I saw this article about a soccer player who was taking a corner kick and a fan from the other team through a banana just in front of him on the field. He went to pick it up, peeled it, took a bite and went on with the game. I think this was a hilarious and smart way to deal with the situation and the racism. Although this may be a difficult solution to racism, I think one way to decrease racism in our society is to react to racist remarks and actions in a similar way this soccer player reacted to it. Obviously the fan being racist is trying to get a rise out of the player and offend him, but if one doesn't give the reaction the racist wants, they will slowly stop making racist remarks.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/28/sport/football/dani-alves-banana-racism-football/index.html?iid=article_sidebar
I thought that what this player did was hilarious as well as awesome and most definitely worth all of the attention it has been getting. I think that racists, in a lot of ways, can be treated like bullies. If you don't give them a reaction when they tease you, then they will eventually go away. However, in this situation, it was a case of: make your aggressor feel like a fool so everyone will turn on them instead. I know that racism will not go away anytime soon, but it is people like this soccer player who are making all of the bigoted people out there feel inferior and hopefully making them think twice before assuming their position over someone of a different skin color/ethnicity.
ReplyDeleteThis quote really stuck out to me (probably because it was bolded in the margin, but it still stuck out nonetheless) and reinforced the way that I feel: "If you don't give it importance, they don't achieve their objective" -Dani Alves