Maybe rafiq thinks racism to a different religeon is not as serious a racism to another colour. Hence why he can just say sorry and move on. Hopefully the guys he's accused can do the same but I very much doubt that will be the case. Do you?

I no more decide the boundaries than anyone else does. They are just understood. If anyone stepped out of line, and they don't, someone would have a quiet word. This is our culture. Bowls might be very traditional in many ways but retains its sense of decentness and respect. We have several members who weren't born in the UK, and the only comments ever made about that are genuine enquiries about how things work in their country of birth.

Cricket appears to have a different culture in which racist comments are regarded as banter. Whether that's down to the background of those who administer the sport isn't yet clear, but seems likely.

Things do indeed move on. My sport has, along with most of society. Cricket appears not to have. Yet! Along with a handful of posters here.

I am not so sure about Rafiq making friends. I really don't see too many consequences for the people he mentioned. If they embrace the moment, they can be part of the solution. If they deny it, maybe because they genuinely don't remember individual incidents, they cannot have failed to notice the culture.

I wouldn't want, or expect, to see anyone disciplined over this. Just accept, learn and move on and away from a tainted culture.

There are always polarised views here. It's a very untypical sounding board and not a reliable indicator of the public mood. Despite claims to the contrary from some fantasists.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

It's genuinely harmless stuff, just gentle ribbing of the kind I am pretty sure you are familiar with. No-one checks, but if anyone did "pull a face", which I have never seen, then I expect we would check why and try to be more careful. There's no intention to hurt, so if anyone was, we would react to it. We just don't touch anything too personal. I could provide some examples, but I think you would find them tedious.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

When situations still exist in which people regard racist remarks as banter, it is less true today. There were excuses in the past, which don't exist now.

As an academic, who clearly believes his writing to be superior to most others, you really ought to make the effort to recognise subtle differences in the meaning of words.

As verbs, the difference between despise and hate is that despise is to regard with contempt, or scorn, while hate is to dislike intensely or greatly.

It might appear subtle, or to you non-existent, but it's actually quite important.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

I thought you were able to multitask?

Exactly. In twenty years time today's woke may find themselves as out of step with their youth as some of us are today. Maybe the vegans will rule the roost so anyone who ate meat in the past is a monster and should have their statue torn down.

One more point