England look certain to be without Joe Marler for Saturday's Grand Slam showdown with France in Paris after he was cited yesterday for striking Wales' Rob Evans.
However, the controversial Harlequins prop could
receive further punishment today over his "gypsy boy" comment made to
Samson Lee as he might be suspended for up to four weeks by a Six
Nations disciplinary hearing.
His language directed towards Lee during England's 25-21 victory at Twickenham on Saturday
-- for which he apologised at half-time - was condemned yesterday by
both Wales assistant coach Rob Howley and England head coach Eddie
Jones.
"Players always have banter in a game but there's no place for that," said Howley.
While
Lee has accepted Marler's back-tracking, Shay Clipson - founder of the
National Alliance of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma Women - equated his
actions to racial abuse of black players and described it as "absolutely
diabolicalJust Imagine if a Jewish Player had been abused there would be a Public outcry , But to slur people of Roma origin is considered many as "banter".
The Roma suffered in the same ways during the Holocaust as the Jews but Today it is still considered OK to discriminate against the former.
The Romani genocide or Romani Holocaust, also known as the Porajmoswas the planned and attempted effort, often described as a genocide, during World War II by the government of Nazi Germany and its allies to exterminate the Romani (Gypsy) people of Europe. Under the rule of Adolf Hitler, a supplementary decree to the Nuremberg Laws was issued on 26 November 1935, defining Gypsies as "enemies of the race-based state", the same category as Jews. Thus, the fate of Roma in Europe in some ways paralleled that of the Jews
Historians estimate that 220,000 to 500,000 Romani were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators, or more than 25% of the slightly less than 1 million Roma in Europe at the time.[ Ian Hancock puts the death toll as high as 1.5 million.[ In 1982, West Germany formally recognized that genocide had been committed against the Romani.
In 2011 the Polish Government passed a resolution for the official recognition of the 2nd of August as a day of commemoration of the genocide.
And yet whereas Antisemitism is rightly condemned when it raised its ugly head ,,hardly anyone speaks up for the Roma.
Joe Marler apology should be taken into account and it is to hoped that this will put an end to anty further abuse.
But it is time we examine the whole issue of discrimination against, Roma,Travellers, or Gypsys and campaign against it in the sane we do against nearly every other attacks on minorities,
2 comments:
Just as disappointing was the attempt by the wales coach warren gatland to pass marler's comments off as 'banter'! If the wales coach thinks racial slurs are banter then it's not just his on field tactics that are from the dark ages.
Do we really want someone as ignorant as gatland appears to be coaching the welsh national team?
I fully endorse the sanctioning of Marler for calling a Gypsy a Gypsy, but only if the thieving bastards give me back all the lead and slates they nicked off my roof the last time they were in Aberavon.
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