Chirs Hughtoin hardly welcomes the limelight, but he was interviewed today within the context he is the second black manager at Newcastle United.
Chris Hughton – when he arrived in Newcastle a year last February
Ruud Gullit, who had a year at the club from 1998 until 1999, when he was replaced by Bobby Robson, was the first black manager on Tyneside, and it may be that Newcastle are the only club to have two black managers in their history.
Chris Hughton has been blazing a trail throughout his life it seems, when you look back on his career.
He said today:
“I’ve had some extremely proud moments,” “I was the first black player to play for Ireland and I was the second black player to play for Tottenham Hotspur. When I first broke into the side at Spurs I was the only black player in the squad, but others followed.”
“I had no idea Newcastle are the only club to have had two black managers, but it hasn’t really been talked about before. I think that says a lot. A few years ago, if I had been in charge of the team, it would have been big news because of my color.”
“It’s interesting that nobody has even mentioned that before, when talking about me about Newcastle and that shows how attitudes have progressed. Nobody is really bothered by it.”
But it shows just how far attitudes have changed, and the progress that has been made with the Show Racism The Red Card initiative.
Chris continued:
“It’s sad to say, but the incidents are too numerous to mention,” “Racism was around us every day, from opposition supporters and even players. It was just one of those things, it affected you everywhere you went.”
“It was society’s problem, not football’s as such, but that meant its presence was felt.” “Opposition players would abuse you, there would be confrontations and racism would come out.”
“When you went to take a throw in, you would here it from fans the whole time.”
“It was unpleasant and some of the things said did hurt, but they were doing it for a reason. They wanted to upset you, make you angry or distract you.”
Hopefully those times are over for good, and with a black President of the United States surely these sterotypes are a thing of the past – we hope so anyway.
But usually Newcastle fans don’t care if the player or manager is black, white, , yellow green or orange – if he can do a job on Tyneside he’s supported 100%.
Comments welcome.
54 comments so far
punk skunk...
Sep 8, 2009 at 12:51 PM
Comment #41Eaststander,
with ya’ all the way on the ‘Enrique’ thing, always knew he would kick ass once he was settled in…We MUST keep hold of this lad!..
…Great player, who is gonna get better yet!..
…Ho’way Jose, or, ‘Yes way Jose!..
Tino 11
Sep 8, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Comment #42It’s sad that racism still exsists, it is disgusting, sadly i can’t see a time when it won’t exsist, it has no place in society or football.
However i think probably in football more than in everyday life things get said at the heat of the moment.
A friend of mine shouted “you useless black ba*tard” a while ago at the match, obviously at first hearing this rounds very racist and i had to save him from a possible fight because of it.
But i know my friend isn’t racist at all and i know he didn’t mean it in that way. He tried to explain and said he was wanting to express that he thought the player was a useless ba*tard but because there was a distingushing feature about the person he included it in the insult, the word “black”. He then said if there was a white player and he had ginger hair he would’ve said “you useless ginger ba*tard” rather than just “you useless ba*tard”. Now if he’d used the “N” word then i wouldn’t of defended him because i think he would’ve meant it in a racist way.
Anyway this is a football blog so i’ll get back on topic, CH has done a great job and if he doesn’t get the manager of the month it will be a disgrace, being a very gracious man i’m sure CH will dedicate it to CC the players and the fans anyway.
Bigbadbob
Sep 8, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Comment #43DJM – the Journal article is getting slated not Ed
punk skunk...
Sep 8, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Comment #44Ta Lesh,
i knew someone would get it!..
🙂
…We used to sing that, oooh, back in the 70’s…
…Late 70’s, i might add!..
Isaac Hunt
Sep 8, 2009 at 12:54 PM
Comment #45Pronounced with a ‘J’ rather than a ‘H’ (apparently).
punk skunk...
Sep 8, 2009 at 1:06 PM
Comment #46portuguese style?..
…No way, Jose!..
lesh
Sep 8, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Comment #47The Chron’s got a good article on Enrique and he appears to be up for the fight too.
Punk, just as well as it was late 70s you went to SJP, otherwise you’d have had to endure the pain of being in the east paddock, basking in the sun having had a few at the Haymarket before being forced to watch Jinky Smith, Hibbett, SuperMac, Barraclugh, Nattrass et al…..
Torture I can tell you – you don’t know the suffering of others!
punk skunk...
Sep 8, 2009 at 1:16 PM
Comment #48Lesh,
1st started goin’ in the early 70’s as a bairn, but by the late 70’s ‘rock against racism’ & all that!..
…Torture was in the 80’s mate, i’m sure you know the full craic about that pain!?!..
🙂
davis_toons
Sep 8, 2009 at 2:55 PM
Comment #49This issue leads me into thinking of the former M.J.
He wanted so much for black or white or any colors to stay cool together.
In his MTV black or white there are different racial group in there.
OHurley
Sep 8, 2009 at 2:58 PM
Comment #50Chris Hughton is black? Really? Hmmm…. maybe his great great grandfather was black? I honestly didn’t know he was black. When I think of black people, I think of Oba Martins or Geremi. Not CH lol
Stardust
Sep 8, 2009 at 4:31 PM
Comment #51BBB “racism obsessed intellectuals in politics and the media”
Ironically they the politicians etc show THEMSELVES as racist – as others have stated society doesnt care about colour in most cases – politicians do though. politicans go about implementing statistics on for example how many searches were made of black people in an area – then the same politicians state the polica are institutionally racist when it s there systems that exacerbate it.
Stereotyping is a part of survival – formed out of countless experiences – its not to say you act any differently but you have to have the “nouse” to recognise situations and protect yourself at whatever level.
As Tino pointed out re the black b expletive – when people do shout insults they naturally put a marker on them as they want that person to know its aimed at them – that in itself isnt racist. But because a man has a different skin colour you cant say that? Is that not racist treatment in itself?
I am a geordie, Londoners are cockneys, Liverpool folk Scousers, Americans Yanks, We are pommies in Australia so why cant I call someone from Pakistan a Paki? Its because those who decree the term Paki as racist are racist themselves as they see that people of different colour skin should be treated differently.
No wonder societies a mess when their logic confounds itself.
Stardust
Sep 8, 2009 at 4:33 PM
Comment #52God my spelling was atrocious there – apologies.
JJJ
Sep 8, 2009 at 7:27 PM
Comment #53Makes a change from your opinion being atrocious Stardust 😉
JJJ
Sep 8, 2009 at 7:29 PM
Comment #54Ps. You know what I love about Newcastle.
We’ve got relegated but because our side is giving some positive performances. The fans in South African are back and wearing the Newcastle shirts with pride.
Great to see! Just shows this game is about what happens on the pitch. And the rest is just politics.