The idea that we should take a stand against racism is obvious, but when and how are more difficult questions. What should you do if the rules in sport don't protect you?
I play soccer for a team in a recreational league. During our game last week a couple of the players from the opposing team, with the open support of their teammates, were hurling racist slurs at a number of our players for virtually the entire game.
The atmosphere was tense; the referee was inexperienced and appeared to be afraid of the players in question. Our Palestinian players were the target of the abuse. The opposing team had decided they were the “Taliban” and “ought to go back to their own country on their flying carpets,” despite the fact that the players are American.
The referee was repeatedly informed of the racist behavior that was taking place; you would have had to be hearing impaired not to hear it anyway, but he refused to do anything. The fouling was flagrant, and the threats kept coming, yet nothing was done by any of the officials. In the end the victim of the majority of the abuse was given a red card for talking back! He was the only player disciplined that night.
It is often the case that if you are non-white, the good old principle of self-defense doesn’t apply to racist encounters, particularly in sports where the rules of the game are supposed to create a level playing field. You are not permitted to confront your attacker directly. If you do you are in a no win situation – you either immediately become the aggressor and therefore in the wrong; you get the red card literally or metaphorically. You lack the sufficient humility to engender sympathy or concern. Alternatively, if you don’t take a stand and the regulating officials turn a blind eye, the incident passes by without challenge and people keep thinking it’s acceptable to treat people of different ethnic backgrounds unjustly, offensively, and with disdain.
Fortunately, an important lesson can be learned from the Don Imus incident. Imus and his crew’s remarks were unquestionably offensive and absolutely unacceptable by any civilized society’s standards. And yet people had to march and make public displays of disgust and outrage in order for any type of justice to be done. Without such protest, Imus would have given his non-apologetic apology, taken his two weeks leave, and come back with the same offensive drivel. We must take a stand against racism collectively and on each others behalf. If we don't the same old problems will remain.
One can’t help wonder what would have happened if Coach Stringer and the Rutgers team had expressed their anger and outrage, demanding that Imus be fired instead of being the stoic pillars of respectability they appeared to be. Would they have been perceived as justified? Would the “nation’s best” have been looked upon as right for standing up for themselves, or merely as the angry, black females (or men if Imus and crew are commentating) the media has always cast women of color to be?
For the Rutgers team, we will never know. For the rest of us who are not in the national spotlight; people of all colors, if we believe that people should not be subjected to racial abuse we should probably take our lead from the soccer game. If we are the either the aggrieved party or a witness to such attacks we must stand together against racism, because if we don’t all make our opinions known, those who experience racism directly will also suffer the injustice of being further marginalized because their protests represent a seemingly minority position.
Let us hope for all our sakes that this is not the case in sports or in society at large. A society without racism would be a better place for everyone, not just for those who bear the brunt of other people’s bigotry.
