Coded language in football denies black players’ humanity You get it, right? Eveything is racist. But seriously, *everything* is racist, including football commentary. “Pace and power”, “athleticism” – these are the words football commentators use to describe black players. Whereas white players are "tactical", "strategic", or "intelligent".

A Danish data company has run the numbers and found that coded language is rife in football. And let’s be real – if we didn’t think words had power, we wouldn’t be here. "Whenever any white commentator deploys “pace and power” or “athleticism” to describe a black player – without also commenting on their tactical intelligence, skill, creativity or work ethic – they are not only missing the mark in terms of their soccer critique but also denying black players’ humanity."

Imogen, engagement editor FiveThirtyEight: ‘Soccer commentary is full of coded racism’ (reading time: seven minutes)
We’re all in it together: windows of other lives lived I was sent this short article from the Times Literary Supplement about how two next-door neighbours finally meet: one of them is a patriarch in north London’s Jewish Orthodox neighbourhood, which is notoriously private. Indeed, Stamford Hill is a place where "religious life is life". Then came the pandemic, and the community had to adapt, fast: the writer watches on as fences come down next door to create a mega garden for the children and their neighbours; gazebos go up; karaoke is sung; dances are danced; the sound of prayers buzz through the air; a magical lament sounds from balcony to balcony as religious neighbours pray.

Traditions which were once private are now, temporarily, something everyone around can be a part of. It’s a touching little diary entry of a meeting of different people, a connection which was not guaranteed. For that short time when a global pandemic meant we all had to stay in our homes, and our lives were in danger, our lives also became more connected, and somehow, we were all in it together.

Nabeelah, conversation editor TLS: ‘Covid N16: Lockdown among Stamford Hill’s Haredi community’ (reading time: 10 minutes)
‘The missing word’: the search for a third person singular, gender-neutral pronoun Going back to at least the 1800s, English speakers have been searching for a gender-neutral singular pronoun, with dozens, even hundreds, of options – a pace of almost one per year for more than a century. Philosopher Amia Srinivasan chronicles that history in a review of Dennis Baron’s new book What’s Your Pronoun? Beyond He and She.

This is a fascinating account of a history I never knew and is an encouraging reminder that language is constantly evolving to try to better fit our needs and our humanity.

Eric, Climate correspondent The London Review of Books: ‘He, She, One, They, Ho, Hus, Hum, Ita’ (reading time: 16 minutes)

The best of The Correspondent

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