To fight racism in football, Spain must face its history | Opinions

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It’s now been a month since black Brazilian striker Vincius Jr suffered yet another disgusting bout of racist abuse during a match in Spain. While playing for Real Madrid against Valencia on May 21, he was heckled by fans and called a monkey.

The incident sparked outrage in my country, Brazil, and around the world. Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva has called on football authorities to take steps not to let racism and fascism take over.

The Brazilian football authorities immediately took action to protect our player. They not only condemned racist abuse and demanded action, but also organized an anti-racism campaign and brought the entire national team to their knees in black jerseys in a friendly against Guinea in June.

The Brazilian Football Confederation also announced that together with the Spanish Football Federation, it is organizing a special anti-racism match between the two national teams to be held next year.

FIFA has also shown its support. Its president, Gianni Infantino, expressed his full solidarity with Vinicius immediately after the incident. Last week, football’s governing body announced it was setting up a special anti-racism committee made up of players and appointing Vincius Jr as its chairman.

Meanwhile, other black footballers have spoken out in solidarity with Vincius Jr and have even considered forming a union to fight racism together.

Celebrities like Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton and American football player Tom Brady have also supported him.

But while international support for the Brazilian player has been strong, in Spain the reactions have been mixed at best. It was this ambiguity and lack of serious action that led an angry Vincius Jr to write on Twitter: It wasn’t the first time, nor the second, nor the third. Racism is normal in La Liga. The competition thinks it’s normal, the Federation too, and the opponents encourage it.

Instead of showing unconditional support for the Brazilian player, La Liga, Spain’s elite football league, did the exact opposite. Its president, Javier Tebas, attacked Vincius Jr for his tweet, saying: Since those who should have, have not explained to you what La Liga does and can do in the event of racism, we have tried to explain it to you, but you did not show up on either of the two agreed dates that you yourself requested.

Instead of admitting that La Liga has a problem with racism, Tebas passed the ball on to Spanish police, who also did little to tackle racist abuse when complaints were made by football teams.

Prior to the most recent incident, Real Madrid had filed nine formal racism complaints in two seasons specifically targeting Vincius Jr. Despite the clearly systematic nature of the racist ordeal, Spanish authorities have failed to act on some of these complaints.

An incident in which an effigy of the player was hung from a bridge in Madrid in January was not answered until late May when police announced they had arrested four suspects. No clear explanation was given as to why it took them five months to act on an apparent hate crime.

One has to wonder if there would have been a reaction from the Spanish authorities to the racist abuse during the Valencia-Real Madrid game if there hadn’t been international outrage.

Apart from foot-dragging and dodging blame for racist incidents in Spanish football, there also seems to be a lot of victim-blaming. That Vincius Jr provoked his racist attackers seemed to be popular opinion in Spain.

For example, commentator Toni Padilla, who was covering the Valencia-Real Madrid game for LaLiga TV, told viewers: We should always oppose racism, but we should also say that Vini Jr is not an angel, he is not an angel. is not perfect. Sometimes he provokes the other teams.

After the game, Villarreal goalkeeper Pepe Reina confirmed in an interview: I see that sometimes it’s not just racism, it’s not whether a fan is racist or not, but rather that they go after a particular player, because he can talk too much. at one point.

Still, Vincius Jr is not the first black man to suffer racist abuse in Spanish football. From the Nigerian goalkeeper of Rayo Vallecanos Wilfred Agbonavbare who faced n*****, go pick the cotton and the Ku Klux Klan! chants and threats of physical assault for denying the title to Real Madrid in 1993; to Barcelona’s Cameroon striker Samuel Etoo, who suffered repeated racist abuse from Zaragoza fans in the mid-2000s; to French striker Thierry Henry being called black shit by Spanish manager Luis Aragons; to Barcelona’s Brazilian halfback Dani Alves, who is thrown bananas by Villareal supporters as he takes a corner.

Despite the long and storied track record of anti-black racism in Spanish football, the common refrain after the Valencia-Real Madrid game was: Spain is not a racist country. Spanish society seems to deny its problem with racism which, by far, is not limited to football.

A 2016 report on the situation of the black Spanish community prepared by several Spanish non-governmental organizations indicates that racism in Spain exists in insidious and persistent forms.

It details the mistreatment, discrimination and harassment that African migrants and Spanish Afro-descendants experience on a daily basis. He claims that there is pervasive racism in the police, justice, media and health sectors, which affects the way public institutions treat or rather mistreat black people.

The report, which has been submitted to the Spanish parliament and the United Nations human rights office, OHCHR, also states that racism remains a taboo subject in Spain, then goes on to state: [There is] an absolute public and pedagogical erasure of the Spanish slavery and colonialist past.

While European nations, in general, don’t seem too keen to admit and apologize for the enslavement and colonization of other peoples, Spain seems to be particularly behind in coming to terms with its history.

Just look at the reaction of Spanish politicians when US President Joe Biden said before Columbus Day in 2021 that the arrival of Europeans in North America had brought a wave of devastation to Native Americans and called for these episodes shameful of our past should not be buried.

In response, Pablo Casado, leader of Spain’s conservative People’s Party (PP), said in a video posted on Twitter: Should the Kingdom of Spain apologize because five centuries ago it discovered the New World, respected those who were there, created universities, created prosperity, built entire cities? I do not think so.

Spain is clearly not ready to apologize, let alone properly remember its history. Besides the destruction that Spanish colonization wrought on two continents, official historical memory also conveniently excludes the role that the Spanish Empire played in slavery.

In the aptly titled article, The End of Self-Delusion? Challenging the legacy of slavery in Spain and Catalonia, scholar Adri Enrquez lvaro wrote: Public historical discourse in Spain neglected slavery while exoticizing colonial America as a space for social mobility and enrichment .

He then adds: Without fully facing its past, Spain will find it difficult to recognize the racial discrimination that continues to exist.

In other words, what happened to Vincius Jr in Spanish stadiums and to black people in Spanish streets is a reflection of Spanish society’s refusal to accept uncomfortable historical facts. That’s why fining fans for hurling racial slurs or banning them from games won’t solve the problem. Referees can stop games all they want but that won’t stop the racists.

In refusing to face historical and present realities regarding race and racism, Spain is certainly no exception. My own country suffers from a similar illusion that, despite our history of slavery and colonialism, we live in a racial democracy.

For black and other communities of color to be safe on and off the pitch, Spain, Brazil and all other countries suffering from historical denial must face their past and open a national dialogue on race. and racism.

Football can and should play a key role in this. The egalitarianism inherent in the beautiful game makes it a natural vehicle for anti-racist ideas, equality and social solidarity.

All the attention the racist abuse against Vincius Jr has garnered can be used to start an important conversation about racism in the stadiums which can then spread throughout Spanish society as a whole. But it will take courage and vision from the Spanish football authorities. They now have the ball.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.

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