The English FA have to be see to come down hard on any Racist incident since they demand that from FIFA/UEFA every time England play overseas and their players get abused (and rightly so I may add). If the FA acted weakly on this then it wouldn't have helped further down the line.
As for Terry it'll be interesting to see what the FA will do after the CPS finish with him, mind he's been charged by the police and not the FA on this one.
Well from what I know he called the guy black. I don't know anything else other than that, I don't really see it as a problem to be honest. People are different, it's not an avoidable subject.
The 'n' word in this case being 'negro'. Bear in mind he's a native Spanish speaker so that word simply means 'black' to him. Apparently he called Evra 'Negrito', which is pretty patronising - implying he's a child or a small man, but it's a pretty common way that Spanish speakers playfully insult someone. From what I know of south american culture (limited to three years of working with Mexicans, never been to Uruguay) I don't think he intended any racial insult, he was just trying to wind him up by calling him a big baby.
But under the rules of Football in England, calling someone 'Negrito' is deemed using racist language. Suarez has admitted he called Evra that and as such is punished accordingly.
Mind the FA charged him with using racist language and not being racially abusive towards Evra...so I fail to see where is the problem is.
Yea, but Negrito isn't an English world. Nor is it French. Just beacuse it sounds like '******' doesn't mean it means just that. Negrito is actually a race of black people from South East Asia. So I don't see how he offended anyone, it would be like me calling you Siamese. How could that be offending?
That's not the sense he was using. The '-ito' suffix makes a noun diminutive. One weekend when I shaved my hair and dyed it red I also accidentally got sunburnt, and my Mexican colleagues called me 'Coquito Rojo' for ages (Little red coconut).
Suarez called him 'little black', basically. It's a term of endearment but using it against an opposition player makes it a patronising form of address - treating him like a child or making him a triviality.
Point being the offensive intent is entirely in the '-ito' suffix - belittling him. The 'Negro' part is irrelevant. It's just like you or I referring to the one black guy in a group of men 'the black one'. I've seen people tie themselves up in knots to avoid identifying someone as 'the black one' but if it's the most obvious identifying factor then for ****'s sake it's not racist to say it.
TBH the more I think about this the more I think the FA have set a really silly precedent.
Well, a "knut" is a part of the female body (not a polar bear). So I'm sure you wouldn't mind being called one should you happen to be hairy and smell slightly oddly.