Racist Atkinson

[N.O.R.F]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3648051.stm

 

 

what did he say???

 

he called chelsea star Marcel Desailly a lazy fuc*in n!!ger,,,,

[LadyDotNet]

I did not even know I had said it

must be normal for him to make such statements, sounds like its probably part of his every day saying lol.

 

I was reading earlier how he mentioned that he was one of the first managers to give Black players a chance... So what? does that soften the blow somewhat..

[N.O.R.F]

my work mates showed it to me this morning, i cudnt stop laughin walahi, i know i shudnt have but they were like :eek:

 

whats said behind closed doors or off air is generally accepted by his employers, it wasnt the 1st time probably he said that,,,,,

[Thinkerman]

I was dissapointed to here the news this morning He was/is my Fav Pundit and English Football Figure.

 

But then am not supprised at the same time, this peeps are Cadaan, and old school, its an easy slip up, its always playin on their Mind

[Faheema.]

What a lame excuse and a pathetic apology.

 

AlwaysLearning I was thinking exactly the same thing when I read that this morning. Well I guess he was just being himself, showing his true colours and the camera happens to be rolling as he said that

 

Just goes to show no matter how many times the football industy says they have kicked racist out, there's always one lurking behind the goal post.

 

SAD

[N.O.R.F]

hes yr fave commentator???r u serious mate? i hated this guy for years and i think he is a crap commentator glad to see him go,,,,

 

funny how Carlton Palmer (a black player) came on TV defending him, this same Carlton Palmer who i had a confrontation with in a Sheffield Chicken and Chips shop, he was drunk, called me a Somali *&^% and to get back to my country,lol, very ironic,,,,,,ps i let it pass incase u all think i'm a thug

[Intel]

Originally posted by Socrates-1986:

ps i let it pass incase u all think i'm a thug

Good On Ya Mate!!

 

i'm pretty sure u had your hands full of chicken & chips anyway

[LadyDotNet]

...Cawo those people are old skool they will never change.

 

i'm pretty sure u had your hands full of chicken & chips anyway

He saw the size of him and decided not to bother ...

[N.O.R.F]

^^^^loooool

 

no, didnt wan my knuckles to bleed,,,,,

[N.O.R.F]

IAN WRIGHT: RACIST RON TAUNTED ME

 

Apr 23 2004

 

 

By Ian Wright

 

By Darren Lewis

 

 

FORMER England striker Ian Wright has accused disgraced Ron Atkinson of making him the butt of racist jokes.

 

Wright, now a BBC football pundit, claimed he was forced to call on Garth Crooks to intervene after being subjected to racist jibes by the sacked ITV commentator.

 

The 40-year-old alleged that the final straw came during the 2002 World Cup.

 

Wright said he told former Spurs player Crooks: "I don't like this. Every time I see Ron Atkinson he is making the latest popular racist joke at me and I don't really want to hear that."

 

The ex-Arsenal star claimed Crooks, who also works for the BBC and is a friend of Atkinson's, spoke to him and he apologised.

 

Yesterday Atkinson again insisted he was not a racist, despite calling Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly a "lazy f*****g n*gg*r" when he thought his mike was switched off after the Monaco game on Tuesday.

 

But during an interview with Radio Five Live, to be broadcast today, Wright said: "The fact that Ron has been such a force in the 70s when he has seen and heard what black players have gone through make it worse.

 

"For him to be making racist remarks in 2004? It's a joke. I am gutted about it. I don't know if he is doing it out of bravado or there are people that he was trying to have a laugh with but that is not the type of thing you say.

 

"We have done things before and I was around him when I worked for the BBC on football during the last World Cup.

 

"He was doing it for ITV. Now, Ron has a few people around him who are, like, high-profile broadcasters themselves. And he makes these little jokes at your expense.

 

"He did it to me a few times at after-game parties and I didn't like it."

 

Wright said that Atkinson's track record in working with black players was no excuse.

