Stan Collymore Exposes Twitter Racism, Makes For Truly Depressing Reading

Alan Duffy

23rd, December 2011

25 Comments

By Alan Duffy


It may well be the season to be jolly, but after reading a list of Tweets highlighted by TalkSport presenter Stan Collymore, it’s hard to keep in a positive frame of mind.

The former Liverpool player has been receiving a large amount of abuse for his views on the Luis Suarez racism affair, which he has been re-Tweeting along with racist abuse by various morons aimed at Patrice Evra.

I won’t list any of the sickening Tweets here but it is really worth a look here – @StanCollymore – to get an idea of how racism is, unfortunately, still well and truly alive and kicking. If there is one positive thing that has come out of the Suarez and John Terry cases, however,  it’s that it has woken us all up to the fact that racism is a problem which still needs a lot of work.

Collymore himself asks the question – should anything be done about these Tweets either by the authorities or by Twitter itself?

Another question which the incident throws up is whether or not Liverpool FC, in their recent statements concerning the Suarez affair, have themselves acted responsibly and sensitively enough?

Posted in FAIL, Liverpool, Man Utd, Media

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25 Comments

  1. Jay says:

    Shameful Tweeters.

  2. Jay says:

    Actually feel sorry for their ignorance

  3. C says:

    Depressing reading indeed.

  4. Dr. Roberts says:

    Unfortunately this just goes to show that UEFA and the FA are still blindingly ignorant to racism in football. They claim constantly that racism isn’t such a big deal anymore; Sepp Blatter’s recent quotes about the subject come to mind. All they seem to be doing is sweeping it under the rug and covering their ears when it comes to the fore. It reminds me of when I was in high school, we used to play every dinner time and all the kids had those Nike sponsored ‘Kick It Out’ bands, the white and black ones. Anyhow, I still saw my Indian friend getting called a ‘paki’ and ‘nigger’ by the older kids, despite them all wearing those bands and ever since I’ve been incredibly cynical when it comes to the FA’s attempt to root it out. They spend a lot of money on campaigns, yet I hardly see stewards ejecting Arsenal fans after claiming Adeboyor’s father ‘washes elephants’, amongst other things.

    It’s a terrible shame that football still seems to be thirty years behind the real world when it comes to prejudice; the footballers, the tickets and everything else are more expensive, but the culture is the same as it was in the 70’s. Don’t even get me started on Homophobia in football, not least the FA’s incompetent attempt at, yep, starting a campaign. ‘Oh, no one wants to do it? Righty then.’ Sometimes I’m almost ashamed to call myself a football fan.

  5. Coolie says:

    Sorry not a twitter user, where am I looking?

  6. Patrick says:

    does a man who beats a women deserve any sympathy? I think not.

  7. Mr. Sparkle says:

    Well, if people are racist especially on the internet it only exposes their ignorance and inability to live in today’s society.

    At the same time, if racism is as persistent as it was prior to the 1980s well, theirs nothing that we can do at the moment to change that. I think people will take to the internet to make stupid statements even though they have a buffer to save them from making idiots of themselves.

    It’s a bit odd that anyone would think that racism has disappeared from the public consciousness like the idea of AIDS as a deadly killer in the Western World is no longer mentioned. Racism persists and is worse now because those that are racist, feel under threat and can only be racist in their own homes or behind the computer. I’m not vilifying or promoting racist beliefs, but at the same time closeted racism is just as bad as open racism. At the end of the day, people are not working toward bettering themselves or society by having these views.

  8. fletch says:

    @ Patrick

    He deserves to be called plenty of things for abusing women but the abuse hes got is completely unrelated to that.

    You’re just as the thick as the people on twitter for trying to provide excuses for them.

    Moron.

  9. SL says:

    It is sad, racism is wrong unless one of your own is doing it as Chelsea and Liverpool have proven.

    While its hard to feel sympathy for Collymore on a personal level, it just shows how many idiots there are out there. The only ones to come out of these episodes with any pride intact are QPR and both of the Ferdinand brothers for the way they acted.

  10. Riley says:

    Serious question:

    Could someone explain to me how the law works in the UK with regards to racist statements? From reading stories on Terry and Collymore’s tweets, I gather that you can be arrested for saying something racist. Is that correct?

    As an American, I value my right to free speech so much. I don’t excuse any of the people that Collymore favorited (in fact, I think they’re all morons), but in no way do I think they should be arrested. Here, people are free to say the most vile and repulsive racist remarks they wish (as long as it’s not threatening)and they won’t be arrested. I would disagree with what those people may say but I support their right to say it.

