Olympic triple jumper sent home after making racist tweet

IrishAm

Riddle101 wrote: »

Yes this thread is Pics or GTFO worthy. Surprised it hasn't been said yet.

I am sure if you Google the wee girls name you will find dozens if not hundreds of pictures of her.

Scruffles

IrishAm wrote: »

A black dude makes a joke suggesting that all Irish people are illiterate. Not racist.

A white girl suggests that Africans come from Africa and that West Nile mosquitoes(they feed on human blood), whom originated in Uganda, would be eating home cooked food, i.e Africans. Racist!

Hilarious shit.

it isnt racist as being irish is a nationality,not a race.

however,the other is a bit of a sissy/mild comment,and its no doubt only because someone died that they have made this out to be bigger than it is.

there is some hypocrisy in race and nationality laws,and it shoudnt make consequences of abuse any less valid just because things are different groups,but as it stands humanity is still unequal and built on hierarchies,people need to detach personal feeling from language to see it for what its worth.

suicide_circus

grindle wrote: »

Not that I think either is that bad, the Irish comment implies innate stupidity, whereas this one implies two species from the same continent did, in fact, come from the same continent.

WHAT A COW!

+1

opinion guy

IrishAm wrote: »

A black dude makes a joke suggesting that all Irish people are illiterate. Not racist.

It was racist. Thats why the copresenter apologised, twice, and the press reported it as a racist comment and there was a fuss aobut it and how we all heard about it in the first place.

Scruffles wrote: »

it isnt racist as being irish is a nationality,not a race.

This again. Ethnically Irish epople are genetically distinct from even our closest neighbours as evidenced by the very high rates of certain disease amongst Irish people e.g. haemochromatosis, cystic fibrosis, etc.
Therefore there very much is an Irish 'race'. In as much as there are any 'races'.

Pherekydes

IrishAm wrote: »

A black dude makes a joke suggesting that all Irish people are illiterate. Not racist.

He did no such thing. Some sensitive souls are making out he suggested something he didn't.

TheDoc

Read this yesterday, people need a ****ing reality check like. That is not racist. Unbelievably how soft and cotton wooly the world has gone, and society in general.

Considering all the work put in, and all the effort and now the heartbreak its a disgrace and I have total sympathy.

Fully hope she takes legal action and wins

RaRaRasputin

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

How is that racist ?

What am I missing ?


The other tweet about emigration possibly (I don't know what it said).

Or maybe it's Greece trying to save a few quid.

I think it's more because Greece has recently had a steep rise of attack on immigrants (lots of people flee from Somalia and Greece is one of the closest stops), because a bunch of nationalist idiots think it's handy to blame the country's bankruptcy on the immigrants. Comments like hers will just fuel that hatred and might cause another wave of violence.

finality

In that article they've used three different spellings of her name, and the one they use most often is incorrect. Oh daily mail.

TwoShedsJackson

IrishAm wrote: »

A black dude makes a joke suggesting that all Irish people are illiterate. Not racist.

Are people still thinking this? He was slagging the accent - 'Oylimpics' as in 'Oirish', not saying all Irish are thick or illiterate.

Hardonraging

Racist or not, she looks like a whole truck load of fun !!

Overflow

Fizman wrote: »

Just clicked the link. Anyone else wishing the camera panned back a little before snapping?

Well I'm sure he did, it just didn't make it to print.

http://domaingang.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/voula-papachristou-greece.jpg

RumDrinker

Lollers wrote: »

She tweeted "With so many Africans in Greece... At least the West Nile Mosquitos will eat some homemade food!!!"

And why and where exactly was it racist? It was a more or less funny joke, that's it.

In my opinion it was no more racist than Sol Campbell's statement regarding the Euro 2012:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/you-could-come-back-in-a-coffin--chilling-race-warning-from-former-england-defender-sol-campbell-ahead-of-euro-2012-7792838.html

People get waay too paranoid these days, no other real problems to deal with, huh?

pcardin

RaRaRasputin wrote: »

Comments like hers will just fuel that hatred and might cause another wave of violence.

