Colly: Silva tweet beyond joke
STAN COLLYMORE says Bernardo Silva needs to wise up to the fact that last week’s tweet to pal Benjamin Mendy DID contain underlying racism.
Bernardo caused a storm by posting a picture of Mendy as a child alongside one of the cartoon mascots used by Spanish confectionary brand Conguitos.
But the ‘ joke’ backfired with anti-racism group Kick It Out calling for the FA to take action and the fallout has continued all week.
Former Liverpool captain John Barnes claimed Silva had done nothing wrong, because Mendy did look like the cartoon character.
And City boss, Pep Guardiola, defended the Portuguese star.
But Collymore (above) insists both are missing the point.
He said: “John Barnes is a good friend, a man I respect greatly and a bright guy.
“But the problem I have is that, as a well-respected voice in the black community, his take is, ‘ Well, Mendy does look like that cartoon character, so what’s the fuss?’.
“That doesn’t give context to the argument about racist imagery and that argument is: there’s a reason we don’t still have golliwogs on jam jars.
“Some people will say being called ‘Golliwog’ is only the same as being nicknamed ‘ the Milky Bar kid’ or being called ‘Ginger’, but it’s not.
“People weren’t lynched for wearing glasses like the Milky Bar kid, or for being ginger.
“These caricatures represent black people as less than human and the underlying message is you can treat them in a less-than-human way. “Whether John knows it or not, he is giving a big green tick to people who use language they shouldn’t. They can say, ‘ Well, John Barnes said it’s OK so we keep doing it’. Or, ‘ Pep said Bernardo is a nice guy so leave him alone’.
“All of them – possibly Mendy as well – are missing the point.
“That black, big red-lipped, wideeyed caricature was fundamentally designed to be transmitted into the brains of a mostly white audience to tell them these people are dancing, silly, simpletons, second-class citizens.
“The caricature might just peep an inch above the surface of the ocean, so people say, ‘Stop spoiling the fun, it’s just banter’. But underneath is the huge iceberg of where it leads to in terms of racism and in the demonisation of a community.”