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Quote: from Salselon on 11:57 am on Mar. 8, 2006[br]<br>But … why in this age aren’t people allowed to criticise "minorities"? Who said anyone’s opinions of Rishi were down to his race? FFS.
<br>Because Salselon, many of those who criticise Rishi Persad play the race card. If criticism of Rishi is based on his perceived lack of gravitas or racing knowledge, then that’s the complainer’s prerogative. Unfortunately, when people scream about him only having the job because of the colour of his skin, then it’s easy to assume that there may be a degree of bigotry involved in the criticism. Just a generic observation, btw, and not a dig at anyone.<br>
(Edited by rory at 12:38 pm on Mar. 8, 2006)
Salselon, I mentioned minority becuse if you look through numerous old posts here you will find many who have referred to him as a ‘token’ hiring.
Unless I sat down with him I am unable to judge how deep his knowledge of racing actually is, so until then will reserve judgement. As someone said earlier, he is hired to do a certain job, and it is a matter of opinion whether he does it better than others. Since Lydia hasn’t been brought up within the racing circle, I tend to find her opinions somewhat more objective, so if she says Rishi is knowledgeable I will accept that opinion till I am convinced otherwise.
re. Persad I am not a fan.<br>One thing being "knowledgeable" and a "nice guy" but if he cannot convey anything much useful when on air then what is the point of him being a broadcast journalist?<br>
(Edited by Lingfield at 10:37 pm on Mar. 8, 2006)
….that’s the point though: as burroughill says, is he meant to be a journalist?  ÂÂÂ
he seems to be more on the "fluffy presenter" side in a Thommo-type role.
is on record as saying:
"I grew up watching the Morning Line on Channel 4, and I must admit that when I started working with them I thought I had reached the pinnacle".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s … 145409.stm
best regards
wit
Exactly. He does the job he’s paid to do, and perfectly adequately. At least he doesn’t let his personality dominate the conversation, which Thommo and Mac do when interviewing people. OK he’s not overburdened with wit and personality, but that’s not what he’s there for. He’s pleasant, polite and easy on the ear and the eye.
[OK he’s not overburdened with wit and personality, but that’s not what he’s there for. He’s pleasant, polite and easy on the ear and the eye]
I WOULD HAVE USED THE WORD INANE. I REALLY DONT RATE HIM.
SHL
Great stuff as expected from the "Queen" of racing. Lydia quite rightly ducked my invitation to have a pop at her TV peers but did see fit to defend Rishi P which seems to have sparked further coment as to his ability. I couldn’t care less if he was green with pale blue spots, but I find him a lightweight when it comes to overall racing knowledge, and his interviews banal. His interviews of winning connections, jockeys etc at last years Festival review which have been shown recently on RUK are a case in point. His stable tour with Paul Nicholls was awful because of the silly things he kept saying, and you could almost sense that Nicholls was embarrassed for him.
The only time I have had cause to speak to Persad was outside York Station last summer. My mate and I had just come out of the entrance and at the back of about 30 people in the taxi rank queue was Persad, presumably on his way to do a shift for RUK. I did a double take as one does when seeing someone off the telly, and we made eye contact. I looked at the length of the queue and said to Rishi in a friendly manner, "50 yards down on the other side of the road is the racecourse shuttle bus – 2 quid a go and you’ll be there in 5 minutes, and we might mark your card as well!". At this stage I must point out that the bear and friend are a non-threatening pair of handsome coves, were suited and booted, and carrying the international sign of the racegoer (Racing Post). We were highly unlikely to be after his wallet or to be intent on kidnap! Persad looked at me as though I was something he had just scraped off the bottom of his shoe and looked the other way! Sensing I was about to give Mr Persad a piece of my mind, my mate grabbed my arm and ushered me away with the the following piece of advice – "Come on bear, don’t let that stuck up ****
ruin your day, he’s obviously up his own arse". Wise words of course, and I consoled myself with the fact that when he eventually did get his taxi he ended up sat in someone elses p**s
!I would like to think that if it had been Lydia in that queue, she would have linked arms, and joined us on the double decker, or would have been decent enough to acknowledge my existence, even if it was only to say "Thankyou for the offer but I wouldn’t be seen dead on public transport!".
bear,
i’m sure you’re a nice chap but have you considered that you might be a bit "full on" for all tastes?  there are folk who just like to be left alone in the street.
on your own account of the York incident, someone else might have put a different interpretation:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
i’m standing in the cab queue minding my own business. ÂÂÂ
this bloke and his mate clock me as the only black in the queue.
they make eye contact, come up to me, look up and down the queue and say with a smile – mind you, all friendly like – why don’t i go take the bus instead and they’ll "mark my card". ÂÂÂ
i look at them a bit shocked but don’t want to say anything, so stay stumm and look away, hoping they’ll leave me alone.
one of them them then looks like he’s about to start something but his mate starts swearing at me and pulls him away.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
<br>you do seem to have gone very quickly from "non-threatening" to abusive. ÂÂÂ
do you suppose that made him feel that he had made the right or the wrong snap decision in the way he reacted to your initial approach?
this from an interview he gave to The Voice:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br>Racing is still seen as an establishment sport, but he insists those tempted to attend a meet should do so.
“Black people probably still think racing is for a certain type of person and we are not it,â€ÂÂ
I have always respected bear’s postings on this forum. But from his/her’s most recent offering I have had to change my opinion.
What a complete and utter asshole!
I do not think Mr. Persad is the greatest racing journalist in the world, but he isn’t the worst either. The job he is employed to do for the BBC – i.e. report on the race in hand & the aftermath of the finish in an all- encompassing way, for not just the knowledgable punters whom have been into the game for years, but also those new to the sport, is perfectly adequate.
