[Timoteo]

(11-24-2011 01:15 AM)rudebwoy Wrote:  

I am well aware of the racism in football in Europe, mostly Italy, Spain, Poland and a few minor countries. Sepp Blatter (fifa boss) has not really addressed the problem and neither has the Football Association of these countries, plain and simple it is a joke. England did address this problem and it no longer exists in the country, having played at a high level I have experienced it first hand when I was younger. The funny thing is that there are more interracial relationships in the UK than America, most of my friends are married to European white women.

But don't kid yourself into thinking race relations are any better in the USA. There are alot of places one cannot go as a black man, alot of these areas still fly the confederate flags and are proud of there white heritage. Some states have even refused to celebrate Martin Luther King national holiday. In recent times there have been a few horrible tradegies to highlight this, Jena 6 comes to mind (google it if you don't know).

Honestly, I can't say if relations are BETTER over here or across the pond. It just manifests itself somewhat differently in other countries, but you can't say things are better in one place than the other. I'm only a casual football watcher, but I like watching the WC. One of the first things I noticed in watching the last couple of WCs is that France's team appears to be almost half men of color - probably the most multi-racial team in the world, so it made sense that one of its players would be so sensitive to what he saw in stadiums thoughout the rest of Europe. Black hockey players are probably the only men of color that experience what some soccer players do in Europe. I take it many fans aren't crazy about the fact that the NBA is mostly black, but it isn't evident in the arenas themselves. I really don't know what league commissioners can really do about it. You can't force individuals to like someone they don't want to. You can only toss them out when they act up.