 

"He knows it's offensive.

 

"Lazy n*gg*r? That's like a plantation vibe. What's that all about?

 

"What really gets me is that I have heard his interviews about this and he says that he has taken his mike off and his headphones off before he says it.

 

"Does that make it any better?"

 

But Wright added: "I'm sure in hindsight he has realised the severity of what he has done and, to be honest, I have got no hard feelings against him. I am sure he has realised that he has made a costly, costly mistake."

 

Yesterday, 24 hours after his gaffe lost him his £200,000 a-year job as a commentator, Atkinson was sacked as a columnist with The Guardian and dumped from advertising campaigns with soft-drink makers 7-Up and the West Bromwich Building Society.

 

And during a tense live TV interview last night, he appeared close to losing his temper as he refused to comment on his future.

 

"I've said, and I've said many times, that I apologise to the people I have offended. I was totally out of order, is that not enough."

 

Asked if he was a racist, the 65-year-old replied: "Am I heck as like. Never in a million years. I made an unfortunate choice of words but no way in a million years can I be described as a racist.

 

"My reputation will stand up as being someone who has worked harder and longer with black players than anybody. I've given as many black players the opportunity to succeed in football than anybody else.

 

"Hopefully when the dust settles people will start to realise that this was a very bad error of judgment of mine and is outweighed by the number of things I have done for people."

 

Atkinson also won support from some of his former black players, including West Bromwich Albion legend Cyrille Regis - who has long campaigned against racism. Regis, who spoke to Atkinson on the phone yesterday, said: "I was shocked when I heard, as obviously I think anybody would be, but he has realised the gravity of his comments and paid the price."

 

Carlton Palmer also said ITV should give him another chance - and his job back.

 

"He is a very close friend. He has signed me at three clubs and I can say without any doubt he is not a racist."

 

Former West Ham player Bobby Barnes, a trustee of anti-racism campaign Kick It Out, said: "I would not say Ron is a racist.

 

"The comments he made are totally unacceptable but we have to remember he is part of a bygone generation when words like this were more acceptable than today."

 

But TUC president Roger Lyons said Atkinson's outburst set anti-racism efforts in football back 10 years.

 

At today's TUC Black Workers Conference he will call for Atkinson and ITV to be fined.

 

"The hypocrisy of Atkinson is astounding," he said. "This is a man who made his name from playing black players.

 

"He has now been exposed as a user and a racist of the worst kind. He should receive a life ban from Premiership clubs."

 

RA: "What in heaven's name was f*****g Ranieri thinking in bringing Veron on?"

 

Second, unidentified voice: "He'll get savaged by the press.."

 

RA: [in an increasingly animated voice]: "Oh and f*****g rightly so. And I'm sorry, but I f***ing think that f*****g Desailly is a cheating f***. That was wrong. He''s f*****g been gone for two and a half years! And instead of playing like an old man and saying 'alright I'll f*****g stay where I can''t get exploited...

 

Muffled voice in background

 

RA [continues]: "I've always thought that he has no awareness of danger. He is what is known in some schools as a f*****g lazy thick n*gg*r. That is a f*****g disgusting performance. Full marks to them though. They were f*****g different class."ATKINSON'S TV OUTBURST

[AYOUB]

'What I said was racist - but I'm not a racist. I am an ***** '

 

Last week Ron Atkinson caused a furore with his remarks about a Chelsea footballer. Now, in his only newspaper interview, he talks emotionally, and with remarkable honesty, to Michael Eboda, editor of New Nation, the leading newspaper for the black community

 

Sunday April 25, 2004

The Observer

 

'Big Ron' Atkinson has made a name for himself with his clever catchphrases and colourful cliches. In one moment of madness last week, though, he showed a side of his personality that was neither big nor clever when, speaking into a microphone he did not think was on, he referred to Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly as 'what is known in some schools as a ******* lazy, thick nigger'.