Throwing her out of Olympics will fuel that even more

Seaneh

Fizman wrote: »

Just clicked the link. Anyone else wishing the camera panned back a little before snapping?

Well I'm sure he did, it just didn't make it to print.

You mean like this?

Father Damo

Its not the Greeks, its the blacks shes after!

IrishAm

RaRaRasputin wrote: »

I think it's more because Greece has recently had a steep rise of attack on immigrants (lots of people flee from Somalia and Greece is one of the closest stops).

Greece is awash with illegals due to their geographical location. Visit Athens and you could walk miles without seeing a native.

It makes Ireland, with our large(17%) foreign born population, look relatively homogeneous.

Hande hoche!

IrishAm wrote: »

Greece is awash with illegals due to their geographical location. Visit Athens and you could walk miles without seeing a native.

It makes Ireland, with our large(17%) foreign born population, look relatively homogeneous.

Any chance you have a source for this?

IrishAm

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Any chance you have a source for this?

Born abroad
The number of Irish residents who were born outside Ireland continues to increase and stood at 766,770 in 2011 an increase of 25 per cent on 2006, and accounting for 17 per cent of the population.

http://www.cso.ie/en/newsandevents/pressreleases/2012pressreleases/pressreleasethisisireland-highlightsfromcensus2011part1/

Hande hoche!

Thanks. Interesting reading.

old_aussie

Any other time her comments would have just been water off a ducks back.

old_aussie

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Sports story, which should really go in the Athletics forum. But once there's a bit of racism involved, AH is apparently the spot for it!

So tweeting is now a sport, probably be an event in the next olympics. lol

AnonoBoy

Remember that time that Stephen Roche said that all Andorrans had AIDS and we should ship them off to work camps?

You don't hear about that much any more, do you?

SocSocPol

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Any chance you have a source for this?

Please dont start him off again!:D

IrishAm

Some of the papers in the UK are claiming this is the end of her career. lol

Its only the start, ya fools. The Golden Dawn should offer her a position a position paying her a couple of 100 large. Watch them shoot up in the polls. Got seven per cent in the last elections.

Hande hoche!

The Golden Dawn is a fairly catchy name.

SocSocPol

IrishAm wrote: »

Some of the papers in the UK are claiming this is the end of her career. lol

Its only the start, ya fools. The Golden Dawn should offer her a position a position paying her a couple of 100 large. Watch them shoot up in the polls. Got seven per cent in the last elections.

So even though you dont think she was racist you think a Neo-Nazi Party should offer her a job and that she should accept it.

IrishAm

SocSocPol wrote: »

So even though you dont think she was racist you think a Neo-Nazi Party should offer her a job and that she should accept it.

The Nazis ceased to exist in 1945. Please, keep up. But nice attempt at a smear. Par for the course.

She has re-tweeted their press releases regarding illegal immigration. So she obviously supports some of their ideas.

Capt'n Midnight

RaRaRasputin wrote: »

I think it's more because Greece has recently had a steep rise of attack on immigrants (lots of people flee from Somalia and Greece is one of the closest stops), because a bunch of nationalist idiots think it's handy to blame the country's bankruptcy on the immigrants. Comments like hers will just fuel that hatred and might cause another wave of violence.

The comment wasn't racist.

In this case the media have more to answer for with regard to stoking the fire.


Unless it can be show that she was previously well known for being a racist she might be able to sue for damages to reputation.

SocSocPol

IrishAm wrote: »

The Nazis ceased to exist in 1945. Please, keep up. But nice attempt at a smear. Par for the course.

She has re-tweeted their press releases regarding illegal immigration. So she obviously supports some of their ideas.

