Diarra and the Messi Racism accusations

Clevelandmo · May 10, 2012

I dont know if you guys have noticed the racism claims against Messi by Royston Drenthe, but he mentions Diarra. Not surprisely our midfielder cant stand being called a "negro". Barcelona is pulling a Liverpool and denying it outright. Instead of saying we take claims like this very seriously and will look into it, it's just arrogant denial in light of the respect campaign or whatever FIFA calls it.

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/150167.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

We played against each other a lot, and we always had problems," Drenthe told Dutch magazine Helden. "You know what really bothers me? That tone with which he always called me 'negro, negro'."

As was widely discussed in the wake of the recent accusations against Liverpool's Luis Suarez, the term "negro" does not necessarily carry negative connotations in South American countries, but Drenthe feels such words are offensive.

"I understand that it is very common in South America, but we cannot stand it," he added. "Mahamadou Diarra, my team-mate at Real, would become furious when Gabriel Heinze and Gonzalo Higuain initially called him 'negro', but they soon stopped.
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dcheather · May 10, 2012

Not sure if it is racist to call someone negro in South American countries? My limited Spanish lessons did not cover PC ethnicity terms. However, I do know negro is not a bad word...it's the everyday word for the color black. It may not be the hip PC word of the day to call someone "black" in this country, but I don't find a lot of individuals being labelled racist when they do use the term.

I applaud that Heinze and Higuain stopped using the word to describe Diarra and Drenthe once they knew their teammates found it offensive. Adaption in a new country is wise and prudent. When in Rome...

HatterDon · May 10, 2012

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but offense is in the eye of the beheld. If someone causes offense, his job is to apologize and stop doing it. Like the Suarez affair, the "We always talk like this in South America" defense is ludicrous. They are using the word repeatedly in order to rile up their opponents and distract them from their on-the-field job. Now, you may think it's silly and "much ado about nothing." I know I certainly do, having come from a country where there exists federally mandated freedom of speech, but logic tells me that they're using that word SPECIFICALLY to cause offense. Claiming regional differences is a joke.

jumpkutz · May 10, 2012

I noticed the new claims. I find the timing curious. Why now?

Clevelandmo · May 11, 2012

HatterDon said:

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but offense is in the eye of the beheld. If someone causes offense, his job is to apologize and stop doing it. Like the Suarez affair, the "We always talk like this in South America" defense is ludicrous. They are using the word repeatedly in order to rile up their opponents and distract them from their on-the-field job. Now, you may think it's silly and "much ado about nothing." I know I certainly do, having come from a country where there exists federally mandated freedom of speech, but logic tells me that they're using that word SPECIFICALLY to cause offense. Claiming regional differences is a joke.
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Exactly. And Messi has lived in Spain since he was like 12 or something. When he went to the world cup in South Africa did he go around calling everyone "negro". Probably not, I'm sure he knows better. There was a certain theme in South Africa and FIFA does have it's ongoing anti-racism campaign; was/is Messi really oblivious to this all. It is funny that so many more people (talking about comments after the news articles, not you guys) were willing to criticize Suarez for this but far less will criticize Messi. He really is soccers Messiah I guess and can do no wrong. I know Suarez is a super jerk, but Messi is not perfect. He kicked a ball hard right at the Real Madrid fans. He has pushed, spit, and head-butted people, but he still can do no wrong. Just saying. My son tells me all this stuff. He doesnt like Messi because his little brother thinks Messi is the greatest.

Clevelandmo · May 11, 2012

DCHeather said:

Not sure if it is racist to call someone negro in South American countries? My limited Spanish lessons did not cover PC ethnicity terms. However, I do know negro is not a bad word...it's the everyday word for the color black. It may not be the hip PC word of the day to call someone "black" in this country, but I don't find a lot of individuals being labelled racist when they do use the term.

I applaud that Heinze and Higuain stopped using the word to describe Diarra and Drenthe once they knew their teammates found it offensive. Adaption in a new country is wise and prudent. When in Rome...
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Remember, "niger" means black in Latin. I know it's not English and an extra "g" did get added, but is it really all that different? I'm not sure I buy it. Do the non negros in south america call each other blancos? Maybe that would give us the answer.

dcheather · May 11, 2012

Clevelandmo said:

DCHeather said:

Not sure if it is racist to call someone negro in South American countries? My limited Spanish lessons did not cover PC ethnicity terms. However, I do know negro is not a bad word...it's the everyday word for the color black. It may not be the hip PC word of the day to call someone "black" in this country, but I don't find a lot of individuals being labelled racist when they do use the term.

