Will it ever change?

Will It Ever Change?

Racism in sports on the rise

Michael Porter Jr.

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”- Martin Luther King, Jr.

2018 was seen as a year of change with Nike endorsing Colin Kaepernick. He became the new star of the “Just Do It” campaign, despite not being signed by an NFL team. Lebron James continued his heroic acts of speaking out against events in Washington, along with opening up his “I Promise” school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. These are essential, not only to the African American community in America, but to the issue of what is going on abroad. With soccer or “Football” or “Fútbol” as the most popular sport in the world, you would assume it would be graciously accepting of any culture, race or gender, but sadly this is not the case. There have been many instances, but recently Manchester City’s own Raheem Sterling received abuse from a Chelsea FC fan who called him an obscene phrase that mentioned his race. Raheem Sterling, being a great man, responded to the moment with class and just went on to play the game. He was a hero in the World Cup for England that just took place this last summer and provided his comments to the moment on Instagram about how the British media aids these actions to a certain extent.

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There was a study done by the FARE Network, in which they took stats of 1,378 soccer matches during two seasons (15’-16’, 16’-17’) and fans from the United Kingdom showed the worst behavior with 59 accidents of racism, anti-Semitism, hemophobia or many other crude acts. You also have other incredibly sad accidents where in 2014, Barcelona star Dani Alves was taking a corner kick and you have a fan from the opposing, Villarreal FC, threw a banana at the defender, obviously intending to let it know how they felt about the Brazilian’s color of skin. Moments like these are seen as degrading and add to the stigma of what this game is. Soccer has so much room to grow, especially as the “Beautiful Game”. With these actions, many are turning it into a hideous playground to where many feel as if they do not fit in. The game is about including any, not excluding many. This has to change for this game to reach a new level in the upcoming years while it reaches new peaks. With stars like Kylian Mbappe, Paul Pogba, Sadio Mane, Alphonso Davies and many others who are young and upcoming stars captivating the game, let’s treat them with love not hate. Because one day, they will be gone and we will regret not treating our black superstars the way they should have been treated.