I said Neo-Nazi and would refer you to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dawn_(Greece)

In a 1987 article of the Golden Dawn magazine, its editor and Party Founder Michaloliakos wrote an article with title "Hitler for 1000 years" where he supports Nazism and white supremacy.[91] Specifically he wrote "We are the faithful soldiers of the National Socialist idea and nothing else" and "[...] WE EXIST, and continue the battle, the battle for the final victory of our race".[91] He ends the article by writing "1987, 42 years later, with our thought and soul given to the last great battle, with our thought and soul given to the black and red banners, with our thought and soul given to the memory of our great Leader, we raise our right hand up, we salute the Sun and with the courage, that is compelled by our military honor and our National Socialist duty we shout full of passion, faith to the future and our visions: HEIL HITLER!".[91] Furthermore he capitalizes the pronouns referring to Hitler
On May 17, 2012 during the Greek Parliament Swearing-In ceremony, Golden Dawn's MP Eleni Zaroulia was wearing an iron cross ring, a symbol which since World War II has been associated with nazism. [96]
On July 23, 2012, Artemis Matthaiopoulos was sworn an MP with Golden Dawn for the town of Serres. The website left.gr (associated with SYRIZA), reported[97] that Matthaiopoulos was the frontman of the Nazi punk band "Pogrom" and pointed to the band's song "Auschwitz"[98] with exteme antisemitic lyrics such as “**** Anne Frank”, “**** the tribe of Abraham”, “piss on the Wailing Wall” and “Juden raus”.

I await your apology with eager anticipation.

kingtiger

ffs its was a joke, she is hardly Hitler

please stop the planet I want to get off

IrishAm

SocSocPol wrote: »

I await your apology with eager anticipation.

For what?

Anyone

Voula Papachristou has been allowed back into the Olympics after agreeing to change her racist Tweet to "With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat McDonalds and drink Coca Cola. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy."

Einhard

A Greek athlete has been sent home from the Olympic Games for making an allegedly racist joke. Responding to reports that the mosquito-borne West Nile virus was becoming increasingly prevalent in Greece, she tweeted that, with so many Africans living in Greece, the mosquitoes would be able to eat some home food for a change.

Now, it's not a particularly funny joke, but is it racist? I really don't think so. I don't see any hatred for Africans, or anyone else for that matter, expressed in that joke. One could argue that it's in poor taste, but that it expresses contempt for an entire race? How exactly?

It's the same with the John Terry/Anto Ferdinand incident. I hadn't been paying much attention to the whole thing, and had assumed that Terry had actually racially abused Ferdiand, called him a niggar or some such thing. That is obviously racist terminology, and Terry would have deserved sanction. Reading up on it a little, I discovered that he had actually referred to Ferdinand as a "black ba*tard". I fail to see how that could be construed as racist. Ferdinand is black. How the hell can it be considered a xenophobic statement? It's a statement of fact. Most people, when they swear, include some form of adjerctive or other descriptive word- ye fat this, ye fuppin this etc.

I'm not denying that racism is a scourge. It is. But the fact that it is such a powerful force is the very reason why we shouldn't be throwing around such accusations as if they were confetti. It seems now that the mere act of making reference to someone's skin colour is racist. Which is not only ridiculous, but dangerous. If people are accused of racism when it's patently obvious that they are not, then the word loses its power. And when true racists come along, people are less vigilant because they've been hoodwinked so many times before.

So, do we need to cop on a bit, and stop destorying people's lives, and doing people of colour a disservice, by reacting so hyperbolically every time race is mentioned?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178836/London-2012-Olympics-Greek-athlete-Voula-Papachristou-banned-racist-joke-Twitter.html?ICO=most_read_module Daily Mail link...don't panic people, a quick peek wouldn't permanently damage your IQ. Also, pictures inside of Greek athlete hottie...I mean despicable racist!

EDIT: For the easily confused: no boys called racist in the making of this thread/story. :cool:

MagicMarker

Old news.

foxyboxer

Einhard wrote: »

I discovered that he had actually referred to Ferdinand as a "black ba*tard". I fail to see how that could be construed as racist. Ferdinand is black. How the hell can it be considered a xenophobic statement? It's a statement of fact.

There's a difference between calling someone a "f*cking c*nt" and calling them a "f*cking black c*nt".

kojack

I wouldn't mind her triple jumping onto me like in the second photo

Adyx

That's not the only thing she tweeted though. She has repeatedly expressed her support for the Golden Dawn group and that guy who assaulted the woman on TV in particular. I do think she was made an example of, but at the same time I wouldn't lose any sleep over it had I made the the decision.

I do agree that racism is a term thrown around far too much these days especially by people who have no idea what racism means. You also don't have to look far to see instances of this phenomenon.

