A great video campaign here spearheaded by comedian David Baddiel to stamp out the word “yid” in football chants and the anti-Semitism that comes with it.
Baddiel has recruited some high profile premier league players, including Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and Tottenham’s Ledley King among others, to get across the point that the y-word is as bad as the n-word.
Of course, the message will fall on deaf ears with some including apparent Tottenham fans who refer to themselves as yids as a commenter, Tr33fiddy, says on YouTube:
“Yid is NOT offensive. I’m Jewish and I’m a Spurs fan. We call ourselves Yids to reclaim the word. It’s a badge of recognition and honour, it’s our label for ourselves and Jew and non-Jew Spurs fans use it with pride.”
But as Baddiel argues it is also a term with malign and racist undertones that gives a free pass to supporters of other clubs to launch into anti-Semitism.
“People started up a triumphalist ‘Yiddo’ chant,” Baddiel told The Independent. “Then a bloke behind us started singing ‘Fuck the Yids.’ Then he moved on to ‘Fuck the Jews’. My brother, who is slightly harder than me, or maybe just a bit bigger, told him to shut up. The fan told my brother to fuck off. There was no violence, but the threat of it was very present. My brother sat down again. He said ‘I think I’m going to cry’.”
