Ollie Robinson Tweets

[sally maclennane]

I'll freely admit that I know nothing about cricket but this story is everywhere and I guess it's not so much about sport anyway. It's about tweets that he made when he was a teenager which were racist and sexist. He's been suspended by the English Cricket Board.

Mark Ramprakash was on Breakfast News this morning, speaking really eloquently about the case. I didn't see the whole interview but he was very clear about how he didn't think Boris Johnson should have intervened (he said that Robinson being suspended by ECB was "over the top" )

I do have a little sympathy for Robison, lots of us are idiots in our teens, the difference is that until recently there wouldn't have been any record of this. Then again I was a bit of an idiot but I wasn't racist or sexist! And people have to be accountable for previous actions. But I guess people also have to be given the chance to rehabilitate themselves.

Any thoughts?

[smalex]

Yeah, I feel quite torn. I haven't read the tweets and haven't heard of him, so I might change my opinion if, say, he wasn't a particularly decent person now, but on the balance think the suspension itself might be sufficient 'punishment' for something that happened quite a long time ago, at a young age (and when awareness of putting things in the public domain was in its relative infancy). I'd hate that someone says something when they're, say, 15, and then they are forever framed by that. But equally don't think it can be completely swept under the carpet as unimportant, because it should be acknowledged that those comments are harmful whenever they were made, by whomever.

[Wiggle]

I too am torn and can't add much more to what has been said already.
I do however want to know who found these tweets and what they want to achieve from this.

[smalex]

I get the impression that journalists just trawl through all social media when anyone becomes 'famous' in any way now. I said to S, its just makes you realise even more how important it is to instill in kids from a really young age how careful they should be. Not that I wouldn't be utterly appalled to find out my child had posted offensive tweets anyway, but y'know. *Everything* is out there forever, basically.

[Bat Macdui]

Then again I was a bit of an idiot but I wasn't racist or sexist! And people have to be accountable for previous actions. But I guess people also have to be given the chance to rehabilitate themselves.

I also tend to think 'well I wasn't racist or sexist' BUT I wasn't brought up to be and it's still taken me a lifetime to disentangle some of the innate prejudice I was brought up with. And I still automatically spit when someone says Thatcher.

The suspension seems harsh where a public 'I have since learned' and a few photo ops doing widening participation work would've done.

[sally maclennane]

Thats a very fair point, Bats. I can understand the suspension if there's a purpose to it and as Smal says, it's a reminder to young people that everything is in the public domain. That said, my friends nephew was a youth player with Celtic (still plays professionally but with another club now) and he said D had had so much media training that it was impossible not to realise the consequences. He will be about 30 now so older than OR and so arguably he (OR) would have been advised similarly when he was young.

[smalex]

Hmm, fair point. Do they encourage them to go back through their social media and delete anything potentially questionable then? I guess some sporting institutions might be better on this stuff than others, too.

[Livilla]

The comments were, I thought, fairly typical of a white teenage boy who thinks he’s all that - they looked like he was engaging with edgy “bantz” with his mates to look cool. From memory, I thought they were mostly misogynistic with a couple that were race related?

I looked at them and thought “Ugh, teenagers can be vile”, not that he’s an out and out creep who deserves to lose a career he’s worked hard for 10 years later (I live on a road that leads to our local comprehensive and often hear the kids talking to their mates, girls and boys, as we use our road. Some of them are awful and some of them are polite and lovely and most of them are clearly trying hard to amuse their crowd and fit in - just like adults I guess )

Most of us I imagine say things here and elsewhere that we really wouldn’t want being dredged up and linked back to us in real life. While I get that someone representing his country who has said offensive things is not good, I also wonder about the ones who’ve had extensive media training and so know better not to give their views a public platform (but we don’t pursue people for thought crime, obviously). At least in the case of Ollie, he’s had to face up to them.

[Livilla]

Also, in the news this morning a journalist with Wisden said he’d been scrolling through other players’ feeds and found another problematic tweet from someone else in the team. I would have though the ECB might have been onto this and done that exercise first… (the players have obviously been a bit occupied playing cricket )

[Derek Nimmo]

The tweets (I have read them) are 100%, no holds barred racist (and sexist) and I know that 19 - or even 9 - year old me back in the 80s would have been absolutely horrified by them, and this was what, 2012? He's not an uneducated man, he went to good schools (including a grammar) and lived in a multicultural society and played in a team with people of different colours from an early age.

I don't think it's good enough to let him off with a 'boys will be boys*', and agree that a suspension with a purpose seems right. Having said that, I thought his apology was very heartfelt and do accept that people can change, and also that a "full investigation" seems...odd. A full investigation of what, that people can be racist? He and the ECB should be looking what active part he can take into youth education - not of the 'remember everything you ever write is in the public domain' variety, but of the 'this is why sexism and racism is a load of shit' type.

*Not suggesting anyone here is doing that.

[Pippedydeadeye]

I agree with Liv.

I saw Ramprakash too and I thought he was brilliant. There’s absolutely no place for the PM to be talking about this. He’s seen a popular news item and leapt on it, like he did with the ESL.

[Lily]

I didn't actually think they were that bad. I certainly wouldn't have been horrified by them, more but he sounds a lot like an 18 year old boys/men/whatever they were and most of them have grown up to be decent citizens. I would be mortified if some of the stuff I said/thought when I was a teenager was displayed all over the media and held up as an example of what I am now.

The comments were, I thought, fairly typical of a white teenage boy who thinks he’s all that - they looked like he was engaging with edgy “bantz” with his mates to look cool. From memory, I thought they were mostly misogynistic with a couple that were race related?

Indeed, and one of them was an (off colour, to coin an unfortunate phrase) joke which will have been doing the rounds in schools up and down the country.

It says a lot that someone had to go back ten years to find evidence of wrongdoing.

[Tsu]

If the ECB had trawled all their players tweets and given the problematic authors a heads up, what does that say about the ECB?

[Chicky]

Michael Vaughan asked why nobody at the ECB screened social media for players before they joined the squad. He has a point.

The tweets weren’t the worst I’ve seen, and I think I agree that a few media interviews and an apology would go a long way.

[Lily]

If the ECB had trawled all their players tweets and given the problematic authors a heads up, what does that say about the ECB?

If they do this, that's quite wise.

[sally maclennane]

I agree with Derek, I think the tweets are awful and I think one of the reasons that the UK has a problem with prejudice is that as a society, we're quick to dismiss stuff like this ( I have done it myself) as "not that bad" or "not the worst" yet the people they're aimed at are telling us that they find them offensive and really that should be more important than privileged white people dismissing it.

[Pippedydeadeye]

Exactly, Sal.

[Lily]

They are "aimed" at us though: some of them were about women.I don't like them, but there is a big difference between the ignorance of a teenager wanting to look good with his mates and the bigotry of an adult.

[Livilla]

But do you think he should lose his career because of them, Sal?

I have no problem with that awful footballer Ched Evans losing his, for example, for engaging in what was considered serious criminal behaviour (at least for a while ), but I don’t think this crosses that line.

[Bat Macdui]

I didn't see the tweets and was also not really thinking through age as I automatically assume everyone is just the same age as me. By 2012 a bit more awareness had definitely percolated into general culture, than say in the 1980s when my dad was still calling people 'poofs'.