zuky:
A very positive development in international sports. There’s no reason why Black athletes and other athletes of color should be expected put up with racist abuse in their workplace. Unfortunately, it’s something that has always been expected in the past (I certainly put up with tons of racism as an Asian athlete when I was growing up), but times are changing and international sports organizations claim to be serious about combatting racism. Fans or competitors who engage in any racist acts should be singled out, ejected from the venue, and prosecuted for hate speech. Here in Canada, that can lead to jail time, and I’m pretty sure hate speech laws in Europe also allow for such stiff enforcement (in the US, probably not, where they consider the KKK “free speech”). If authorities won’t do anything about it, then athletes must take matters into their own hands and do exactly what the entire AC Milan team did: walk off the field. The AC Milan team has set a good example for other sports teams by standing together and refusing to play under such conditions.
Surprised Lucas didn’t say anything about this to me. I kinda want him to talk about this, since he can offer a lot of background/potential reading (like all I can really name is Zirin). I think there’s like…a lot we could talk about that I can only kind of explain. Like for example the fact that this kind of behavior is pretty much standard, I think, in Spain and Italy (as well as elsewhere/everywhere but it tends to look like this in Spain and Italy), it’s not very good to argue that racism is ~less bad some places but there are some giant structural reasons why certain nations let their fans (or players) (or COACHES) get away with this kind of thing (including, NOT TO GO THERE RE: ITALY but, governmental corruption and compliance), (it really is terrible everywhere it just looks different everywhere), (not to mention that this stuff, especially in Germany, Italy, and Spain, is often connected to actual fascism). Or the (poor) efficacy of in-place campaigns like No To Racism or FIFA’s anti-discrimination programs. Or the fact that walk-offs have been attempted in similar cases in the past it’s just that this time the whole team was in solidarity but there are so many cases where it’s a teammate or a player’s own coach who is treating them like this. Or like that FIFA is really fucking racist itself which could maybe have something to do with their weak reactions, or the fact that so many football players of color are funneled under corrupt/inhumane/questionable/illegal circumstances from colonized countries to play for European teams and this is related to these abuses of labor rights (like the way zuky framed it above, these are labor rights), etc. etc. etc.