Chelsea FC Fans Being Investigated for Racist and Abusive Behavior.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2382003-police-investigating-racist-and-abusive-behaviour-by-alleged-chelsea-fans
This article talks about acts of racism and abuse by Chelsea after their 2-0 league cup final victory. Chelsea fans were on a train from London to Manchester, and this comes just a couple of days after another Chelsea fan kicked a black man off of a train in Paris when they played PSG.
In the NFL, where 68% of the players in the entire league are black, we hardly ever see incidents of racism. I can think of an odd "Riley Cooper" or "Jonathan Martin" incident but even those are concerning the players themselves. You wouldn't come close to seeing a banana lying on the turf during an NFL game, which has happened before in the premier league. Not being nieve, I am aware that Racism exists in the US, it just doesn't seem like it comes up as an issue as much in the NFL, as it relates to the fans and payers. What does this interesting comparison say about the two cultures within the leagues? Why does this difference exist? What is the direction of both leagues on this matter?
Personally, I do not like that the media has associated racism with a specific sports team's fans. I don't think that this is in any way a reflection of the sports team's culture. Additionally, I don't condone what they did in any way, in fact, it is disgusting in my opinion, but I think they would have behaved in that matter no matter what jersey they were wearing. I don't think that their behavior correlated in any way with the game of futbol or their support for Chelsea.
ReplyDeleteTori, I agree with what your saying I dont know if i see the value in singling out chelsea in terms of the medias presentation of this story. Its almost as if the negative light is trying to be shone on Chelsea as a football club and not racism in general. Their behavior is correlated with football because of the repeated pattern of racist events...it has been a problem.
ReplyDeleteI agree and think the racism is of course wrong. I think a lot of this has to do with old history in the past or stereotypes within Europe. They may also think they are better than a random man on the train, because they are "famous" or professionals. In a way, it is good the media shows it. Because other players can be more conscious about what they do and hopefully this can lead to changing people's behaviors.
ReplyDeleteGood point, by singling out Chelsea, they could cause the players of the club to take an active roll in raising awareness, and trying to spread messages of preventing racism. There needs to be an entire culture change, and this is an effort that could go a long way.
DeleteI had heard about the banana being thrown onto the pitch a while back, but had thought that was more of an isolated incident, although clearly not as much as I believed. While racism isn't apparent in the NFL, I view this a comparison between the NFL and domestic violence, which is a hot button issue right now, and the Premier League and racism. After multiple incidents in both the NFL and the EPL, I think the leagues should adopt a hard no tolerance stance against this type of behavior and use the players influence to condemn this type of activity, much in the same why the NFL is doing now
ReplyDeleteI would have to believe that this racism comes from the culture. In the EPL, white players defiantly dominate the league. In the NFL, since over 60% of the players are African-American, one would be offending over half the league with an act like that. Every NFL team has African-American players which means that every NFL fan is supporting an African-American player. Fans just use disrespectful comments to trigger a response from opposing fans. While it is wrong, NFL fans are guilty of this too, it just wouldn't make sense to target a racial card when their own team is diverse as well. I do agree that an entire team or fan-base should not be labeled as racist because of the actions of a couple inconsiderate fans.
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