The next day Atkinson's world collapsed around him.

 

He resigned from his job at ITV. He had to give up his column in the Guardian. And he lost a fortune - as much as £1 million - when other commercial projects were ditched by the companies he was associated with.

 

To be fair, a phrase he often uses himself, Atkinson has been big enough to face what he did head-on. Instead of hiding, he held up his hands. During the week he gave a television interview to explain what had happened and apologised.

 

Yesterday, Atkinson opened the doors of his home in Worcestershire to sit down and talk about the worst week of his footballing life. He agreed to an interview with me because I edit the New Nation, the biggest-selling newspaper in Britain's black community, and asked for forgiveness from those whom he most offended. He wanted to 'put it all into perspective'.

 

I arrived at Atkinson's mock Tudor house at 9am. The gates opened on to a drive where a Mercedes saloon and a Jeep were parked. Atkinson greeted me with a grin and a firm handshake. 'Hello Mike, you'll get in trouble coming round here, ya know.'

 

After being ushered into his living room, we spent the next two hours talking frankly about what he said, why he said it, whether or not he can be classified as a racist, and football in general.

 

In reply to my opening line - 'It's been a tough week' - Atkinson said: 'I think I'd have been better off shooting somebody.

 

'I tell you what's been great, though. I've had tremendous support. Late last night, and I don't know the guy, Gérard Houllier [the Liverpool manager] rang me up. So has Sir Alex [Ferguson], Bobby [Robson], Terry Venables, Pleaty [David Pleat of Tottenham]. Loads of 'em.'

 

When one of the boys is in trouble, the football community certainly rallies round and Atkinson singles out a call from former Liverpool player John Barnes as a particular favourite. 'Barnsey said, "Ron, you're not a racist, coz if I wanted a job and you were in a position to give it to me you'd give it me. People who are racists are the ones who look at you and go [because you're black] you're not getting the job". He said: "You've always proved who you are with your actions".'

 

I ask Atkinson to take me back to last Tuesday when, after commentating on Chelsea's 3-1 Champions League defeat against Monaco, he was heard to utter those fateful words.

 

'I've got to the end of the game and I am so angry. There's a commercial break from what I can remember and I'm just talking to myself. And to be fair I've been critical of several of the players.

 

'And then your man comes up [big Ron can't bring himself to say Desailly's name]. My job is to analyse and I've criticised him in the match. Then I've come out with this infamous line, which to this day I don't remember saying. And it must have gone into the lip mike which has gone down to Dubai [the offending words were broadcast in the Gulf, but not in Britain]. I didn't know anything about it till the next day.'

 

He goes on to say that Andy Townsend, a fellow match summariser, was first to tell him that 'something's gone out on air and it's come out in the Middle East'. Then he rang a friend in Dubai who told him exactly what he'd said.

 

As Atkinson is talking, the doorbell rings. Maggie, his wife, comes in to let her husband know that someone called of Paul has dropped by. Paul is black.

 

Embarrassed, Atkinson insists this is not stage-managed, saying 'he's never been to my house before'. Paul is a local businessman and friend who pops in just long enough to say: 'Speak to you later, keep your chin up.'

 

After a while his mobile phone rings. 'Whereabouts?' says Big Ron. 'Gleneagles, Loch Lomond?' It's Jim Smith, the Portsmouth director of football, on the line, trying to organise a golfing escape in Scotland for the coming week. Eventually Atkinson tells his old friend: 'I don't think I'm going to be able to make it, after all that's gone on.'

 

Has there been a difference in the reaction from people who have nothing to do with football? He pauses before saying: 'I dunno. But there was a poll on the telly last night, and 82 per cent were in favour, not of what I've said, but of giving me a second chance.

 

'I've offended nobody more than me at the moment. Christ almighty it's cost me roughly a million quid. I've done my penance.'

