Alan Hansen Apologises For Referring To Black Players As ‘Coloured’ On MOTD (Video)
By Chris Wright
Alan Hansen has been forced to apologise after unwittingly referring to the black players affected by the ongoing Suarez and Terry racism cases as ‘coloured’ not once but twice on Match of the Day last night.
Hansen, who was making a point about the strides made vis-a-vis racial tolerance in the modern game, said:
“I think there’s a lot of coloured players in all the major teams and there are lots of coloured players who are probably the best in the Premier League.
“If you look at 25 or 30 years ago it was probably in a bad way – not as bad as some of the other nations on the continent – but certainly there is always, always room for improvement.”
Lee Dixon’s reaction again, for those who missed it…
“Whuuuut?”
Hansen’s utterance, unsurprisingly, set Twitter alight almost straight away – with thousands of people admonishing the Scottish punditdon’t for his outdated choice of phrasing as well as calling for his sacking. Which is all a little petty and over-sensitive for my taste if I’m honest.
Anyway, after being alerted to the error of his ways, Hansen apologised succinctly this morning:
“I unreservedly apologise for any offence caused – this was never my intention and I deeply regret the use of the word.”
So, 56-year old man says completely uncharged but out-moded word on television that proves to be mildly offensive as it doesn’t fit with current PC sensibilities then apologises profusely. That is the news. Are you offended by it?
If you are, here’s a picture of some sword-fighting squirrels to take the edge of things…
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Yes, as I said in an earlier post I am offended by Alan Hansen. Mostly because of my jealousy at his wages. The squirrels aren’t doing it for me.
…but they are coloured….
Is the word coloured no longer acceptable? because that’s ridiculous.
No grey squirrels represented I see. Thats racist that is.
People should learn to judge intentions, and not the actual words. Hanson seems like a good bloke and he is not a racists; if deemed necessery he should be advised not to use that word and that’s it! Ironically the do-gooders think they’ve won by focusing on such small issues, but the schools, towns and our class system are still unbelievably unequal. You don’t get brownie points for ‘solving’ these small issues people! Thank you for the sword-fighting squirrels.
Stewart you will never make that kind of money mostly because of your narrow mind. Alan Hansen is not to blame for this.
The word ‘coloured’ used to describe people has been unacceptable since about 1975. Black people found it offensive and patronising perhaps due to the way it lumps all non-white people together as some kind of homogenous enitity. And maybe because of its wide use as a term in the U.S. deep south? As many twitter protestors have pointed out, ‘Am I blue? Am I green?’ It came after the black-pride movement. Black and proud not coloured or some other kind of lesser being.
I think.
Typical BBC overcompensation PCness.
Theres nothing wrong with what he said. Were almost as bad as the yanks who cant even call black people “black”
SS – and im assuming your pale faced compared to a coloured person. So you wont mind everyone refering to you as pale faced from now on?
Dick
im pretty certain ‘coloured’… and ‘negro’ are offensive
This is absolutely ridiculous, this has gotten out of context, white people are also colored people, same as Chinese, Caribbean, Latinos and so on. Is just the concept that has been twisted so bad that no matter what you say is taken out of context.
It’s fine that he’s apologised because it’s not that offensive a term. Just needs to be left in the past.
White people wouldn’t like to be referred to as “uncoloured” if they were the minority. Rather than make a descriptive distinction it implies a taintedness that isn’t there. If any of you can’t grasp that you need to get out more.
One of the biggest civil rights groups in America is called NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).
I suppose they should change that fourth word then, if it’s so offensive?
It’s such a pathetic state of affairs when someone has to apologize for saying a word that some decide is offensive, when it’s so brutally obvious that he wasn’t trying to be offensive in any way at all. In fact, he was talking about how it’s GOOD that things have improved and that black players are some of the best players in the league!
I’ve always thought Alan Hansen was a racist. He should be banned from MOTD for 8 weeks!
That was a joke, obviously.
Since when did the term coloured become unacceptable? What is acceptable these days? I wouldn’t be offended if I was called White or Caucasian, because, that’s what I am?
Probably would have been the same uproar if he said black.
Alan, next time say “people of sub-saharan decent” and the PC brigade wont be on your case. Insane if you ask me.
For those of you of the Cromagnon (interesting meta-joke: my spellcheck wants me to replace this word with “Cromwellian,” which is hillarious) persuasion, I’ll explain it to you. “Colored” is offensive because it establishes a norm, i.e. those people are “colored” because “normal” people are white. It’s been offensive since the late 60s or early 70s and people should be offended by its use. Hansen apologised profusely, however, and I don’t think there should be much more on this.
Why did Luis Suarez have to even mention evras skin color?
It’s all very confusing, cause some people find it offensive and some people don’t… best to just steer clear and use black.
He obviously didn’t mean it in a derogatory sense and thusly apologized, but still, bonehead move.
Lot of ignorant idiots on here. Typical lets blame the foreigner types. You know who you are, enjoy your next EDL party.
I was genuinely unaware that ‘coloured’ was deemed an offensive term until this.
When I was at school in the late 80s we were encouraged to say ‘coloured’, rather than ‘black’.
Other than being quite a poor choice of word descriptively, what is the problem with it?
My old boss had a Namibian wife and told me that the term “Coloured” was actually a misconception and that it refers to a racial subset in Southern Africa, similarly to the Boer’s and Afrikaani’s.
Coloured could mean anything other than white. thats what the problem is. He should have just said black. because he was refferring to a black person. There is nothing wrong with being PC, people that dont want to be PC are sadly just Cupboard racists