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… and I get equally unsettled by obvious cheap and unfunny posts like this (above) that use outdated and unaware terms like ‘coloured’ but more importantly bundle their idea of minorities all together in a way that screams ‘subconscious sense of superiority’ in a bid to ridicule what they see as ‘political correctness gone mad’ by lashing out and trying to offend as many people as possible in what they see as a ‘ so obviously a parody I couldn’t possibly be seen as offensive’ way as possible.
Bringing the need for ‘diversity’ into every little thing is clearly silly but at the other end of the scale missing the point and giving bigotry a nod is more worrying.
I am not missing the point Mr Wise, I am just fed up with all the calls for representation in every area.
Anyone with a concern should be pointing out obvious candidates who are clearly, and, deliberately, being shunned from a position they are fully qualified to be rightly considered for. Maybe, just maybe, they don’t even want to be on the F***ing program anyway.
Frankly, I don’t give a Donald Duck who is on the Sunday Forum. I don’t watch it at all. I have usually fully considered all the points they will be talking about, for myself, well in advance. The issue is tedious for me.
Don’t aim the term bigotry at me pal. You don’t know me. Don’t make assumptions. Too many people are making petty accusations and too many are willing to take offence at the drop of a hat. My wife is disabled and I have gay and lesbian friends. I also have muslim friends. They all love me and know the way I treat minorities. Get off the high horse and out of the pulpit Mr Wise. Judge not, lest ye be judged in your little ivory tower.
DILLIGAF
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
So your Discriminating against someone who is Dyslexic? PC only works one way i guess!
****
I’m not discriminating against anybody.
….and I know I’m not alone when I smile wryly when I read the likes of ‘some of my best friends are (fill in the relevant blanks) therefore ‘I can say what I like on the subject and offend as many people as possible without suspicion ‘…..pal!
….and I know I’m not alone when I smile wryly when I read the likes of ‘some of my best friends are (fill in the relevant blanks) therefore ‘I can say what I like on the subject and offend as many people as possible without suspicion ‘…..pal!
You do sound like you should be alone. For the sake of the rest of humanity.
This is a non-thread, an utter irrelevance in terms of horse racing and life in general.
NGAFBY
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
There are many suitable candidates employed in the racing and betting industries.
You need to name several to give your original assertion any credibility. Not doing so reeks of having no argument in a thread of already dubious relevance to the modern world.
Horse Racing is largely an incestuous business and the costs involved mean that the common man’s involvement is usually shovelling the S**t or sticking the rent money on a billionaire’s nag.
Sticking someone on a panel, just to have a darker face to broadcast, is on no benefit to anybody, other than some self-satisfied box ticker, who can rest more easily at night, smugly thinking that they have single handedly pushed forward the frontiers of racial diversity by getting a darker skinned person into a Horse Racing studio.
You started the thread, you claimed that there are loads of candidates. It doesn’t work on a “You do the research basis” You have claimed to have done the research already, you need to name those suitable candidates. Otherwise it comes across that you are lying.
Get the names up, or close the thread.
“Meanwhile, outside Horse Racing’s tiny microcosm, the real world carried on.”
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
I don’t think there are many non-white racing fans. I can think of two in the Ladbrokes Coral office and only Rory Jiwani, Twitter personality Keejay and good old Rishi spring to mind in the racing media. I tend to stay inside my own little circle but I can’t think of any more.
I agree with SteveCaution and don’t think this is any reflection on racing’s big employers. I’ve never heard any accusations of institutional racism outside of this thread. So long as panels, presenting teams and editorial staff are representative (I believe they are), the status quo is just fine.
Gladiateur’s opening post refers to one specific ATR programme, however, many of the responses, yesterday’s report (featured in a RP story) and Nick Rust’s response to it have widened this ‘discussion’ to one about diversity in the industry and in general.
It seems that racing is a sport that’s lagging behind others and society as a whole in its attitudes. This can’t be healthy (whatever any given racing fan thinks of multiculturalism, feminism, class, etc. – and of the concept of positive discrimination). I perceive that there is a larger degree of institutional bias within racing than is desirable.
Therefore, highlighting the issue, making people think and talk about their attitudes towards diversity is of value. Unfortunately, the high percentage of petty point-scoring and accusations, the attempts at trivialising the matter via ‘humour’ and the opinion-suppressing demands in this thread are noxious, revealing and ultimately disappointing for TRF. Are we no better than the social media platforms criticised by Simon Nott in his thread “Why is racing overflowing with negativity, bitterness and resentment?”?
Therefore, highlighting the issue, making people think and talk about their attitudes towards diversity is of value.
What value? Of value to who?
The bottom line is that the best qualified person should get the job, irrespective of race. Nothing should be handed out just to balance up numbers. If a football team has 7 black players and 4 white players nobody in their right mind is going to suggest we need to get in a couple more white players.
Fine, have an opinion but don’t have a little go at everyone else purely because they might have a different one. You have talked about perception, there is a difference between perception and fact.
Therefore, highlighting the issue, making people think and talk about their attitudes towards diversity is of value.
What value? Of value to who?
The bottom line is that the best qualified person should get the job, irrespective of race. Nothing should be handed out just to balance up numbers. If a football team has 7 black players and 4 white players nobody in their right mind is going to suggest we need to get in a couple more white players.
Fine, have an opinion but don’t have a little go at everyone else purely because they might have a different one. You have talked about perception, there is a difference between perception and fact.
Well spoken!
Sorry, but I hit the wrong button. I don’t wish to report!Best Wishes
SilkI don’t think there are many non-white racing fans.
Walk into any bookmakers in South London and you’ll see just how wrong you are.
