How racist were we ? (In the 70s)


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Icarebecauseyoudo

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A few black former players were discussing racism on 5live recently, and while they said the London clubs were the worst, we also got a mention as being bad

Were we particularly bad?

I started in the 80s and everyone still called Gary Bennett midnight :oops:
 
Wasnt alive then but it's changed massively over the past 20 years,cant remember the last time I heard any sort of racism especially in the ground
 
It was pretty bad, but not very much out of the ordinary for the time. One of the problems was that there were, at that time, very few black people living in the the North East, so it was a product of lack of experience of living and working with minorities, on top of the prevailing lack of awareness of racial issues.
 
I can remember some blokes behind me at the '92 semi final at Hillsborough, saying in broad South Tyneside accents, "let the darkie oot his cage" as Gary Bennett was warming up. My mate, who I was standing next to mentioned it not so long ago.
Even then, it was fairly out of the ordinary to hear, as it really seemed to change in the 90s.
 
I can remember some blokes behind me at the '92 semi final at Hillsborough, saying in broad South Tyneside accents, "let the darkie oot his cage" as Gary Bennett was warming up. My mate, who I was standing next to mentioned it not so long ago.
Even then, it was fairly out of the ordinary to hear, as it really seemed to change in the 90s.
We always called him midnight like, almost affectionately I thought. Smacks of ignorance rather than racism

Although when he crashed into me aunt's mother (he was pissed) I think it was a bit less affectionate ;)
 
My stepfather told me roly Gregoire was captured in a net in the jungle and shipped to Sunderland, no really

We signed him at a time when black players were beginning to make a positive impact, trouble was he was useless. Three or four games into his career with us a mate of mine turned to me, shook his head despairingly and said, "Trust us to find the only shit darkie in the league". Does that count as racist?
 
We were just as bad as anyone imo. The clocks in the early 80's where I stood was rife . Me and my mate would pray the opposition wouldn't have a black full back or it would be shocking.

Trigger trigger trigger
Shoot that ******
Which ******
That ******
Bang bang bang

This was sung regularly enough for me to remember it.
You'd be naive to say that the mags were far worse than us.
 
We signed him at a time when black players were beginning to make a positive impact, trouble was he was useless. Three or four games into his career with us a mate of mine turned to me, shook his head despairingly and said, "Trust us to find the only shit darkie in the league". Does that count as racist?
I never quite believed my stepfather , though tbf I never saw Gregoire ;)
 
That lad getting a life ban when Lukaku scored for West Brom is probably the last major case I can remember up here.

Most of it probably goes under the radar unreported I'd imagine though.
 
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