HAVE YOURSELF A VERY TERRY CHRISTMAS

Racial abuse is big news right now. Luis Suarez, the Liverpool footballer, has been banned for eight matches for calling Patrice Evra “negrito” (a neutrally factual term in Uruguay he claimed). John Terry has been charged with racial abuse by the Crown Prosecution Service for calling Anton Ferdinand a “black c***” – but note it’s not the “c” word that’s provoked the storm. Be very careful not to argue with the Times leader on Thursday which said “Kick racism out – racial abuse cannot be countenanced”. Look at Sepp Blatter’s battering (battering Blatter though is fair game) for downplaying the whole concept. A post-match handshake would sort out any misunderstanding he suggested. Flogging, crucifixion, disembowelling would not be too bad for thoughts expressed so vilely. And now Aidan Burley Tory MP is going to be prosecuted in France for going to a party where people dressed as Nazis. What a prat. Why bother the lawyers? I want to describe the two occasions when I was racially abused. The first was when I played cricket for a team where I was one of only two white guys playing for my team. We played against another team that I think was totally Afro Caribbean and Asian. I batted three. As I walked out early to bat the mutter went round “watch out for dat honky bastard”. As a succession of quick, short pitched deliveries peppered me accompanied with cries of “murder de whitey” and so on, something strangely powerful happened to me igniting my competitive instincts. It was one of my better innings because I had fun, irritated them and I felt I’d been put on trial and survived. Bruised and laughing. The second was in Osaka when a colleague and I were unceremoniously ejected from a “no-gaijan” bar. He being South African was especially outraged and described my phlegmatic response as being “Uncle Tom-ism”. I felt slightly irritated but glad to know what it felt like being discriminated against for having a big nose and smelling of cheese. We need to be intolerant of racism but careful not to let words change our world. The 1955 film “The Dam Busters” still earns plaudits apart from Richard Todd’s final words addressed to his Black Alsatian “Come on Nigger”. My uncle, Walter Mycroft wrote the screenplay. He’d be sent to gaol if he wrote that now, unless of course he was black. Happy, diverse, tolerant and racism-free Christmas…oh and make that New Year and forever too. Ice Cold in Alex Man Friday