The Y Word - A Jewish Arsenal fan's response

I am a Jewish Arsenal fan, a season ticket holder who goes to home games and, pre-fatherhood, also went to a number of away games. Being a North Londoner of Jewish persuasion, my friends are split about 60/40 in favour of the 1-1 at Newcastle's from up the road. My Spurs friends would readily refer to themselves as the Yids and part of the Yid Army (one can assume they are not voicing their support for the Israeli Defence Forces). But of course the term's usage extends far beyond the club's Jewish supporters. It's rife amongst the whole demographic of Spurs fans. The term is a self-styled moniker that we are told was borne out of oppression, prejudice and, ultimately, resilience.

We have heard in recent days from a prominent London rabbi, also the editor of the Jewish Chronicle and from the Prime Minister himself that use of the word Yid is fine, no problem. It is acceptable because of the context in which it is used. As Mr Cameron said, there is no mens rea (latin for 'guilty mind' - a mental state that is a pre-requisite for a number of criminal offences). This is the same argument that Spurs fans have used over the years when I and others have challenged them.

In my view these arguments entirely miss the point.

Here's the thing. In one sense, I agree with Mr Cameron. Spurs fans who use the Y word are not doing so in a deliberately racist manner. They are not trying to insult Jewish people when they shout Yid army or have Yiddo in their Twitter handle or scrawled across their buttocks in permanent ink. Very few people are arguing that they are. That does not make it acceptable. Here is why the word should be outlawed and action should be taken against the users (by Tottenham Hotspur, the FA and the Police, as appropriate).

Context irrelevant

Let's start with the key point at the root of this piece, a relatively uncontroversial and inarguable point - the term Yid is highly offensive to Jews. It is the Jewish equivalent of the N word for black people or the P word for Pakistani people. There is no discernible difference. I have lost count of the number of tweets I have had from non-Jewish Spurs fans telling me I should not be offended when I hear the term on the terraces. How dare they. I am appalled that David Cameron (a non-Jew) should chime in and effectively tell me that I cannot be offended because there is no mens rea.

Where he misses the point is that mens rea is only relevant in a court of law. There is no outcry for the Spurs fans to be arrested for racially aggravated offences. That is simply not the debate and as is the mark of any politician worth their salt, he has used a straw-man argument to deflect the debate to safer ground. The issue here is, and has always been, whether Spurs fans should be free to continue to use the term or whether pressure should be placed on them to stop.

Let me ask him this (and you will excuse me using some creative license here to illustrate a point), if the Arsenal fans made up an affectionate chant to Abou Diaby and in trying to rhyme something with the word 'bigger' we came up with the N word that would be ok given the absence of malicious intent. Presumably Arsenal Football Club and the FA would stand idly by and allow this and be right to do so. The black community would and should just accept this? Or if we signed an Asian player called Jackie (you see where I am going here...). There would rightly be an outcry in both scenarios because there is NO place on the terraces for racially offensive words, irrespective of context.

In an employment sphere for example, discriminatory harassment under the Equality Act does not require intent (mens rea) and it would be considered discrimination so long as the words have the effect of offending the recipient. There is a recognition that sometimes, certain actions and certain words are just plain wrong. Strict liability.

The crux of the issue

Aside from the fact that I find the word offensive, per se, for me the biggest issue I have with its usage by Spurs fans is that it gives immunity to anyone who uses it on social media or in a football ground. I recently came across the Twitter profile of a fellow-Arsenal fan whose username was Yid Hater. A short scroll down his timeline and about 6 tweets previous he had made a joke about Spurs fans being taken to the gas chambers as well as other discriminatory tweets.

It is common-place that at the end of the "We hate Tottenham" chant, a fairly large section of our fan base will end the chant by singing "yiddos yiddos". A handful of that section can usually be heard afterwards shouting or mumbling under the breath "fucking jews etc." As a regular away match goer I have heard this more times than I care to mention.

What can the police do to the Twitter user calling himself 'Yid Hater'? What can the police do to the people who chant "Yiddo Yiddo" and are thinking "fucking Jews" while they do so? There is Mens Rea in those cases but the Spurs fans have given these vile individuals immunity from prosecution because they would only just wheel out the (in some cases perfectly valid) defence of ignorance. "I didn't know it was a derogatory term for Jews m'lud" and "I just call Spurs fans what they call themselves". And so the word lives on and the anti-Semitism that bubbles sometimes on top and sometimes underneath the surface lives to see another day.

Ownership

Tottenham fans and the club itself do not own the word and they have no right to rule on its usage. The club have recently stated that they will consult their fans on whether the word is acceptable. The same fans that sing the word week in week out. A fan group where the over-whelming majority are not Jewish. I went to a Jewish secondary school in a fairly hostile non-Jewish area. On a weekly basis on my walk home from school I would be called a 'yid' or a 'dirty Jew'. I should be consulted by Spurs. The Jewish community should be consulted by the club (and the FA and Number 10). Not the fans that have made this an issue in the first place.

A week before Mr Cameron said his piece on this issue (and perhaps irreversibly damaged momentum behind the campaign to ban it); he was attending a dinner at the Holocaust Educational Trust's 25th Anniversary Special. This is a wonderful charity whose aim is to educate young people about the holocaust and the lessons that should be learnt. If only Mr Cameron would have taken 10 minutes to canvas the attendees' views on use of the term Yid in a football stadium. Ask the holocaust survivor if he was offended waking up to the Metro newspaper having the now legitimised word "Yid" in big bold letters on its front page the day after his remarks. Imagine a headline which said "N***er is fine by me". No, it would not happen. He would not say it. The Newspaper would not print it.

I have no doubt that the term was originally coined as a stand of resilience in a time where public persecution of Jewish fans was rife. The intentions were honourable. I am a proud Jew and I would always stand up for myself and my religion in the face of persecution and prejudice. But times have changed. The N and the P words have all but disappeared from terrace parlance and the Y word would too, if only Spurs fans would let go of it. Consign it to history. Save this Arsenal fan a Saturday afternoon, a midweek stroll of his Twitter timeline, without hearing and seeing it repeatedly.

I have also heard the excuse that it is too difficult to stamp it out now. You'd have to arrest thousands of Spurs fans. Difficulty should never be an excuse. It would take time, it would take education and it would take pressure from those in positions to exert it but in time, the word would die out just as other prejudicial terms have. Momentum has been building in the States for the Washington Redskins to change their name due to the offence it causes to Native Americans. That is the club's official name whereas this isn't even an official nickname. It is simply a moniker attached to a fan base, a twitter handle, a 6x4 flag, a tattoo.

No more excuses. Kick it out. Now.

follow @andypeters10

Goonersphere's response:

Thank you for that post Andy and for sharing on YouWrite. Your passion on the subject certainly comes across and you make a compelling case for the removal of this word from the terraces. The Y word is a pejorative term from almost every point of view except for those of the Tottenham fans. The term is only non-offensive when used as an adjective by Jewish people who wish to use that ethnonym. As self-declared claimants to the word, the onus falls on Tottenham to stop the use of this word but maybe Gooners can help by refusing to use the word so flippantly to describe our local rivals. Very interesting post Andy. 

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