Racism - Not just in America any more

From The Scotsman:

DUNOON is a rarity among rural Scottish communities. The presence of a US naval base at Holy Loch during the Cold War accounts for most of the black people living in the town.

So Paul Omoniyi, a born and bred Scot of Nigerian parentage, might have expected a warmer welcome when he travelled to the Cowal peninsula on October 2, 2005, with his under-13s Bishopbriggs boys' team West Park United.

The 11-year-old was excited about making an impression for a team he had joined only two months earlier, and hoped it would help him realise his dream of becoming a professional footballer like his brother.

In the stand at Cowal Stadium that day, there was a crowd to watch the Scottish Youth Club Association (SYCA) league match, made up of players from the under-14s Dunoon team who had played earlier.

A few minutes after kick off, Paul got his first touch of the ball - and was promptly greeted by monkey chants from the stand. "I heard the first monkey chant and I did feel hurt and wanted to do something," said Paul. "I was going to speak to the referee at half-time but when it happened again, he put the boys doing it out. He came up and said how sorry he was about it."

The referee that afternoon was Ian Cunning, a local man who shared the training facilities with various Dunoon teams. "I thought my ears must have been deceiving me, so I played on," he said. A minute later, Paul sent the ball for a corner and even louder monkey chants pierced the air. "I was absolutely raging and held up play, ran from the field to order the boys in the stand out of the park, and told them in no uncertain terms their behaviour was appalling."

West Park coach Martin Rafferty said: "I was bemused when I heard the first chanting. The referee came over to me and said: 'Am I hearing things?' 'Depends on what you are listening to?' I replied. 'If it is noises coming from the stand then you are hearing monkey chants.' A brief time later, no one could be in any doubts that there were monkey chants coming from that part of the ground and that was why the referee went through the boys who were making them and sent them out."

Nowhere in the article is "monkey chant" defined. I guess that the monkey chant is so well known in Scotland that everyone just knows what it sounds like. Sort of like blowing a razzberry or flipping someone off need no definition in America.