    I’m not trying to come across as self-righteous or saying the UK should be more like the US, or anything like that. I just wanted to give my perspective as an American on the legal issues surrounding these remarks and hopefully someone here can give me the UK perspective.

  11. Fletch says:

    @ Riley

    Weve got free speech in Britain as well, but people can also be charged with enciting racial hatred which this would probably (possibly?) come under.

    America will have something along the same lines surely?

  12. JJ says:

    Looks like the actions by the FA are making the racism issue worse instead of better.

  13. JJ says:

    The FA should rename their campaign from “kick it out” to “kick it up”, because that’s exactly what they’ve done.

  14. Fletch says:

    @JJ
    I agree, next time a player uses a racist insult against another player, the FA should just ignore it and hope it goes away.

    God forbid upsetting a few moronic scousers.

  15. Riley says:

    @Fletch

    Thanks for the info. I could be wrong as all states have varying laws, but I’m pretty sure that you can only be arrested for what you say if you physically threaten someone else. But again, I’m no lawyer so I could be totally off.

  16. J says:

    as an American, our constitution refrains the authorities from inhibiting free speech whether it is racist, hateful and/or ignorant. No government will never be able to eradicate racism from the public or private sphere. Its unfortunate that dumb people write dumb and racist statements but it will always exist as long as humanity exists whether it comes from white, black, Asian, brown or any other color.

  17. J says:

    The sad thing is that we are all racist and as long as we are different we will always not trust the other. Words are just words, nothing more. The fact that the authorities in the UK can prosecute individuals for inciting racial/ethnic hatred (ie. calling a black person the N word) is bizarre and to many Americans is seen as being “Nazi” like. Meaning that the government represses free speech despite it being ignorant and racist. In America, if someone threatens to kill someone they can be charged with a violation (non misdemeanor/felony). IE. In NY its harassment and punishable up to 15 days in jail.

  18. Dr. Roberts says:

    SL – As you can see from my earlier post, I am a fighter for all minorities, not just ethinic ones, and I happen to be a Chelsea fan. In case you were wondering, yes, I still think John Terry is a massive cunt and if found guilty he should be stripped of the England captaincy and receive a huge domestic ban. Most of my friends are Chelsea fans and we’ve all agreed on that. There are also plenty of Liverpool fans, I’m sure, that agree with the charges and subsequent punishment of Luis Suarez. Just to clear that up.

  19. No.5) Coolie, click on the favourites sections on the linked to page on Satn Collymore’s twitter account.

    No.7) Patrick, unbelievable attitude. Of course he deserves to be criticised for hitting a woman and various other things he has done, but how does that justify some of the remarks aimed at him? And Evra for that matter? Your ignorance is astounding.

    Some of those remarks were made by people who must be sick in the head and plenty were illegal in my view, hopefully the morons can be charged under the law regarding inciting racial hatred, and can be tracked down.

  20. I’ve just noticed, I’ve almost called Stan Collymore, Satan Collymore in my last post. It was purely an accident, lol!!!

  21. Fart Master Arse says:

    Boo hoo, big feckin’ deal
    Collymore is still a cunt

  22. Tom Jones says:

    A non story when you’re not posting anything about it.

  23. Grant says:

    @Fletch and @Riley, basically the only time you can be punished for racist remarks in the U.S. is if there is an immediate threat of inciting violence or if they are considered “fighting words.”

    Brandenburg v. Ohio is a case where a KKK rally was being held in the woods in Ohio and the Supreme Court of the United States said that the men were not guilty of provoking any immediate violence because they were out in the middle of the woods. That holds true even though the men were advocating the rounding up and murdering of Black folks in the area.

    The situation would be different if they were in the middle of a city and the police actually thought the speakers were in legitimate danger of fomenting a race riot. A tweet isn’t likely to do anything like that nor is a racist remark between two footballers.

    However a remark between footballers could probably be argued to fall under the loose definition of “fighting words” as outlined in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire as likely to result in an immediate “breach of the peace.” Using a racist epithet toward another footballer could start a scrum on the pitch which could develop into a larger fight between fans, which the police have an interest in preventing. If prosecuted in such a way, I’d imagine that you could bring a similar case in the U.S., though I doubt there would be much appetite for it over here. We would let the league or the sport handle it much like happened in the Suarez case.

    Broadly speaking, though, Riley is correct in the sense that we have pretty high tolerance for freedom of speech. It’s the necessary evil that comes along with democracy.

  24. Praga -SA says:

    as some readers have indicated that people will always be ‘anti-different’ and view human differences suspiciously..

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