When it comes to issues of race, there is no place for any flippancy
WE don’t know how many seconds it took Bernard O’Byrne to type his three-word Facebook post after England’s win over Denmark but that brief moment undid years of good work.
O’Byrne is that rare beast — someone who has walked the corridors of power in FAI in the John Delaney era but emerged with a credible image by becoming a worthwhile contributor to Irish sport.
Until last week.
When it comes to one-liners, everyone misses the mark from time to time but there is an enormous difference between a bad gag hitting the floor and a ‘what-the-hell-were-you-thinking?’ racial slur.
The fact is we don’t know what the CEO of Basketball Ireland was thinking when he typed in ‘Black Dives Matter’ in response to a BBC story on Raheem Sterling’s controversial penalty award. The best-case scenario is that he didn’t think it through, going for a bit of ‘clever’ rhyming wordplay with ‘lives’ and ‘dives’.
The worst-case scenario is that he was implying something underhand was taking place based on Sterling’s skin colour on a reverse discrimination basis.
That seems highly unlikely but many have taken it that way.
And, ultimately, the details behind what prompted the comment are irrelevant.
There is no justification here — it was highly insensitive, deeply offensive and should never have been written.
Basketball is a game defined by its diversity (according to a survey conducted last year, almost 75% of NBA players are black) and this incident is deeply wounding for Basketball Ireland, and Sport Ireland.
And, while O’Byrne has issued an apology for his ‘error of judgement’, that is not enough to douse a fire that should never have been lit.
Of course, there have been the usual wearisome comments from customary sources claiming a ‘woke’ over-reaction to this affair, the same crew who questioned Ireland footballers taking a knee in Hungary recently.
The reality is, Ireland’s gesture in Hungary and Stephen Kenny’s excellent reaction afterwards represented the strongest episode of strength and unity during his difficult reign as manager.
England under Gareth Southgate have been superb in their anti-racism commitment, with the likes of Sterling and Marcus Rashford leading the way as iconic figures who can inspire proper change (in spite of the racial abuse they receive).
If the people who experience racism first hand believe taking a knee is a powerful and positive gesture, then the rest is just semantics.
Similarly, because O’Byrne’s ‘black dives matter’ quip has upset those referenced by it, it cannot be brushed aside.
As ever, social media has played its part in another unsavoury saga. People continue to extol the benefits of these platforms but it is clear they also bring out the worst in people.
There were millions of internet responses to the Sterling penalty incident last week, with everyone trying to outdo each other in the frantic rush to gain attention for outrage, approval or attempts at caustic wit.
This desperate, social mediadriven need to be heard is as pathetic as it is dangerous and reputations are being ruined on a daily basis.
But this incident, nor any of the other racially insensitive posts that regularly get sports figures into trouble, is not social media’s fault — these posts do not write themselves.
Talking to people who know O’Byrne well over the years, the impression is of a decent man and excellent administrator who has made a horrendous mistake.
He has featured regularly in these pages since Covid, arguing the case for basketball and indoor sport not to be overlooked, and has always come across as articulate, passionate and committed.
But all of that does not undo the damage done by his Facebook post.
We do not need a witch-hunt here but for things to truly change, examples need to be set and followed — with a fear of consequence acting as a deterrent for those failing to meet those standards.
There is no room for flippancy when it comes to race issues. Glossing over this incident would send out a terrible message of its own.