His thoughts that there was an awful lot of scaremongering going on in the press gave good argument to the contrary point portrayed in the Panorama documentary. And I am sure that he is right. We suffer more racism in this country than we like to believe. There may be an African-American President in the White House but we in the United Kingdom are a generation at least away from seeing Dr Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech coming true here. In the land of supposed tolerance we often see the opposite reality.
Is there racism in Poland and Ukraine? Yes probably. Is it as bad as it is shown? Probably not.
I can reflect upon an incident that tool place when I was a student studying at Liverpool University in the early 1980s. Another student was mugged in Sefton Park and was surprised that it had happened. The bicycle that the student rode was valued at about twice the amount earned in an average month's wage in the area. When he was confronted by a group of locals he was wearing a Varsity scarf and some nifty threads. When the locals taunted him, not very nice I know, he responded by saying how rich he was and that he would have a long and impressive career whereas they would be in the gutter, even less nice. He was really surprised when he was left sitting on his bum watching the mob walk away with his cycle to the comment "Looks like you'll be walking then on your impressive career"
Really that is the secret. If you go wandering off the beaten track and flaunting something in front of those who are not appreciating what you are saying or doing then things will lead to trouble. Predominantly I don't believe that the people of Ukraine or Poland are any more racist that the people of the United Kingdom but I'm also sure that there will be a minority just looking for trouble.
And should we allow those to have the headlines? Absolutely not. It may sell some papers but really come on now, Othello at Euro 2012 that would be a sure a tragedy as we are seeing in the cities of the UK.
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