Matches Homophobic chanting

Lives are probably destroyed by homophobia, I guess. But lives are destroyed by all sorts of issues (you can die laughing !) and I see something like drugs - which you conveniently don’t mention, preferring to quote bullying and abuse - as something far more important in trying to drum in to peoples mindset, especially young people. I’m not particularly bothered by the LGBT movement, it doesn’t affect me, doesn’t overly bother me and something I’m not particularly interested in. What’s wrong with that ?

If I want to disassociate myself from something like this and prefer Instead to take more interest in things I consider way, way more important - like the issues I’ve mentioned - why shouldn’t I ? Who are you, or anyone else for that matter, to tell me what I should support and what I shouldn’t ? I couldn’t really care less, I’m my own mind not swayed one bit by a load of left wing box ticking. As I’ve said, you can’t directly die from being gay but you can from taking drugs and I’d say those issues I pinpoint count for thousands more deaths a year than.

I‘ve got better things to do than, as a heterosexual man, worry about LGBT awareness. It might be at the top of your list and fair enough, it’s low down on mine. Where’s the problem when I consider there are far more pressing issues to donate time to ?
So if I was your child and came to you and told you about the bullying and violence I had suffered. What would be your reaction ?
Something like.. "go away I'm not interested" ?
You state that Oxford United should not be involved in Politically/sport led campaigns on LGBTQ+ issues do you also have that same view with the "kick it out campaign" against racism which is also a sport/politically lead campaign. You have just acknowledged and stated that homophobia destroyed lives the same as racism.
So should you now be condemning both campaigns ?
 
Are we in danger of turning this into a "If you're not with us, you're against us" scenario?

On a different tangent, Stockdale has been lauded for bringing the matter to the attention of the referee and I don't wish to denigrate that act for what it has achieved, but given that this probably wasn't the first time he had worn a pink jersey and almost certainly wasn't the first time that he had derogatory comment's directed towards him, why did he chose this game to react in the way he did?
 
That’s because those countries aren’t really very keen Christians on the whole - they’re fairly secular. The one that does have a lot of keen Christians, the US, is now a hotbed of intolerance and conspiracy theories and almost fell victim to a far right coup last year. Your figures about Muslims sound iffy but even so I would expect most young Muslims to become more secular and for gay and female Muslims to assert themselves.

Not sure why you’re trying to make light of the chanting issue when most on the board have been very positive?
Yeah agreed on the US - the US isn't rated a top tolerant society though so I don't see how it's relevant. I'm not saying all western Christian democracies are tolerant I'm just saying almost all, if not all of the top scoring tolerant societies are western Christian democracies.

The figures about Muslims come from Statista which is a trusted source which you can check out if you want. Do you have conflicting statistics?

These hypothetical young progressive Muslims have an enormous battle on their hands - over 50% of UK Muslims in 2016 believed homosexuality should be illegal (poll conducted by ICM). 39% agreed that “wives should always obey their husbands”, compared with 5% of the country as a whole.


Anyway back to the original point - this might be the best time to be gay in the UK.
 
Last edited:
Yeah agreed on the US - the US isn't rated a top tolerant society though so I don't see how it's relevant. I'm not saying all western Christian democracies are tolerant I'm just saying almost all, if not all of the top scoring tolerant societies are western Christian democracies.

The figures about Muslims come from Statista which is a trusted source which you can check out if you want. Do you have conflicting statistics?

These hypothetical young progressive Muslims have an enormous battle on their hands - over 50% of UK Muslims in 2016 believed homosexuality should be illegal (poll conducted by ICM). 39% agreed that “wives should always obey their husbands”, compared with 5% of the country as a whole.


Anyway back to the original point - this might be the best time to be gay in the UK.
I don’t have stats cos I’m just idly chatting. But I note that immigrants birth rates tend to fall to the level of their new countries after a generation or two. Anyway why are we talking about Muslims now? A bad thing happened, but look here’s another not very related thing!
 
So if I was your child and came to you and told you about the bullying and violence I had suffered. What would be your reaction ?
Something like.. "go away I'm not interested" ?
You state that Oxford United should not be involved in Politically/sport led campaigns on LGBTQ+ issues do you also have that same view with the "kick it out campaign" against racism which is also a sport/politically lead campaign. You have just acknowledged and stated that homophobia destroyed lives the same as racism.
So should you now be condemning both campaigns ?

Well for a start racism is a broader topic than LGBTQ+, wars have been fuelled on the back of race. LGBTQ+ seems to want a big voice when it’s a relative minority. It doesn’t mean it’s insignificant - and I wouldn’t trivialise it - but I’m perplexed why so many straight people are clamouring for their football team to don rainbow shirts and LGBTQ+ slogans etc. My point is, why ? It‘s why I openly admit it doesn’t interest me, I’m not gay so why should I be that bothered ? If I want to put energy towards what i consider distant causes then your movement - with respect - would be near the bottom. Nothing personal, I’m just being honest in what I’d consider to be a priority.

