Soccer, Sports and Politics - Part Deux

I do think it is slightly different than what you describe, but both are bad.

My view on such things is that it is deeply embedded in culture (American, Argentinian, Mexican, etc.), to the point that it becomes like the air we breathe - you don't even realize it is there. The movies we watch, the songs we listen to, the games we play, the scriptures and other texts we read are filled with it, because they are all products of culture. As a kid I played "smear the queer" on the playground with no understanding at all what that name meant. In a work meeting a liberal white professor used the phrase "let's call a spade a spade". He had no idea why a black female colleague from Virginia got upset by it until she explained what it meant (that was the first time I had heard the explanation as well; I always thought it was a reference to a card game). Culture means you learn it implicitly as well as explicitly.

The trick is recognizing and identifying it (discrimination of all sorts) so that you can remove it from your life. It is a continual process and may never truly end, given culture is all-encompassing.

 

Immigration makes countries better, and the France NT is a good illustration of this.

 

Well....An other one who simply does not get it....Mascherano talking about the video incident.


"I know Enzo, he's a great guy. He doesn't have any problems like that," insisted Mascherano.

"Often, as part of a celebration, you can take part of a video and take it out of context.
Mascherano also spoke of a "cultural" misunderstanding.
"Sometimes you have to understand the culture of each country, and sometimes what we perceive as a joke can be misinterpreted elsewhere.

https://www.barrons.com/news/masche...st-chants-video-taken-out-of-context-1dc217dd

 

I knew of the word "spade" as a slur, but I didn't know the phrase was a reference to race. I've used the phrase many times myself.

 

"If you're offended by his racist remarks, that's a you problem"

 

Yeah… the spade one is a little weird. I’d bet hardly anyone actually uses it with racist intentions.

I always used “long time no see” as noir-speak. First intro was Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with Bettie Boop using it. Makes sense that it is offensive.

My friend that is half Korean, and also looks like Apollo Ohno (but 5’10 and not 5’4”) used to use “no can do” all the time, and he and the group of Asian friends I hung with at times (in Utah, they all get lumped together, so there isn’t much divide between Chinese and Korean, even Japanese and the peninsula commiserated) all had universal praise for Big Trouble In Little China.

It kinda bums me out that The Three Amigos is panned as racist now, but it is true that they didn’t really add a lot of complexity to the stereotypes like Big Trouble did. I always saw it as laughing at the stupid white guys, and the stupid ways they portray rural Mexico, but I guess my take is more meta than most. The singing bush and the turtle saying “goodnight Ned” will probably run through my mind as my conscious self disintegrates.

 

Punishment as being accountable for your actions. You are breaking norms and rules, you pay the price for it. That will be strong deterrent for others.

Good dialogue.... Not sure who are those folks though. Can anyone identify them?

 

I don't buy the ignorance explanation, they know how what they are doing will be received, that's why someone tells him to switch off his stream when they start singing that song.

If this was a "but what is the problem?" type situation, that would not happen.

 

Of course I know Andres Cantor.... Such a great play by play commentator. He knows the game.

 

Yeah but even this type of reasoning is unfair towards immigrants.
They shouldn't have to make the French NT considerably better to prove their worth to society.

Lets be honest what is at the core of this specific type of racism. They look down upon the French NT because they have many black players representing them and they perceive this as inferior.
So in a way they are just like the Le Pen supporters who complain that there are too many black players on the NT.
Meanwhile I have seen the racist chant (which also includes transphobic bits) described as football folklore by Argentinians.

 

If your culture is racist then we will perceive it as racist, Javier. That's a you problem.

 

I can't believe the team that had a player parade around with a baby Mbappé doll after their WC victory did this! They always seemed so classy.

 

Thoughtful post, I would say that most of us have probably heard stuff in stands that we find disgusting on a few occasions.
To me this is different, because it's not a section of supporters engaging in it but the players themselves. You can't control what each member or group within a crowd of many thousands do or not. You can however control what a small squad of players does, or at least how they present themselves to the world.
Having said that, I am not surprised this happened with Argentina, not because of their "culture", but because it became clear to me in the aftermath of the WC that the AFA is not very interested in carefully curating their global image. And that is an understatement.

 

From the Athletic's piece about the "incident", which sums up why people can shove the ignorance defense up their rear ends. It's clearly not a case of them not knowing what they are singing.

I also have very little patience left for Enzo's apology. I'm not a racist, I'm just a person who will occasionally sing racist songs. Okay.

 

And I made this point in another topic already but it bears repeating: the majority of this Argentina squad don't just have black teammates at their clubs. Most of them have at least one black French teammate. So they are gleefully singing along to a song that insults the club teammates they are on the training field with every day.

We already know none of these guys will lose their contracts over this, which means that probably over a dozen French players will be forced to train and work alongside people they know perceive them as inferior.