Peter Herbert, Chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, has an unimpeachable record as an anti-racist activist and campaigner. He was instrumental in highlighting the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in London, and the Met Police’s failure to bring justice to his family. He played a key role in the Anti Apartheid movement in the […]
Who Exactly is Herbert Fighting?
Peter Herbert, Chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, has an unimpeachable record as an anti-racist activist and campaigner.
He was instrumental in highlighting the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in London, and the Met Police’s failure to bring justice to his family. He played a key role in the Anti Apartheid movement in the UK and has worked tirelessly to get fair treatment for racial minorities in the Criminal Justice system in the UK.
But his interventions in the sphere of football have been absolutely disastrous. There is a problem with racism in football, he fails to address it. Instead he is grabbing the wrong end of the stick, and bashing the victims with it, rather than the perpetrators.
[linequote]His interventions in the sphere of football have been absolutely disastrous[/linequote]
First there was Mark Clattenburg. He claimed the FA were “institutionally racist” for not referring his alleged racist comments to John Obi Mikel of Chelsea to the police. When in fact an “institutionally racist” club, were peppering Mark Clattenburg with spurious allegations of abuse, to distract from the poor discipline of their players. But subsequently the FA found no evidence to support the allegations, the Police shrugged their shoulders over another waste of time. Peter Herbert had got it badly wrong, and a legitimate target of his campaign walked away scott free. Chelsea’s captain is a racial abuser in the eyes of the FA, their disgusting behaviour in the FA Cup semi-final during the Hillsborough minutes’ silence would suggest they require more attention than a ref with a hair transplant.
Now he has turned his attention to Tottenham in an opinion piece for the The Observer, condemning our use of the “Y-word” in chants. Importantly he appears to argue that the near fatal attacks that Spurs fans got in Lazio were somehow caused by Spurs calling themselves the “Yid Army”.
He says: “The link between the appalling incidents in Rome and the “Y” word chanting is obvious. The chanting of the word simply legitimises anti-Semitic abuse by other fans.” It’s hard to read this any other way by calling themselves the “Yid Army” Spurs fans were asking for a stabbing, or at least creating a climate of opinion where the racist abuse Lazio gave us occurs.
But unfortunately for Peter Herbert, events have again bitten him on the arse. A small section of West Hams seem to have agreed with him – chanting “Viva Lazio” and “Can we stab you every week”, even worse we had the return of “Adolf Hitler” chants and the gas oven hissing that used to be Chelsea’s specialism. Using Herbert’s own argument – we brought that racist abuse on ourselves too, “the chanting of the word simply legitimises anti-Semitic abuse by other fans”, as he said. So if the FA investigate and charge, Spurs should be charged too by his argument. If the police become involved, the abused should be in the dock as well as the abusers.
What angers me the most about all this is how a complete misunderstanding of the context in which the “Y-word” is used has lead to the victims being tarnished as the perpetrators. We all know this – Spurs fans took the term “yid” as a badge of honour, not only to neutralise a word being used in racist abuse against us for decades, but also as a badge of honour – to take the stick used to beat us from our abusers, and use it to fight back. It’s a familiar argument in our culture. Like the use of N-word by rappers and the term “Queer” by the gay rights movement, to similarly turn a negative to a positive – to turn the tables on the oppressor to redefine the language used about them.
[linequote]What angers me the most about all this is how a complete misunderstanding of the context in which the ‘Y-word’ is used has lead to the victims being tarnished as the perpetrators.[/linequote]
Abuse is about power, who hold it – and who does not. Powerless in the face of racist abuse, with nothing done for decades, Spurs fans sought to change to agenda – by becoming the Yid Army, no matter their colour, sex or sexuality. What the events of the past week have taught us is how near to the surface real racial abuse is, as Spurs fans know from the fascist concentration camp chants we face regularly. We also know as sure as shit that, Peter Herbert or no Peter Herbert, nothing will be done about it.
