David Rowe’s article on the media and the incident involving Zinedine Zidane’s head-butting of an Italian soccer player during the world cup examines the media’s treatment of suspected racism by the Italian player Materazzi in provoking the head-butt by possibly calling a terrorist and threatening sexual violence on Zidane’s family. \u00a0The article describes the extensive focus by the media on the actual words used by Materazzi in determining if he did in fact express racism prior to being head-butted. \u00a0This focus on the words rather then the context of who the players were, one a French born son of Algerian immigrants and the other an Italian whose country had colonies in northern Africa. \u00a0The article describes how even if explicitly racial epithets were not used the threats of sexual violence against Zidane’s family could be a reflection of colonialist ideas of emasculating colonial male subjects by sexually controlling the women. \u00a0Thus the conclusion of the investigation that said Materazzi did not express racism but only derogatory language to Zindane is not entirely accurate because of the lack of attention paid to broader context of the utterances.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“I didn\u2019t mention anything about religion, politics or\u00a0racism. I didn\u2019t insult his mother. I lost my mother when I was 15 years old and still get\u00a0emotional when I talk about it. Naturally, I didn\u2019t know that his mother was in hospital\u00a0but I wish her all the best”(363-364).<\/p>\n
“The only area of agreement in the accounts, then, is that Materazzi made sexually suggestive\u00a0comments about Zidane\u2019s sister \u2013 an affront to his family and to his masculinity rather\u00a0than racism per se. But this assessment conceals as much as it reveals, because it is difficult to see an insult to a family member of a person of Algerian descent by a southern\u00a0European, whose country has its own recent history of North African military\u00a0adventurism and imperialism, is not in some way a racially inflected practice.\u00a0Connotatively, it can be read as an example of the \u2018sexual racism\u2019 that conventionally\u00a0layers and articulates forms of oppression”(364).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Weedan’s article on youth player migration to the English premier academies demonstrates the lack of cultural integration of the migrants into the culture of the host country. \u00a0The purpose of the academies is quite simple: to train young players into future professional players. \u00a0In order to accomplish this the young players are trained extensively every day and then must rest. \u00a0Not much emphasis is placed on any type of social life outside of soccer. \u00a0The article explores how many migrants feel isolated and homesick in the beginning of their time at the academies especially if they do not know English. \u00a0The only part of cultural integration that the academies are very intent on forcing the migrants to do is learn English. \u00a0This allows the players to communicate with each other which is important in soccer. \u00a0Not learning English quickly can lead to repercussions for migrants. \u00a0Although the article shows how these academies are good at training migrants into professional players, the cultural isolation and lack of social integration experienced by migrants should be examined to see if it can be lessened.<\/p>\n
“The thing is, you\u2019re living the football lifestyle, you know, I\u2019m not really surrounded with\u00a0people that don\u2019t play football, \u2019cause you become so close, every day with the boys [in the\u00a0academy team], so you try to do everything with the boys as well. And me, being from a\u00a0different country, I\u2019m not a person that says \u2018no\u2019 because I\u2019m from another country I don\u2019t want\u00a0to become friends with someone outside of football. But I\u2019m always with the boys from football,\u00a0so that\u2019s why I don\u2019t really know anything about how other people live” (208).<\/p>\n
“…the acquisition of language was viewed as an essential\u00a0requisite of acculturation which held direct implications for career development and\u00a0social integration. These players were mocked, and in an extreme case one felt he was\u00a0being punished, for \u2018abnormal\u2019 use of, or lack of, English language. Consequently, these\u00a0players became involved in relationships of power in which they were subject to \u2018minor\u00a0deprivations and petty humiliations\u2019 (Foucault, 1977: 178) by their acculturating group,\u00a0until they achieved a status of normality by acquiring a strong enough command of\u00a0English, and the \u2018footballing vernacular\u2019, to communicate on the pitch and integrate\u00a0socially with teammates and host families” (212).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Questions<\/p>\n
\n
- If the Rowe believes even insults that are not explicitly racial epithets are forms of racial oppression, can any derogatory language exchanged between players of different races be free from racism or a racial component?<\/span><\/li>\n
- How can the social isolation experiences by youth football player migrants be lessened while maintaining a devotion to high quality soccer?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
David Rowe’s article on the media and the incident involving Zinedine Zidane’s head-butting of an Italian soccer player during the world cup examines the media’s treatment of suspected racism by the Italian player Materazzi in provoking the head-butt by possibly calling a terrorist and threatening sexual violence on Zidane’s family. \u00a0The article describes the extensive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":708,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/sportshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}