I am seriously annoyed about this. In the many years of playing and watching Rugby, racism has never been a part of it.
South African hooker Brett Sharman has deleted his account since the tweet about Somalia-born Farah.
But BBC Sport has seen the message which read: "Good luck Mohammed running for Paki... I mean Great Britain..."
Not surprising either that a Stains player hasn't the intellect understand that Pakistani's are not renown long distance runners...
Sharman is expecting to become EQ fairly soon - he's a Saffa. Perhaps he thinks he is still in Saffa Land? I believe the correct term for him is not 'hooker' but ':censored:'.
Leicester Tigers 1995-
Nottingham 1995-2000
Swansea (Whites) 1988-95
A game played on grass in the open air by teams of XV.
Mujati's role is odd in this, too - if he has also posted offensive things (offensive enough to close his account) then why is he not being shamed along with Sharman.
What a horrible, ignorant and ludicrously inaccurate thing to say about a genuine national treasure and future Knight of the realm, coming from a Saffa who's stated ambition is to play for England as well. You'd think by now clubs would be doing weekly classes on how not to be an absolute on twitter.
Bless him its not his fault. Look at the facts
1)He's a Saffa
2)He's a hooker who sticks his head into some weird places
3)Has a brain the size of a black-eyed pea!!!
4)He's a Saint!
5) A so called adult with the mentality of a child with a shiny new toy
Of course this is my own opinion and other posters may have a different perceived factual viewpoint.
a) rugby is a game played in a society (ours) where racism and other prejudices are an ongoing issue. to say it is not a part of rugby, as if our game exists in some kind of bubble, is unwarranted naivety and/or complacency.
on this very thread are comments like 'he's a saffa' - how easy it is find narrow thinking & sweeping generalisations about entire nations/peoples committed to electronic media.
b) mujati made some spiky comments about bbc bias and representing countries other than that you were born in (the irony of this was quickly pointed out). not everyones cup of tea but no boundaries of taste or decency broached, so of a different order.
c) sharmans tweet did broach boundaries. he was challenged at the time by saints supporters on twitter, prompting his apology and deleting of the account. the club were dealing with it. this was a couple of weeks back but for whatever reason the press have picked up on it now.
d) sharman was at risk of having his contract terminated anyway,over his knee. whether all this tipped the balance or just brought things forward i imagine you & i will never know. i do suspect that exercising an existing injury clause is quicker & neater than gross misconduct procedures and achieves the same end at a stroke.
if you are happy and you know it, you are unusual.
Mo (who is an amazing athlete that I admire greatly) was not born in England - I think it was Somalia. Ignoring Sharman's stupidity at saying Pakistan if he had said Somalia is it really that far from what Narraway tweeted about TTT and his English nan or saying "good luck Pieterson playing for South Afr ... I mean England"?
I'm not meaning to start an argument here but I think the race card is pulled out so many times and not always correctly - the subject of nationality and country of birth has come up so many times so what is the difference here? Again, let me confirm .... racism is entirely unacceptable and when genuine punishment should be both swift and severe.
I have only seen what is on this site and if there were any comments that I missed that were blatant racism then I deeply apologise.
Will S wrote:What he said was stupid but is it really racism?
Mo (who is an amazing athlete that I admire greatly) was not born in England - I think it was Somalia. Ignoring Sharman's stupidity at saying Pakistan if he had said Somalia is it really that far from what Narraway tweeted about TTT and his English nan or saying "good luck Pieterson playing for South Afr ... I mean England"?
I'm not meaning to start an argument here but I think the race card is pulled out so many times and not always correctly - the subject of nationality and country of birth has come up so many times so what is the difference here? Again, let me confirm .... racism is entirely unacceptable and when genuine punishment should be both swift and severe.
I have only seen what is on this site and if there were any comments that I missed that were blatant racism then I deeply apologise.
I agree with you in that the racism card is used too often but I interpreted the tweet as Mohammed competing for Pakistan. As in a slur against Muslims (Mo is Muslim). But I am not sure.
Mo Farah, moved from Somalia when he was 8 and when he was old enough to decide for himself, he chose to compete for GB. To me, that makes him British. Sharman's ignorance of the situation, coupled with the poor choice of wording, might not be racism but it isn't exactly clever!
As an aside to this, people move around the world all the time to seek work or for family reasons. If the same people feel a greater affinity to the state they've moved to and the rules permit them to become citizens and compete for their new country, who's to say that's wrong - it certainly isn't Brett Sharman!
I agree with TigerLad that there are definitely connotations of a racist slur against Muslims, especially as Mo does not look at all like he's of Pakistani origin.
Also get the feeling that, considering the way his contract has been so coincidentally ended, this straw broke the camel's back, as Saints decided they didn't want to put in the work to protecting a player they weren't sure about fitness-wise, and didn't really want to stick by him and try and fully re-rehabilitate him when he's giving them this rubbish off-field.
youngtiger wrote:I agree with TigerLad that there are definitely connotations of a racist slur against Muslims, especially as Mo does not look at all like he's of Pakistani origin.
That is a fairly large assumption without much basis. I really don't see any connection to faith at all. You can always try to seek deeper meaning but until proven otherwise I would give benefit of the doubt that he just got his countries muddled. Even US President's have been guilty of this !
I am absolutely overjoyed that Saints have terminated his contract.
Personally, I think he was making a racist slur based on his skin colour, rather that his religious persuasion.
Nonetheless, it was bang out of order.
Boon, I don't think rugby lives in a bubble, but, racism in rugby has never had the profile it does in football. I once on the Crumbie heard someone refer to Leon Lloyd as a useless black <censored>. Several people heard him, and the bloke left the Crumbie of his own volition minutes later, under a torrent of abuse.
What saddens me is that after all South Africa's struggles and power shifts, there is still a deep seated hatred between blacks and whites.
on twitter.
