Spelling names incorrectly isn't racism.
Even if it appears as if a poster only 'seems' to misspell 'foreign' names.
Anything that is a word that isn't common usage or a word that is normally spelled a different way will always be prone to repetitive misspelling.
Names are not usually caught by spellchecker either.
Highfield is unlikely to ever be misspelled even though it's a long name because it combines to very common usage words, high and field. Robertson is unlikely to be misspelled because it combines Robert and son, again, two very common words. Hallett on the other hand will be misspelled regularly because no-one has any means to remember that Hallett contains both two Ls and two Ts other than via a daily visual reminder of exactly how it's spelt.
It's not that someone is having difficulty with foreign players, it's that they are having difficulty with a completely different language that bares no familiar connection to their own. No common words, no common letter strings and no common pronunciation.
Hossein is going to get Hussain typos in the same way:
Graeme Dott, for example will regularly get called Graham, even the Scottish Newspaper will call him Graham in their headline:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/oth ... es-1056249And in the text still call him Graeme. Because it's a natural typo that even when in full knowledge of then one will still write Graham because no matter how much one knows it's Graeme, the natural way to write Graham for most people is Graham.
Similar for the English player Neal Foulds, of course people will regularly write Neil Foulds, again, even if they are fully aware and try their best to get names right:
http://www.knightssnooker.com/And those long Thai names, well, nobody enjoys writing those out every time they want to write about them, so they get shortened. Exactly how they end up shortened is going to be different to each different user.
And in terms of racism, it can be argued to pretty much the same degree that only highlighting and making an issue out of name misspelling if it involves a foreign player is itself racism, because it suggests a blindness to one race while enforcing a draconian restriction on offences to a different race. An inequality of approach.
For example here, we can have thread after thread after thread of people practically yelling Saltby, but if someone writes Dong even once then the wrath of all hell breaks loose. Karen is fine and dandy, but Hussein is inherently racist?
And this is how spelling obsession directly conflicts with Western culture. Western culture is absolutely riddled with wordplay, particularly with names. There's barely anyone who's name is not prone to some form of amusing word play. And that is how nicknames form. Eventually, everyone agrees to call someone something, but usually after years of people messing about with the words. It's not about racism, it's about anarchic tendencies. Anti-authoritarian impulse. Breaking down the inequality of over-formality that po-faced adherence to form naturally breeds.
Yes, if someone is racist, then a clue to that might well be excessive and continued use of name degradation specifically targeted at one or more specific racial groups, that is obvious and common sense. But this will be highlighted and made more evident by other means and will show itself in other ways. Name misspelling by itself is no evidence of anything as name misspelling is a far more complex and nuanced human anomaly.
Racists might well play heavily into name misspelling, but not all name misspelling is racist. If you understand what I'm saying.
by Andre147 » 19 Apr 2022 Read
