Italian soccer team walks out of a game after racist chants (video, article)

AC Milan vs. a lower-division team.

Video of the incident, which took place in the small stadium of Pro Patria, a club in one of Italy’s lower leagues, showed Kevin-Prince Boateng, a Ghanaian-German midfielder for the visitors, A.C. Milan, stopping play and launching the ball in the direction of fans of the home team who were chanting like monkeys. He then pulled off his shirt and walked to the locker room, followed by his teammates.

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Extended story here, with plenty of info.

(direct link to YouTube)

To adapt one of my favorite movie quotes: "I wish I could tell you that the racist chanting was a rare occurrence, and this was an anomaly. I wish I could tell you that, but soccer is no fairy-tale world."

Another reminder of how some racist/neo-fascist groups rally around soccer there; can't say there's a similar problem in the US professional or top-level college leagues. The closest thing I can think of were the issues Ole Miss had in it's mix of Confederate imagery and college football, but it wasn't racist to opposing players and its own issues died off for the most part by the 1990s (to the point where there was a serious movement to change the name of the mascot to Admiral Ackbar).

Part of it is the problem of history: The US is a melting pot, forcing everyone together over a much shorter period of time (hundreds of years vs. thousands). Outside of the Native Americans (who got the raw deal), people have to deal with each other. And while you'll still see lingering nativist sentiment (nowadays towards illegal immigration, and in some corners more than a little tinged with racism), it's a different sense than in Europe where folks have lingered in the same area for a thousand years. I've still heard otherwise "enlightened", college educated Europeans tell me with a straight face that they're suspicious of Jews and have low opinions of brown people as people. Hell, Obama was the trump card: I'd love to see if a European country can elect a black president or prime minister, let alone re-elect them.

Yeah, they have both regular ol' fascism and racism in football in Italy. Pretty messed up. Not too long ago, a player did the 'Heil Hitler' thing where he held his right arm up, but he said it was the old Roman version.

We also have it right here. Our local football club has a group of fans called 'White Pride', and you can pretty much guess what they're like. American football and real football probably attracts some of the worst fans, aside from maybe Nascar in the US.

Always an embarrassment to the rest of the country when soccer fans do this.

And what the fuck, with a few exceptions the world of sports has been a meritocracy for as long as it has existed...you would think they'd be used to seeing black athletes by now. Especially in Italy of all places.

players feel entitled to "fight racism"! but then there is a lot of pressure to never speak of gays in soccer.

Too much hypocrisy to give a shit. These pricks are paid massive wages so that the audience can shit all of their souls, not for entertainment, or athleticism.

Without the racist fans, football would go out of business.

Wow. People are idiots.

How embarrassing must it be for the non-racist fans of the that same team. It's pretty fucked up that there people with that sort of mind-set still around these days.

Xander Crews said:

Without the racist fans, football would go out of business.

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Holy shit dude. Are you just trying to get people going?

I'm assuming so, because I don't know why else you would post that.

Italy is special in this regard. For a long time now, certain radical groups of all political sides undermine Italian football fan groups. More often than not, matches become battles between political camps, the sport event itself is just a sideshow.

Boateng did the right thing but it won't help unless we manage to drive politics out of the stadiums.

Naiera said:

American football and real football probably attracts some of the worst fans, aside from maybe Nascar in the US.

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What I'll say about American football part--they might be assholes (particularly in certain NFL circles), they might call a player out for being weak (in less than choice terms), they might be drunk idiots, but it's exceedingly rare to hear anyone start getting racist at an NFL or top-college football game. I'm not saying such fans don't exist (especially in the privacy of their homes), but they're not organized and if they started doing crap like that in a stadium they'd probably get reported/ejected real quick.

NASCAR appeals to certain crowds, but even they're not necessarily racist--with some hilarious exceptions.

This is over 10 years old, but still is amusing. A local radio station prank called a guy to make fun of racism (this became the first of a series of calls that are all pretty good):

Tung Fu ru said:

Holy shit dude. Are you just trying to get people going?

I'm assuming so, because I don't know why else you would post that.

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Is this the first time you have heard of European football? Racism is rife over there, and highly visible in the stadiums. Black people get monkey chants and bananas thrown at them on the regular. But if you're gay, you're dead.