For what it’s worth I do think football gets too involved in race. For all its involvement are we really much further forward now than we were 50 years ago ? Thankfully archaic behaviour like chucking bananas at black players has subsided but that’s been overtaken by booing and jeering, just as blatant when it comes to identifying the victim. It’s like the taking of the knee, who’s it for ? A handful of idiots in every thousand who are too stupid to even realise. 995 out of every 1000 are ‘normal’ and don’t need educating. I’m 57 and I do not know a single racist and have probably only ever come across a couple in my lifetime. Unless you’re a racist the taking of the knee is, by definition, irrelevant. What’s it teaching a non racist ? Absolutely nothing.
 
Last edited:
I think it's clear that Dick is part of the problem. Fortunately he is very much a part of a sad minority.
 
Rather than all hanging up the guy, shaming him for having a different viewpoint , and essentially trying to shut him down….perhaps we let Dick express himself. Listen to his views. And in a calm considered unemotive way try to respond to his points.

I disagree with his views but the world is stronger from listening to a range of views and talking them out gently.

Force them underground and they can’t be addressed or evolved.
 
Apathy to prejudice is not all it’s cracked up to be. I like this quote from Sacha Baron Cohen (and not just because he moved to Perth), particularly the bit in bold:
I always had faith in the audience that they would realize that this was a fictitious country and the mere purpose of it was to allow people to bring out their own prejudices … I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist. Borat essentially works as a tool. By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice, whether it’s anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism. I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, “The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.” I know it’s not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it’s an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.
 
SO, AFTER A FEW DAYS TO CALM DOWN AND REFLECT....


1. I'm still massively proud to be an Oxford United fan.

2. The chant, in my eyes, was indeed wrong in every sense. However, it was also not a gut filled hatred rant. I took it to be lazy and poor judgement.

3. I'm proud that the Oxford United fans didn't join in

4. I'm proud that the Oxford United fans shut the chant down as quickly as they did

5. I'm pleased that the culprit appeared to realise their mistake, stopped and didn't repeat the event

6. I'm pleased that we've been able to discuss it

7. I'm so pleased I don't have to watch Wycombe play football every week


These are my reflections. Some of you may not agree and that's okay.
 
SO, AFTER A FEW DAYS TO CALM DOWN AND REFLECT....


1. I'm still massively proud to be an Oxford United fan.

2. The chant, in my eyes, was indeed wrong in every sense. However, it was also not a gut filled hatred rant. I took it to be lazy and poor judgement.

3. I'm proud that the Oxford United fans didn't join in

4. I'm proud that the Oxford United fans shut the chant down as quickly as they did

5. I'm pleased that the culprit appeared to realise their mistake, stopped and didn't repeat the event

6. I'm pleased that we've been able to discuss it

7. I'm so pleased I don't have to watch Wycombe play football every week


These are my reflections. Some of you may not agree and that's okay.

Disagree about this bit.
 
Rather than all hanging up the guy, shaming him for having a different viewpoint , and essentially trying to shut him down….perhaps we let Dick express himself. Listen to his views. And in a calm considered unemotive way try to respond to his points.

I disagree with his views but the world is stronger from listening to a range of views and talking them out gently.

Force them underground and they can’t be addressed or evolved
I agree with Ricky on this.

Cancellation is the new scourge of the 2020s...listen to the other guy, whether you agree with him or not, and you might just learn something
 
Apathy to prejudice is not all it’s cracked up to be. I like this quote from Sacha Baron Cohen (and not just because he moved to Perth), particularly the bit in bold:
I always had faith in the audience that they would realize that this was a fictitious country and the mere purpose of it was to allow people to bring out their own prejudices … I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist. Borat essentially works as a tool. By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice, whether it’s anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism. I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, “The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.” I know it’s not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it’s an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.
I’m not for one moment suggesting apathy. Im
suggesting that if everyone gets shouty and assumes there can’t be a range of views listened to then the issue disappears underground and learns different legs.
 
I’m not for one moment suggesting apathy. Im
suggesting that if everyone gets shouty and assumes there can’t be a range of views listened to then the issue disappears underground and learns different legs.
I wasn’t really responding to you … more to people who say “I don’t care about that - not interested”.
 
But you can’t care and be interested in every wrong in this world
 
I agree with Ricky on this.

Cancellation is the new scourge of the 2020s...listen to the other guy, whether you agree with him or not, and you might just learn something
I'm sure big Dick is just a dozy old boy rather than some raving fascist, but there's nothing to 'learn' from some of his views. Believing that recognition and respect of gay people 'isn't all that important', and that other issues of his choice are 'more important', isn't a valid view that deserves weight and consideration. It doesn't make sense and is derived from ignorance.

However it would be good to move on now.
 
But you can’t care and be interested in every wrong in this world
Perhaps, but what people can do is resolve 'not to be a dick' - so try to avoid doing things (especially as meaningless, unwitty and unoriginal as this chant) that P**s other people off unnecessarily. That's not 'cancel culture' - it's just common politeness.
 
Back
Top Bottom