I’d like to make an apology for my comments this weekend.
On Saturday night I posted a comment in the TTT comments section, behind the paywall – to the multicultural, intelligent and liberal community – which was an observation about the strange biomechanical movement of Sadio Mané in tight areas, and especially the incredible low centre of gravity he displays when he looks like he should instead fall over.
I made a zoomorphic comparison (as I’ve done many times), for which I included various caveats, including an attempt to remove all connections to his race; made on the assumption that I could park the negative, vile bullshit of narrow-minded people and focus purely on the issue of movement and an equivalent in the animal kingdom. I knew at the time that the comparison, out of context, would look horrible, and indeed, I said this very thing in my post as a warning. Hence my emphasis on context. (In hindsight the smart thing would obviously have been to just not write the thought down and publish it. But we can usually discuss all kinds of topics intelligently on this site.)
However, even though I meant no harm by it, it has caused offence outside of TTT since a screenshot (removed of some of the context) appeared on Twitter, followed by screenshots that had even more of the context edited out. By the time this went across Twitter I’d already stated on TTT that it was a mistake to think that I could make a comparison and, by noting the negative connotations, effectively remove them.
While I was in no way naive about the connotations (indeed, I mentioned them clearly in an attempt to head them off at the pass, as it were), I was naive to think that I could effectively bypass them.
I now fully appreciate that the connotations are not mine to own and disarm, no matter how hard I try or how pure my intentions, and I apologise for misguidedly thinking I was able to do so. I also unreservedly apologise for any offence caused as a result.
