Love Soccer, Be European, Embrace Your Inner Racist... It's Fun!

Sometimes things that you thought might have changed for the better have not.  We remember reading about the problems of dark skinned soccer players in Europe years ago, and how they were generally mocked and put through a hard time and without much recourse. Unfortunately Italy (and other European locales) have not lost that racism feeling.

It's easy to understand the thinking of the average person in nations across Europe; they often feel like they are being culturally overrun by ungrateful people from other nations who are changing the existing culture. You cannot fault them if they pursued these feeling via political action in the form of immigration reform. What is truly foul  is modifying those feelings into the type of personal attack that reduces a fellow human into a mere target for animus.

"Mario Balotelli - or Super Mario, as he is known by fans of Inter Milan - knows that as well as anyone. The black striker, who is an Italian citizen, has become a target of racist abuse wherever he plays. Juventus fans taunted him so viciously the club was fined and forced to play a match behind closed doors.

"Racist hooligans have a problem with themselves and with society, it's not Mario's problem," says Cristina Balotelli, the 19-year-old striker's older sister.

(B.B.C.)

Will we ever change? It's as though it's all overlooked because this is "just sports" or Italians are just "that way."  Sad really.

Other News:

• Here is a really simplistic and optimistic argument in Slate as to why America is not so bad off. Take it as the grain of nonsense it is. For example, the author dismisses the idea of Dubai being the next Vegas, while probably ignoring the reality that Macau has in fact become the next Vegas in terms of gambling revenue. It's really easy to be selectively optimistic, in the same way all women are beautiful if you squint and stare only at their breasts. (That's hyperbole of course).