What Has and Hasn't Been Said
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Ok, it's been weeks since that final World Cup match. I know I said I was gonna make some big comment on it, but seriously, by now, both Zidane and Materazzi have moved on and it's mostly the media which extended the issue on for another 2-3 weeks after the match (though even now it's just on a back page of sports sections anyway). So, what could I say that hasn't been said already? |
To recap... Zidane's claimed that Materazzi made disparaging remarks about him and his mother. Analysis from the video footage reveals that it's highly probable Materazzi made bigoted remarks about Zidane's religion and family. Materazzi said he said only typical insults, but he's too stupid to make any bigoted comments about Zidane's religion.
Yeah, that sums it up and pretty much anything I can say is already rather obvious (you know, like "I'm too stupid to be a bigot" doesn't make for a very good defense). The only thing I got to add is that I would have headbutted him, too, in the same position. It was pretty obvious that Materazzi's strategy was to goad Zidane into doing something rash, so neither has anything left to complain about. Incidentally, neither of them are complaining. Plus, most French quickly forgave Zidane after he finally explained himself on television 3-4 days after the event. So no sense in beating a dead horse now.
The one thing that does still piss me off, however, is how folks (usually stateside) are all talking about how Zidane is going to be rememberd for this. He won't, really. You don't hear folks still talking about Beckham's red card in 1998, do you? I'm real tired of folks who know absolutely shit about football speaking as if they do on this one subject; hell I'm no expert, and I got more sense than these guys. Seriously, at worst, it'll be a footnote to an otherwise outstanding football career. You might see it in a Final Jeopardy question some time years on down the road, but that's about it.
Why France?
Back on another issue, though... After the Albiceleste got knocked out by Germany (which, by any measure, was a phenomenal team this year--and I'm glad we at least got beat by someone respectable), I turned towards France as my main team to support. Sure, I'm not fond of the country, but check the composition of the French national team:
Zinedine Zidane - born in Marseilles, son of Algerian immigrants, Muslim
Thierry Henry - born in Paris, son of Caribbean immigrants
Patrick Vieira - born in Dakar, Senegal, moved to Paris at age 8
Claude Makelele - born in Kinshasa, Zaire, moved to Paris at age 4
Franck Ribery - born in France, converted to Islam, became a star with a Turkish football club
Vikash Dhorasoo - only got a bit of play time, but he's the only Indian-descent footballer in the Cup--born in France, son of immigrants from India-then-Mauritius
What's the big deal, then? Well, France's football team is incredibly diverse. And, immigrant and minority communities have to deal with a lot of the issues of racism, discrimination, and then some that Latinos, Blacks, and Muslims all have to deal with here--and you have some folks, particularly North Africans, who get that discrimination based on all directions based on national origin, race, religion, and first language.
I've expressed my irritation at racism and whatnot a lot. But one thing that I always maintain is that most folks are quite all right, and don't behave all bigoted--at least not in any intentional way. But there are a lot who aren't like that, and you got folks like Le Pen of the National Front complaining that the team isn't "French enough" (read: it's not white enough). Could you imagine a US politician making the same complaint about, say, the NBA?
But the more the French team does real well, the more you got that group of racist folks in a little dilemma: do they take pride in their country via football, or do they cling to their outdated notions of racial superiority? And the more you expose that contradiction in bigoted thought, the more folks are forced to change or content themselves with looking like idiots.
One of my favorite rap songs, by the group Sniper, mentions this little contradiction in Fait Divers (Current Events, though the French phrase has a much more expansive meaning):
Arabe ou noir, ils aimeraient tous nous foutent dehors
Arab or Black, they want to toss us aside
Par contre, ils sont fiers de nous quand on porte une médaille d'or
But then, they're proud of us when we win a Gold Medal
Ça sent, ils aiment les étrangers quand ils peuvent en tirer profit
It's as if they only love foreigners when they can profit off them
Un étranger devient français quand il marque deux buts pour c'pays
A foreigner isn't French until he scores two goals for the country
J'ai les yeux bien ouverts, on me fera pas voir ce qui n'est pas
My eyes are open wide, you can't show me what isn't there
Liberté, égalité, fraternité n'existent pas
Liberty, equality, fraternity, exist no more |
This was well after the 1998 French victory in the World Cup (and Le Pen's comments). Though the issue's still alive, but I tend to have a bit more optimism than most about it all.
I mean, it's good to at least have optimism about one part of the world, isn't it? KF
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