to make a subtle racist attack, knowing full well what he was doing. If it was an accident, and he's just comically incompetent, then fine; but people are concerned that he knew exactly what he was doing. 

[StringerBell]

I think Barkley will be the next cover star on FIFA.