Europe....europe...europe.......why why why?

[lambchopdc]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/socce...ance-cup_x.htm

I predict this thread will explode and eventually be locked, but i'll start it anyway. I was watching Sportscenter and I saw a big story on this and i didn't know whether to be sick or laugh.

I feel sick because it is so sad how A. Racism is this common in Europe and B. The soccer stadiums are actually allowing this. I saw video on ESPN of banners 50 people wide that were securely hung on a stadium railing calling black players monkeys. So out of all 50 people in the front row, noone had the balls to stand up to this?? Noone in stadium security thought this should be taken down??? At first i figured this was a few isolated groups. But then i saw camera shots where entire sections of the stadium were doing the hail-Hitler in unison and waiving the Nazi flag. Europe.....WTF?????

I laugh because of the hypocrisy of all of this. For the last few years Americans have been slammed with insults from Europe. We've been told how we are the scum of the earth, we are uncivilized, etc. etc. etc. America is evil, bla bla bla. I actually am laughing now because its hysterical how the biggest event of Europe's favorite sport, its pride and joy, is exposing the dark dark dark side of European Society. And yes I am blaming European society as a whole. Why? Because where is the outlash? If this happened in the US in 2006, the public reaction would be outrageous. Fights would break out at stadiums, anyone with a nazi flag would be getting a royal ass beating. Unlesss Europe wants to be completely embarrased during the World Cup...I think the public reaction needs to start soon....like now. Thoughts?

[vqc]

only the US is required to act civilized. Its ok if other countries dont.

[lambchopdc]

only the US is required to act civilized. Its ok if other countries dont.

ooooohhhhh so thats it, i get it now

[gabe]

I feel sick because it is so sad how The soccer stadiums are actually allowing this.

you think they should ban the flags, or just the mean racists?

[Zodiac Killer]

I feel sick because it is so sad how The soccer stadiums are actually allowing this.

you think they should ban the flags, or just the mean racists?

Banning soccer seems like the best option.

[badandy519]

Banning soccer seems like the best option.

Seconded

[Greedo017]

personally, I blame george bush.

I feel sick because it is so sad how The soccer stadiums are actually allowing this.

you think they should ban the flags, or just the mean racists?

why not both

only the US is required to act civilized. Its ok if other countries dont.

yes

[AHiltz]

Anyone who judges another based on the colour of skin should be shot and pissed on. Just my 2 cents.

[Gareth]

Since when did Europe become a country?

[alias2211]

facism = hooliganism

[biondino]

Whereas in American football, it's the players who are the criminals...

[Lukie]

personally, I blame george bush.

we should blame dick cheney too then

[™]

Did someone say Europe?

ITS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!!! DA NANANANA DA NANANANANA

We're heading for Venus (Venus)
And still we stand tall
Cause maybe they've seen us
And welcome us all (yeah)
With so many light years to go
And things to be found (to be found)
I'm sure that we'll all miss her so
It's the final countdown...
The final countdown
The final countdown (the final countdown)
Ooh ooh oh

[a500lbgorilla]

If people threw bananas at me at work, i would thank them for the delicious snack.

[™]

only the US is required to act civilized. Its ok if other countries dont.

I just looked at those pics in your sig, you read a lot of Nora Roberts books dont ya

[vqc]

only the US is required to act civilized. Its ok if other countries dont.

I just looked at those pics in your sig, you read a lot of Nora Roberts books dont ya

why yes, yes i do...

[boost]

blah I just wrote a long ass thing, and I just couldnt seem to get my point across. I guess what I was trying to say is that the reason it is a bit more tolerated in europe is because they are jsut now getting major influxes of immigrants that are nothing like themselves. The US on the other hand started getting its diversity growing pains long ago, and we all know we had our ugly moments.

[Pelion]

The media over here are hysterical about scrounging immigrants comming over here and taking our jobs and our women so its not suprising that some people are turning to the far right. Having said that, the brittish football leagues have a long history of fighting racism and have been pretty successful for the most part.

e.g. the "kick racism out of football " campaign, started in 1993 .

Sadly racism seems to be on the rise again at the moment, mostly due to the government and media using immigrants as a scapegoat for pretty much anything and spreading a steriotype that pretty much all muslims / arabs are crazy fundamentalists who hate us for our freedoms.
This is something we are going to have to fight for some time yet.

[DaNutsInYoEye]

The media over here are hysterical about scrounging immigrants comming over here and taking our jobs and our women

I guarantee the US has more immigrants by several fold, illegal or otherwise, coming in than any country in Europe.

