Part 2: New Year Coming, Same Ol' Song & Dance...

Last week I wrote of my tempered excitement for the upcoming New Year, filled with positivity, hope, and ongoing REAL CHALLENGES...

This week Queen's Park Rangers FC had their official Twitter account hacked, with incredibly racist and vulgar messages posted for all of the QPR fans subscribed to their Twitter account to view: The racist and vulgar messages were therefore associated with QPR FC, the team, the players, and our Beautiful Game.

As an organization, QPR tweeted the following after the event:

Personally, I'd like to see a much much MUCH more formal response, with much much MUCH stronger wording that condemned the messages from their account. It's almost as if they felt a quick little tweet saying, "My bad", a shrug of a shoulder, and an emoticon would magically make the experience all go away. An emoticon?!

It seems insincere, half-hearted, and dismissive - as if it's not really considered a big deal. I'm just wondering how the players must feel about this, whether expressed or not. I'm wondering how any of the QPR fans who received those tweeted messages must feel, especially after such an empty response from the club.

Challenges and experiences like this are teachable moments and opportunities to work towards needed, positive change. Rather than dismissing the experience with an emoticon and a limited tweet, how about making the effort to send out a strongly-worded, well-thought-out, cohesive statement outlining QPR's policy towards the value of diversity in their workplace and in society? How about actually condemning the messages, and taking accountability for their account being hacked? A pre-game statement by the team showing support of diversity and of equality would be a powerful message and something I'm certain the players would be want.

These are all thoughts that strike me as I contemplate the upcoming New Year, filled with challenges and hope...