 

An expensive mistake, to be sure, but what about the cost to his reputation - and why on earth was he so wound up about Chelsea losing? 'If it had been Man U, I would have been worse.' Pause for thought. 'Well, I wouldn't ... It's just that you want English teams in the final. We all do.'

 

So why hadn't he just shut up? Where had the racist language come from? Surely he realises only a racist would have such a word in their vocabulary? He concedes: 'What I said is racist, I understand that, but I'm not a racist. Don't forget, I was brought up ... look I've had pairs of shoes that have been nigger brown, that's what they used to say. Does that mean anything to you?

 

'Now I realise more than ever the implications of it but it never meant...' He trails off, but my impression is that he was about to add the words 'anything serious'.

 

The reason so many people were shocked is partly because of his track record as a manager. In the late Seventies, as manager of West Bromwich Albion, he brought through three black players, Cyrille Regis, Brendan Batson and Laurie Cunningham, who are now regarded as pioneers. For that reason alone in Britain's African Caribbean communities, Atkinson has had more respect than many other managers. What does he have to say to people who were, until last week, big admirers of Big Ron?

 

At this point he seems close to tears. 'Look, all I can say is sorry, I genuinely did not mean to offend anybody. What else can I say? I'm an ***** , but I'm not a racist. A racist is someone who won't give a black man a chance. My actions over the years prove that I have no problem with that. Not to my knowledge. I'm hoping that people look at the broader picture and see all the good I've done. I've never used that word before.'

 

'You know what, if somebody had said what I said about Desailly to one of my players, I would have got 'em by the throat and chinned 'em.' Then Atkinson asks me: 'Look, I've seen a black guy with the word nigga, or something like that, on his number plate? What's that?'

 

I explain that some young black people have, in an attempt to lessen the effectiveness of the word, used the term nigger, or nigga, as they spell it, as a term of endearment. I also tell him that most African Caribbeans see such people as misguided imbeciles.

 

Some gay people call themselves queer, I say, it's the same principle. Atkinson looks confused.

 

'But we always used to call gays queer, didn't we, you mean you can't...' Once again he trails of, this time with incredulity.

 

Then he offers an anecdote. 'I remember Brendan Batson, back in the Seventies after Arsenal got rid of him coz that wasn't their policy, had a chip on his shoulder, maybe rightly. But anyway, we were doing something in training and I dropped him and he said to me: "Boss, you don't know my problems." He was talking about racism. I said if that's your problem you've got it for the rest of your life. Two months later he was club captain.'

 

Of similar problems at West Bromwich, his advice to black players was: 'The way to overcome it [racism] is in the way you conduct yourself plus the way you play.'

 

He tells me another tale about a black footballer. This time it's former West Bromwich, Sheffield Wednesday and England midfielder Carlton Palmer.

 

'CP rings me, he says, "Gaffer, I've cracked it. I've played for England. I'm sitting here in my garden with a couple of cans of lager. And I've got a white gardener doing my lawn." Is that offensive? It isn't to me.'

 

We go go outside in the sunshine to take some photographs in his huge and impressive garden. The lawns are as big as Wembley. Atkinson emphasises again how he feels and says: 'Listen, when all this happened it was the worst day of my life in football. I really want to make it clear to the black community that I'm genuinely very sorry. I've apologised - I don't know what else I can do.'

 

Turning the tables, he decides to put me on the spot: 'So, tell me, do you think I'm a racist?'

 

He listens intently to my reply: 'I don't think you are a racist, but I do think you have a racist element in you and I don't think you are aware of what racism is.

 

'No, you don't see colour when you are giving a person a job, and that's how it's meant to be, but you come from an era when certain things were acceptable and I think you are not quite aware of what those things are. That's when you can become racist. I think that in the instant that you used the term nigger you were a racist.

 

'I don't think that had Desailly been white you would have mentioned his colour. You might have called him a lazy ******* , but you certainly wouldn't have called him a lazy, white nigger.'

 

He doesn't contradict me. I expect we'll see him back in the TV studios before long.