Let’s Kick Racism Out Of Football Commentators
Some incredibly colourful Ghanaian fans, seen here in marked contrast to their dull, monochrome and singularly uncolourful American counterparts who aren't colourful at all.
The curtain finally came down on the first ever African World Cup last night, bringing to a close four weeks of thrills, spills and, more memorable yet, the steady deluge of thinly-veiled racist stereotyping by commentators the English-speaking world over.
Anyone who is familiar with BBC’s coverage of the African Cup of Nations will have had fair warning of what would await the world’s TV audiences in South Africa. Veterans of the biennial African tournament were braced for repeated references to the ‘colour’, ‘passion’ and ‘hunger’ of the native fans, hampered by their ‘tactical naivete’, ‘erratic goalkeeping’ and ‘explosive temperament’. Needless to say, they didn’t disappoint.
BBC performed their usual baffling stunt of bringing in a black ex-player as a guest studio analyst to supposedly provide some sort of inside track on how football is played in Africa, despite said player having absolutely no affiliation with Africa, other than some distant ancestral lineage. Just as five-times England cap John Salako was wheeled out to give his thoughts on the African Cup of Nations in 2005, so was Clarence Seedorf, former Netherlands international and native of Surinam, a Dutch colony located towards the northern tip of South America, unveiled as the Beeb’s resident ‘non-Caucasian’ face. A more misguided sop to tokenism you couldn’t script.
The true anachronistic highlights, however, were to come from the commentators. First and foremost, it became quickly apparent that African fans and players would have exclusive rights to the term ‘colourful’ over the course of the tournament. The opening ceremony was, according to Jonathan Stevenson of BBC Sport, “the most colourful opening ceremony of all time”. Alan Shearer (BBC) felt that Cameroon would ‘bring a certain colour’ to the tournament, while Martin Tyler (ESPN), Graham Taylor (5 Live) and serial offender Clive Tyldsley (ITV) never missed an opportunity to extol the colour of the African contingent. Continue reading
As those who know me can testify, I am normally the most pessimistic Irish fan going. Every incursion into the Irish half is a grounds for despair, every loss of possession becomes the beginning of the end, every opposition throw-in sets off doomsday scenarios in my head. Some friends who could no longer withstand my relentless pessimism have made a point of refusing to watch Ireland matches with me – others have actually started drinking games based around the number of times I swear at the television screen. For me, it’s a coping mechanism: if I fear the worst, then if/when it happens I will at least have the consolation of having been right. If I’m proven wrong, then obviously I can bask in the elation of a good Irish result. But as with many fans, I am superstitious/clairvoyant enough to sense that my mental state somehow, inexplicably and inexorably, affects proceedings on the pitch. For all the enthusiastic Olé-Olé-ers talking of booking tickets to South Africa, there has to be one miserable wretch watching the whole thing unfold through the cracks in his fingers while making deals with God. That’s me.
Native Mind 