It is not a controversial statement to point out antisemitism. And yet the latest episode of Jews Don’t Count played out on social media is a clip from radio station talkSPORT where a caller spouts obvious Jew hatred and the two presenters ignore it.
When discussing footballer Harry Kane telling Tottenham he wants to leave this summer the caller simply - with the ease that tells you this is everyday chat for him - says the reason boss Daniel Levy won’t let him go is because Levy is a Jew.
It doesn’t get much more antisemitic than that and yet when confronted with it the presenters are frozen.
According to TalkSPORT producers the clip was cut from the live radio broadcast but left in the online stream of the show which was uploaded to YouTube and shared online.
Perry Groves pulls some shocked and troubled faces in disbelief while Jordan Jarrett Bryan, a Channel Four reporter passionate about kicking racism out of football, moves the conversation on, cutting the call but allowing the notion that Jews are nefariously motivated by money to hang in the air.
TalkSPORT said the reason the comments went unchallenged was "because the presenters correctly thought the audio had been dumped from the radio broadcast, so if they challenged this they would be challenging a comment on the radio which thankfully had not been broadcast."
It may not have been aired lived on radio but that idea was left to float online for listeners or viewers a percentage of whom will have recognised it as racism and another percentage who will have heard it time and time before said in pubs and WhatsApp group chats and believe it too.
They won’t have been confronted with the fact it is unacceptable racism. Or where ideas like that have led to, or that it is hurtful and painful to every single Jewish person who will hear it.
And it is the job of the presenters in that context to call it out. It was a missed opportunity, one to stand up to a racist, to educate their audience and challenge others who hold those views or think it is acceptable to share or hear such ideas so casually in conversation.
Those who have now seen it or heard it unchallenged will go on with their day thinking nothing of it and yet when I watched that video, I couldn’t help also feel some sympathy for the predicament the hosts found themselves in.
I agree with comments made online that had the racism the caller espoused been different, not overt Jew hate but something else, the presenters would have felt more confident, more capable of calling it out.
I suspect the reason they failed to call it out, is that subconsciously they don’t recognise antisemitism to be the same as other racisms. They don’t (think they) have the language or knowledge required to say “oi you racist little toad, don’t call this show again.”
To a Jewish person it is hard to believe someone wouldn't feel equipped to call out such disgusting racism towards you but in a lot of these situations i think it is often the case.
And I can also relate to the feeling of being stunned into silence. The fact it happened on a national platform means they don’t get the luxury of that. It is their job and their duty to mark it out to their listeners.
And yet can we (judge and jury of Twitter) say we always have and respond to racism we overhear instantly? I know I’ve been in situations where I have felt so paralysed that In the moment I did nothing.
It is not the glamorous or righteous “I spoke up and I was counted” moment we demand and call for in todays climate, but in our real lives the ones we live off social media I would hazard a guess that it is likely that sometimes we fail as badly as those presenters.
I remember very well a conversation I once found myself in with people I didn’t know that well where a racist notion was shared and I felt so stunned and paralysed by what I'd heard that instead of saying something I silently removed myself, hid in a bathroom and cried.
I wasn’t on national radio and I didn’t have an audience, but it was still a moment that went unchallenged. After it left me feeling a sense of shame in that particular moment I didn’t feel equipped to speak out. I should have but I didn’t.
These ‘moments’ happen on social meida these days so frequently that I’m often left wondering after the angry hours of RTing and quote tweeting subside what actually has changed.
The echo chambers we live in have been handed their villains, they have been shouted at and shamed. Has there been a conversation? Will the mistake be addressed beyond a 142-character tweet that the offending parties have been hurried into by one or more major corporation's PR departments?
Wouldn't it be powerful if for their next show Bryan and Groves dedicated a segment to discussing that caller and his racism. They could Invite a Jewish guest on to talk about it and educate their audiences about why it is so poisonous and give the presenters themselves an opportunity to discuss why they didn't challenge it when it was so obvious, they recognised it.
There will be a next time and what these moments present us with is a chance to make that next time different.
