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Europeans World Cup Fans Are Way More Racist Than You Thought
By Lindsay CutlerJune 18th, 2010, 12:11 pmComments (10)
Not to be a downer - because, World Cup! It's fun! Who knew? - but I never knew much about the fans abroad (other than the English ones who are crazy). And while half the players for France don't look like your typical French natives, I never really questioned it. I never gave much thought as to how players were traded, or ended up on the teams that they're on. It never occured to me that a country's own fans would say terrible things to their own [non-native] players, whom were brought to play for their country because they're among the best players in the world.
This is a clip from an ESPN special that goes into that. It's really worth checking out if you're not already familiar with the kind of awfulness that goes on in the stands in countries like Italy and France. I had no idea. (But please excuse the supremely announcer-y announcer. They could have gotten a narrator that didn't sound like the "Behind The Music" guy.)
Commentarium (10 Comments)
Wow...
What does it say?
Perhaps there is some small benefit in being an American and not immediately equating race with nationality (excepting the deep south, of course)?
um, what do "typical french natives" look like then?
@superdraggy: exactly.
Lindsay, you don't understand, but you write like you do. What gives?
This is a cultural thing, not just a soccer thing. I lived in Italy for 5 years and travelled all over Europe, and I personally witnessed many many acts of systemic and tolerated racism during my time there. So here are my observations
The problem stems from 2 things:
1) For the most part, there aren't "hate crime" laws in Europe, and what ones are in place never get enforced. This is tantamount to government-endorsed racism.
2) Economics - Africans are to many Europeans what Mexicans are to the Tea Party. There is an acrimony towards immigrants because, despite the relative wealth, a stagnation of high-quality jobs in many European countries. This creates a situation much like we have here where we have people blame immigrants for taking the "homegrowns" jobs. Truth is, African immigrants are similar in that they often take the less-desirable jobs that Italians, French, and Spaniards won't do.
The biggest difference is that (and this isn't just nationalism showing through) Europeans don't have the sophistication and emotional intelligence that Americans do in terms of race relations. You don't hear racist chants going on at Major League Soccer games, which consistently has many Latino players on each team. And considering that Europeans have some serious superiority issues, I don't see this ever changing.
@DR and @Superdraggy: White. Like the majority of their country. Wealthy European teams can afford to buy the best players from Algeria, Morocco, the Ivory Coast, wherever. Check out the video. Check out SR's comment.
im hispanic (both my parents are of mexican origin) and i was born and raised in el paso, texas. i have been fortunate enough to travel across the united states and around the world. i can honestly say that the only place i have ever sensed people were being racist toward me was in france. they thought my cousins and i were muslim arabs and refused service to us and said rather hateful things to us. it was quite tragic and i cannot even begin to imagine what people of color have to put up with throughout their lives in that country.
whoa. that's depressing. there is definitely a good deal of racism in the US, but it isn't acceptable to be outspoken about it.
This clip is 4 years old, Lindsay.
Now you say something