Tuesday 13 July 2021

Damaging accusations


So it did not come home on Sunday (no big surprise that we managed to fuck up a promising situation as per usual), but I'm way more upset that I've been dragged in to a racism shitstorm because I didn't include any diversity.in the photoshoot I organised in support of England 

I'm told that the person in question is a known shit-stirrer and agitator who I shouldn't take too seriously but my blood is boiling that someone is trying to take a bit of innocent fun amongst three friends and try to distort it into something more sinister. 

Admittedly, a worryingly large percentage of the English population have done their best to make me look like a complete fool by acting like a group of knuckle-dragging fucktards the day after I did my very best to defend us as being a nationality that is largely rational but with an embarrassing minority who are determined to ruin it for the rest of us. And apparently, that now makes us all an easy target because everyone from the same country must be the same, right?

Three remarkable young men have been the target of vile abuse for the sin of having the courage to step up in the name of their country and, somehow, I am now apparently being lumped in with that disgusting culture of hate and prejudice that is lashing out at them simply because the two women who I know who are also into football fans happen to share the same skin colour as me.

Honestly, it is pretty distressing to suddenly have these accusations come out of the blue but in a very public forum where everyone can see them and then dogpile on. It is the sort of label that will stick with you regardless of whether there is any truth to it or not.

With that said, there is a very obvious  lack of self-awareness in the comments where he is trying to shame people for one thing whilst simultaneously stereotyping an entire nationality for another. I think that just reinforces what I was told; this is someone who makes bad faith comments to get attention. In truth, this person does have very real and justifiable grievances but he is lashing out at completely the wrong people. I mean, one of the women taking part has a black husband and another has a black girlfriend so I find it utterly inconceivable that there is any prejudice, conscious or otherwise, on their side.

Regardless, I now find myself feeling compelled to defend something that had absolutely no ill intent whatsoever. So I will tell you exactly how this photoshoot came about and then you can make up your own minds about whether this makes me a bad person or not. Its goes like this...

Jess is a very good friend of mine. We are both big football fans and have often had conversations about it. In the past she has done some create football-related photoshoots and, since we had never actually done a photoshoot together, I pestered her about whether we could do one to support England in the Euros. We did and, after she posted it, I was contacted by Laura asking if she could join us for a Three Lionesses shoot. I thought that was a great idea so we agreed that we would go ahead with it if we made it through the upcoming semi-finals, which we did. And that's how it came about. Hopefully you can see that there is no malice or ill intent towards anyone here.


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