Y-word review - findings and next steps

[mawspurs]

As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and can now say with a degree of confidence that fans are back in stadiums for good, we feel it is time to update you on the Club’s review of the use of the Y-word among some of our fanbase.

Source: Official Site

 

[onthetwo]

if it were a discriminatory term against pretty much any other minority you can bet that the Police would get involved but sadly doesnt look like anything will change.

 

[Real_madyidd]

It seems my username is now banned by the club when clearly it refers to being a spurs fan:

"The Club already refrains from engaging with any social media handle or bio that contains the Y-word and we do not permit it being printed on shirts in any official retail outlets or used in any official Club context."

 

[Dougal]

It seems my username is now banned by the club when clearly it refers to being a spurs fan:

You can’t say ‘Spurs’ as it offends horses.

 

[mil1lion]

I don't say Hotspur either as it's offensive ugly people

 

[Dennism]

If the club don’t do anything they will be branded racist and that is not something they can allow to happen.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

You can’t say ‘Spurs’ as it offends horses.

You can't say 'Spurs' because it offends Spurs fans and causes them trauma to remind us of our lives of suffering

 

[Metalhead]

If the club don’t do anything they will be branded racist and that is not something they can allow to happen.

Absolutely. If the club were to take an official position that it was acceptable then that wouldn't end well.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

If the club don’t do anything they will be branded racist and that is not something they can allow to happen.

Yep in this day and age the club will need to sort it out.

I'm not religious and see it completely as a term that inside that football ground basically means spurs player/fan 'Yid/Yido' but can see why it would offend Jewish people.

Also aside from that we probably do need to move on as although the club has Jewish roots a large majority of our fans are NOT Jewish so using a word that labels them as that to outsiders who don't understand the context behind the meaning is confusing and perhaps no longer unessercary.

Its involved in so many of our songs and chats though so if we do get rid then i'm worried we will turn into the bloody library equivalent

 

[ohtottenham!]

You can’t say ‘Spurs’ as it offends horses.

and bones.

 

[Acid]

Yep in this day and age the club will need to sort it out.

I'm not religious and see it completely as a term that inside that football ground basically means spurs player/fan 'Yid/Yido' but can see why it would offend Jewish people.

Also aside from that we probably do need to move on as although the club has Jewish roots a large majority of our fans are NOT Jewish so using a word that labels them as that to outsiders who don't understand the context behind the meaning is confusing and perhaps no longer unessercary.

Its involved in so many of our songs and chats though so if we do get rid then i'm worried we will turn into the bloody library equivalent

As a Jewish person (though I can't speak for everyone Jewish, no one can), I'm way more offended by them censoring it - not a fan of censoring people in general either.

Everyone here knows the context it is used in, to support jews against anti-semitism etc. And given anti-semitsm has been on the rise in London over the last 8 years, more so in the last 2 or 3 years, it's needed more than ever and is an audible way to combat a lot worse; like West Ham and Chelsea fans singing you're all going to the holocaust or making hissing sounds to emulate gas chambers. Oh well though, everyone has to play tit for tat with the victim card, boring.

 

[Gbspurs]

Replacing the chants and songs is going to be tricky as we don't have many to begin with!

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Replacing the chants and songs is going to be tricky as we don't have many to begin with!

We are Tottenham Silent Tottenham we are Tottenham from the Lane

 

[whitesocks]

You can’t say ‘Spurs’ as it offends horses.

Animal cruelty is a hot topic, and you are right that at its root, spurs refers to spikes that are jabbed into horses to urge them on. I'm not qualified to say how painful that is.
And Hotspur derives from that, but means someone prone to attack quickly and aggressively, like Harry Hotspur.
That is a worthy quality. We should try it sometime.

The barbs we picture on the cockerels - and there's one just about shown on my avatar ffs - are not so worthy. There might be some contrived history behind them and that is great - stick it in a museum.
We are allowed to revisit traditions/iconography and bring them up to date.
Those barbs seriously have to go.
We'll just have to say that rather than Harry Hotspur loved fighting cocks, he loved cocks. Doesn't that make him more endearing if anything?

As for yiddos, it was an ironic retort to the Neanderthals in division 2. Time to move on. It has been a while.

 

[mawspurs]

‘Spurs take the knee to eradicate racism – then fans sing the Y-word’

Jewish News editor Richard Ferrer appeared on Sky Sports News to discuss the club's historic statement about the term 'yid', chanted by supporters

www.jewishnews.co.uk

 

[davidmatzdorf]

You can’t say ‘Spurs’ as it offends horses.

I don't say Hotspur either as it's offensive ugly people

These are not helpful or appropriate responses. You two are sensible people. This is not a thread where it helps to dumb down or mock the discussion.

 

[eddiebailey]

At this point we’re only using it to wind up David Baddiel. And personally I feel that is valid.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

As most people know, I'm ethnically and culturally Jewish, but not religious. I've been through phases with this. For years, I would compress my lips into a thin line and my neck would tense up when Spurs fans would bellow "Yid Army", or the like.

Perhaps 10 years ago, shortly after I got my season ticket (coincidence? dunno), I loosened up ... a bit. After a good win, when we're all stomping down the High Road on our way home, feeling brash and triumphant, I'd hear a "Yid Army" cry nearby and answer back. I'd sing "Jermain Defoe, he's a Yiddo" and the like ... sometimes, sometimes not.

Recently, I've compressed my lips again. Jewish people are under increasing physical attack, all over Europe and North America, from right-wing anti-semites who are bombing and shooting up synagogues and promoting anti-semitic conspiracy theories online. Anti-semitism is again part of a false, revisionist, largely right-wing world view that has millions of delusional adherents, a few of whom become obsessed and attack Jews, individually in the street or collectively in synagogues and other gathering places.

None of this should have anything to do with Israel, but people are going to raise that as an excuse. Don't. It's about racism.

We don't need the Yid chants. It was the time 30-40 years ago, when it served a purpose, with non-Jewish fans showing solidarity with Jewish fans. Now we have BLM and taking the knee, a football hierarchy that at least pays lip service to anti-racism and a club that pays a lot more than lip service.

"Yid" chants are just blurring the lines, obstructing solidarity and setting us apart from the overall fight against racism in football. I think it's time to stop using them, and that's what I'm going to do.

 

[UncleBuck]

The Mrs has just got home from work after a 14 hour shift and the first thing she asked me was what the y word is as she hasn’t got a clue, bit concerned as what with having two kids I’d have thought she might have asked about them first!
She absolutely hates football though so is totally impartial which is quite refreshing.
We had a quick chat, I told her it’s origin’s and why it is used by Spurs supporters and instantly she questioned why if you get hissing or racially aggravated chants sang at you at away grounds would you not use it.
She also said is it any different to the blm movement over the last few years with taking the knee? Where do we stop and how do you squeeze in a Jewish/Asian/Muslim lives matter acknowledgement before a game?
Does it mean if your supporters stop singing the y word back to the oppo will it stop being racist or do white people not know that they can be racist towards someone who has the same colour skin?
Yes they might preach a different religion but that’s not racist and why is it always football supporters?
What happens if the other team supporters don’t stop though? Do your supporters just suck it up or is it just yet another cancel culture in today’s world?
Really interesting to hear her points though from someone who hasn’t got a clue and is totally impartial.

 

[Dougal]

These are not helpful or appropriate responses. You two are sensible people. This is not a thread where it helps to dumb down or mock the discussion.

With all that’s going on in the world today I think it’s appropriate and indeed important to provide a little light relief where possible.