For those of you who are not international soccer fans, the national teams of France and Italy are going to play on Sunday for the World Cup Championship. Alert reader Saul Thomas sent me a link to article by Dave Zirin and John Cox talking about the controversy within France caused by the fact that the team is more multi-ethnic than some French people would prefer. The team leader is of Algerian descent -- Zinedine Zidane -- and the most feared striker is black-- Thierry Henry.
"Proud racist and leader of the ultra-right wing National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, decried France's multi-ethnic team as unrepresentative of French society, saying that
France 'cannot recognize itself in the national side,' and 'maybe the coach exaggerated the proportion of players of color and should have been a bit more careful.'"
Read the entire article
Jean-Marie Le Pen has run numerous times for the French presidency. In the presidential elections of 2002, he obtained 16.86% of the votes in the first round of voting.
I am somewhat shocked. Most American racists have no objections to black players on the teams they support once it has been shown that they make the team more likely to win. Jean-Marie Le Pen seems to be a more rabid and outspoken racist than we have seen on America's political stage. Can you imagine an American politician saying that an American team which was about to play for the world championship had too many black players to properly represent America?
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Part of the reason I absolutely do not watch professional sports in America is because the players are mostly black. What do I share in common with a black millionaire, who went to college on a scholarship, got some b.s. major and then hit the big leagues? Nothing, didly squat. Instead I'd rather turn off the tv, and go work out. At least then I won't become another fat white American sponsoring fit black millionaires. My feelings don't change much towards white players either, it's just that black players tick me off even more.
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