Sports not exempt from all civilities
Posted By Admin on February 10, 2012
Racism and sport have always had a difficult relationship.
The arena, to the athlete, is a place where the laws governing civilian society simply cannot reach, where once having walked from the parking lot to the pitch the rules have somehow changed.
This is understood and necessary — and mostly good — since one wouldnt want to be the victim of a lunging tackle on the sidewalk.
To the fan, as well, the stadium represents something separate from greater society, and once through the turnstiles it becomes acceptable to shout abuse at the authorities, sing with more passion than you ever would in church and scream an assortment of four-letter words at the opposition.
Once again, theres nothing inherently wrong with this. Sport is, for participants both on the field of play and in the stands, a platform for expression. It is not, however, an excuse to abandon civilized behaviour, a time machine that takes you back to a place and period where certain slurs were an unfortunate part of the vernacular, and where using them bore no consequence.
You could forgive Anton Ferdinand and Patrice Evra for thinking they had somehow taken a ride in that time machine last October.
In the space of eight days both defenders were racially abused by opposing players, and in the three months since both have been peppered with questions about how theyll react when they next face their abusers.
The fans, meanwhile, have been instructed to behave themselves, and now everyone is anxiously awaiting todays FA Cup matches, as if what transpires at Loftus Road and Anfield will somehow settle the racism question once and for all.
For Ferdinand, the question is whether to shake John Terrys hand ahead of kickoff. The Chelsea and England captain, is alleged to have made racial slurs at Ferdinand, a Queens Park Rangers defender, and is now the subject of a police investigation.
Evras situation is rather more convoluted, as the Liverpool player who is said to have repeated a slur at the Manchester United defender as many as eight times is sitting out the final match of an eight-game ban handed down as punishment for the abuse.
For Evra, the offending party is less Luis Suarez than Liverpool Football Club, as it was the club — in its absurd and unwavering support of Suarez — that actually attacked his dignity, questioning whether he was a trustworthy witness when Suarez was dragged before an FA inquiry.
Then there are the fans. While many have stayed above the fray through all this some have behaved despicably, whether singing derogatory songs about Ferdinand while on a Champions League visit to Belgium, swamping Facebook and Twitter with unrepeatable remarks about Evra or hurling abuse at unsuspecting Oldham midfielder Tom Adeyemi, who just happened to visit Liverpool when frustration at the Suarez ban was raw. Just this week Ferdinand received a bullet in the mail.
Its at this point the authorities are well within their rights to step in, to interfere and even dismantle the sport-as-separate-from-greater-society paradigm.
Police are often viewed with disdain when thought to be intruding on the self-governing realm of sport, but when the harassment doesnt actually have anything to do with the game being played its sport overstepping its bounds, not the police.
Its disappointing that their involvement is required at all. Racism is something we like to think was extinguished in the 60s and 70s, that ours is a post-racial society. But the sad fact of the matter is that its still here, on our streets and in our sports — an outlet for the very basest expression of those who lack the intelligence to communicate frustration in any other way.
jerradpeters@gmail.com
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