SHOW Racism the Red Card campaign manager Jordan Allison has called on Holyrood to take action to educate the population on the damage that anti-Catholic and anti-Irish language can cause.
Allison welcomed the widespread condemnation the alleged singing of The Famine Song received from both Celtic and Rangers fans following a march through Glasgow city centre before the Old Firm game at Ibrox back in August.
“For Show Racism The Red Card and other anti-racism education charities, there are four ways racism can manifest itself,” he said. “That is if you are racially prejudiced because of your skin colour, your religion, your nationality or your culture.
“Some of the language in videos we have had sent to us – which include phrases like ‘go home’ – are appalling. It is no different to any other form of racism or xenophobia. Whoever utters those words is using racist language.
“Referring to the historical movement of people from Ireland is xenophobic. Xenophobia is hatred or prejudice towards people from perceived different countries, communities and religions.
“The language is racist towards people from different countries and different religions. You are telling an entire community that calls Scotland its home to ‘go home’. What we are hearing is horrific language. We feel Scottish football has so many more positive stories to share. There is no place for that language.
“It is targeted towards a marginalised community and it is racist. Historically, ‘go home’ is used against migrant communities. It is the sort of language the far right use. It is not welcome in Scottish football.”
Allison added: “We need everyone to come together to condemn it. The alleged ‘go home’ chants in Glasgow were almost universally condemned by both Celtic and Rangers supporters as well as politicians which was encouraging to see. The more we see unity in the face of that kind of language the less it will be tolerated.
“The Catholic community in Scotland tell us that sort of anti-Catholic, anti-Irish language is normalised in the workplace, in society and in some football chants. Far more needs to be done to educate people on the hurt that can cause.
“Racism is far bigger than football. What football can do is provide positivity and unite people. It needs addressed by the government.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel