Wednesday 3 January 2018

What is "British"?

I started hunting around bc Aliajz Bedene has gone back to playing under the Slovenian flag and it got me curious how he ever thought we shd let him play for the British Davis Cup team in the first place. Most ppl's complaint about Konta is that she is born in Australia from Hungarian parents so where in hell does the British bit come in? With Bedene, not only did he have no British connection other than living here but he had played Davis Cup for Slovenia already and that entirely rules him out. In this article several other "brits" have been called into question; Bradley Wiggins British mother, Greg Rusedski British mother, Mo Farrah British father, etc etc etc. They may have been born elsewhere but their heritage is at least in some part British. Neither Konta nor Bedene have any such claim. Joanna Lumley was born in India as were several other ppl who we wd consider utterly British and indeed National Treasures so where you were born is hardly the only criterion by which someone's Britishness shd be measured. What got me about the article is how they then go on to say about the abuse Anthony Joshua received over his apparent support of the muslim religion as if that is in any way the same thing. The criticism of Konta playing as British is in no way the same thing as the appalling racism and religious prejudice ppl have to put up with. It's not racist to simply question the facts. I'm personally pleased to see Bedene return to the flag of his birth, his heritage and clearly his heart. Tennis is not racist, I've never had the slightest feeling that race, creed or colour have ever had anything to do with tennis. The criticism of Konta has nothing to do with "racism", it's simply a reasonable question. She certainly hasn't been denied any opportunities or excluded from any tournament or anything that in any way wd suggest ppl are "racist" against her. This article is a disgrace equating the two situations. It's sad that ppl can't tell the difference anymore. Especially the inclusion in the keywords of Wimbledon sport and racist, extremely wrong to even mistakenly suggest there is racism in Wimbledon. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/14/johanna-konta-nationality-big-deal-tennis-wimbledon-sport-racist

No comments: