Racism Doesn’t Need VAR 2.0: The Masks Come Off and the End of Isolation
Vini Jr. and the Mirror of Barbarism: Why Does the Dance Still Bother People?
Two years ago, I wrote in this same space that racism didn’t need VAR. At that time, the world watched in horror as cowardly attacks rained down from the stands at Mestalla Stadium against Vinícius Jr. Time has passed and the debate has matured, but the wound remains open. The fact that the issue hasn’t disappeared from the headlines is no coincidence: it is proof that racism is not a mere hiccup, but a structural component that institutions insist on treating with bureaucratic statements.
Recently, the situation has taken an even more serious turn. During the derby against Atlético Madrid and in other La Liga matches, we’ve seen an even more perverse side of the problem: racism coming from those on the same side of the field. For the first time, Vini Jr. was subjected to insults from a fellow player. The incident involving player Hugo Mallo, accused of racist abuse on the field against the Brazilian, shattered the last bastion of protection that was expected among athletes. When prejudice ceases to come from the anonymity of the crowd and begins to come from a peer, the mask of sports rivalry crumbles. What has always been there is revealed: the discomfort with the Black body that not only occupies the top but refuses to ask permission to shine.
The End of Silence and the Power of Scale
The big difference in this new chapter is that Vini Jr. is no longer alone. In the past, isolation was the norm. Today, the immediate reaction of figures like Kylian Mbappé, who publicly spoke out in defense of the Brazilian, demonstrates a paradigm shift. The support from Mbappé and other global stars is not just a gesture of friendship: it is a recognition that silence is, ultimately, a form of complicity.
Many people ask why this always happens to Vini. The answer is simple and provocative: it’s not just him, but he’s the one speaking out. Vini Jr. has attained a level of institutional and sporting prominence that allows him to be the spokesperson for a pain that many others are forced to swallow to survive within the system. He’s a thorn in people’s sides because he dances. His dance is an act of self-affirmation, not an offense. We must distinguish between the contexts. In soccer, provocations exist, such as when Felipe Melo mimicked a chicken to provoke Argentine fans—a gesture that is widely recognized as offensive within that cultural code. Vini’s dance, on the other hand, is an expression of Brazilian joy and does not hurt anyone’s honor. What hurts the racist is not the dance move: it is the autonomy of the person performing it.
Between European Impunity and the Brazilian Example
While Europe is still struggling to adequately define racism, Brazil has demonstrated that the law can and must serve as a barrier against barbarism. The recent case of the Argentine lawyer arrested in São Paulo after hurling racist insults at restaurant staff and calling them monkeys is instructive. She experienced firsthand the weight of a legal system that has stopped normalizing the unacceptable. By being arrested in the act and facing the sanctions of Brazilian law, she exposed the chasm that separates European and Argentine tolerance from Brazil’s new institutional stance.
This incident is directly linked to the way in which South Americans often project a sense of unfounded racial superiority onto their social interactions. The anti-racism protocol, finally being enforced more rigorously, shows that things are changing. The exemplary punishment of the lawyer in Brazil serves as a mirror image of Europe’s sluggishness. There, racism is still discussed under the guise of free speech or the heat of the moment. Here, it is beginning to be treated for what it really is: a crime.
Vini Jr. has become our Rosa Parks of the soccer field. In 1955, in Alabama, Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, an act of civil disobedience that sparked the civil rights movement in the United States. Similarly, Vini isn’t just playing soccer: he is redefining the rules of a game that has always been rigged against his people. The revival of this debate, two years after my first article, is not a sign of fatigue, but of persistence. The fight against racism is not a 100-meter dash: it is a marathon of institutional resistance. VAR may fail on the field, but in history, the verdict on racism has already been handed down. All that’s left is for the world to have the courage to enforce it.
This article was originally published on Canal Comtexto. Check it out!
