It’s coming home…

Covert racism in rural Wales

“I’m supporting Croatia” — because they’re playing against England..

Hate on me if you must, but this is covert racism!

“We want England to lose because we’re Welsh”

But Wales aren’t playing, therefore we should be supporting England as the next best option seeing as we’re part of Britain. We always complain about not being counted and recognised as part of the UK and then behave like this. We can’t have it both ways! If Wales was playing I would obviously support Wales, but they aren’t and I’d rather a British country won than any other!

This is the post I made on social media last night during the semi final match between England and Croatia. I am so fed up of seeing the statuses about England losing, and the completely tactless celebrating of their loss.

From what I’ve heard (because, in spite of me writing this post, I am neither interested, nor do I fully understand the rules of football), England played a good clean game, and they played to the best of their ability. They progressed further than they have in a number of years, and as I said in my status, they were actually playing!!

I can understand the historical viewpoint of many Welsh people. I learned about the persecution and oppression of the Welsh people by the English many years ago too. And yet, I will continue to support England in any sporting endeavour, where Wales aren’t playing.

Some people may want to ask me what right I have to speak like this. The right I have, is that I am Welsh. I was born Welsh, and I speak the Welsh language fluently. I am fiercely protective of my heritage and feel privileged to know the language; yr hen iaith; that we still have today in spite of some small minded bigots who tried to stamp it out.

The truth is that, yes, in the past, some of the English people sought to oppress us, but the key words here, are “in the past”. There are probably very few, if any people still alive that were actually involved in this persecution. The English people now, are not the same people from back then. They value their heritage, and for the most part, they respect us, and yet so many people cannot show them that same respect, and that saddens me.

We are a part of the United Kingdom. When Scotland were voting to leave, we were asking them to stay. The caption “Stronger Together” was used, if I am not much mistaken. As part of the United Kingdom, it is our duty to support our other member countries (unless our own specific country is playing, in which case obviously all bets are off).

I always hear complaints from people who say that Wales is not represented in the Union Jack, and I agree that our representation could be more obvious, but why should we be able to expect that, when we can’t support one of our member nations if our own country isn’t playing, and in fact would go so far as to actively support any other team that is playing against them.

The only way to describe this is racism, pure and simple, and it makes me sad and angry to think that people in my own country can behave in this way without any thought or care for what they’re doing.

I mean, it’s only a game, I know. I can hear the comments already, but what if it wasn’t? What if it was something more serious? How many steps would it take before we are no better than the “Baby Trump” himself, wishing to build a wall, expel people of English descent, and hold their children in child detention camps?

I’m taking things to the extreme here, but we live in a world of increasing extremes, and I would be prepared to bet that five years ago, no one would have expected the scenes that we have seen in the news in recent weeks, from the US border. It only takes a very small spark, before you have a raging, and out of control fire, and I for one, don’t want my Wales to become anything like this!