Racism Rears its Head in MLS

By: Laurie | May 27th, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weUIq7hzIDg

WARNING: Video contains four-letter words and racial epithets. My guess is that you probablly don’t want to watch it at work. And if you do anyway? Use headphones.

There are areas of the world where you expect this kind of behavior. Paris comes to mind. And some sectors of Spain and Italy. And a fair bit of the former Soviet Union. But MLS?

I thought MLS fans were mostly Johnny and Janie White-Collar Soccer Parents and their offspring. And I mean that in the most loving possible way. Our players are well-educated, and so are our fans.

Except not always.

MLS is abuzz over this video, which shows New England player Kheli Dube scoring the winning goal off the rebound of a Shalrie Joseph penalty in the eighty-ninth minute at Columbus. And it also shows the fan reaction.

It’s always heartbreaking to lose in these kinds of situations, and I must admit that I’ve occasionally had a bit of a potty-mouth myself when something like this happens to one of my teams. But this kind of blatant racist reaction turns my stomach.

To be honest, I don’t even remember really noticing the race of players. When I’m involved in a game, my brain can wrap itself around only one distinction: My team vs. Not My Team. Anything else is superfluous.

MLS needs to come down on this behavior, and hard. In Europe, fan actions like this can cost a team in a big way. In Paris, just as one example, organized fan groups have been ordered disbanded. FIFA rules call for “severe penalties including the deduction of points and disqualification from competitions.”

These [sanctions] will range from match suspensions to point deductions – three for a first offence, six for a second and relegation in case of further transgressions. A team could also be expelled from a competition depending on the severity of the case.

“Now that clubs and associations have an obligation to find a solution, they will find solutions necessary to eliminate this plague,” [France defender Lilian] Thuram said.

In that article, Thuram also has this to say:

“Certain people take football hostage. Some people will never learn and that is the reason for which FIFA must intervene so as to return sanity to the game and keep these people away from the stadiums.”

MLS, are you listening?

Hat tip to Fighting Talker.

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Category: World Football

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Kevin

Hey, I'm all for pointing the ass-hat out to security, but would you really be interested in telling a raging drunken lunatic to shut the hell up? I try to be as non-confrontational as possible, especially when I'm trying to enjoy a game.
Cerberus

Yeah, I don't know about fines for single incidents considering the financial tight rope most MLS teams walk but yeah, every club should have a one incident/ejection policy and I find it dismaying/typical that no fans in the area turned on the racist or booed him leaving the security officer to just try and find him in an indifferent crowd.

That attitude needs to change and that can be done on the cheap. If racial abuse/tolerance of racial abuse persists then yes, the fan base of Columbus needs to be punished because the fan groups didn't police themselves and silently stood in solidarity with the racist.

And that silent support is what emboldens these racist fucks.

On it occurring here in general, I'm not surprised. We, despite our many great and liberal qualities as a country, do not have the best record in racial relations. I hope we can stamp it out where it interferes with the beautiful game though by calling it out and making ourselves accountable to protesting such actions when they occur. We're the front line in fighting racism in football.
Kyle

So idiots go to soccer games, too. So what? If they hear this kind of stuff, they kick them out, but it's kind of loony to hold MLS or the Crew responsible for some loser yelling stuff.
finnegan

mele419, you're rationalizing the fact that YOU have thoughts in the back of YOUR mind by saying that everyone does, including me. you don't know me, you've never met me, and you probably never will so all you have to go off of is what I say about myself - and I am not a racist. I've never harbored a thought about someone that is based on their race or ethnicity, and not their character. when I do judge people, it's based on their substance and character not on their race and ethnicity.

"I have issues with stereotypical members of races, like I said, 'gangstas' and 'thugs' etc etc."

you're lumping people into categories, furthermore, categories with that carry stereotypes - yet somehow you're trying to use this to your defense? this is WORSE. you're like the most judgmental person of all time - you look at "a gangsta" and immediately stereotype him and look down upon him for his choices. that's just as bad as looking down on someone because of the color of his skin.

I don't know you, and I don't ever want to, but from what I've read here - you're a racist and part of the problem.
mele419

finnegan, did you even read what i said?
Everyone's got thoughts in the back of their mind, and so do you. I don't have issues with any specific race, I have issues with the stereotypical members of races, like I said, "gangstas" and "thugs" etc etc.
Anthony

@spectre

MLS in the local media? Good one.
Anthony

@Matt, why didn't you tell them that your German-Irish? You have to know that Tom Hagen jokes don't get old.
spectre

How about a warning in the local media outlets of each team that this will not be toleranted, signage outside the stadiums, inside the stadiums, as well as a briefing with stadium security and selected leaders of supporters groups (the two of them together with the Front Office).

