Last Thursday, we had a guest speaker, Dr. Meek, come and speak to our class. Dr. Meek talked to us about soccer and the racism and hooliganism that goes on. He showed us video of examples of racism in soccer. I couldn’t believe some of the things that the fans were doing. I had never seen people throwing bananas on to the field or fans proudly displaying Swastikas at a game. The black soccer players had to play through it all. I couldn’t imagine how tough that must have been to try and play through. I’m not surprised that players eventually were taking a stand against the racism and I think it is a really good idea. Players like Thierry Henry, that have dealt with racism first hand, can really help send a message to stop the racist acts and actions in soccer.
I was just as appalled when Dr. Meek talked about the hooliganism that goes on with soccer fans, or rather, soccer fanatics. Dr. Meek mentioned how fights between fans of opposing teams not only happen inside a stadium, but they occasionally happen outside of the stadium. The fans of other countries are crazy in how serious they take their sport. They act like everything they do is completely normal. I also thought how ridiculous is was what Dr. Meek said that when the police show up to stop a fight, both opposing team fans all then gang up on the police. Personally, I think it is going to take a lot of work for fans to act more appropriately. I don’t know if they will ever change, because it is something they take so much pride in.
Being a huge soccer fan, I was still surprised to see such racism in Europe (especially the banana incidents). Here in the US I feel that we still may have racism but its stopped quickly in stadiums. Security does a good job of stopping it before it becomes public. One of the things that stood out that Dr. Meek said in class is that 'fans will hate opposing black players, but if the black player is on their team and they do well, they love him.' It really is weird how it works out like that.
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