Dr. Frank's What's-it

anti-semitic football chants

OK, so sometimes anti-Semitism is hard to pin down, and even when it's pretty clear that there is some sort of anti-Semitic phenomenon at work, it's complex and subtle, difficult to characterize and understand how it functions and to what extent it is significant. And it's possible to "read it into" situations that may not warrant it. I'm the first to admit, I may do that on occasion.

Then again, sometimes there's no subtlety or room for doubt whatsoever.

Like this: anti-Semitic football chants. A commenter to one of my previous posts on the subject brought up the topic, and quoted some shockingly over-the-top examples. I thought he was pulling my leg, but no, it's real.

Apparently the Tottenham Hotspur club and supporters are unofficially and by common custom referred to as The Yids or the "Yid Army". This is apparently derived from the fact that many Tottenham supporters came from an area of North London that "encompassed the orthodox Jewish enclave of the city."

Here's a compendium of Tottenham-related chants from the club's arch-rival Chelsea, many of which are far, far worse even than the ones quoted in the comments. The webmaster's claim that Chelsea's non-orthodox Jews adopted such customs as a sort of protest against the intolerance of Tottenham's orthodox Jews isn't particularly persuasive.

It is beyond my powers to imagine what it would be like to sit in an arena while thousands of people chant "gas the Jew, Jew, Jew." I still can't quite bring myself to believe it's real.

And we worry about the Tomohawk Chop.

Shocking.

Posted by Dr. Frank at June 17, 2003 10:22 AM | TrackBack