O tempora! O mores!

You wait for months for a "racism in sport" furore to come along, and then two arrive at the same time. Here in the UK, the England football captain John Terry is in trouble for allegedly calling an opponent, Anton Ferdinand, a "f***ing black c***". The unloveable Terry's bizarre defence is that he did indeed yell those words at Ferdinand, but only for the purpose of denying that he had yelled them as an insult. Good luck with that, John.

Meanwhile, in the US, Tiger Woods's former caddie, Steve Williams, won a minor award a couple of days ago, and announced in accepting it that he was glad to be able to "stick it up that black a******", meaning Woods. Williams is by all accounts just as nice a man as John Terry is, but Woods has, probably sensibly, chosen simply to express his regret at the outburst, rather than going off on one and threatening to sue Williams's (white) a******.

Here's the puzzling part about all this. Neither Terry nor Williams resorted to any of the proscribed words that were once used to insult people of colour. The term "black" was by far the least insulting of the terms either man used (even though it's not entirely accurate -- both Ferdinand and Woods are of mixed race), yet it's that word, rather than any of the other thoroughly unpleasant insults, that have got them into trouble. Am I missing something?

Meanwhile, over at the Church of England, more evidence of changing times and values. Attempting to show his solidarity with the protesters at St Paul's Cathedral, the admirable Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, has a remarkable proposal:

"....the Archbishop of York yesterday entered the debate about the church’s relationship with City financiers, arguing that greed should be made as socially unacceptable as racism, sexism and homophobia".

A quick check of the 'net reveals that greed is still listed as one of the Seven Deadly Sins*, so it's a bit unclear whether Dr Sentamu thinks it would have to be upgraded or demoted to be in line with the other ills he mentions. One suspects, alas, that it's the former. It's news to no-one that our society has almost completely lost touch with religious values, but it's a bit of a shock to think that one of the most senior figures in the Church of England may have done the same.

* They have their own website!