Terry Connor on Black Lives Matter

[Deebo]

Article featuring former Leeds player Terry Connor on BLM

Terry Connor has highlighted the racism he has suffered during his playing and coaching career

Republic of Ireland assistant manager Terry Connor has spoken out for the first time in his 25-year coaching career about his struggles with racism in football.
The date is June 22, 2008. Paul Ince has just been named manager of Blackburn Rovers, becoming the first black manager in the Premier League.
Many thought and many more hoped that it was a turning point. But in the 28 years of the Premier League, only nine black men have managed in England’s top division.
One of those is Connor. He had 13 games in charge of Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2012.
“Maybe Paul getting that job will still change things,” he said.
“I worked with Paul for a few years at Wolves, and he deserved that job. It did feel like a big step forward, but it’s a process, and it might take generations for us to get true equality.”

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As a teenager, Connor was on the books at his home town club, Leeds United, in the late 1970s.
He’s told me – and his children – how he had to run away from white youths when he was a schoolboy player there, catching the bus to Elland Road from his home in the Chapeltown area.
Connor still remembers how he would always sit near to the driver on the bus, so that he didn’t have to run the gauntlet of the young white men towards the back seats. They would bully and beat him. Because he was black.
He’s experienced racism throughout his career, as a player and a coach.
The 57-year-old talks about the “overt” abuse he’s suffered from the stands, and from others in football, but he has much greater concerns about the hidden racism, that he feels points to a much deeper problem.

Football club owners must ask themselves why the number of black managers in the game remains so low, according to former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock
And for this, you can’t separate football from wider society.
He told Sky Sports News: “I remember when my wife went into labour unexpectedly, I rushed to the hospital in some scruffy clothes. The receptionist kept me waiting.
“I kept saying ‘excuse me’, but she kept on doing other things. Eventually, I said I was here to see my wife who was about to give birth, and she said: ‘Oh! I’m sorry. I thought you were a taxi driver.’
“I don’t think she had any idea about her prejudice.”
Terry Connor’s coaching career has largely run in parallel with Mick McCarthy’s – whenever the Irishman got a job, he wanted Connor alongside him.
He’s currently McCarthy’s assistant for the Republic of Ireland national team until both their contracts expire next month.
It’s a role he’s performed at Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Swindon, Wolves and Ipswich. But only under McCarthy, who he calls “inspirational”, has he been given the title of “assistant”.
He is sure that his skin colour meant he has been undervalued at times in the past, and not given a proper title.

Articles finishes here:
https://www.reporter.am/black-lives-mat ... ball-news/

[Deleted User 728]

‘Oh! I’m sorry. I thought you were a taxi driver.’
“I don’t think she had any idea about her prejudice.”

I'd love to think that the majority of white people in the country can relate to that.
I know I've said similar things in the past and I cringe when I think back to asking someone "But where's your family from originally ?" to be told "Lewisham" or somewhere like it.

That's unconscious racism and part of BLM is to educate people so they know that while it's completely unintentional it is still a prejudiced thing to say. I would guess that most of the country says things like that even now and that only active anti-racists will speak up and explain why it's not right. We had a conversation at work last week during some down time over the terms "Paki" and "Pole" - the question being why is one offensive when they're both abbreviations. I was really pleased when the woman asking got the difference after I explained the context one was used with in the 70s compared to another just being shorthand like "Scot", "French", etc.
Then a much younger woman than her used the term "Half-caste" and I said "You can't use that anymore" and started to explain BAME.
The next day she posted something ranty about All Live Matter on Facebook so I know she didn't get it ...

Little victories.
Keep on keeping on ..

[Wigan White]

‘Oh! I’m sorry. I thought you were a taxi driver.’
“I don’t think she had any idea about her prejudice.”

I'd love to think that the majority of white people in the country can relate to that.
I know I've said similar things in the past and I cringe when I think back to asking someone "But where's your family from originally ?" to be told "Lewisham" or somewhere like it.

