Does Barnsley have a racist reputation?

RE: I think its a perception of all towns with a lack of diversity

to be fair the town has always had some form of imigrant workforce since the war. my grandad came over after the second world war from Poland and died here last year. i have to say i am extremely proud of my barnsley roots but also extremely proud of the polish hertiage of part of my family, in terms of what they fought for and believed in during the war.

to this end there has always been a large polish community within barnsley but they tended to keep themselves to themselves, not like most of the workers who come over now.

i don't think barnsley is a racist town however i do beieve that there can be certain issues and a bit of a siege mentaltity at times, people seem to adapt to change a lot slower in the tarn.

in relation to what was said about people from barnsley swearing a lot, appartently accoring to all the poeple who i work with indonny that it 100% true they claim i swear allthe time but i don't even notice, one of my colleagues puts it down to me being 'a lad froma pit vllage ina tough mining town', he'squite funny cos he tells people to leave me aloneandto be fair he is a dee dar so can't be that bad.

 

I told them to shut

the fook up which then resulted in them telling me I am not a real fan, not sure how they come to that conclusion, these were young lads and in all fairness the stewards did come over and pulled them to one side with the police they soon crapped themselves!

 

Good to hear!

brain donors!

 

RE: I think its a perception of all towns with a lack of diversity

Yes there has been a Polish community in Barnsley from some years. There is an old polish club off Summer Lane. I think the problems that are occuring in Barnsley now with racism are down to the high immigration levels and the high numbers of new settlers in the town. Unfortunately coming out with racist and abusive remarks is the only way some know how to show their displeasure at this situation if it's not to their liking.

 

RE: I think its a perception of all towns with a lack of diversity

agreed, also it is down to the behaviour of a small minority of the new settlers, the ammount of poles and latvians we deal with in donny is crazy

 

I disagree

I think the perception of Barnsley as racist is down to its lack of diversity

 

RE: I think its a perception of all towns with a lack of diversity

One of the main problems is that the immigrants to the barnsley area are usually poor and often asylum seekers. This means that they are often seen as competing for resources with the 'home grown' poor Barnsley people.

This situation does not help race relations.

 

Well i disagree!

It may be abit of both actually

 

I think in terms of outward perception of a place

a lack of diversity makes a place seem more racist. I think more diversity can lead to more tension between the races. However I must stress I think this is when groups are ghetto-ised and marginalised and that integrated diversity is the best solution

 

My God! That was worded like a solicitors letter!! nt

 

RE: My God! That was worded like a solicitors letter!! nt

 

is this going to be a long thread??????

 

Yep, all the day people to add onto it yet nt

 

RE: I think its a perception of all towns with a lack of diversity

I came from Canada for the Chelsea match and I have a great video of KOs goal... with the lads behind me calling KO all kinds of vile things right before he heads it in...

 

Southerners swear more than we do

In my experience.

 

Don't care what the rest of the country think to be honest

And people generating stereotypes about other localities are often doing so to mask their own insecurities about their own places of residence.

In fact I'd go as far to say that many people from other areas of the country are envious of the fact that we have a relatively small immigrant/ethnic minority population.

 

Why is diversity so craved for by certain people?

If I want diversity of culture then I'd get of my backside and travel abroad, not have a walk round Barnsley town centre!

There's nothing wrong with looking after your own and protecting the values and traditions of your homeland.

 

Not racist but maybe over the years ignorrant?

...but ignorrance breeds fear, which breeds hatred...which leads people to verbally abuse something they fear.

Although I don't live in Barnsley now I did grow up there and remember there being a limited population of ethnic minorities. Sheffield, Huddersfield, Leeds, Bradford and their suburban satellites seemed to be the places where large numbers of different communities settled rather than Barnsley and it's surrounding villages. Why? I don't know but it must be due to the local industrial history of the town being a mining area, my mate from County Durham says it's the same there. There were loads of tight knit communities consisting of a number of pit villages or tightly packed terraced streets in or around town where everyone knew one another.

I remember growing up in the 80s and the only non-white people you would come into contact with were medical professionals or people working in the local Chinese takeaway. Our village had a newsagents and this was owned by an Indian family and there was one black kid at our school, so we're hardly talking a culturally diverse society.

The only other place you would see non-white people in person was down at Oakwell. I've stood/sat in virtually every part of Oakwell over the years and the racist abuse received by some players (including those pulling on the red shirt of Barnsley) has been utterly dispicable. I also remember a chant at Huddersfield where a gang of grown fellas at the back started chanting "WHITE YORKSHIRE, WHITE YORKSHIRE LA, LA, LA"....in response to the Terriers fans singing "West Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, la, la, la".

I remember a number of players getting unbelievable treatment. One that sticks out is the abuse Ian Wright received when we played Arsenal in the Coca Cola Cup in 1995. Monkey noises, now come on is that clever?

There's an article I have read in the following book about this incident which interviewed Michael Johnson, a Barnsley fan and 'Ora Stand regular' who was arrested and charged for racist abuse relating to that game which makes interesting reading and the interviewers comments about the town, even more so....

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...+the+Barnsley+Boys"&ei=0oMBSbP1CITkygS2g_mvDQ

Nowadays ethnic diversity is more prominent. I notice it everytime I come back 'home' to visit the family or for matches. At least this should remove the ignorrance that was around when I was growing up?

It's something that's not going away and for me there's a whole host of people out there in the growing non-white population in South Yorkshire that could be filling the empty seats at Oakwell and getting behind the reds.

A scouse friend of mine once came to the match with me and was shocked to hear some of the comments, the scary thing for me was, I was that used to hearing it I had become oblivious to it.

 

And I'd prefer to keep my community that way thank you.

 

Only to folk on here who like to wear the hair shirt.

Other than that, no.