And then tell me British sports commentators are not vile racist filth

[fpb]

The first thing the BBC commentator said of Italy (three times world champion and so on) is that we "bought referees - allegedly."

Subhuman scum.

If you want to see why I am furious, check out what happened to Italy in 2002. Then, in case you had any doubts who bought the refs and for what reason, check what happened to Spain in the same tourneament.

Comments

[superversive.livejournal.com]

While it was of course an idiotic remark, I don’t put it down to racism, but to excuse-ism: the desperate desire to clutch at any straw, tar with any brush, if it will make a real winner look bad and thereby distract attention from their own poor performance.

I see this all the time in North American sport, where racism is a live issue between players but not between teams. In this year’s NHL playoffs, there were continual outbursts from fans in the smaller cities who believed that the league had ordered the officials to cheat in favour of clubs from major media centres like New York and Southern California, for the sake of improving TV ratings. As it happened, the Stanley Cup finals were played between two of the smallest cities in the league. But the obvious falsity of the allegations will not prevent them from coming round again.

There is no racial difference between the supporters of the various clubs, but exactly similar insults are thrown back and forth. This suggests to me that racism is not at fault so much as the mindless boosterism of the deranged sport fan.

Meanwhile, have you not noticed that by calling a British announcer ‘subhuman’, you leave yourself open to the same charge of racism you level against him? ‘Scum’ I can provisionally accept — the BBC have not impressed me in recent years — but I am fairly sure the announcer in question has opposable thumbs, and dead certain that he possesses the faculty of language.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

All right. "Zoologically human scum," will that do? But take it from me, that was pure anti-Italian racism. It has been around for decades, and it is specifically due to jealousy against Italy (you do not hear them demeaning Brazil like that, for instance). It also led them to misrepresent everything that happened on the field. In the first half, as most of the playing took part in the Ukrainian half, I incredulously heard the BBC commentator saying "The Italians are good at this... sitting back and letting the Ukrainians come to them" - which was simply not what was happening. By the second half Italian supremacy and athleticism were both undeniable, so the twerps pretended that the game had seen a vast improvement in the second half; in order, you see, not to have to admit that everything they had said about the first half had been the sort of thing reasonable people do in the toilet, and use paper and flush afterwards. It was one of the most despicable performances I ever saw grown men do, and I am now praying to God that we slaughter the Germans, not out of hostility to my numerous German friends, but to shut those cretins up once and for all.

[superversive.livejournal.com]

Coming as I do from a country that obstinately refuses to identify its own people as a nationality, let alone a ‘race’, and living next door to the largest such country in the world, I always take great care to distinguish between racism and nationalism. Millions of Canadians are bitterly prejudiced against Americans, but you can’t call that racism, because Americans are drawn from every race under the sun. It’s not uncommon for CBC announcers to adopt the same attitude when covering events involving U.S. athletes that your BBC twerps showed in covering Italy’s matches. But you can only call it nationalism, or ‘homerism’ in leftpondian sport jargon, or (as I did above) ‘mindless boosterism’, because race doesn’t enter into it. People really can be that wilfully ignorant without being motivated by racial bigotry.

In the present case of the BBC idiots, I would have to know whether they show any signs of prejudice towards Italian people not connected with the World Cup. I know all kinds of people who are normally quite open-minded and tolerant, but become the most unapologetic bigots where a sporting event is concerned. So it may be that these particular Yahoos are bigoted against Italy but not against Italians: the place, not the race. Or, of course, you may be quite right. Occam’s Razor forces me to offer the Scottish verdict pending further evidence.

Of course, whatever motivates them, these announcers are cretins, and I agree with you entirely about shutting them up. Alas, people are seldom that stupid by nature: it takes years of training and dedication, which will not lightly be undone by such trivial things as obvious facts. We are still living in the Age of Postmodernism, in which all facts are optional, and it is appallingly difficult to get some people to acknowledge that events occurring before their eyes can trump their pet ideological theories. So no matter what happens in the Italy v. Germany match, I don’t hold out much hope for the cretins.