The article that appeared in the Scarborough programme on Saturday 21/3/98 is reproduced here.
Thankfully there was no crowd trouble in our home fixture with Cardiff earlier this month and what a difference it made to have away supporters at this fixture again. Surprisingly the chat on the Internet mailing list has hardly touched on the football itself. The hot topic, which has generated a huge number of emails, was the Swansea crowd's chant referring to the ethnic origin of the Cardiff chairman.
There were two distinct views on this; one, that it was a bit of harmless banter and, two, that it was racist and offensive. I leave you to decide in which camp you belong, but here are a few excerpts from emails of both sides…
I must point out the singing referring to their chairman however. I personally didn't think it was racist, I just thought it was banter. I sung "You can stick your happy shopper up your £$£^", but I ain't a racist!
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Excuse me????? To most people's minds, including the ones singing, if they have such a thing, I think "Your club's owned by a Paki" is racist. It worries me that anyone could think otherwise.......
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I agree. There were 2 young Asian lads standing on the North Bank close to me on Sunday. They were obviously big fans of the club wearing their replica tops, but they are hardly likely to be encouraged to bring their friends/family to the Vetch when this sort of chanting is going on.
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I stand by what I said on this one. I didn't think it was being racist, for the simple reason it weren't meant maliciously. I think you are being a touch too paranoid about this. Picture this..... replace paki with taffy - is it still racist?
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For those who are apologists for Sunday's "Paki..." chanting; let me ask you these questions: Would you be happy to be sitting in a pub full of white males shouting the same stuff at a lone Asian girl in the corner?
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I am of Indian origin and have seen many other Asians scattered around the North bank, but hope that after Sunday they take the same stance as me and vow never to visit the Vetch again. I know Swansea fans have always baited black players, even when they have their own, but Sunday's chanting sounded like something out of the 70's. They deliberately targeted Kumar because he's a "paki". When Rick Wright owned Cardiff did you here "owned by a Koala" bellowing out the North bank- I think not.
A reminder that the supporters Internet address is http:/www2.prestel.co.uk/gmartin
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