That's unconscious racism and part of BLM is to educate people so they know that while it's completely unintentional it is still a prejudiced thing to say. I would guess that most of the country says things like that even now and that only active anti-racists will speak up and explain why it's not right. We had a conversation at work last week during some down time over the terms "Paki" and "Pole" - the question being why is one offensive when they're both abbreviations. I was really pleased when the woman asking got the difference after I explained the context one was used with in the 70s compared to another just being shorthand like "Scot", "French", etc.
Then a much younger woman than her used the term "Half-caste" and I said "You can't use that anymore" and started to explain BAME.
The next day she posted something ranty about All Live Matter on Facebook so I know she didn't get it ...

Little victories.
Keep on keeping on ..

This happened to a friend of mine who was asked which part of China do you come from, to which she replied "Wigan".

[Deleted User 728]

‘Oh! I’m sorry. I thought you were a taxi driver.’
“I don’t think she had any idea about her prejudice.”

I'd love to think that the majority of white people in the country can relate to that.

When I wrote that initially, I meant to expand the point : I would hope that most people are like that because it means they're not actively racist and just need a bit of a nudge in terms of the language they use and what they actually say to people.
I'm sure there's a hardcore percentage of racists that will never change, but it's the masses we need onside if we're going to get close to eradicating the problem .. or at the very least making it socially unacceptable. It's already illegal but that's not enough of a deterrant.

[Davycc]

Guilty as charged, in the form of having to think sometimes if the way I'm about to say something may be construed/is actually racist. The very fact I have to think shows I'm not totally there. I put that down to a era thing.

[Another Northern Soul]

If I ask someone where they're from it's because I'm interested, not because I've made any judgement on the matter.

[Selby White]

If I ask someone where they're from it's because I'm interested, not because I've made any judgement on the matter.

That is exactly how I see things especially on my travels. If I'm part of a tour group and you get get talking to others you have not met before the most common question asked by almost everyone is just that.

And again I've a genuine interest in travel and learning about different cultures and when i get talking to folk I usually want to know their background, history, etc.

[Deleted User 728]

If I ask someone where they're from it's because I'm interested, not because I've made any judgement on the matter.

Now you're being flippant

I meant it in the case of meeting someone non-white.
I've done it in the past but we can all grow as people and that's what everyone needs to do right now in the current climate if we're going to stop the far right taking advantage of Trump and Borisl..

This video sums it up far better than I can :

[Another Northern Soul]

If I ask someone where they're from it's because I'm interested, not because I've made any judgement on the matter.

Now you're being flippant

I meant it in the case of meeting someone non-white.
I've done it in the past but we can all grow as people and that's what everyone needs to do right now in the current climate if we're going to stop the far right taking advantage of Trump and Borisl..

This video sums it up far better than I can :

TBF I wasn't really, I have asked loads of folk of varying skin colour and ethnicity where they were from, out of genuine interest. As SW says, on your travels you can get asked it a lot, AND ask it a lot. Had a laugh about it actually in 2018 as there was a big group of families from the south at the same hotel as we were staying. One family was black and the dad was a Scum fan. So I asked him where he was from, knowing it wasn't Manchester, and he had a twinkle in his eye when he said 'England'. We shared eye twinkles though, it was funny
I meet loads of Leeds fans who are not from Leeds, it can be quite funny seeing them bristle just a tiny bit when asking them where they're from, knowing it isn't Leeds. I'm not being racist then either. We're at a tricky time in society again and I do believe that certain quarters like to get up to some mischief in such matters. I also genuinely believe that a lot of people don't fully understand the Black Lives Matter 'campaign', on both sides of the issue, with some really thinking it is implying that black lives matter more than other lives.

[Deleted User 728]

[ ... with some really thinking it is implying that black lives matter more than other lives.

And that's the biggest obstacle to the whole idea of eradicating racism.