Is this too difficult?
Ian Rose

Lucas made a great point about self-policing, though. In the case of one drunk racist fan, if they can't be singled out to be banned from the stadium and kicked out, the other supporters are responsible for shutting him up and pointing him out to security. I might have jumped a little too quickly on thinking MLS could do much about this, before thinking - if it really is just one or two fans, the rest of the fans have the responsibility to get those people out of their stadium.
Matt

As someone who has been in that corner a couple of times, I am willing to say that the idiots throwing beer and other things as well as the one with the extensive vocabulary was not a regular members of the corner. I was not at the game in question, but I have heard that people doing these things were not members of the Crew Supporters Union or the Hudson Street Hooligans (in name only though). The Crew have struggled over the past few years, yet these guys hung with the team and supported them no matter what. The Crew have had a flying start and the combining of all the groups into the corner brought a lot of attention and attracted people (like myself) outside of the groups to the corner. All my experiences it has been good and fun. The groups involved are heavily concerned about such incidents and are looking to police the people not in the group doing these things. It is a very serious problem that the MLS, the Crew, and the Crew supporter groups need to nip straight in the bud but it seems that the first steps of this are in place.

By the way, to the Chicago fan...I believe there is a metaphor about pots and kettles. I certainly enjoyed being called "taig fucker" "fenian bastard" and asked about a certain famine by members of Section 8 during the Celtic-Fire friendly. A FRIENDLY? Classssssy...Jokes on them, as I am only half irish and half german.
Laurie

Yulles, I actually don't disagree with you for the most part. Except that things are done, occasionally. In France they disbanded a well-established fan group after a similar incident, which from the reports I read was basically caused by one fan. The difference here is that France came out awhile back, after multiple incidents, and said there would be zero tolerance.

That's what MLS should do also. I'm not saying penalize the team after one drunken fan's abuse. But they should get the message out that this won't continue.

Deal with it by kicking out and banning individual fans first. Then, if it continues, threaten sanctions against the teams. Then follow through. Nothing shuts up obnoxious fans like other angry fans worried about the effect of those obnoxious fans on their team.

But for that to work, there has to be some credible threat of sanctions that MLS can follow through on if necessary.
yulles

Yes, Racism is bad. But what has UEFA or the individual leagues ever done about it. You site the rule but not its application. A 23,000 euro fine is nothing to most of these clubs. Who was the last club to be deducted points for this type of behavior? If you really want to stop this kind of abuse, treat it the same way they treated Inter Milan after Dida was hit by a flare. 4 games in a closed stadium and a $250,000 fine. If you want to stop coordinated fan abuse take it seriously from the start.

However, this is not coordinated fan abuse. This is a schmuck who has had too much to drink. Let's not blow this out of proportion. The guy is obviously an idiot and should be ejected from the final moments of the game, but to target the team for the words of a single fan is just silly. If it were the whole section, this would be a different conversation.
Anthony

I don't know Carlos, if you venture north and east of Bridgeview (or south for that matter), I think you'd be in for a shock.

They don't get called Southside hillbillies for nothing...
Carlos Livorno

Typical crew crap, that would never happen in Chicago, that racist and all racists can look forward to a Chi-town beatdown. MLS should ban The crew for four weeks...
Lucas

Not excusing any racism, but what I hear in the video is one guy saying "n*****" one time (after that, when Shalrie taunts the fans, it sound like he's screaming "Red Card!" over and over). This is hardly comparable to Montenegran fans screaming monkey noises at DaMarcus Beasley. What can/should the league or the team possibly do about one guy yelling a racial epithet?

I thought MLS fans were mostly Johnny and Janie White-Collar Soccer Parents and their offspring...Our players are well-educated, and so are our fans.

Ever been to an NFL game? They are saturated with profane abuse, much worse than anything in this video (which comes at the climax of what seemed like a pretty heated match). Or a Portland Timbers game? Lots and LOTS of really dicey language, but no racist chants because we police that stuff and don't allow it to exist.

This seems like a non-issue to me.
Elisa

Just plain stupidity. MLS has got to nip this in the bud.
finnegan

uh you can not say you are not a racist and then go on to say that you have problems with certain groups of people based on their race. that is the definitionof racism: discrimination based in race alone.
mele419

Being American, I can say that 90% of Americans have some sort of racial bias. And if they don't, I could show them some people and places that would make them think twice.
I am not a racist. I do have issues with certain groups of certain races though, the gangstas and all that shit, just plain stupid. But this really doesn't suprise me at all.

Oh, and I do often notice the ethnicity of players when watching the game, don't know why, it just stands out to me for some reason.
Albert

Now maybe they wont complain about fan behavior, if bags of piss fall on them during WCQ.
billy

it's gross and unacceptable, but how does the mls stamp out the actions of a handful of drunk, ignorant fans? it doesn't seem like there was an entire supporter section chanting hateful, disgusting slurs...is this an instance of the youtube era causing a single, isolated incident to be blown out of proportion?
Ian Rose

Ugly indeed. MLS has no excuse not to come down hard on this. In Europe, the supporters groups involved are often old and well-established ... not here. And that's assuming these even are members of a supporters group, which shouldn't be assumed. Either way, this kind of thing is intolerable in football and needs to be stamped out immediately. I have no problem with screaming at opposing players, especially after a tough loss ... I've done it myself ... but race should never come into it. Very sad to see this.