World Cup Antics -- Zidane's Headbutt

Zidane
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

I saw a lot of the World Cup this year, something I hadn't really paid attention to in the past. But football/soccer has been on the come up


There have been many,. many stories in the news about the serious allegations of racism that spew forth from the mouths of Germans toward non-Europeans. But it's also true that the Italians can be held responsible for racist antics. It's a known fact that Italians have trouble with North Africans for several reasons (Mussolini couldn't whup on in them in the 30s was the last time the Italians tried to flex), but mainly because there is genetic unproven claim that reason why the Italians and certain Spanish are darker skinned is because of North African conquests throughout the ages.

Now what does all this have to do with the World Cup and Zidane's headbutting? It's simple, the Italian DID make a nasty comment about Zidane's Algerian heritage.

Zidane's agent Alain Migliaccio told BBC Five Live, "He told me Materazzi said something very serious to him but he wouldn't tell me what." Sources in France say it is believed Materazzi insulted Zidane's family.

Materazzi himself has not spoken publicly about the incident except to deny a claim by Paris-based anti-racism group SOS Racism, made on Monday, that he had called Zidane "the son of a terrorist whore". Criminal Expert Lip Readers from two different sources have verified this.

I don't know about you? But thems fighting words. The history of Algerians in France is tainted with terrorism allegations and activity. Algeria had to revolt quite substantially to get France's colonial yoke thrown off -- and that was as recently as the late 1950s.

"It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means," the Italian news agency Ansa quoted Materazzi as saying after the Italian team returned to Rome.

Now if you analyize Materazzi's statement you know he's lying out of his ass. He's claiming he's ignorant and doesn't know what the word terrorist means??! Uh, he's been alive and present over the past 5 years in particular, and he's definitely of age to have grown up in the '70s in Italy when it was racked by 5th Columnist terrorist activities. I bet Materazzi knows that the Red Brigades were terrorists.

Now granted Zidane shouldn't have reacted that way, but I'm sure many of his family and friends have been fucked with by the French for terrorist suspicions, and that's something that is more than a touchy subject. Because you can call someone a nigger or a monkey all you want, it's not necessarily that accurate. However, if you insult someone's heritage in a time when that heritage is under so much pressure ACROSS THE GLOBE, you're going to get a reaction that would no doubt seem inappropriate.

Racism and xenophobia will plague the world for the rest of its days, as it always has. It's stupid to think racism and bigotry can be stamped out like it is an science fiction novel (as you notice, niggas and spics typically don't exist in sci-fi, or in perfunctory roles).