Breaking earlier this week in the American news (that would travel globally) were the audio recordings of Donald Sterling, owner of Basketball's Los Angeles Clippers, who was taped making racially foolish comments which one could reasonably conclude as meaning he doesn't really like black people.
The release of the comments, recorded by Sterling's mistress (young enough to be his granddaughter) and released to the highly accurate TMZ, caused an immediate firestorm of protest within the NBA community and Sports media at large.
Eighty year-old Sterling was recorded as saying to Mistress Vanessa Stiviano (31): "It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to? You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want (but) the little I ask you is ... not to bring them to my games. ...Don't put him [Magic Johnson] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games."
Meanwhile last Sunday Barcelona FC defender Dani Alves, preparing to take a corner as his soccer team battled Villareal in La Liga, had a banana thrown at him by an opposing fan which is unsubtle code in Southern Europe for saying 'get out of here you excessively dark skinned man.'
The contrast in reactions couldn't be greater. The National Basketball Association has moved to fine Sterling $2.5 million, ban him from attending his teams own games and is working to force a vote amongst owners requiring Sterling to sell his team. All of this subject to doubtless Court challenges as Sterling points out he's being punished for comments made in his own home.
Alves meanwhile took another track. He picked up the banana, took a bite out of it, and then took the corner--proceeding with the game. But the strategy of the thirty-year-old Brazilian didn't stop there. Fellow countryman and team mate Neymar (previously subject to monkey chants) had already planned a response should such an event occur (not necessarily at this match) and he used Alves's situation to put his plan into action.
Guga Ketzer, partner at Brazilian agency Loducca said: "Neymar didn't want to be quiet, he wanted to use his own powerful voice to create something to talk about racism, we created this idea with the hashtag 'we are all monkeys' and the idea was to use it and take a picture of him eating a banana. It is to prove to the racists that we are all together - whether we are black, white, yellow, it doesn't matter. We are all monkeys. Our idea was to make the racist powerless. It is one of the biggest racist conversations in years in Brazil and even in the world."
While Spanish police arrested the fan (CCTV at European matches would make the NSA proud) the concept went viral as Argentina star Sergio Aguero posted a picture eating a banana with Brazilian women's star Marta. Liverpool stars Phillipe Coutinho (from Brazil) and Luis Suarez (from Uruguay) followed suit along with many others--all posting the hashtag #weareallmonkeys .
European soccer has been able to emulate the Biblical concept of taking something evil and turning it into something positive. Meanwhile the NBA, although appearing tough at the present moment, will fight its battles in the courts for years based on Sterling's litigation record.
John Amaechi though, a retired NBA player who grew up in England thinks that Soccer should be taking a page from the NBA in throwing the book harder at owners even though the incidents of racism are from a relatively small minority of fans.
Writing for the BBC website he made a direct case why the NBA had acted appropriately against Sterling. But then without qualification he added: "A plantation mentality still exists with some owners and administrators. However, it is not just black people being treated badly but women, homosexuals and other ethnic minorities." (Amaechi is black and openly gay).
He then states that he was "saddened when I compared (the NBA's) stance with the relative inaction on such issues in other sports like football (soccer), both domestically in the United Kingdom and from international federations. I look at football and see bananas continue to rain down on pitches, fascists chanting abhorrent messages, homophobes grinning while holding offensive murals. Nothing seems to be done."
Amaechi here is guilty of a classic sales tactic. Win over your target with stuff they'll agree with then introduce the lie. Soccer has worked hard, including the incredible CCTV setups, specifically to combat the kinds of things he is talking about. Which then leads us to ask what his comments are really about?
He says "football should look to educate supporters, empower players, review policies and, yes, harshly sanction owners, administrators and teams when they err, not just punish fans who have taken their cue from the sport's impotence."
This smacks of the one-percent-er thinking. 'Let's stick it to the owners because they have a pile of money and it's wrong.' Meanwhile, the really guilty get to slide as 'victims'. Alves, Neymar and others recognize the truth that it is a small percentage of fans who need to see a graceful way win the day. In the end those players have empowered themselves in their situation. The NBA is still calling for some kind of justice to swoop in like Spiderman rounding up the bad guys.
Amaechi is wrong because the professional footballers of Europe and South America have empowered themselves to overcome and that in the end will defeat racism in the hearts of its hosts. The NBA meanwhile faced with the same situation in the future will still be outraged and while knowing how to punish unacceptable behavior, they will still be no closer to rising above and defeating it.
Breaking earlier this week in the American news (that would travel globally) were the audio recordings of Donald Sterling, owner of Basketball's Los Angeles Clippers, who was taped making racially foolish comments which one could reasonably conclude as meaning he doesn't really like black people.
The release of the comments, recorded by Sterling's mistress (young enough to be his granddaughter) and released to the highly accurate TMZ, caused an immediate firestorm of protest within the NBA community and Sports media at large.
Eighty year-old Sterling was recorded as saying to Mistress Vanessa Stiviano (31): "It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to? You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want (but) the little I ask you is ... not to bring them to my games. ...Don't put him [Magic Johnson] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games."
