Racism is still with us

Lazarus Sauti

Rosa Parks (1931 – 2005), one of the most significant people of the 20th century, once said, and this humble pen quotes: “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.”

True to Rosa’s quote, racism is still with us, and recent incidents that happened in the football fraternity testify to this.

Russian side FC Rostov’s coach Igor Gamula, Bordeaux coach Willy Sagnol and Italian football federation president Carlo Tavecchio recently made racial comments that are abusive, damaging, discrediting and offending to African players and the continent at large.

Gamula allegedly made inflammatory comments about his African players as he labelled them as “things”.

His comments came after he was asked whether he would sign Cameroonian player Benoit Angbwa, and Gamula responded by saying: “We have enough dark-skinned players; we’ve got six of the things.”

Six things, seriously!

The controversial coach also reportedly joked that black African players may have infected five members of his squad with Ebola. “I am already worrying it is Ebola,” he said.

“I will say it again – it was a joke. I have a great relationship with all the team’s dark-skinned players. The British press just does not understand Russian humour,” the coach later tried to fire fight.

Bordeaux coach Willy Sagnol has also been heavily criticised after saying African players are “powerful” but they lack intelligence and discipline.

The the former Monaco, Bayern Munich and France full-back told the daily Sud Ouest regional newspaper in France: “The advantage of what I would call the typical African player is that he is not expensive when you sign him, [he is] a player who is ready for combat, but football is not just about that. Football is also [about] technique, intelligence. You need a bit of everything.

“The Nordics as well, the Nordics are good. They have a good mentality. A football team is a mixture, it’s like life, it is like France. You have defenders, attackers, midfielders, fast ones, big ones, small ones and technical ones.”

Although the Ligue 1 manager attempted to explain himself and duly apologised, his comments made African players inferior to the Europeans.

The French anti-racist Non-governmental Organisation SOS Racisme denounced Sagnol for “crassly associating the ‘Blacks’ and the ‘Nordics’ with being physical and intelligent respectively.

Tavecchio caused an outcry when he made a comment about a fictitious African player he named Opti Poba “eating bananas” during the campaign for the presidency.

He was addressing the subject of the lack of opportunities for young Italian players at professional clubs, and said: “In England, they identify the players coming in and, if they are professional, they are allowed to play.

“Here instead we get ‘Opti Poba’, who previously ate bananas and then suddenly becomes a first-team player with Lazio.”

Incontestable, Gamula, Sagnol and Travecchio’s remarks are damaging, discrediting and offending.

These three are spreading very serious prejudices and cliches about Africa and her footballers, as such; their comments exposed some of the stereotypes deeply rooted in the Europeans’ minds.

True to Rosa’s assertions, people like Gamula, Sagnol and Travecchio need to free their minds of racial prejudice and believe in equality for all and freedom regardless of race. They also need much more education.

Racism is still with us, and to end it, all stakeholders, as a matter of necessity, must come up with public awareness and advocacy programmes or campaigns to inspire action to tackle racial inequality.

The time is now ripe for people to be enlightened that different colour skin usually means a different culture, different language, different features, normally also from different countries with different values, and that should be respected.

Andrew Hernann, a public anthropologist and teacher, believes to end racism, “we must commit to doing the mental and emotional work necessary to stop conceptualising the successes of an individual of color as exceptional.

“We need to allow communities of color to take credit for its individuals’ successes, and we need to allow them to do so on their own terms, not based on the terms established by the white community.”

Racism is still with us and we have a lot of work to do end it.

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