[PO$$E$$ED]

kill all the white people

[boost]

The media over here are hysterical about scrounging immigrants comming over here and taking our jobs and our women

I guarantee the US has more immigrants by several fold, illegal or otherwise, coming in than any country in Europe.

yes and I think thats what makes us more excepting. We see these people everyday, and we see that they are people just like us. But since they are a fairly small minority (and one of the only ones that actually look exceptionally different then thier hosts) they are easily picked on, and theres not really anyone to defend them.

[DogOnMySide]

Racism is alive and well wherever you go... in the US it's not against africans, who have been your countrymen for ages... it's against them darn sand niggers.

In certain european countries (especially Italy) it's still not common to see black people. Ignorance breeds prejudice.

Another contributing factor is the fact that the US imported black people and put them to work as unpaid slaves... all within living memory. A bit of guilt will do wonders for a nation.

No campaign will ever completely put a stop to racism in ANY country, and that's all there is to it. There will always be racist twats in the world, live with it.

[DaNutsInYoEye]

Dwarfman wants us all to live in a racist environment.

[a500lbgorilla]

Have you heard dwarfmangs final solution to the racism problem?

I think it has its merits

[Greedo017]

Have you heard dwarfmangs final solution to the racism problem?

kill all the white people

?

[spoonitnow]

Racism is alive and well wherever you go... in the US it's not against africans, who have been your countrymen for ages... it's against them darn sand niggers.

In certain european countries (especially Italy) it's still not common to see black people. Ignorance breeds prejudice.

Another contributing factor is the fact that the US imported black people and put them to work as unpaid slaves... all within living memory. A bit of guilt will do wonders for a nation.

Just came by this thread and picked your post because I can tie it into some things I have to say on the topic. I'd like to start off by saying boostNslide thinks I have an interesting perspective because I have family members who are Ku Klux Klan members.

First, something that's pretty important. You said, "in the US it's not against africans, who have been your countrymen for ages." This statement is very inaccurate and shows a misunderstanding of racism in the USA. Blacks probably are the most discriminated group via racism in the United States currently by volume. Yes, there are many groups in the USA that are typically discriminated against, but I'm pretty sure (I hope people feel free to comment on this) blacks are the #1 target.

To continue, "...it's against them darn sand niggers." I agree, certain things that have happened over the past few years have brought forth a lot more hate towards pretty much anyone who is an Arab. A lot of this is patriotism quickly turned into something patriotism probably isn't. I'm sure we could debate what patriotism is, but you know what I mean by the statement. As you said, ignorance breeds prejudice.

Finally, you said, "Another contributing factor is the fact that the US imported black people and put them to work as unpaid slaves... all within living memory. A bit of guilt will do wonders for a nation." There is extremely little if any guilt in this manner, actually, and it sure as hell doesn't keep people from holding in their racist side. If anything, the US's history with slavery only adds to the number of racist jokes and comments that can be made by giving dumbass people an easily-accessable topic.

Humans in general as social creatures tend to turn hostile or poke fun towards those who are different in whatever manner. It doesn't matter if it's a woman in a room with 20 men or a white guy in a room with 20 Mexicans. There's going to be judgement based off the difference, and it really doesn't matter what the difference is at all. I think it's up to those of us who understand the situation at hand to deal with things to protect the rights of those who are discriminated against. Whether we do something or not is up to us, but just remember we're the only ones capable of doing it, not the ignorant idiots out there.

Lamb, I think that's terrible, and it hurts me to think about it.

[Lukie]

[img]
Another contributing factor is the fact that the US imported black people and put them to work as unpaid slaves... all within living memory. A bit of guilt will do wonders for a nation.

Living memory? Really?

[Pyroxene]

Another contributing factor is the fact that the US imported black people and put them to work as unpaid slaves... all within living memory.

I was not aware we had any 143 year olds in America.

[lambchopdc]

I laugh because of the hypocrisy of all of this. For the last few years Americans have been slammed with insults from Europe. We've been told how we are the scum of the earth, we are uncivilized, etc. etc. etc. America is evil, bla bla bla. I actually am laughing now because its hysterical how the biggest event of Europe's favorite sport, its pride and joy, is exposing the dark dark dark side of European Society.

Anybody wanna touch this topic?

[Lukie]

I laugh because of the hypocrisy of all of this. For the last few years Americans have been slammed with insults from Europe. We've been told how we are the scum of the earth, we are uncivilized, etc. etc. etc. America is evil, bla bla bla. I actually am laughing now because its hysterical how the biggest event of Europe's favorite sport, its pride and joy, is exposing the dark dark dark side of European Society.

