
We have a fairly loose set of rules on here. We allow dodgy humour, which quite often contains racial stereotyping or racial generalisations for instance. Now, some people would call racial stereotyping "racist". Personally, I don't, so I let alot of the paddywhackery for instance go. And tbh none of my fellow Oirishmen on here have ever complained at some of the dodgy Oirish slurs and jokes that punters have posted. Because as Eddie Murphy said: "thems just jokes".


There is a line though. And certain things will get a person banned. Use of the "N" word for instance.
But it is often a subjective issue with other language that to some is racist. Augie calling Arteta a "Basque cùnt" is not racist to me. It's a tad unpleasant and uncalled for and I've often asked Augie to not do it, but it is no different or worse than calling Wenger a "French cùnt" or Lobotomy Clive a "Swiss Turd". I'd rather we all left their race or nationality out of it when we criticise them but I also don't want to go overboard and censor everything that gets posted. I mean, let's not get overly sensitive.
If anything these phrases are nationalistic rather than racist as it is an arguable point whether nationality equates to race. I should point out though that the UK Equality Act considers nationality to be included under the term "race".
So what I tend to do is look at the tone, which in itself can be difficult with the written word. If there is obvious racial based hatred or words added to incite racial hatred or violence then that is a different matter. For me that's when it becomes "racist".
Overly simplistic? Maybe. And I know some of you won't agree with that, but to make my job modding this place doable, that is the way I work. I have to try find a reasonable balance. Having said that, if you are offended by something someone has posted you can blip me a pm in complete confidence and I will take a look and if I agree I'll delete the offending words and ask the person responsible to reconsider their use of those words.
Of course all you lads could make my job that bit easier by just not referring to nationality when slating a player or manager as it does offend some people.