“While we do not believe that Keith Jackson is racist, his words propagate racial stereotypes and serve to entrench divisive ideas about marginalised communities.”
That is a very damning indictment of any journalist from an NGO such as SRtRC.
I thought that the racist conflation of anyone from Colombia with cocaine trafficking and organised crime was too atavistically obtuse even for the Daily Radar.
However, Mr Jackson appears to have managed it.
I am lucky to have friends and colleagues from Colombia and I can imagine what they would say to the award-winning chap if they had the opportunity.
Colombia is a very dangerous place to be an investigative journalist.
Of course, that is an endeavour that Mr Jackson has only learned about via Netflix.
I do not think that the utility function of the piece on Sevco’s Colombian player was to smear an entire country with the sickening sicario brush.
However, I was aware that there had been a high-Level diktat for the putative value of Alfredo Morelos to be inflated.
Perhaps this was the off the radar attempt.
Like most his work it was unimpressive.
As SRtRC stated it propagated racial stereotypes.
As well as seeing billionaires where none exist Mr Jackson has previous on the subject of racism in Scottish football.
I remember him on BBC Radio Scotland in early 2009 stating that he didn’t find anything offensive about the Famine Song.
Moreover, he explained that he didn’t want to see a dreadful day when the game in Scotland was “sanitised” (his word).
I reminded my Twitter following of this earlier today.
Anyone who has read Minority Reporter will know that I was a journalistic pest to SRtRC back in 2008 and 2009.
I felt that they were slow out of the blocks to tackle the racist nature of the Famine Song.
However, that was then and I note now that SRtRC has a sound position on Anti-Irish racism.
I first started to look at the Fitba Fourth Estate back in 2008 when I covered the Famine Song story.
I’m not sure what I expected of them.
Now, I didn’t’ expect them to be fluent in the Miliband–Poulantzas debate or the main themes in Philip Roth’s later work.
I would be amazed if any of them thought of Albert Camus when the absurdity of goalkeeping was discussed.
Most of them probably think that the Schleswig-Holstein Question is something to do with having to keep taking the Pils.
However, in 2017, I really DO expect them to get racism.
The statement from SRtRC should be clear enough even for the sports desk at the Daily Radar.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I have noticed you don’t monetize your website, don’t waste your traffic, you
can earn extra cash every month because you’ve got high
quality content. If you want to know how to
make extra $$$, search for: Boorfe’s tips best adsense alternative
Jackson is to journalism as is Pedro to football management.
It’s hilarious that the Daily Radar is being kept alive by Ibrox facing readers considering Jacko introduced them to the Motherwell billionaire with wealth off the radar.
Jackson is the epitome of the Scottish fitba media – a ‘writer’ who could never ‘hack’ it anywhere else because his exclusives are mince; his copy from a subs point of view is rubbish. He’s given free rein to write what he likes – which is a pile of utter crap. The DR is run mostly by huns and he’s the main man. Sports journo of the year voted for by his pals. It’s a joke.
Thomas Kenneally wrote a brilliant book called the Three Famines looking at Ireland, Bengal and Ethiopia and finding the bloody fingerprints of imperialism all over the human tragedy of mass starvation. We have, as childrenof the famines, much in common with the peoples in all parts of the world who have overcome such horror. Racism is the default position of ascendancy and its American cousin white supremacy. It has no place on our terraces and should have no place in our media. Perhaps it is time to turn our backs on it once and for all. Great post Phil. Thanks.
Is Mr. Jackson a member of a professional body or trade union ?
Surely he must be taken to task for this piece of crap.
I can imagine him chuckling to himself at how many narcotic related references he could get in such a small throwaway piece.
He is a buffoon.
Scotland…The Dungheap Of Europe!
Bang on the money, Phil! Racism has NO PLACE in society, football, or anywhere else. It still exists in many underhanded or subtle ways. Showing it the red card is the only way – zero tolerance for a few generations and the youth will not even consider it.
GENOCIDE NOT FAMINE.
Yip
agreed!
I now do my utmost to avoid anything said or written by that toxic apology for a journalist. In fact toxic apology for a man. His knowledge of football is zero, his knowledge of any history other than Orange Lodge propaganda is less than zero and his skill with a pen falls a long way short of that of a gnat with severe learning difficulties. The fact that any organization employs him in any capacity is beyond my understanding and indeed says much about that organization. He has nothing positive to contribute to society. He is simply wandering around the planet using up oxygen that could be going to some decent human being.
Phil, I read your article and was bemused. Then I clicked the link and within a sentence all was made clear. I feel you should give a feel for the idiocy that Jackson oozed because your piece is seriously bereft of any reason why this odious piece should be vilified. Unless you want people to click the link – which they should!
The more I see of this Scotland The more saddened I get ,
Too many people in Glass houses. K Jackson is a poor journalist, however he is only guilty in this article, of being as misguided as he has always been. I don’t think he intended to offend. I am sure we have all been guilty of the odd “turn of phrase” that, we wished we could retract. To use this as a defining moment for you, in your judgement of Scotland suggest’s to me that you have a more misguided agenda than Mr Jackson himself. Clutching at straws in the safety of your glass house.Bizarre
Phil, the Famine Song, by it’s title alone is unacceptable in today’s society. The literal meaning of the word ‘Famine’ is ‘extreme scarcity of food’. The title in itself is derogatory and isn’t exactly something that should be sung about.
However, the lyrics of the song are despicable, insulting and degrading to a nation like Ireland that is recognised throughout the globe as a welcoming, progressive and friendly country.
Added to that, they are insulting and degrading to one of Scotland’s all time great football managers. It is pretty clear who they are referring to when they mention ‘Large John’.
I would also like to meet the genius and learned historian who decided that the line about refuelling U-Boats should have been inserted. I would respectfully challenge that same genius to provide documented evidence of the IRA ever refuelling a U-Boat. Absolute delusion, but then again, it comes from the land of complete and utter delusion, the terraces of Ibrox.
And then the line ‘You’ve persecuted thousands of People’…..We’ve persecuted thousands of people??? For the love of Christ, give me a break, what bollocks!! Try looking in the mirror and towards the establishment you so blindly subscribe to, which in it’s day persecuted millions!!
It’s clear to see that whoever penned the lyrics to this ‘harmless little ditty’, which isn’t at all ‘offensive’ to sane and clear thinking people, doesn’t have the brain power to put a factually accurate song together.
As for Athenry Mike being a thief, at least he wasn’t an Identity thief like Sevco, stealing the history of another club, which in turn stole 14 trophies from a fair few clubs in Scotland. Hypocrites and cretins, whose aim is to do nothing but incite racial hatred.
Finally, to sing a song in reference to the needless deaths of millions of Irish people is nothing short of criminal and how it can first be deemed as harmless by Keith Jackson and secondly, accepted in today’s society in modern Scotland, truly beggars belief.
I invite Keith Jackson to head over to Berlin or Vienna, to go to a football match there and start singing a ‘harmless’ song in the stands mocking the Holocaust. It wouldn’t be long before he saw the inside of a prison cell and not for a short period of time either!
Then again, modern day Scotland isn’t exactly a progressive nation when it comes to racial hatred, is it?
Well said sir!
Excellent reply truthful and accurate, something the Sevconians don’t want to hear, uncomfortable truths v comforting lies, etc. Well done!
What an excellent post.