In 1975, an 18 year old young man flew to Canada for an unforgettable holiday with his father who had emigrated from Bristol long ago. He kept an in depth diary of every single day and event and partly because of that his memories are as vivid today as they were back then. But one part of the diary, describing an overnight railway journey from Saint John in New Brunswick to Montreal, includes a racist remark. That young man was me. And one day, when discussing something with my father, I made what I now know would have been an antisemitic comment, although I cannot remember exactly what it was. I was pulled up on the comment and felt myself shrinking. It changed my way of thinking forever. I learned a vital lesson about racism, even though I don’t think I had ever heard of the word at the time.
When I was 18, there was obviously no twitter, so fortunately I was not able to repeat my comments to a wider public and then see them dragged back up a decade later when I was a strong anti-racist campaigner, so in that sense I was lucky. But if I am to write honestly about the situation with the England cricketer Ollie Robinson, whose old racist and sexist tweets were revealed when someone trawled through a decade of tweets, I have to confess my own failings and how I learned.
Times were very different when I kept my three week diary. Black footballers were still subject to horrible abuse from supporters, TV comedians were openly racist and we were a million miles away from the slightly better situation in which we exist today. I received no education on racism, sexism or any other ‘ism’, from the schools I attended or from family members but luckily and happily I managed to work it all out for myself. However, for all that, I am sorry I had a brief spell – which lasted seconds – as a racist dick. I hope I have repaid my ignorance with interest ever since. So, how do we deal with Ollie Robinson?
For one thing, it’s not worth comparing my situation with his. I know he was a troubled young man with a number of issues. He grew up in the days of social media whereas I grew up in an age where we didn’t even have a house phone. But, as with most things, you cannot compare eras and you cannot compare one individual with another. My crass stupidity was confined to a personal diary, which you couldn’t even know about had I not fessed up, and a one-off conversation with my father who put me right in an instant. (I would go so far to say that that brief conversation changed my views forever. Thanks, dad.)
Robinson cannot undo what he has done. The offending tweets were left on his account and have probably been screen-shotted by various media folk. All Robinson can do is say sorry and mean it. Yesterday, I felt he did both.
Yes, it was a bad look for cricket which yesterday was making a big show of how the sport opposed bigotry. They must feel very let down by these historical tweets. But then, don’t the cricket authorities do due diligence when picking players to represent the country? Could this not have been dealt with long ago? Robinson is, or maybe was, at fault because he made the tweets but I cannot absolve the authorities for their lack of action.
Listening to Robinson’s apology yesterday, I heard a contrite, embarrassed and upset young man who had learned several lessons in life, the main one being that racism and sexism are bad things. Isn’t it the point that we learn from our mistakes and from being educated? In which case, what happens next?
I hope Robinson is not punished excessively, if at all. What would be the point of that? Surely, as someone who has clearly learned lessons on life’s rickety journey has a positive story to tell and show that we can all learn from our mistakes?
It has been painful for me to relate my own minor story from nearly half a century ago, but it will always be there, even if I tear up my diary or amend the offensive entry. And I’d like to think that the distress I still feel is a reflection of how I have grown as a human being. Allow Ollie Robinson to grow, too. He is not Stephen Yaxley-Lennnon or Nigel Farage, who have sustained their odious bigotry into middle age and done more to infect others with virtually anyone else in recent history. Robinson isn’t like them. And neither was I. That, I believe, is why we need to move on, noting what has happened, ensuring we all learn lessons as the fight for equality carries on and celebrate the good in people, including those who erred along the way.
