The Racist Minority

Senseless racism by so-called Evertonians...

It is widely rumoured that Everton's meagre squad could soon be boosted by the arrival of Bobby Zamora from Brighton.  However, I would urge anybody that cares about the well-being of our club to read on and realise why, if Zamora’s got half a brain, he won’t go near us with a shitty stick.

Before the match, I joined up with a few of the lads at the King’s Head on the Fulham High Street.  I had suggested the venue, and it didn’t take me long to regret my decision as, when I arrived, I found that we were hemmed in by a mass of inebriate boneheads intent of inebriating themselves still further, to the point of near collapse.  It seemed that the only thing reviving their rapidly-flagging ‘spirits’ was the opportunity to spout orchestrated vitriol about Houllier’s heart attack, Emile Heskey being a ‘nigger’, killing ‘Pakis’, ’39 Italians down below’ and other such fulsome behaviour.

Sickened as I was by the torrent of filth that assailed my ears in the pub, I was still totally unprepared for the extent of what went on at the game itself.  Our supporters kept up non-stop renditions of the ‘Heskey will you be my slave’ song, added a song about Markus Babbel having Aids to the mix, and then excelled themselves with a stream of racial abuse directed at Fulham’s coterie of black players.

In the first half, especially, Rufus Brevitt (unfortunate enough to be playing at left back and therefore directly in front of our section) was the recipient of an unprecedented level of chants and monkey noises.  He responded by giving the crowd a ‘Nescafe Handshake’ on the linesman’s blind side, which (and I fear with no sense of irony) brought howls of self-righteous hurt and angst from the boneheads.  I hope the FA don’t decide to punish him simply for telling the truth.

At half-time, a collection took place for the Variety Club of Great Britain, and as the mascots and the Fulham girls toured the pitch one of our ‘supporters’ took the opportunity to throw a whisky bottle at them.  Two more bottles followed in the first half to my knowledge, one of them aimed at Steed Malbranque as he took a corner.  Malbranque then slammed the ensuing kick straight into the advertising hoardings, which the knobheads probably saw as a validation of their actions.

The chants continued throughout the game: Collins was booed every time he got the ball for the crime of having once played for Everton; one Boa Morte run was greeted with “get back on the fuckin’ jam jar!” by a bloke behind me; the ‘nigger’ chants grew ever more vehement... and so it continued.

When the brawl broke out, I even saw and heard one of the nobs going up to a policeman and saying that he wished to report ‘that man, with the white hair and the black body’, for assault on Weir.  Yes, the knobchops had mistaken Saha for Hayles...  Still, I suppose he’d justify the mistake by saying, “Ah well, dey all luke de fuckin’ same t' me”.

What saddens and angers me is this: firstly, this behaviour is increasingly prevalent at every away match that I attend, and I shudder to think of what will happen by the time we play Tottenham; and secondly, it’s increasingly common to see kids spouting this shite having been brainwashed by their parents.  I actually heard one girl of about 16 or 17 shout out “trigger trigger, shoot that nigger”; I hadn’t heard that for about 10 years, and she’s far too young to have picked up that one herself (her father’s look of satisfaction, turning around and grinning to all, spoke volumes).

What do we do?  The club have printed statements in the programmes at home games threatening sanctions against anyone involved, and making announcements at half time (when most of the arseholes will be emptying their straining bladders into the sinks at Goodison anyway).  While this is welcome, I do feel that the club now need to make a more concerted effort to rid the club of this poison, before it’s too late.  Many of these people will be season ticket holders, and they need to be identified and told that their support (and more painfully for the club perhaps, their money) are no longer welcome.  The club can’t hide behind the bland “it’s a small minority” statement any more, because it’s becoming a fucking big minority.

In order to take action, the club needs help to identify and isolate the perpetrators, and to do that they need the help of the genuine supporters — the ones that attend away games to watch football — not as an excuse to get pissed up and taunt black players. 

I will be writing to both Everton FC and Fulham FC to report what I saw and heard; while I can’t identify individuals at this game, I will do all I can to help.  We are witnessing a cancer, a hatred that feeds on itself, and if we don’t do something NOW then I promise you that it wont be long before we're back to organised violence, and possibly even deaths.

Dominic Lawson, a very passionate and clever Blue whose opinion I respect highly, described this behaviour as dealing the club a “death by a thousand cuts”.  Perhaps, Dom.  But maybe a “death by a thousand cunts” would be more appropriate…

Declan Clark