Jaw Dropping Racism - In Your Face Beotch!

I really have got to find more time to write but I guess when you grow up, your life gets so much more packed with stuff that you cannot find enough time in the day.



I was watching television yesterday morning and caught the latest episode of "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel". They did a story of racism in soccer called "Fields of Hate". My jaw hit the table when I saw the blatant racism being displayed by the fans of European soccer games.

There were fans who would make sounds like a monkey or would throw bananas on the field when a player of color would get the ball. There are instances when the fans have spit on players to the point where they jersey was soaked. There are parts of the stadium that are "controlled" by organized neo-fascists or neo-Nazi groups that would display the Nazi swastika openly. In this semi-politically correct world, you would think that racism such as that would not be present at an organized sporting event with a television audience. There are still pockets of racism in the US but you would never see anything such as that at an organized sporting event here.

Seeing this has partially changed my outlook on Europe. I have had the opportunity to live there twice - once as a adolescent and once as a young adult. I also got to travel a little bit while I was there and never experienced anything that would make me think that someone didn't like me for the color of my skin. I used to believe Europe practiced a more liberal society. How can such hatred go unchecked?



Why do those who scream hate so loudly truly believe that they are right? What makes one believe that the removal, extinction, or separation of a race other than theirs is what God intended? In a world were MOST people believe in racial harmony, why does this "minority" of people think they can change the minds of so many who do not believe in their rhetoric?

An example of this line of thinking was made by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840), a German physician, physiologist and anthropologist, who made the statement "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix." REALLY?

Everyone has a right to their opinion but the purpose of sport, in my opinion, has always been camaraderie, sportsmanship, and community pride. Why would someone let a bunch of idiots represent their community? Maybe there need to be some diversity on the governing body of UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations. Maybe they need to walk in the shoes of soccer (football) players of color to see the effect that their "inaction" is taking on them.