There are a lot of ignorant people that go to the games and cause trouble. The fight racism campaign is a complete joke there until they take the culprits and lock them away for a long time.

aria said:

Part of it is the problem of history: The US is a melting pot, forcing everyone together over a much shorter period of time (hundreds of years vs. thousands). Outside of the Native Americans (who got the raw deal), people have to deal with each other. And while you'll still see lingering nativist sentiment (nowadays towards illegal immigration, and in some corners more than a little tinged with racism), it's a different sense than in Europe where folks have lingered in the same area for a thousand years. I've still heard otherwise "enlightened", college educated Europeans tell me with a straight face that they're suspicious of Jews and have low opinions of brown people as people. Hell, Obama was the trump card: I'd love to see if a European country can elect a black president or prime minister, let alone re-elect them.

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I'm usually a big supporter of your posts, but I have to say this is a completely laughable pile of bullshit that you've just made up off the top of your head, there's nothing in this other than a few opinions you've based on a 15 second thought process. All of these negatives you've just poured over Europeans are entirely visible in Americans in just the same if not worse magnitudes.

Europe, especially Britain, often look over to America for ideas when it comes to national advancemen, but I don't think any European nation, even some shit pot two bit eastern european crap hole, has or would ever even contemplate looking over to America for guidance on racial harmony, if anything it would be the opposite.

And citing Obama as indicative of anything would be the same as saying the US was hopelessly sexist because you have never had a woman president. I.e. nonsense.

I can't help but feel you've posted this and are now sitting back pissing yourself because you knew the reaction this would deserve?! Never ever before have I heard of an American talk with pride about their nations record on racial issues?!

stevenk said:

Europe, especially Britain,

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Britain isn't Europe. Just ask any European.

That would mostly be the British claiming they're not a part of Europe. They are, and they're part of the European Union as well.

Naiera said:

That would mostly be the British claiming they're not a part of Europe. They are, and they're part of the European Union as well.

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Your mom is part of the European Union.

Xander Crews said:

Your mom is part of the European Union.

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post of the day.

stevenk said:

I'm usually a big supporter of your posts, but I have to say this is a completely laughable pile of bullshit that you've just made up off the top of your head, there's nothing in this other than a few opinions you've based on a 15 second thought process. All of these negatives you've just poured over Europeans are entirely visible in Americans in just the same if not worse magnitudes.

Europe, especially Britain, often look over to America for ideas when it comes to national advancemen, but I don't think any European nation, even some shit pot two bit eastern european crap hole, has or would ever even contemplate looking over to America for guidance on racial harmony, if anything it would be the opposite.

And citing Obama as indicative of anything would be the same as saying the US was hopelessly sexist because you have never had a woman president. I.e. nonsense.

I can't help but feel you've posted this and are now sitting back pissing yourself because you knew the reaction this would deserve?! Never ever before have I heard of an American talk with pride about their nations record on racial issues?!

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LOL, seriously?

Remember the 2011 riots? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

The BNP may not be a big party, but you guys give it more credence than any US equivalent. Looking across the Channel, we have no equivalent of Le Pen, either.

There are incredibly racist videos the chavs and other assorted morons in England keep pumping out about how much they hate Indians, "Pakis" and blacks. Just look at that woman who was shouting on the bus for chrissakes.

The ass-side of European culture want to pretend to be enlightened until a Muslim enters the room and wants the same service as everyone else. You guys have it as bad, if not worse, than America. The difference is you don't want to admit it. The US did that until we got riots, too. And while things aren't perfect, they're better because we're willing to talk about it more openly. Talk to immigrants with family in the US and Europe: ask them which part of the family is doing better, which isn't the total outsider.

Look to the Continent: What's their idea of integration? Push all the minorities into their suburban blocks and make weak, half-assed efforts to integrate them. A good number are made to feel anything but citizens of those countries. They're second class, and the white Europeans for the most part complain that they're not enough like them--"if only they could act more like us".

Show me an equivalent of what happened in that video happening in the US in the last decade. Two decades? Three?

aria said:

LOL, seriously?

Remember the 2011 riots? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

The BNP may not be a big party, but you guys give it more credence than any US equivalent. Looking across the Channel, we have no equivalent of Le Pen, either.

There are incredibly racist videos the chavs and other assorted morons in England keep pumping out about how much they hate Indians, "Pakis" and blacks. Just look at that woman who was shouting on the bus for chrissakes.

