City Are Totally Hypocritical... But I Hope We Listen

“Adebayor, Adebayor, your dad washes elephants, your mum is a whore!” the Spurs fans chanted, racially abusing the former Arsenal player when he was still playing for their rivals.

Sections of our crowd seemed to like this chant, maybe because they’re simple folk and enjoy things that rhyme, leading to it being sung inside Old Trafford – never in great numbers or at a great volume, but I’ve heard it.

After we won the league last season I had a few crossed words with a pissed up kid who was singing it as we walked down Warwick Road. “Come on lad, we’ve just won the league, let’s not bring racism in to our repertoire of songs eh?” He had a puzzled expression on his face, before responding “fuck off, it’s not racist, and I’ll sing what I want!”

Why is it racist? Implying that parents in Africa are elephant washers and whores is racism. Seems a fairly simple concept to me. Making generalisations of inferiority about a person of a certain race is racism. People have come on blog claiming their dad washes elephants at the zoo, brilliant, but that’s not what this chant is about. The chant is claiming that because Adebayor is from Togo, his parents are an elephant washer and a whore. Maybe you’re a white lad from Chester and your parents have the same job, but nobody would make that generalisation about lads from Chester.

United fans, if rival fans were singing this about Senegalese-born Evra, you would say it was racism. Spurs fans, if rivals fans were singing this about Cameroonian Sébastien Bassong, you would say it was racism. It’s all fine and well trying to justify it but it’s bloody obvious what the chant is about. It’s saying because he’s African, his parents have lowly jobs like an elephant washer and a whore. Maybe your mam is a whore too, good for you, that doesn’t change the motive behind people singing this at Adebayor.

Pinching some racist Spurs song should be below us really.

United take on City in a couple of weeks time and City have voiced their concerns over this chant doing the rounds. The hypocrisy that comes with this, given they have sung about Munich every time the clubs have met for as long as I’ve been going to the derby (with the exclusion of the Munich Memorial game, where they were even chanting for Frank Swift, something they’d never done before and something they’ve never done since) is of course massive, but I hope our fans take on board the warnings. They will chant about Munich, they always do. Their latest chant, ‘Carlos Tevez is a blue, he hates Munichs’ will be sung. But let them get on with what they want, we don’t need to sink to that level. Listen out for their Adebayor song, which goes: ‘Adebayor, Adebayor, he’s hung like an elephant, his wife’s a bit sore.’

There will always be sections of our fans who sing songs the majority don’t like, but I really hope we don’t come down to their level on derby day.

Pack it in!