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19 Comments
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27/11/2012 @ 8:47 pm
Maybe the civil rights protesters in America in the 60’s were ‘asking for it’ according to Herbert’s argument for ‘legitimizing’ racism and violence against them by standing up to it? Because that is what he is saying isn’t it? That it is our fault, by standing up to racism, that we are racially abused??? Am I interpreting this wrong because that seems to be exactly what he is saying! It is a nonsense argument that completely ignores both the history of the use of the word and the intention with which it is used by Spurs fans. A word is a word and its meaning changes over time and if the intention behind the word is noble then the word follows as noble also. Believing that racism is inherent in words is a juvenile and incorrect view of it that shows little thought or moral intellectualism. Good article too!
27/11/2012 @ 8:49 pm
he is a dirty racist lowlife scum bag himself!!! he and his black lawyers can go and fuck there racist selfs!!! i’m a yid and i’m proud of it!
27/11/2012 @ 9:12 pm
I bet Herbet didn’t notice that, in all the vitriol and hate directed towards Spurs and Jews on Sunday, the West Ham fans didn’t once call us Yids. They didn’t use it because they couldn’t use it…because it’s ours.
This recent aggravation with East London and Italian extremists hasn’t come about because of what we say. What we say, has came about because of the attitudes of these extremists. We’ve taken away one of their weapons, Peter Herbet and the SBL needs to focus their energy on taking away the rest…if they truly wan’t to combat racism.
27/11/2012 @ 9:15 pm
excellent point!
27/11/2012 @ 9:16 pm
I might be being deliberately obtuse but if the Society of Black Lawyers are saying that using the “Y” word condones racism surely calling themselves the Society of BLACK lawyers condones it in the same way.
28/11/2012 @ 12:43 am
You are so right and for using the word Black, He should be arrested for discriminative segregational racism.
27/11/2012 @ 10:23 pm
Any society of lawyers is about self-promotion first and foremost. With that in mind, now Mr Herbet has forced himself into the limelight he isn’t going to go quietly. Being wrong I doubt concerns him overmuch.
27/11/2012 @ 11:06 pm
He and every other liberal facist is taking on everything that’s traditional about this country by being racist to white working classes because they’re the easy targets, the church gets it as well and Christianity is the one religion its acceptable to criticize I wonder why? Don’t get me wrong I’m proud to call myself a yid and live near stamford hill surrounded by Jews and I do think it was disgusting what west ham were singing but I find it more offensive towards the British soldiers and people during ww2 that gave their lives and was killed by nazis and it don’t surprise me that nobody looks at it from that angle and my family came here from Ireland just after the war so I don’t even have relatives in England back then. Surely some of them thick west ham fans must have relatives who was here in a country that the nazis declared war on!
27/11/2012 @ 11:08 pm
I believe the tern ‘Christian’ was originally used as an insult and the followers of Christ reclaimed the word in a similar way.
27/11/2012 @ 11:16 pm
In about 20 years time in this country you’ll probably be stoned to death for using the term Christian. I was wondering are we spurs fans racist for singing dvd, dvd,dvd! To lee young pyo?! Oops!
27/11/2012 @ 11:21 pm
Doesn’t Society of BLACK Lawyers suggest racism, what’s wrong with The Law Society? Doesn’t this shout out that Herbert believes in segregation, are white or Asian lawyers not good enough?
Frankly this smacks of discrimination.
27/11/2012 @ 11:25 pm
‘yid’ should be banned endof. if we dont use it others will stop saying it eventually. Get a grip. dont even like the fucking word
28/11/2012 @ 9:45 am
how many times did you hear the actual word ‘yid’ used by West Ham fans on Sunday??? I didn’t once and I was right next to them. They don’t do it as an anti-semitic insult or to wind us up because it is OUR WORD. We have nullified it as a racial term and I will keep saying it because of what it stands for for me and fellow Spurs fans.
27/11/2012 @ 11:37 pm
Tay- and is there any other words u would like banned in this democratic country of free speech?! Your the one who needs to get a grip and get a mind of your own instead of being influenced by the media’s current agenda. I know spurs songs about wenger and van persie but of course a racist is worse than a paedophile or rapist in this country now. If people wanna use the word yid as a badge of pride for their support of spurs or whatever its their choice
27/11/2012 @ 11:54 pm
“Who exactly is he fighting?”
Simple really, whoever will result in getting him the most time in front of a camera or inches in a newspaper. I don’t know if I should be more annoyed at him or the media for giving him a voice. Personal agendas of both him and Baddiel have brought our historic links back into the public eye. I find it hard to believe that Thursday and Sunday were simply a coincidence after how the media circus kicked in with the threats aimed at Spurs by Herbert. If they want to genuinely tackle the problem then they need to work alongside Spurs and Spurs’ fans rather than sporadically popping their egos in front of a camera, gobbing off and then disappearing behind a steel curtain until they have another inane soundbite to hand the press.
28/11/2012 @ 12:23 am
The Yid Army chants have been around for approximatley 30 years now, in that time the racism that was rife 30 years go has diminished. We cannot say it has ever gone as there will always be bigots and people who are afraid of change of culture. However in the last 30 years football has moved on massivley. So whilst we have been chanting this apparent racist chant and encourgeing other supporters to be racist against us, the hissing and Belsen song have actually reduced in use. Then out of the blue this Lawyer decides to become the nations consicence. Given all the media attention he has heaped upon this issue is it any surprise that idiots from these two teams have decided to prove him right?
To me to is like saying a woman brought attack on herself because she wears a short skirt, or a person brought bullying on themselves because they are weak/ different.
28/11/2012 @ 12:25 am
I’m not sure if Mr Herbert cares about people, or he is all about cheap publicity, I’m sure both are required in his line of work, but in reality nobody should care about what you say about an issue , if your words are not designed to show any sense of care towards those in pain, Any group or association that gives any excuses for any act of violence on any group is virtually giving its support to the act, in my opinion no matter the conditions , human safety, Free will and dignity, must be highlighted over cause or reasons for any violent crime.
28/11/2012 @ 11:20 am
If Peter Herbert’s motive is to combat racism in Football, then that’s a noble aim because as the John Terry affair proves, there is a problem. Mr Herbert has an extraordinary track record in combating racism, which makes it all the more puzzling that he is making such a mess of this.
He needs to find his enemies where they are, and they are not Spurs fans and Mark Clattenburg. Not everyone will agree with Spurs fan’s appropriating the “Y-word”, but he and David Baddiel have to recognise there is a context for it and and argument in favour of it that has been used elsewhere in our culture.
But it’s important to note that the racial abuse we get on the terraces doesn’t come from “liberal fascists”, if anything its from actual fascists. Herbert is misguided, he is making it worse, but he is not racially abusing Spurs fans.
The cause and reputation of Spurs fans is not furthered by calling West Ham fans “pikeys”, the Romany community were another target of the holocaust, so this really does undermine our argument.
By the way, it what a bloody opening goal by Jermaine Defoe!
28/11/2012 @ 1:21 pm
The author- u just proved my point, your still digging out john terry for saying ‘i didn’t call u a black cunt’ now I’m sorry but that ain’t racist and that is the only thing he’s admitted to saying. If someone walked up to me in the street and said ‘did u call me a black cunt?’ I’d say exactly the same thing back that terry did. Noticed how its been forgotten what Rio Ferdinand said(choc ice), frimpong (dirty yid cunt) labour mp Diane Abbott and plenty more because its acceptable to be racist to white people. Herberts enemies are white people, your rite about the pikey thing but big deal, what about when spurs fans used to sing about Matthew harding should of got the train?! After the terry case u all jumped on the liberal bandwagon taking the moral high ground not realizing we’ve been almost as bad and that they would come for us for saying the word yid. What is a racist these days? I’m struggling to narrow it down from everybody at this rate