The ass-side of European culture want to pretend to be enlightened until a Muslim enters the room and wants the same service as everyone else. You guys have it as bad, if not worse, than America. The difference is you don't want to admit it. The US did that until we got riots, too. And while things aren't perfect, they're better. Talk to immigrants with family in the US and Europe: ask them which part of the family is doing better, which isn't the total outsider.

Look to the Continent: What's their idea of integration? Push all the minorities into their blocks and make weak, half-assed efforts to integrate them. A good number are made to feel anything but citizens of those countries. They're second class, and the white Europeans for the most part complain that they're not enough like them--"if only they could act more like us".

Show me an equivalent of what happened in that video happening in the US in the last decade. Two decades? Three?

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This is probably my vote for post of the day.

aria said:

LOL, seriously?

Remember the 2011 riots? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

The BNP may not be a big party, but you guys give it more credence than any US equivalent. Looking across the Channel, we have no equivalent of Le Pen, either.

There are incredibly racist videos the chavs and other assorted morons in England keep pumping out about how much they hate Indians, "Pakis" and blacks. Just look at that woman who was shouting on the bus for chrissakes.

The ass-side of European culture want to pretend to be enlightened until a Muslim enters the room and wants the same service as everyone else. You guys have it as bad, if not worse, than America. The difference is you don't want to admit it. The US did that until we got riots, too. And while things aren't perfect, they're better because we're willing to talk about it more openly. Talk to immigrants with family in the US and Europe: ask them which part of the family is doing better, which isn't the total outsider.

Look to the Continent: What's their idea of integration? Push all the minorities into their suburban blocks and make weak, half-assed efforts to integrate them. A good number are made to feel anything but citizens of those countries. They're second class, and the white Europeans for the most part complain that they're not enough like them--"if only they could act more like us".

Show me an equivalent of what happened in that video happening in the US in the last decade. Two decades? Three?

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Asking for video evidence that an American has been racist on a bus in the last three decades doesn't make any sense, if you're suggesting that if I can't find one then it hasn't happened then, well, just then. Put in racist americans in youtube and spend the next 40 hours of your life watching.

The BNP is like you say a small party in this country, and I think it's healthy that the people who feel that way have a voice, one of the best things about the BNP is they act as a completely transparent barometer to how big the minority of idiots has become, and it remains very small. What is far worse is for the whole thing to be pushed underground as it is in the US, it's been the elephant in the room for as far back as the US can remember. The difference between, for instance, the large asian population that we have in Britain and across Europe is that they were all invited, mainly during the 50s, 60s and 70s. The same can't be said of the black population of America who were dragged kicking and screaming there, or the hispanic population who slid under a barbed wire fence.

It's just the norm in the US, your prisons are 40-45% filled with black people, that's not the case here. In fact in the US as a black person you're three times more likely to be in prison than you are in Britain. Not having a party to voice it, or a video of an idiot on a bus, doesn't mean it's not happening. The whole thing stinks of institutional racism, the denial doesn't lie here, nobody denies the BNP exists.

I have lived in and amongst black and asian people my whole life, my current neighbours are Sikh, my current next door but one neighbours are Turkish Muslims. The problems are nothing to do with race or religion, they are to do with poverty, just as they always are for almost everything, and due to Europe's more socialist slant poverty in the US is a whole different ball game to what you see in Europe.

You believe too easily what you read, the London riots were not a racial incident, I was there, I saw them, and anyone else you asked who saw them would confirm. The key factor that linked all of the rioters was not the colour of their skin or the country of their birth, but the size of their bank balances.

The only part I agree with is you saying that we have it as bad as you. It's probably true. But worse? I don't think so.

And where the fuck are the Europeans I might add, why am I alone in this?! Hiding behind their fucking bananas or something I presume.

They don't have Pepperidge Farms in Europe. Just ask any European.

SouthtownKid said:

They don't have Pepperidge Farms in Europe. Just ask any European.

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Yeah I'll admit I didn't get that reference and was too lazy to look it up, it's late here

stevenk said:

Yeah I'll admit I didn't get that reference and was too lazy to look it up, it's late here

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I was talking about Europe.

EUROPE.

SouthtownKid said:

EUROPE.

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Fourth time lucky?

If you are an American when you go into the bathroom and you are an American when you come out of the bathroom....What are you while you are in the bathroom?

lithy said:

If you are an American when you go into the bathroom and you are an American when you come out of the bathroom....What are you while you are in the bathroom?

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Ashamed of my continent?

^European