You need to name several to give your original assertion any credibility
Erm…. No I don’t. You need to look at the racing industry as a whole and ask yourself why there is such a lack of representation of both ethnic minorities and women in the sport.
Therefore, highlighting the issue, making people think and talk about their attitudes towards diversity is of value.
What value? Of value to who?
The bottom line is that the best qualified person should get the job, irrespective of race. Nothing should be handed out just to balance up numbers. If a football team has 7 black players and 4 white players nobody in their right mind is going to suggest we need to get in a couple more white players.
Fine, have an opinion but don’t have a little go at everyone else purely because they might have a different one. You have talked about perception, there is a difference between perception and fact.
How kind of you, Stilvi, to grant me permission to have an opinion! Actually I was trying to avoid being subjective in favour of stating an objective perception. Nobody can know the pure fact because it is not physically possible for one person to be present at all times at every component site that makes up the racing industry. However, is it not true that the sport is dominated by white males at its higher echelons? And the recent report I refer to says “there were (several) examples of discriminative, prejudice and bullying behaviour…including ageist, sexist, racist and homophobic abuse”. Yes, the participants in the survey upon which the report is based number ‘only’ 394 but what more substantial evidence is available? Certainly the BHA take the report very seriously.
So if indeed the objective perception I outlined is correct then of course the reaction from and action taken by the governing body to it, which will make people within the industry think and talk about attitudes to diversity, is of value. Value to those people affected by the current attitudes of others, value to those who, unwittingly or not, are bigoted and may learn not to be, and value to the industry as a whole in how it is seen by those working or considering working within it and in how it is viewed by outsiders.
(Not that enlightened attitudes will necessarily lead to the best qualified person getting the job irrespective of anything. Sadly it would be naive to think that in any business – society in general still has a long way to go. Also, the reality of negative discrimination in the past has led to the reality of positive discrimination. Two wrongs don’t make a right but it’s the best societies can do and we have to live with it.)
I asked the question: is TRF better than other social media platforms? I ask is it the home of intelligent discussion? In my experience generally it is but not I fear this thread. I criticised (or had a little go – and if I want to who are you, Stilvi, to tell me I can’t?) not everyone but some posters and not based upon any of them having a different opinion to me but on grounds I believe justified, particularly by the following comments (grammar corrected):
“So who do you suggest they have on it? Lenny Henry? Frank Bruno?”
“Name some?…Don’t hold back from what you’re saying, there’s a massive list coming”
“I can remember the last time Sheikh Mohammed was seen on TV…playing Mr Rham the conman.”
“What about a tin of black paint?”
“I heard there is a coloured, female, dwarf…” (Comment continues in similar vein)
“She’s one to comment about appearances. At least his is fixable.”
“Gladiateur…should be banned.”
“Perhaps it is you who ought to be banned…for crimes against the English language.”
“You do sound like you should be alone. For the sake of the rest of humanity.”
“This is a non-thread, an utter irrelevance in terms of horse racing and life in general.”
“A thread of…dubious… relevance to the modern world.”
“Get the names up, or close the thread.”
Seriously folks, just re-read these comments and my quote from the report “there were (several) examples of discriminative, prejudice and bullying behaviour”. What objective perception can be formed?
You need to name several to give your original assertion any credibility
Erm…. No I don’t. You need to look at the racing industry as a whole and ask yourself why there is such a lack of representation of both ethnic minorities and women in the sport.
Yes you do.
This thread is utter pish and should have been locked by now. The moderation on this forum is severely lacking at times.
As far as I am concerned, you are a liar, who cannot back up their assertions. Take your pish elsewhere.
This thread would have been closed on most forums. NO PROOF = NO THREAD
Come on Mods, give The Racing Forum some credibility as somewhere for intelligent discussion, and not a typical forum for self-centred liars who are unwilling to back their claims.
Is there no pride in site quality here?
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
NO PROOF = NO THREAD
All the proof I need was on last week’s Sunday Forum.
It’s available online, in case you were too slow to catch it live.
There’s not many ethnic minorities who are into racing, that’s the problem. Saying that there’s loads of afro-carribean guys who are watching racing down a betting shop in Peckham might well be true, (and I’ve worked in one) but then by the same token can you remember seeing many asian or black spectators at a typical race meeting? The number is very low.
If you think about where the “racing folk” are actually based, who actually work within racing, they’re based at places like Lambourn and Newmarket which have a predominantly white population. So finding someone with a racing background, is highly unlikely.
But to say that it doesn’t matter who they have on the panel, well I’m afraid that might have been true before but we’re living in the 21st century now. You have to be ethnically diverse. There’s a large population of asian and Black people out there who might well be more encouraged to follow racing if they see a positive figure on their screens who they can identify with, and preferably not a cliche spouting machine like Richi.
So what racing could do is go out and headhunt someone from other parts of media, (I presume that’s how richi got his job- he wasn’t in racing in the first place?) or hold some kind of audition process. I mean to give a similar example, the eggheads employed this guy Dave, now quizzing is similar to racing in that it’s a predominantly white activity, but obviously the producers realize not everyone who watches the show is white. So Dave is hardly the best quizzer in the world and they could have put 50 white guys in there who are probably ahead of Dave, but wisely they decided to mix the panel up a bit.
As I said you might have been able to get away with saying it doesn’t matter who is on these panels before, and from your perspective you might well be right, but in a wider sense we are living in a different world now. Actually to get a better view on this I recommend watching the documentary OJ-made in america. If nothing else because it’s brilliant.
This thread is a load of political correctness bollox and is one reason why I don’t bother posting on this forum.
This thread is a load of political correctness bollox and is one reason why I don’t bother posting on this forum.
Gosh. What are the others?
Mike
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