We Spurs fans must watch our language | Letter

While some Tottenham Hotspur supporters use the Y-word as an act of reclamation, Ya’ir Klein urges fellow fans to drop it in favour of less loaded terms

While I commend Lynne Murphy for pointing out that a conversation is happening about what dictionaries can do better (It’s not the role of the OED to police language, Journal, 17 February), it reminds us Spurs supporters that we need to do better too in watching our language.

I have stopped using the Y-word at matches when a cousin told me she was traumatised hearing it being employed now as a badge of identity, as it still reminded her of being beaten up as a child in the East End by blackshirts who were shouting the term at her and her father. I have since been encouraging fellow supporters to drop it in favour of the simpler “come on, you Spurs”, when being goaded by opposing fans.
Ya’ir Klein
London

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