Racism does not need VAR

Don't come with that old cliché that "there are racist Spaniards, but Spain is not racist". I know that all generalizations are wrong, but in this case, the "political correctness" can go to hell. There are extreme situations that demand hard and forceful reactions. Look at the forest and not only the tree. Spain is racist.

The recurrence of racism is a fact. In Europe, the issue goes beyond what is tolerable, if there should be any degree of tolerance in this. After all the global reaction, which went beyond the pitches of the Mestalla stadium, Europe, and especially Spain, must act. No more bureaucratic notes sympathizing with the cause of racism. A position like "we will investigate if in fact there was an offence". Racism doesn't need VAR to check people's gross error. It simply exists and manifests itself in many ways. The era of protocol apologies is over. Now we demand real and forceful attitudes. It is not enough to arrest a few aggressors. There must be effective measures, as Europe is used to doing when it suits it. I was astonished to learn that in Spain racism is not even considered a crime. It is called a hate crime. Well, I hate to see these lamentable scenes on television and the clumsy and prejudiced attitudes. Racism exists to a high degree in Europe because it is natural, acceptable and trivialized, unimportant over there.

Just to give us an idea, with Vinicius Jr. in this season 22/23, there have already been 11 cases of racism in different stadiums. From north to south, east to west, the examples multiply and get more and more aggressive. In the first cases it was "just a few idiots" yelling "monkey". Then they started throwing bananas on the field. Later on, they hung a dummy hanging with the player's jersey and now an entire stadium is cursing the boy as a monkey. To hell with all this political correctness again, the Spanish people, who are racist, need to give a dignified and forceful answer. If they don't, they will be seen as racists. If racism happens to an idol of the biggest soccer team in Spain to this degree, imagine what happens to the rest of the black people who live in Europe.

I don't want to equate this case with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but the comparison serves to see how quick and harsh reactions can be when Europe mobilizes.

Reaction of the Spanish League makes the crime even bigger

Besides the cursing, I am guided by the position of the authorities and the Spanish press after the criminal act. They amaze and horrify even more. It is disgusting to hear the president of the Spanish league, Javier Tebas - an open supporter of the radical right wing that preaches, among other things, the end of the criminalization of domestic violence, criticizes homosexual marriage and supports ethnic cleansing in Spain - accuse the offended player of tarnishing the name of the league and Real Madrid. I don't even know what to say to this disqualified man. The Spanish league will soon be over, it is in its last rounds and soon the teams will go on vacation. I am sure that the matter will cool down after the championship is over.

To make matters worse, yesterday the CBF announced a friendly match of the Brazilian men's national soccer team precisely in Spain on the next Fifa date in June. Unless the CBF is planning to give a strong rebuff to the Spanish, such as calling only black players and putting up a giant banner with words repudiating Laliga and stating that Spain is racist, this friendly match doesn't make any sense.

There is no silver bullet against racism. The issue goes beyond punishing fans, clubs and leagues, but it must start there. Mastalla needs to be banned. Valencia should be automatically relegated. Uefa and Fifa need to shake up soccer, which is watched by billions of people. Real Madrid needs to position itself sportively, stop being omissive, and if they don't support the player 100%, let him free to play somewhere else, because with this they will give the clear message that in Spain society doesn't allow the success of blacks, poor people from the third world, who rebel against racism. They either accept racism and shut up, as so many others do, or they go and play elsewhere. Soccer needs to be stopped immediately when there is a racist act.

I hope that this act of Vinicius Jr. is really a watershed in world racism. Just like Rosa Parks, the black activist who, in 1955, in Alabama (USA), refused to give up a seat on a bus for a white person, or like Martin Luther King, who led a movement to allow blacks to enter a swimming pool in a hotel in 1965.

The problem, of course, is in Spanish society, in Europe, and the trivialization of racism there.