Three Lions

English Football can be beautiful, but it can also be ugly.

Following England toppling out at the last moment of Euro 2020, some "football fans" showed their ugly side.

Many will now have heard of the racist abuse directed at Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho.

Why do England "fans" do this?

You have twenty-two men representing your country to the best of their ability, facing the spotlight and winning time and again in real style.

Then the minute they lose you unleash the ugliest side of yourself to attack them anonymously online.

Why aren't we past this?

Rashford, Saka and Sancho are now the three lions of English football in my mind, standing up against the basest English instinct and representing a diverse and beautiful England full of colour and diversity.

Continue to roar guys.

Black power rises again

Lewis Hamilton gave the black power salute at the Syrian Grand Prix this weekend.

It is interesting that he is doing it only now and not choosing to kneel.

Kneeling was the gesture favoured by Martin Luther King, while the fist in the air (black power salute) was popularised by the Black Panthers and Malcolm X.

Hamilton has said he is committed to fighting racism, full article here.

However, the salute he is choosing, though perhaps more powerful than kneeling, is attached to a violent and at times racist movement.

So what am I saying!

Simply that I hope Lewis Hamilton hasn’t fallen in with reactionary Black is best politics, as the Black Panthers sometimes suggest.

He is a symbol of black achievement and that in itself is a powerful force against racism, it could be argued he no longer has to put his fist in the air, but maybe he feels he does.

Curry smells heavenly

Honestly, it does.

When presented with racism that equates pervasive food smells to just one race of people.

I find my mind is full of rants.

Until I come to put pen to paper and then it all seems so absurd I can only write the words.

Curry smells heavenly.

Fear of flags

I have a strange relationship with my own union flag and I put it largely down to tendencies towards racist discourse when it comes to my own state.

When I was young I learnt to associate the St George and the British flag to a large degree with racism, bigotry and empire.

I wasn't the only one.

Warning

At University we would deliberately avoid the pubs that displayed the flag on the outside, because it was often code for narrow minded attitudes inside.

This wasn't exclusively the case, but you can see why I would grow to see the symbol of my nation as something toxic.

From that day to this I have yet to wear one, display one or wave one.

Dark times

To allow you to look through those eyes you might realise why the Olympics that passed a year or so back were interesting for me.

Things were tough here, really tough.

There had been recently been rioting in the capital and many, many people were out of work.

The younger generation was rapidly being lost.

Watching from the cheap seats

Thus the attitude to the Olympics in the media and by many people I spoke to was very jaded, a lot of people saw it as a waste of money.

When it happened I had no tickets for the able bodied events, I simply had the TV.

However watching Jessica Ennis storm to victory on the large TV in the local pub, which did put up the union flag for the occasion, found me shouting wildly at the television.

I dubbed her Superwoman to a friend later.

A hero

To me, she was amazing.

She was short, like myself, she was a woman and she had won a complex athletics event at a time when everything around me looked like failure.

But more importantly than that she was mixed race and she was wrapped in my flag, a double victory.

Those year's of shame at the words that often seemed to be attached to that symbolism was in a moment shaken.

In taking the flag and winning she provided a potent image of an ethnically diverse and successful Britain.

More please.

Taking the piss for a better future

The Hebdo attacks had my mind whirring, partly because I'd never even heard of the cartoons (admitting to ignorance), and partly because I'd become bogged down in British politics and being reminded of the spectre of terrorism again left me reeling.

So my reaction was first tears, then to join a throng of Je Suis Charlie, only to turn tail when someone described the publication as racist.

While I do not wish to live in a racist world I also do not want to live in a world where religion reigns supreme.

Yet the question rising in my mind is why do I not know about this publication and what does that indicate? Is it their failing or mine?

Freedom of speech

At school I often felt different and left out, so I dislike bullying behaviour and people without compassion.

However, having been that odd ball I value my voice and by that I mean my ability to criticise and argue with anything.

By that I do not mean a right to hurt people and if the Muslim world wishes to take the piss back, let it do so, but that is not the same thing as killing someone.

Let's not play holier than thou

In our supposedly feminist championing West a girl who challenges things often finds themselves unpopular and criticised in a way that most men wouldn't accept.

That can mean as much the devoutly religious girl, as well as the devoutly atheist one.

Then again, getting less male attention generally means you get more done.

So thanks for taking the piss guys, I probably wouldn't have got three A grades at A level without it.

Ridicule is a great weapon

My mistake was to stop taking the piss of things I didn't agree with.

But I and everyone else would do well to remember that you can take a joke too far.

My beliefs are as important as anyone else's and yes Atheists do believe in things.

Ignorance is still the biggest bully going.

To ban or not to ban

I found an 'uncut' version of the fantasia pastoral symphony.

There are some highly offensive depictions of black centaurs.

The person that has posted the YouTube clip is encouraging the film to be enjoyed 'in the spirit of the time'.

I find this idea deeply disturbing.

What it has taught me about the 'time' is that in it Disney's moral compass was way off.

The poster is expecting to be banned.

Should it be banned?

Child's eye view

It exposes how reprehensible Disney's depictions used to be and shows to me how this individual's judgement is skewed.

However, would it appear this way to a child?

Should we be taking this post down to protect innocent eyes.

I know that when I was young I saw the censored version.