Krakouer is a brown-skinned guy of partly indigenous origin and Majak Daw is a very black African (below)
Rogue fans racially taunting footballers have soured the weekend's AFL and VFL matches. Collingwood president Eddie McGuire blew up in the second quarter last night after hearing a St Kilda fan's slurs at Collingwood's Andrew Krakouer.
Earlier, a Port Melbourne supporter was evicted from TEAC Oval after racially abusing North Melbourne's Sudanese-born rookie Majak Daw.
McGuire's fury was captured on television cameras and he said he was infuriated by hearing "borderline racial abuse".
Source
What was said to Krakouer nobody is saying but that it was only "borderline racist" suggests excessive sensitivity.
Fans abusing members of an opposing team is as old as the hills and sportsmen mostly get used to it. But the fuss made when the abuse has a racial reference of some kind prevents any such adaptation.
Update:
I gather that the jibe at Krakouer was in fact a reference to his criminal background. You are of course not supposed to mention it when a black has a criminal background.
3 comments:
Sports for the masses, like football/soccer/baseball/etc., doesn't bring out the best in our civilization. It just creates ritualized tribal warfare, that often turns into literal fighting and bloodshed.
Yes, my take is that the comment is probably connected with his previous conviction for assault.
The intent, as always, is to throw the player off his game, and reactions like this confirm that it worked.
Both parties get what they want: the taunters throw the player off his game, and the player himself gets to go all sanctimonious afterward. Win-win!
If racism were truly the motivation, we'd hear fans taunting their own side's players this way, yet somehow that doesn't seem to happen. Discuss.
(and yeah, I gather that in this case even the taunt was probably about something else, but still....)
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