#I'm white and I don't speak Dutch so I might not be the best person to talk about that issue

[jmenfoot]

Since you care about racism on football. What's your opinion on Messi and the racial slurs he said towards Drenthe? Thanks

I don't speak Dutch so it was a bit hard to get backto the source, but here's is what I understand happened.

Royston Drenthe is anow retired Dutch footballer. He was a Real Madrid playerbetween 2007 and 2012, but was on loan at Hércules and Everton from2010 to 2012.

In 2012 he made an interview with the Dutch newspaperHelden. Parts of the interviews were quoted on the Dutch news websiteNu.nl, and then translated by the Mirror, and then quoted by a lot ofarticles in english. So, all I could access was a cropped, translatedversion of what he said (tw racial slur) :

« I played against him [Messi] many times andwe always have problems with each other. » « You knowwhat bothers me so? That tone with which he always says, 'negro,negro'. I understand that 'negro' in South America is very common,but we can not stand it. »

« Mahamadou Diarra, my teammate at Real, couldexplode if 'negro' was aimed at him. The Argentinean Gabriel Heinzeand Gonzalo Higuain said it initially on the training ground, butthey were stopped. » « When Hercule played Barcelona,during the game I had a small altercation with him [Messi]. He gaveme a hand in the match and again said a few times, 'hola negro'. »

I really wish that there was more info on that, andthat sport journalists had bothered investigating instead of quotingthe Mirror's translation and moving on. For exemple, I don'tunderstand what he means by « he gave me a hand ». DidMessi help him ? Maybe to get up after a foul ? But he alsomentions an altercation ?

Still, Drenthe makes some important points : firstthat no mather that if that term is anecdotic in South America, it'sabsolutely not in Europe. Even if he acknowledge that Messi may nothave meant the words in an aggressive way, he's clear that they havean impact anyway. He also points out that it's possible, and easy,for south-americans to realize that and correct their behaviour.

So it makes you wonder why exactly Messi would keepusing that word. He's been in Europe since he was 14, I feel likeit's something that people should have reacted on if he was usingthat word casually. He had black teammates as well, did they reallylet that slide ? Lilian Thuram for instance was playing for Barcelonaduring the events. He's always been very outspoken about racism, inand out of the locker room, so I feel like this is something hewouldn't let slide, but I could be wrong.

This story showcases poor journalism. Most articlesI've seen reuse the same quotes and quote the Mirror as a source, ifthey mention a source at all. I haven't seen any follow-upinvestigation either.

I'd love to read more about this specific issue.Interview Drenthe again and find out more, reach out to black Barçaplayers and la Liga players and ask them about their experience...The event that Drenthe refers to happened in between 2007 and 2011,maybe the Suarez case had an impact on the casual use of that word bysouth-american players ?

#racism #tw racial slur #I'm white and I don't speak Dutch so I might not be the best person to talk about that issue #but maybe people can find more infos? #is there black south americans on Tumblr that would feel comfortable talking about the use of the word ''negro''? #Anonymous