I applaud that Heinze and Higuain stopped using the word to describe Diarra and Drenthe once they knew their teammates found it offensive. Adaption in a new country is wise and prudent. When in Rome...
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Remember, "niger" means black in Latin. I know it's not English and an extra "g" did get added, but is it really all that different? I'm not sure I buy it. Do the non negros in south america call each other blancos? Maybe that would give us the answer.
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Perhaps wikipedia can shed some light:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro

In Spain, Mexico and almost all of Latin-America, negro (note that ethnonyms, names of nationalities, etc. are generally not capitalized in Romance languages) means "black person" in colloquial situations, but it can be considered to be derogatory in other situations (as in English, "black" is often used to mean irregular or undesirable, as in "black market/mercado negro"). However, in Spanish-speaking countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay where there are few people of African origin and appearance, negro (negra for females) is commonly used to refer to partners, close friends[13] or people in general independent of skin color. In Venezuela the word negro is similarly used, despite its large African descent population.
It is similar to the use of the word "nigga" in urban communities in the United States. For example, one might say to a friend, "Negro ¿Como andas? (literally "Hey, black one, how are you doing?"). In this case, the diminutive negrito is used, as a term of endearment meaning "pal", "buddy" or "friend". Negrito has come to be used to refer to a person of any ethnicity or color, and also can have a sentimental or romantic connotation similar to "sweetheart," or "dear" in English (in the Philippines, negrito was used for a local dark-skinned short person, living in the Negros islands among other places).
In other Spanish-speaking South American countries, the word negro can also be employed in a roughly equivalent form, though it is not usually considered to be as widespread as in Argentina or Uruguay (except perhaps in a limited regional and/or social context). In Brazil, it heavily depends on the region. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, where the main racial slur against black people is crioulo (literally creole i.e. American-born African), preto/preta and pretinho/pretinha can along extremely informal situations be used the same ways as negro/negra and negrito/negrita in Spanish-speaking South American, but it heavily changes in the nearby state of São Paulo, where crioulo is considered an archaism and preto is the most used racial slur against black people, thus all kind of use of the preto word can be deemed as offensive.
Moreno[14] can be used as an euphemism both in Spanish and Portuguese but it also means just "tanned" or "dark-haired". People from all ethnic origins and races can be addressed by such word, but the widespread use of the word as a roughly equivalent of the English "swarthy" in Brazil made it a very colloquial term for Pardo and all other non-White people. Generally, nevertheless nowadays it is considered politically incorrect to address an Afro-Brazilian by the term moreno, as if it was a subtle attempt of erasing their blackness by calling them "swarthy one" (the historical stigma of being Black or partially Black in Brazil made many people being "racially promoted" from Black to Pardo and from Pardo to White, and this can be seen as a perpetuation of this process). Still, this use for westernized Amerindians, mixed-race people of Amerindian and European descent, multiracial afrodescendants and Asian people with dark complexions is entirely not offensive. Similar trends in the Hispanic world are not so well-noticed.
In Haitian Creole, the word nèg, derived from the French "nègre", refers to a dark-skinned man; it can also be used for any man, regardless of skin color, roughly like "guy" or "dude" in American English.
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*edited to include more of the text

Clevelandmo · May 11, 2012

Come on Heather that's wikipedia. You know King Kenny got on there and made that all up
:laughing-rofl: :laughing-rolling:

SoCalJoe · May 11, 2012

Just because you're the best player in the world doesn't make you a decent human being. After being in a locker room for ten minutes that have a variety of races and greeds you know what's offensive and what's out of bounds. Trash talk is a part of sports, but don't bring Moms or skin color into the equation.

jimsig · May 11, 2012

Clevelandmo said:

Come on Heather that's wikipedia. You know King Kenny got on there and made that all up
:laughing-rofl: :laughing-rolling:
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LOL

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Diarra and the Messi Racism accusations

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