The problem isn't a single word

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The quote of the week from Peter Herbert, taken from this article.

"The link between the appalling incidents in Rome and the "Y" word chanting is obvious. The chanting of the word simply legitimises anti-Semitic abuse by other fans."

How can anything be perceived as legitimising racism? Yet more creativity from Herbert in avoiding the real issue at hand. The actual racism itself, which is being passed off as a by-product of Spurs having Jewish supporting heritage and the context of claiming an indenity in defence of racial attacks with the Y-word dismissed - which is what Herbert appears to be obsessed with currently.

I hope that the SBL had plenty of people present at White Hart Lane, as promised, to record evidence. Although quite how they plan to present this evidence to the FA/police, with a straight face (of Spurs fans singing 'Yid Army') in comparison to some of the 'terrace banter' a sizeable minority (or should that be majority) of West Ham fans chanted...I don't know.

Songs about Hitler, stabbings, Viva Lazio, Nazi salutes and other anti-Semitic 'classics', hardly surprising. Granted, they had more material than usual thanks to events in Rome. Did anyone truly expect them to turn up and not be classless? It's a minority but it's an ever-present one.

We can delve into the complexities and try to theorise whether the removal of Spurs fans saying a single 'word' will suddenly eradicate the behaviour of opposing fans and get caught up in an eternal cycle of disagreement and semantics. Are those being derogatory truly racist or do they simply chant racism because of the identity we have that was birthed because of the racism aimed at us in the first place? From experience, there is genuine venom and hatred displayed towards us. A belief that even if most Tottenham supporters are not Jewish, we are deserving of anti-Semitic abuse because we're all representative of each other.

If someone is racial abused you don't blame that person for inciting it because of their skin colour. So much of the problem at hand transcends football. Within football itself there remains an assumed freedom where certain individuals deem it acceptable to behave with disgrace. The problem isn't a single word. A single word doesn't fuel a fire that someone else started. The problem is the words that others speak because they feel free to do so. Words being ignored by certain authorities and people designating themselves as authorities.

There's far too much deflection of responsibility and not enough action. If it suits an agenda it finds its way into the wider public domain. Which is why it's left to us, in the stands, to fight back with a single word because most of the time the rest of the world have their mouths tightly shut.