{news} The 2006 World Cup: Will Racism Come Home to Roost?

[clifford thornton]

This subject of race and white privilege will slowly creep into the campaign and we have to ready for it.  The question will probably be raised on ("Face the State"---Al Terzi, CH 3--he is on our side) when I will appear Sunday, June 18th at 10:00am.  Please check local listing.  In many respects running as a Green is like being "Black"




Edge of Sports
June 9, 2006

The 2006 World Cup: Will Racism Come Home to Roost?

By Dave Zirin and John Cox

The most watched tournament in the universe, the World
Cup, opens today amid fears that an open and violent
racism could upstage the games, humiliate its German
hosts, and provide an international platform for Neo-
Nazi swill. The rising number of attacks on non-whites
in Germany, combined with a spate of racist
sloganeering and taunting of black soccer players
throughout Europe, has set the stage for an
unprecedented display of racism on a global sports
stage. The argument here is that the German government
and the EU have only themselves to blame. These are
chickens coming home to roost.

The sewers where Neo-Nazis nestle, have been buzzing
with using the World Cup as political platform since
the day Munich was awarded the games. The German
government, however, dutifully ignored the Reich
rumblings, preparing instead for the corporate bonanza
that accompanies the Cup. Yet the current climate could
have been easily predicted if German officials had
bothered to lift their face from the haystacks of Euros
or recognize the repercussions of their own rhetoric.

First there has been the growing pattern of "football
racism" across the continent. In late February,
Cameroonian FC Barcelona star Samuel Eto'o almost
walked off the pitch after being showered by "fans"
with monkey chants and peanuts. Last November,
Messina's Marc Zoro picked up the ball and threatened
to walk off the field because of racist chants from
followers of Inter Milan. These are only the most well
publicized stories. There are countless tales of
players of African origin being treated, in the words
of one, "worse than dogs." This has gotten even more
play in the United States as US star DaMarcus Beasley
has recounted tales of monkey noises and tossed banana
skins that trail him every time his foot touches the
ball.

This has been aggravated by the rise of anti-immigrant
sentiment in Europe that has of course become de
rigueur in the United States as well. Shaun Harkin, who
played for Coleraine FC in the Northern Irish League
and captained Brown University's soccer squad to the
NCAA quarterfinals, now works as an immigrant-rights
activist in Chicago. He said to us, "The racist abuse
players have faced across Europe is an aspect of the
growing backlash against immigrants. Immigration from
former European colonies has grown. As in the United
States, immigration has been necessary for many
European economies and a source of cheap labor-but
immigrant communities have also been a convenient
political scapegoat in a continent riddled with
unemployment and increasingly anxious conditions for
workers dealing with the repercussions of deepening
neo-liberal policies." In other words,t he German
government wants to have it both ways: it's proper to
foment anti-Muslim bigotry, tighten immigration
restrictions and attack asylum seekers, but anti-black
racism shouldn't be allowed to sully our reputation or
diminish the grandeur of this highly profitable
spectacle.

Their political head was firmly ensconced in the sand
until a man named Uwe-Karsten Heye upturned the apple
car. Heye, a former spokesman for the Social
Democratic-Green coalition government, said, "There are
small and mid-sized towns in Brandenburg and elsewhere
where I would advise anyone [in the country for the
World Cup] with a different skin color not to go. They
might not make it out alive." Heye, a co-founder of an
anti-racist group called "Show Your Face," was slammed
for his comments. In Brandenburg, State Premier
Matthias Platzeck, a fellow Social Democrat, called his
words an "absurd slur of a whole region that is no way
justifiable." Wolfgang Bosback, a leading Christian
Democrat parliamentarian, denounced Heye for singling
out Brandenburg. But Bosback was at least equally
alarmed by the prospect that such comments would damage
the tourist industry, saying it would be "fatal" if
Heye's comments kept people from Germany.

The government found, however, that people both at home
and abroad were more concerned with the message than
the messenger. As a columnist in Berlin's daily Die
Tageszeitung wrote, "the fact that non-Germans or non-
white Germans can barely move around in safety is [the
real] scandal," not Heye's comments.

Spurred to action, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble
promised that his government would "not tolerate any
form of extremism, xenophobia or anti-Semitism."
Shäuble's solution, from the Dick Cheney school of
diplomacy, is to station tanks outside soccer stadiums.
Schäuble, it should be noted has "balanced" his
promises of combating racism by adding, "Blond and
blue-eyed Germans can also become the victims of
violence, sometimes attacked by those who don't have a
German (family) background."

The international soccer body FIFA has made toothless
pledges to combat racism at the Cup. Their plans
include two "anti-racism days," where banners will be
draped at each game reading, "Say No to Racism"-
although  they will be taken down at beginning of the
game. This is what a FIFA spokesperson called a "clear
message." Thank goodness some players have taken
stronger stands. In last month's European club
championship, French superstar Thierry Henry sported an
armband promoting an antiracist campaign called Stand
Up Speak Up. Henry pushed his sponsor Nike to produce
black and white intertwined armbands that demonstrate a
commitment against racism. So far, they have sold more
than five million. "That's important in making the very
real point that racism is a problem for everyone, a
collective ailment," Henry said to Time Magazine. "It
shows that people of all colors, even adversaries on
the pitch, are banding together in this, because we're
all suffering from it together."

In addition to Henry's initiatives, Muslim and
Christian religious leaders organized a very successful
Berlin game in early May. The best hope for a Cup
without racism won't be found in the CDU's tanks but in
the numerous antiracist groups in Germany that will be
on the ground, including Football Against Racism
(FARE), a European-wide network that has pressured FIFA
to take concrete measures.  FARE speaks for the
majority of the world when they say that they want to
see the 'beautiful game' played without the cancer of
racism." But if the ugly head of hate is raised, the
blame should extend beyond the thugs.

[Dave Zirin is the author of "'What's My Name, Fool?':
Sports and Resistance in the United States" (Haymarket
Books). John Cox is an assistant professor of History
at Florida Gulf Coast University, and hopes to see
Mexico shock the world in Germany.]

_______________________________________________________

portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news,
discussion and debate service of the Committees of
Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to
provide varied material of interest to people on the
left.

For answers to frequently asked questions:
http://www.portside.org/faq<http://www.portside.org/faq>

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change settings:
http://lists.portside.org/mailman/listinfo/portside<http://lists.portsideorg/mailman/listinfo/portside>

To submit material, paste into an email and send to:
moderator at portside.org<mailto:moderator at portside.org> (postings are moderated)

For assistance with your account:
support at portside.org<mailto:support at portside.org>

To search the portside archive:
https://lists.portside.org/pipermail/portside/<https://lists.portside.org/pipermail/portside/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20060611/8ac0feea/attachment.html>