I have to ask you bear: If this presenter, that you clearly have a personal problem with (just because he didn’t take to your unkind, and unfriendly spiel at York train station) was just a regular white guy presenting & reporting on racing on TV, would you have the same problem with him?
It seems that, unfotunately, many people in this game still think that it should still be run by, and reported on, exclusively by white, heterosexual males – with no exceptions.
Welcome to the 21st Century!
(Not that I am suggesting you fall into that category at all, bear). :rolleyes:
Give the guy a break.
(Edited by Pegwell Bay at 6:22 am on Mar. 10, 2006)
pegwell,
on my reading, that’s probably too unfavourable an interpretation of what bear did.  i just used the black aspect as an illustration of how someone else might have seen it.
it seems bear actually approached him because he was the only tv presenter in the queue.
but even then, there’s an implication in bear’s approach that a tv presenter on the street is some kind of dancing bear, who can reasonably be expected to perform whenever a passing member of the public recognises him/her and feels like yanking their chain – and that its fair game to swear at them if they don’t see it the same way.
what comes to me from the anecdote is that bear sounds a bit forward and "full on", rather than in any way malevolent.
one of the greatest human rights IMO is the right to be left alone – whether its by boisterous racegoers or whether (Razeen’s example on the lounge thread) by various button-holers on the street.
it may be that some tv presenters would have fallen in line with bear’s expectations, done a quick jig, and have been lauded as "professional" for doing so.
i don’t think that detracts in any way from the right of other tv presenters to draw a line and refuse to fall in with such expectations on the basis they’re not performing 24/7.
seems to me just as likely that had he tried it on a (in terms of public projection) strong-minded lady like lydia, she would have done a princess anne on him. ÂÂÂ
would he, or his mate, then have felt justified giving her "a piece of my mind" ?
best regards
wit  <br>
I think the race issue is being overstated here. Most people’s criticism of Rishi is with his racing knowledge and quality as a presenter, which is as it should be. Saying people are picking on him because of his race is wrong I think; I don’t think they are.
As for approaching anyone in a queue; I’d never dream of doing it! It must be awful for presenters to try to blend into the background and just keep themselves to themselves. <br>When I was at Leicester recently, Mike Cattermole was presenting and Thommo commentating and I was heartened to see that neither of them was once approached by a member of the public for a chat or an autograph or anything. Leave them alone I say!
Quote: from bear on 10:11 am on Mar. 9, 2006[br]Great stuff as expected from the "Queen" of racing.
she’s the queen of racing! are you having a bubble;)
Dear All,
Can I just clear up a couple of things. You may not believe it but when an opportunity arises I always try to help people out, particularly strangers, and to be friendly and courteous. I am not blowing my own trumpet, nobody knows who I am on here anyway, and only mention this to try to explain properly what happened at York.
Trust me I am not an in your face sort of person by any means, and if Persad and I had not made eye contact when I was a good 10 strides away would not have spoken to him at all. We did however and my suggestion that the bus service over the road was a better possibility was made in an extremely well mannered and courteous way. I fully take on board that people have to be wary nowadays, but a was a response of "It’s Ok I’m fine thanks" too much to ask? Again you will have to trust me, but the look Persad threw me was so supercilious as to be unbelievable and he came across as completely aloof. I stood there gobsmacked for a few seconds, at which stage my mate pulled me away. His comments about Persad and his behaviour were made further down the road out of his earshot as, and again you will have to believe me, we are both by nature non-confrontational.
Yes the only reason I spoke to Persad and no one else in the queue was because I recognised his face off the telly, and I fully accept everyones right to privacy, but I am afraid he actually made a point of being ignorant which was the reason I recalled this incident in my earlier post. I feel I must equate this with the one instance when I have spoken to Nick Luck. At the Cheltenham September meeting I was in the Arkle bar queueing for a coffee just before the last race. Luck and a lady friend joined the queue behind me. The milk for the coffee was in a jug on the table. I ended up swilling some milk into Lucks drink, he thanked me and asked if I’d had a good day. I explained that I was on my own, had driven 200 miles to get there and hadn’t backed a winner all day, so milking his coffee was just about the highlight of the day! He laughed, spent a couple of minutes chatting about this and that and then we both moved on.
The old saying of treat people as you find them comes into play here I think. I have bumped into Persad once and found him an ignoramous, I have bumped into Luck once and found him charming. Skin colour never entered the equation.
Irisgift1 – not sure what having a bubble means to be honest, but Lydia is royalty in my house, well to me anyway, the wife and kids don’t know who the hell she is!
I feel I should vouch for Bear’s character (although I haven’t met him). He’s certainly strong in his views, but is probably rather misunderstood round these parts. He’s too eloquent and self effacing to be an ignorant b*stard.
Ironically, the only time I met Nick Luck was at a black tie event which we were both guests at, and despite me being a thoroughly endearing kind of bloke, and not a crazed celeb stalker, he wasn’t uber-friendly (far from nasty though, just a little offhand). Lydia was also there, but I believe I was dragged away from her before I could wow her with my casual charm and witty repartee. That’s my story anyway.
<br>
(Edited by rory at 11:43 am on Mar. 10, 2006)
Thanks for that Rory, don’t like to be branded as something I’m not, even on a virtually anonymous Racing forum.
I didn’t read it as branding you a thug, bear – but I can completely see wit’s (beautifully put) point.
If he didn’t quite catch what you said, and especially if someone ‘off-the-telly’ had had previously had bad experience with abuse from punters, I can understand him simply trying to ignore you.
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