07734

Stop bringing common sense into it.

Latchy

Yes...yesterdays news I'm afraid OP .

Einhard

foxyboxer wrote: »

There's a difference between calling someone a "f*cking c*nt" and calling them a "f*cking black c*nt".

There is? Why?

Samich

Einhard wrote: »

There is? Why?

Cos one of the ***** is black
and the other **** isn't black.

Einhard

Adyx wrote: »

That's not the only thing she tweeted though. She has repeatedly expressed her support for the Golden Dawn group and that guy who assaulted the woman on TV in particular. I do think she was made an example of, but at the same time I wouldn't lose any sleep over it had I made the the decision.

Yeah that's true. But she was sent home specifically for this tweet. And I don't think that expressing support for a legal political party, no matter how reprehensible one might think that party, should be grounds for sanction.

I won't lose sleep over it either. I think she's an idiot, and probably is a racist. But I don't like the route we're going down whereby any reference to colour in a negative context is considered racist.

foxyboxer

Einhard wrote: »

There is? Why?

Why didn't he just call him a "f*cking c*nt"?

Why the need to refer to the colour of his skin?

Anton Ferdinand didn't refer to him as a "white prick" for example.

Samich

foxyboxer wrote: »

Why didn't he just call him a "f*cking c*nt"?

Why the need to refer to the colour of his skin?

Anton Ferdinand didn't refer to him as a "white prick" for example.

What happens if you call someone a Cavan ****?

Roadtrippin

Einhard wrote: »

Responding to reports that the mosquito-borne West Nile virus was becoming increasingly prevalent in Greece, she tweeted that, with so many Africans living in Greece, the mosquitoes would be able to eat some home food for a change.
[...]

It's the same with the John Terry/Anto Ferdinand incident. I discovered that he had actually referred to Ferdinand as a "black ba*tard". I fail to see how that could be construed as racist.

Not sure the Greek athlete or John Terry deserve exoneration in any way for their idiotic outbursts. They both sounded racist to me to be honest.

Dirk Gently

I suppose context plays a part. The saurez and Terry incidents were in the heat of battle where players are constantly winding each other up to get a physiological advantage, wind up the opponent and hope they'll lose concentration for a minute giving you an advantage. They would also be physically and mentally tired at the point of the out bursts. Both players train, work and play against people of all races and have a history of multiculturalism in their professions.

Then we have the greek girl, who out of the blue, unprovoked and without any advantage to herself makes a remark which she must have known would cause offence, and who happens to be sympathetic to an extreme right wing political organisation.

It might be splitting hairs but I know who I'd give the benefit of doubt to. It is all subjective at the end of the day though.

Scioch

foxyboxer wrote: »

Why didn't he just call him a "f*cking c*nt"?

Why the need to refer to the colour of his skin?

Anton Ferdinand didn't refer to him as a "white prick" for example.

Makes no difference to me. Ya get heated and you pick the first thing to use as an insult. Big nose, fat arse. You dont think to yourself "Jesus I hate this guy cos he's black". You (by you I mean Terry) say fcuk off ya black bastard.

If he said Fcuk off you Irish cnut to an Irish player would the same thing have happened ? No way, this racial thing gets blown well out of proportion some times.

Micky Dolenz

She isn't a boy.

MakeEmLaugh

Einhard wrote: »

I don't like the route we're going down whereby any reference to colour in a negative context is considered racist.

When could a reference to skin colour in a negative context be anything other than racist? If a crowd of black youths mugged, assaulted and verbally abused someone by calling him a "white c-nt", I don't know anyone who would hesitate in calling it racist.

AnalogueKid

Einhard wrote: »

There is? Why?

Are you serious? The England captain (who wears an armband with 'Respect' on it), decides to abuse the brother of his long-standing defensive partner in the England team and qualifies his abuse by preceding the word c£%$ with the colour of his skin. Don't you see ANY difference between using a word for an ethnicity, nationality or skin colour coupled with a strong term of abuse like the 'c' word, and just using the abusive term without referring to the ethnicity of the person being abused. That's the difference between abuse and racial abuse.

Are you 8 years old or something?