Anybody wanna touch this topic?

[kevster]

Before this thread gets locked can I just say that, yes, there is a huge racism problem with football in Europe. However, this has little to do with football in any way. It's extremist nutters attaching themselves to football because it's an easy forum to get themselves noticed. Football is only guilty in that the authorities don't do enough to stamp it out (all that happens is clubs get fined a pathetically small amount of money).

I'd also like to say that the English football leagues have successfully removed this kind of evil from the grounds and it just doesn't happen anymore. I'm sure these nutters are still around but they're simply not allowed in anymore.

Please don't say "Europe" and tarnish everyone with the same brush. England have done as much as anyone to prevent this kind of thing and other countries need to do a lot more - namely Italy.

Someone will no doubt highlight the hooligan element following the England team this summer. I can't deny - it does happen. But again, our authorities have worked tirelessly here and these thugs are a huge minority these days. Also, in almost all cases, these are not football fans but right wing extremists seeing a football tournament as an excuse to give "Johnny Foreigner" a good kicking. You will find a lot of other countries worse than ours these days when it comes to this sort of thing, we simply have a reputation and mud, unfortunately, sticks.

[lambchopdc]

Please don't say "Europe" and tarnish everyone with the same brush. England have done as much as anyone to prevent this kind of thing and other countries need to do a lot more - namely Italy.

I laugh because of the hypocrisy of all of this. For the last few years Americans have been slammed with insults from Europe. We've been told how we are the scum of the earth, we are uncivilized, etc. etc. etc. America is evil, bla bla bla.

Stereotyping is a bitch isn't it?

[kevster]

Please don't say "Europe" and tarnish everyone with the same brush. England have done as much as anyone to prevent this kind of thing and other countries need to do a lot more - namely Italy.

I laugh because of the hypocrisy of all of this. For the last few years Americans have been slammed with insults from Europe. We've been told how we are the scum of the earth, we are uncivilized, etc. etc. etc. America is evil, bla bla bla.

Stereotyping is a bitch isn't it?

Couldn't agree more. But I didn't say that about America and that's the problem. If a few people from area A speak bad about people from area B, the area B's say area A stinks. The reality might be that many in area A agree but don't like being lumped in with the others.

I don't think they'll ever be somewhere quite as diverse as the US, so for anyone to try and label it as a whole would be daft. Ditto for Europe and it's football problems though.

[Gareth]

The native indians got a good deal..........................................

[Miffed22001]

in reality, europeans suck (the brits rule behind the U.S) and the heightened sense of nationalism present in such central european countries such as france and germany provides a base for the racist problem, perhaps the same can also be said of spain. It isnt that muh of a problem in ENgland (at the moment, although its getting worse) perhaps because we are not so highly nationalist and patriotic
Having said that, the world cups in germany: need i say more?

'two world wars and one world cup! duuudaa! duuudaaa!'

K, thats a strike for me

[DogOnMySide]

Yeah thinking about it I was well off with the "living memory" thing. I was thinking about rosa parks and that, but that was well past slavery, wasn't it.

[spoonitnow]

Racism sucks.

[NewJack33]

tonight's the night yo!

[Pelion]

I laugh because of the hypocrisy of all of this. For the last few years Americans have been slammed with insults from Europe. We've been told how we are the scum of the earth, we are uncivilized, etc. etc. etc. America is evil, bla bla bla. I actually am laughing now because its hysterical how the biggest event of Europe's favorite sport, its pride and joy, is exposing the dark dark dark side of European Society.

Anybody wanna touch this topic?

Thats kind of irrelevant. First off I dont think many europeans have blanket labled americans as the "scum of the earth". I dont think real life can ever be as black and white as that. I hate many things about america, e.g. the fact that they have been involved in comming up 60 years of imperialist war with the third world, the KKK etc etc etc but that doesnt mean I hate all americans and nor does it mean I hate everything about the american state. It certainly doesnt mean I dont think there are any problems in any other part of the world.

For the past few years crazy megalomaniac americans have been slammed with insults from Europe, not all americans. The religious right have been criticised. The Bush administrations have been criticised. The corrupt corporations have been criticised and even the racists have been criticised. These are the exact same sorts of people who should be criticised and destroyed when they gain any kind of power in Europe. Nati0nalism is overrated.

[Gareth]

Nati0nalism is overrated.

Goverments play on Nationalism to control the majority........seems to work.....gg them

[bigred]

OMG GOVERNMENTS ARE SO LAME

[Miffed22001]

3 hrs!!