elfman

and he got it from the Duke of Wellington, who ironically used it to respond to someone who said he wasn't really British because he was born in Ireland.

didikai

Ahhhhh they are from Stamford Hill, and the Woodberry Down Estate.
Just out of my acceptance border.

(Didn't think that term was PC any more)

dbd33

Are you sure you've been to White Hart Lane?

marclouis

they've (we've until i gave up on them) been calling them that for years.

marclouis

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7217977.stm
a canadian freeks out on on prospect of coming to london.

dbd33

Decades. I haven't regularly listened to dulcet tones of the Park Lane since the seventies, we were the binnies even then.

marclouis

yep, nothing offensive about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yid
should be seen as a compliment

didikai

Well I used to play in a band many moons ago and we did Saturday nights in the White Hart pub, right next to the ground, which was then run by Joe Lucy the ex boxer.
As we were packing up around 11 p.m. Greavesie and his mates would just be arriving for some 'afters'.

Do you know where Tottenham is? (It's not Tottenham Court Road)

Didikai (Just outside the GTA)

Madmac

Yeah double whammy: we had a guy from Luton who loved Shakin' Stevens. Poor bloke.

dbd33

And yet you don't know what the Spurs fans are called? You sure you're not from the Tottenham on highway 50?

didikai

Fraid I've been a supporter since the '50s.
Silly to say I don't know about Yids.
Not that I give a carrot, but that has been a derogatory term since before I was a kid. So where anyone can say it isn't, is a bit weird.
But who knows, maybe the 'N' word will become acceptable again and we'll all be able to shout that at the matches.

englishintruder

I suppose the real answer to this questions is

Because we want to and we can!!

marclouis

wikipedia "Some Tottenham supporters use it with a political consciousness of the club as a bastion against racism and antisemitism"

i can only speak from the view of a yid from north london, in that it is a compliment, or like the familiar "mate".

i agree, its probably like the N word. used out of context, its very insulting. but having heard it many times this year, not once in an insulting way....

not that its relevant, i have been to a few matches with friends, with kids etc, and i have have to say White Hart Lane is a good day out.

wbexpat

A passenger said the pilot was carried from the plane shouting and swearing, saying he wanted to talk "to God".

So they diverted to Eire?
I knew there was something about David O'Leary.

dbd33

What you don't seem to realize is that the term yids or yid-army refers not only to Jewish people but, in the football context, to supporters of Tottenham, regardless of their religion. I used to stand next to an Indian who'd scream Yiddo! along with the rest of us. It's exactly like the N word in that that has become acceptable in the mouths of the people who've reclaimed it, the rap band NWA, for example.

You allude to Jimmy Greaves and to having been a fan since the fifties, it seems to me that your knowledge of the Spurs is as dated as your politics. How long have you been gone?