Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo (AKA Monchi)

[kippaxvilla2]

What a load of old bollocks! Get a grip all you offended people out there! The Brits dress up as white Jesus, white St George, White Mary and Joseph, and nobody tells them off. Get a grip you twats! FFS!

And 'Jesus' wasn't white.

He was a man of middle eastern descent.

This isn't true.  He spoke English and looks like Robert Powell.

And became a detective in later life.

[CT Villan]

It can't be a Christian festival because they pronounce it "Hey-Zeus" which is obviously ancient Greek

[Percy McCarthy]

Jesus was a black man

*starts stopwatch, sits back*

Readers of my book Gangsters, Geezers & Mods with good memories may be familiar with a passage in it about Jesus being black. It was adapted from this true story.

I’d been out drinking all day with an acquaintance of mine, a big Irish boxer who fancied himself as a bit of a rapper. We ended up in the Chelmsley Wood Catholic club discussing the MOBO Awards which had been on TV a few days previous. To my surprise, he opined that the awards were racist, and complained that there was no Music of White Origin awards. We got into a heated debate which somehow ended up with me saying “Jesus was black, and if he came out looking like that”  (pointing at a portrait of blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus on the wall), “then no wonder his mother was making up all sorts of bullshit stories about who the father was”.

He chinned me before it got split up, but I got him back with the help of my mate Slasher Reid a couple of weeks later.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Jesus was a black man

*starts stopwatch, sits back*

No Jesus was Batman.

He handed out fish, man
With a centre parted sun tan
Then cured all the lame

[Ads]

The nativity has no historical basis.

[algy]

Jesus is basically like a religion version of Callum Best or Peaches Geldof ... he's only famous because of who his dad is.

[Toronto Villa]

The boss has spoken

Nassef Sawiris “Monchi´s arrival will add to the world class team we are assembling both on and off the pitch. He is, like Unai Emery, a serial winner”

[eamonn]

Jesus was a black man

*starts stopwatch, sits back*

Readers of my book Gangsters, Geezers & Mods with good memories may be familiar with a passage in it about Jesus being black. It was adapted from this true story.

I’d been out drinking all day with an acquaintance of mine, a big Irish boxer who fancied himself as a bit of a rapper. We ended up in the Chelmsley Wood Catholic club discussing the MOBO Awards which had been on TV a few days previous. To my surprise, he opined that the awards were racist, and complained that there was no Music of White Origin awards. We got into a heated debate which somehow ended up with me saying “Jesus was black, and if he came out looking like that”  (pointing at a portrait of blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus on the wall), “then no wonder his mother was making up all sorts of bullshit stories about who the father was”.

He chinned me before it got split up, but I got him back with the help of my mate Slasher Reid a couple of weeks later.

What year was this?

[Percy McCarthy]

Jesus was a black man

*starts stopwatch, sits back*

Readers of my book Gangsters, Geezers & Mods with good memories may be familiar with a passage in it about Jesus being black. It was adapted from this true story.

I’d been out drinking all day with an acquaintance of mine, a big Irish boxer who fancied himself as a bit of a rapper. We ended up in the Chelmsley Wood Catholic club discussing the MOBO Awards which had been on TV a few days previous. To my surprise, he opined that the awards were racist, and complained that there was no Music of White Origin awards. We got into a heated debate which somehow ended up with me saying “Jesus was black, and if he came out looking like that”  (pointing at a portrait of blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus on the wall), “then no wonder his mother was making up all sorts of bullshit stories about who the father was”.

He chinned me before it got split up, but I got him back with the help of my mate Slasher Reid a couple of weeks later.

What year was this?

About 2000.

Or the book?

[tomd2103]

I see there's a bit of a storm brewing on Twitter about him attending a cultural event in Spain that involves wearing blackface.

It depends what context it is in though I suppose.  There was a bit of a furore in Birmingham a few years ago about a group of morris dancers who performed in the city centre with blackened faces.

Turned out that it was nothing to do with skin colour and seem to remember someone saying it dated back centuries to a time when performing on the street was seen as begging and was illegal, so the dancers covered their faces In charcoal amongst other things to escape detection.

[The Edge]

The boss has spoken

Nassef Sawiris “Monchi´s arrival will add to the world class team we are assembling both on and off the pitch. He is, like Unai Emery, a serial winner”

That's great to hear. Just for one of the owners to be using the phrase "serial winner" is a seismic shift in the mentality of those running the club.

[algy]

I see there's a bit of a storm brewing on Twitter about him attending a cultural event in Spain that involves wearing blackface.

It depends what context it is in though I suppose.  There was a bit of a furore in Birmingham a few years ago about a group of morris dancers who performed in the city centre with blackened faces.

Turned out that it was nothing to do with skin colour and seem to remember someone saying it dated back centuries to a time when performing on the street was seen as begging and was illegal, so the dancers covered their faces In charcoal amongst other things to escape detection.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spain-blackface-three-kings-balthasar-b1984515.html



I mean, it's a really difficult area - a bit like the Zwarte Piet / Black Pete tradition in the Netherlands.  People feel very attached to customs etc, and trying to de-program an entire nation to see something that has for centuries been seen as harmless is now suddenly the antichrist is going to be very, very difficult.  Particularly different times etc.  I mind going to [primary] school in blackface* once.  We were celebrating other countries & cultures and, wisely or not, I decided that I wanted to celebrate Caribbean culture and went in dressed as Dwight Yorke.

Now, there wasn't a single bit of malice in that.  If someone told me at the time that what I'd done was racist ... well, I'd not even have understood what they meant.  I was, in my mind, trying to be Dwight Yorke.  I was trying to show my love for this young player who was pretty much a sub in the Villa team but I thought was amazing.  You can see how many telling someone who is saying that they absolutely love this person is suddenly then being racist ... it'd have made no sense.

I mean, ask me now and obviously there's no way that I'd think that was in any way socially acceptable.  But at the time, in a school where every kid would've filled in "White British" on the census ... in my head it felt like I was being cosmopolitan.   I dunno, I guess my point here is that cultural things translate differently, attitudes change ... if he's wandering around the Bullring in blackface today then obviously that's not on.  Something that happened many years ago, in a celebration that's deeply rooted in Spanish culture ... that's far harder to judge, and it's not to say that he feels the same about it now that he did at the time.


* not the red lip thing, just black facepaint, a Villa Shirt, Bermuda shorts, and a bucket hat with "Dwight Yorke - Trinidad & Tobago" written on it

[dave.woodhall]

It's ironic that it's being treated less seriously on this den of left-wing wokeism than it is on the Trumpite Twitter.

[Stu]

I’ve not seen any black Villa fans talking about it on social media and their voices should be at the forefront of this.

[Risso]

Good post algy. The thing that irked me was the rush to launch into him and the club two-footed with no pause for thought.

Is Monchi a racist? I don't know much about the bloke, but there's loads out there on the internet that seem to indicate he's very much the complete opposite, with him taking lots of anti-racism stances at various times.

Even if it's a centuries old tradition, is blacking up a good thing to do these days? Absolutely not. But is stridently calling for his sacking and an apology from the club the right way to go about educating people about the issue? Also absolutely not, I would argue.

Written as a white, middle aged bloke obviously, so my views on racism aren't particularly worth reading, but sometimes people need to take a step back and look at the wider issue. Society is developing with regards to anti racism, and different countries change at different rates. It's not that long ago we had prime time TV shows (eg Bo Selecta and Little Britain) with comedians blacking up to play characters, that they are now apologising for. People make msitakes, realise why it's not on, and as a society we hopefully progress a bit.