Photo of the Day: Racism in Lithuania

Late in chiming in, but I'm in agreement with old apple and Jon.

What's funny is that this conversation is quite tame and calm and reasoned relative to what I get on my France page on the same topic.

Dammit, Jan, you beat me to it.

Yea! Godwin's Law DOES work!! My faith in humanity is restored.

Lucas: Godwin's Law doesn't seem to apply to The Offside. This is a special place.:-)

For the love of sanity, people.

Nationalist borders and barriers suck. Go open a beer and watch Bill Hicks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

And Laurie = Hitler. (Kidding, of course, but Lucas is right... this conversation is beyond ridiculous at this point.)

The end.

Alright this cyber-conversation has gone on too long without someone cyber-comparing someone else to Hitler. Get on it!

For what its worth, I was just checking the recent French squads named for the friendlies with Spain and Congo and there are only three players born outside of France (Evra - Senegal, Makalele - Zaire(now Congo), Vieira - Senegal) in the full squad and there are two in the "A" squad (Mandanda - Zaire, Boumsong - Cameroon).

However, I do agree that the banner didn't strike me as racist. I think its a popular misconception that most of the French team is from outside France. In fact, that is what I thought until I checked all of the current squad. A lot of the players are decscended from former French colonies, but they were born in France, as French citizens. I'm just guessing that those Lithuania fans don't realize that those players of African descent were actually born and raised in France.

Who knows, I could be totally off base though...

No, Jan, I think he's absolutely got it spot on as do the rest of the racism-apologists.

I find myself struck dumb and unable to respond to the awe-inspiring quality of their firm rebuttal wherein:

1) They ignore the fact that their main assertion that France somehow steals Africans and pretends they're Frenchmen (thus a legitimate complaint) is actually a lie they cling to despite actual evidence to the contrary.

2) That because I dared point out that America has a spotty history in respecting immigrants, I must somehow be Anti-American.

3) And that as the son of immigrants, I, like the French National Team must not be French, must not be American. On that note, I really should tell the Registrar about that, because that means I just voted illegally.

Next to such awe-inspiring mastery, who are we mortals to complain or respond? Who are we to say that these pillars of the online community have not silenced us with their brilliance rather than willful and insulting ignorance?


Not me, that's for sure.

I only came here for the footy news and the wonderful community atmosphere.

"To me, it’s just a little dig at the fact that the Lithuania players came from Lithuania (and probably their parents and grandparents), while France has a history due to its colonies so they have a larger cache of players for selection. No biggie dealio. And apparently Offside readers agreed since nobody commented for almost an entire day"

Or do you think there's the possibility of Offside readers not commenting because Laurie already said it all?

Ugh. I agree with Old Apple. When I saw the photo and read the blog post, I didn't think it was intended to point out that all Lithuanian players are white and France's aren't (i.e. overtly racist). To me, it's just a little dig at the fact that the Lithuania players came from Lithuania (and probably their parents and grandparents), while France has a history due to its colonies so they have a larger cache of players for selection. No biggie dealio. And apparently Offside readers agreed since nobody commented for almost an entire day until demitru piped up, and then everyone else decided to go bat-shit crazy over it for no reason.

i dont think this subject has anything to do with racism.its about france using naturalisation to add world class players to their squad,wich gives them an edge when their national team plays in international competitions.do you think that france would have the same succes without the likes of zinedine zidane,thierry henry,dessailly,thuram or makelele?i dont think so.

On a marginally related note, I was just checking out a youtube video of Donovan scoring against Mexico last year - you know, the one where Oswaldo Sanchez tries to take out Eddie Johnson's legs well after the play?

Well, the comments section on the video is just awesome, it pretty much immediately degenerates into "You stupid American!" - "You stupid Mexican!" and all kinds of fun slurs and whatnot.

I LOVE IT! I LOVE THE INNERNET!

Also, no, it isn't the first "race riot" on this website - Martha at the Italy Offside, for one, often has to deal with people trying to convince her that calling people 'foul gypsy' is totally okay in Romania.

AND they got the grammar wrong. Idiots.

i dont have any problem with players that come from immigrant families and i totally accept that they can play for the national team they want.i am not a racist,i am just pointing out the fact that this naturalisation thing is going too far.it keeps coming to my mind that salomon kalou initially intended to play for netherlands and after he was rejected he chose to play for the ivory coast instead.doesnt this make ivory coast look like the second choice?it does to me.

Awesome. Is this the first race riot on The Offside? Top notch stuff, really. I also love how it eventually came around to Americans also being the villains.

Next time you should post audio of red star fans making monkey sounds at DaMarcus Beasley. That'd be tops.

to me this seems less like racism and more like a dig at the fact that for many years france has had many players on their national team that are from various african nations (former colonies). Its actually quite creative, so lets not get our nickers in a bundle just yet.

No. I am shocked that there is still racism going on.

That being said, the dumitrus of the world are on the losing end of history on this one and many others and France is leading pretty strongly on this issue.

Immigrants are not "non-french", they are French. Proud French. And sons of families that aren't even immigrants, whose lineage goes back as far as those "realer, aka whiter" French are damn French as well (pardon my french).

It's good France remembers that. Even if Lithuanians and Americans have a chip on their shoulder about their and my "non-native origin" bs.

Mathieu Flamini has a "non-French" origin, but I doubt you're complaining about him, dumitru.

my point is not that they are born in france,but that they have non-french origin.i myself think its unfair to allow so many players with arguable attachement to france to be played.it leaves little room for real french homegrown players and it makes france look like a squad of mercenaries.

I'm not exactly shocked when I see racism from any crowd at an international football game.

The majority of French players were born in France. Does the fact that they're of African descent make them less French?

i dont think its racism to point out the fact that almost the entire french squad is composed of players from former french colonies.