I have been a Tottenham Hotspur supporter all my life as my Grandfather was before me. I am not from a Jewish family but the Jewish support tradition of Spurs is something I welcome and enjoy. Jewish humour is very funny and it is quite common to be at White Hart Lane and to be exposed to it. And you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy the jokes.
The history of anti-Semitism in British society is a disgraceful story but thankfully it has now faded - if not quite disappeared completely. Opposing fans at the Lane used to mock Spurs supporters by calling them “Yids” – a rather nasty term of abuse. It has been typical of the Spurs fans to handle this not with anger but with pride and to adopt the term “Yid” as a badge of distinction rather than a racist epithet. You disarm your opponents by adopting their descriptor and throwing it back in their faces. That is what the “Yid Army” does – it is the reverse of racism, it is saying that racism is absurd and well as disgusting and to reveal that absurdity we will call ourselves by the terms you use.
I doubt that the The Society of Black Lawyers, who hit out at Tottenham and the Football Association and threatened to go to the police over what it regards as anti-Semitic chanting at White Hart Lane, understands this at all. If they did surely they would see that it is a powerful weapon to attack racists by ridiculing them. That’s what Spurs supporters do when they chant “Yid Army”. The Society should be congratulating Spurs fans not criticising them!
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