Are Reading fans unfairly critical of black players?

[Clyde1998]

Just come across this thread. My two cents is Reading fans are no more critical than fans of other clubs and agree with those who say issues are related more to unconscious biases rather than outright racism (same applies to discrimination of any sort within the club). This basically reflects wider society.

I think people have a natural tendency to favour people who they perceive to be similar to them. When we're talking about marginal decisions, in-group bias will play a major factor.

Of course, what that group is considered to be at a given time changes depending on context; identity is a construct of context. At a Reading game, we all probably identify as Reading fans first and foremost; at work, we may associate with the company or role more than anything; when with your kids, you may consider yourself a parent above all else, etc.

I did hear Garcia’s interview and I thought he sounded fine. He’s a young lad and probably hasn’t had much or any media training.

I didn't hear the interview in question, but I know in the Premier League (for example) any media request for a player after a match must be granted. As the players know this, any player who doesn't want to be interviewed will give the worst possible interview so they don't ask them again. Others are simply not comfortable speaking when being recorded or with people they don't really know.

This is often why you get the same rotation of players doing the media work. If there are similar rules in League One, that could perhaps be a factor too.

How do you actually counter unconscious bias?

(I don't know too much about it tbh and a quick Google hasn't really helped)

With a lot of difficulty tbh, I think there's some schools of thought that it's all but impossible.

But first thing is to not be in denial about the possibility. There's some interesting tests that ae easily accessible called Harvard Implicit Awareness Tests, I think. They need to be taken with a large pinch of salt and are of limited diagnostic value, but great for awareness and thought provoking.

Then you've got to apply as much critical thinking as you can, and remove as many factors as you can. If you take exam marking for example, remove name, gender/sex etc to remove racial, gender, sexual biases, socio-cultural too. Making it typed can removed elements of that too from handwriting.

Challenging yourself by changing the context. Would I make the same decision if x factor was opposite, age, race, gender, etc. Sanity check the decision with someone else. Challenging yourself on how much of the decision is purely factual.

I found my result (from here) to be interesting, given I'm white:

I did once casually observe a Reading side which had about 8 black players in the starting line-up, I wondered if we'd ever get a full 11 because that would be a first for us and something to be proud of as long as they were all picked on merit and not to purposely make that statement.

I think it's inevitable we'll have a line up at some point where all of the players are non-white at the very least (when talking about current standards as to who's white - as that has changed over time). Some of that will be due to the increasing numbers of mixed-race people in society.

[Clyde1998]

I would add also, our fanbase does seem to be much more white than the general demographics of Reading.

I don't know if that's some generational effect going on (ie. parents supporting Reading taking their kids to games) which contributes to this, some general footballing effect or something else. It will invariably be a combination of multiple factors.

[rabidbee]

A lot of our fanbase travels in from outside Reading.

[Forbury Lion]

I would add also, our fanbase does seem to be much more white than the general demographics of Reading.

I don't know if that's some generational effect going on (ie. parents supporting Reading taking their kids to games) which contributes to this, some general footballing effect or something else. It will invariably be a combination of multiple factors.

Supporting a football team is a generational thing, If you had a parent, grand parent, great grand parent etc supported Reading then chances are you will support Reading and would have been taken to a game.
Go back a few generations and pretty much everyone was white in the town and therefore pretty much everyone on the pitch and in the crowd at a Reading match was white. It is their descendants who still attend and I would imagine the majority of those descendants are still white.

The 70's and early 80's were a time or racism on the terraces and football violence, so I doubt many non-white families had any desire to attend a football match, added to that the fact Elm Park was a rundown sh*thole (which we loved) and the football wasn't that great.

So, we're mostly going to see non-white fans come from new attendees who live locally, perhaps they were attracted to attend when we were a Premier League club? - certainly a more attractive proposition than a league one club.... once they're in, then you have a chance of keeping them. The same is also true of the free tickets given away to school kids and the kid for a quid says, This is where you get the next generation of fans to invest into the club.

Where I sit it's quite diverse, men, women, kids, black, brown, white, but mostly mature white males and I don't see that changing.