Stephen Malkmus

The courts have held that Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are protected against race discrimination because they’re ethnic groups under the Equality Act.

Police Scotland better get themselves organised before the demonstrations against the quality of your posts start.

I'm sure the Ross County fans weren't offended, but that's not really the point. To take a topical example, if the team formerly known as the Washington Redskins were playing the Chicago Bears and the Bears fans starting chanting "dirty Indian ********" at the Redskins fans, the Redskins fans probably wouldn't be too bothered. But can you imagine being a Native American at the game or watching on TV? Anti-traveller racism is clearly a problem in the north of Scotland (see below from prominent elected representative and crap linesman, Douglas Ross) and some of our support have played a part in perpetuating that in the past. https://twitter.com/leomiklasz/status/1288900494996496385?s=20 The problem is that if it is condoned it inevitably leads to it being viewed as acceptable behaviour amongst a minority of our support and therefore our community in other situations. For example, take this incident where Romanian players were abused purely on the basis of where they were from. The judge didn't view it as banter and rightly so: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/inverness/835394/caley-thistle-football-fan-banned-from-every-ground-in-the-uk/ One upside of us not having to play County in recent years is that this sort of thing hasn't got an airing. There's plenty of scope to give them stick without resorting to stuff like this. Just focus on cuddly Uncle Roy.

Yet there is still racism in our community: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/2243678/activists-claim-removal-of-black-lives-matter-posters-from-bridge-is-evidence-of-subtle-racism-in-highlands1/amp/ Not to mention our own fanbase's history of anti-gypsy abuse. The actions of a small minority of protesters pale in comparison to the injustice wrought on these groups for hundreds of years, and doesn't devalue the points the wider movement are making.

I don't believe the SPFL have mandated taking the knee before games as the EPL did a few months ago which I feel this is a pity as international solidarity is important. However, I understand there may be a sense of the moment having passed (unfortunately) by the time the season starts in October so understand why our league may not involve themselves in it. In relation to this, I believe it would be a nice touch if our club made an effort at some point to recognise the contribution of BAME players who have helped to lead us to success in the past. The club has been good at supporting progressive social causes in recent years (Rainbow Laces, mental health etc.), but it would be nice to see something done to recognise those from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds and to make fans from these groups feel even more welcome at the club.