“What have 6 million dead people got to do with football?”: How Anglo-Jewish football supporters experience and respond to antisemitism and “banter”

Poulton, Emma

Abstract

Life-story interviews with 39 Jewish supporters of a football club whose quasi-Jewish identity is the catalyst for antisemitic abuse were used to explain the under-researched everyday experiences among members of the Anglo-Jewish community. All interviewees said their experiences of antisemitism within English men’s football supporter culture were much worse than in wider society. All interviewees believed references to Hitler and the Holocaust exceeded any threshold of acceptability and that the death of 6 million people should never be associated with football. While denigration of Jewish rituals and practices was offensive and problematic for some, Jewish stereotypes tended to be downplayed, dismissed, or tolerated by most interviewees as part of the “banter” endemic in English supporter culture to lessen or disrupt the impact of the hate speech they endure. These responses indicate complex processes of anger, acceptance and rationalisation as recipients attempt to make sense of and deal with everyday antisemitism.

Citation

Poulton, E. (2023). “What have 6 million dead people got to do with football?”: How Anglo-Jewish football supporters experience and respond to antisemitism and “banter”. Ethnic and Racial Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2259447

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 29, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Oct 13, 2023
• Publication Date: Oct 13, 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 13, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 20, 2023
• Journal: Ethnic and Racial Studies
• Print ISSN: 0141-9870
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2259447
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1736815