"ALL RIGHT WHITE POWER WOOO"
I’m not an expert on soccer, and I’m certainly no authority on civil rights, but if I’ve learned one thing from being on the Internet for 15 years, it’s that anything prefaced with, “I’m not racist, but,” is about to get really racist.
Case in point: A supporters group for Russian Premier League team FC Zenit St. Petersburg have responded to the signing of Brazilian striker ‘Hulk’ with a carefully-worded thing about how people with brown skin hurt their national identity. If that sounds shifty to you, don’t worry: they aren’t racists. They say so right at the beginning!
“We’re not racists but we see the absence of black players at Zenit as an important tradition,” Zenit fan club Landscrona said in a letter, called the “Selection 12 manifesto”, posted on its website (www.landscrona.ru) on Monday.
“It would allow Zenit to maintain the national identity of the club, which is the symbol of St Petersburg.” [...]
“We only want players from other brotherly Slav nations, such as Ukraine and Belarus as well as from the Baltic states and Scandinavia. We have the same mentality and historical and cultural background as these nations,” the letter said.
I’m pretty sure a team’s fans issuing weird statements like this does more to hurt your national identity than a guy having slightly darker skin than his teammates, but what do I know?
As an added bonus, the group made sure to (randomly) include a little aside at the end about how gay people don’t try hard enough to get good at soccer. I’m not sure whether they hurt or help the symbolized national identity of St. Pete. This is also the biggest “everyone in soccer is gay” lay-up joke in Internet history, if you enjoy those.
They also expressed their opposition to having “sexual minorities” in the team and demanded that each player would give “101 percent effort” in every match.
I don’t know what these guys are on about. If any of my favorite sports teams signed a dude with no last name who just called himself HULK, I’d be happy. “Oh hey did you see how we just got Ryan Dempster?” “Who cares, the Tribe just signed HULK.” That’d be the best conversational knockout ever. Get with it, soccer fans.
Either that, or somebody set up Westboro Baptist Church FC so we can get a squad like this in the States.
[h/t to Brooks @ Dirty Tackle]
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Russia, you are the worst.
It really is.
They are. Except, their racism isn’t nearly as awful as Italy’s Serie A.
But yeah, how can you hate a player who goes by the name of Hulk?
On the plus side, if you substitute “non-bigoted” for “closed minded” or “ignorant”, then all the comments soccer fans will give you should turn into delightful compliments.
Bartender, send a white russian to every customer in this establishment.
I’ll have a black lager.
I hate this sport that I love.
No gays no blacks? How are they even competitive? Do they make an exception for hispanyiks?
FYI: I just watched Alonzo Bodden’s Showtime special, and one of the exact things he said when he taped it last year was “it’s that anything prefaced with, “I’m not racist, but,” is about to get really racist.” Although he used some other language with which I’m simply not comfortable.
Oh, and fuck Russia, and fuck morons who use sports to express their stupid raycess opinions.
Which is why its awesome that FIFA, in their omnipotence, decided that awarding Russia the 2018 World Cup was a slam-dunk idea. Let’s see, countries from all around the world (non-European, in other words) playing in a country where some fans openly taunt non-white players? I look forward to FIFA downplaying any racist incidents that will inevitably occur. This will of course be followed up by teams of players succumbing to dehydration in the 2022 Qatar WC.
I guess Homer “Not my culture and heritage” Stokes is head of the FC Zenit St. Petersburg fan club?
All these people talking about how much they hate russia are morons. This is one fan club of a huge club with numerous fanclubs. Ill make a baseball analogy to fit your brains: if the Yankees bought two Russian outfielders for a combined $80 million, and they proceeded to hit .150 and the yankees missed the playoffs, wouldn’t some jackass yankee fans ask that their team stop signing russians?
Zenit has a racist tradition which is all too common in soccer, but the club has distanced itself from this. Saying all russians are lousy because of this is an insult to Americans, Slavs, Zenit fans, and the type of person these ‘fans’ were protesting against, of which I am all. Fuck all you, you know this shit would and does happen in the US.
i dont think anyone complained when danny or bruno alves first signed i dont really understand zenit fans when cska signed doumbia and vagner love there was a little bit of racism but as soon as teh players showed that they are there for the team the fans accepted them with open arms give zenit fans some time they are still in their hooligan era im sure they wont hate hulk or axel witsel when they help them win a european championship or a russian premiere league trophy …..racism is a big thing in soccer and hopefully 2018 world cup will change mentalities of the hooligans