Edinson Cavani gets three match ban for not being racist

Well, in that regard at least it isn't an 8 game ban and not an equivalence drawn between two very different contexts of the use of the words.
 
BaZ87 said:
There seems to be some confusion in here in regards to what he said. He didn't simply say the word black, what he said translates to 'little blackie' and is often used in South America to describe both black people and white people with dark features.

It's something that is accepted as non offensive in South America so does that make it ok or are some of these South American countries just behind the times, in the same way 30+ years ago it was acceptable to refer to a corner shop over here in a particular way - a term that all non racists would now accept was wrong.

I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable if I heard somebody refer to a white person with dark featuresas 'little blackie'. At best it's ignorant, at worst they could harbour genuinely offensive beliefs.

What isn't surprising is that the ignorance is no excuse phrase that was thrown about by Utd supporters some years ago no longer applies today.
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And herein lies the problem. Context.

The shortened Pakistani was turned into a negative by racists who either wanted corner shops run by white English people, or simply thought that Pakistanis' only role in the country was to run corner shops and nothing else. Hence the word became offensive in our culture.

As I understand it, 'mi negrito' isn't just non-offensive, it's a term of affection. It is said with love. It is said to their children, ffs. How is that racist? It could be argued it's racially insensitive to say it in our culture, but is that really worthy of dragging an innocent man's name through the mud, banning him for three games, fining him a 100 grand (!!) and forcing him to take a racism course? (Oh, and dragging Uruguayans through the mud too, as apparently they aren't allowed to affectionally refer to their own racial qualities).

The thing with racism is context. Always context. Once you understand that, you'll learn to love language, not live in fear, and (for Liverpool fans) understand why this is different to the Suarez/Evra case. We cannot live in a world without understanding context, it's ignorant and lazy, and only empowers those who use words as weapons.
 
4k4uNuNu said:
And herein lies the problem. Context.

The shortened Pakistani was turned into a negative by racists who either wanted corner shops run by white English people, or simply thought that Pakistanis' only role in the country was to run corner shops and nothing else. Hence the word became offensive in our culture.

As I understand it, 'mi negrito' isn't just non-offensive, it's a term of affection. It is said with love. It is said to their children, ffs. How is that racist? It could be argued it's racially insensitive to say it in our culture, but is that really worthy of dragging an innocent man's name through the mud, banning him for three games, fining him a 100 grand (!!) and forcing him to take a racism course? (Oh, and dragging Uruguayans through the mud too, as apparently they aren't allowed to affectionally refer to their own racial qualities).

The thing with racism is context. Always context. Once you understand that, you'll learn to love language, not live in fear, and (for Liverpool fans) understand why this is different to the Suarez/Evra case. We cannot live in a world without understanding context, it's ignorant and lazy, and only empowers those who use words as weapons.
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The point about context goes out the window under the FA's rules. There is a blanket ban on referring to people by race.

As for it being a term of affection, it's not black and white (no pun intented) - the term literally means little blackie but can be used in an affectionate way, in the same way the major N word isn't always used to be offensive either. Whether he deserves the punishment he's received isn't for me to decide however it is ignorant of him to be using that term while playing in the UK. We have to accept that in different parts of the world there are different rules and laws - what is acceptable here isn't in another country or culture and vice versa. If you went to the UAE and decided to have a beer on the beach you'd find yourself in trouble even if you weren't aware of the laws and didn't intend to cause any offence.

edit: I should add, it is of course less bad to be ignorant and to do something without knowing it was wrong than to do it knowing it's wrong to begin with.

And I was being mischievous with my last sentence. When the Suarez/Evra thing first happened it was initially reported that Suarez used the exact same term as Cavani (which turned out not to be the case) - high horse fc fans were quick to play the ignorance is not an excuse line but will now claim it is an excuse because it involves one of their players. No different to when a section of their supporters defended Maguire's act of savagery in the summer.
 
Tribalism in football is one of many problems when discussing what racism is and isn't.

And it's a stupid rule, one that needs to change as you cannot ignore context. Any word or phrase can be used in a negative way, no one would argue Cavani meant it in a negative way unless football tribalism kicked in. As the title says, "Edinson Cavani gets a three match ban for not being racist". You cannot defend this and the beer on the beach example is completely different as that is illegal in their country, where as it is not illegal to say 'mi negrito' in the UK. (and btw, the UAE laws are completely ridiculous)

The FA have done some stupid **** in the past*, but this one is on a whole new level of incompetence. Farcical.

*Examples, Wayne Hennessey no charge for nazi salute https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47946382 , Jack Grealish an 80k fine (20k less than innocent Cavani) for drink driving https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-55324929

And on a footballing note, I'll never forget this gem, Rooney and Scholes get sent off in a friendly. The FA decide they have to serve three match bans in the PL https://www.theguardian.com/football/2006/aug/16/newsstory.sport2 or Rio's eight(!) month ban for a missed drugs test http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3333091.stm
 
4k4uNuNu said:
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Whether you think it's a stupid rule or not, it's the rule that's in place and a rule that players who want to play in England need to follow. As I said, if you want to work in a certain industry or holiday in a certain country, you have to follow the rules and laws they set, not what you decide is right or wrong.

Shamikebab said:
I forgot about that ban from the friendly. FA has always loved to make an examples of us.
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You do realise that the FA had no choice. If you get sent off in a pre-season game, if the team or organising body of the friendly reports it to the relevant FA then the suspension carries over.
 
BaZ87 said:
What isn't surprising is that the ignorance is no excuse phrase that was thrown about by Utd supporters some years ago no longer applies today.
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Funnily enough I raised this point in the original thread when these comments were made.

Many players have bans carried over from pre-season friendlies, it's not just limited to Man Utd but keep beating that ABU drum.
 
Whether what he said was offensive or not people being punished outside of a nations judicial system is quite scary when you actually think about it, in the old days you just turned up to work to do your job and as long as you didn't do anything illegal in the course of it you'd be fine.. Nowadays you have to sign a contract that seeks to govern your personal behaviour even when you aren't at work and people are being cancelled/sacked for things such as questioning whether there are really 100+ genders. How did we get here?

It seems like religious scripture has been replaced by corporate contracts and corporations have become the new church.
 
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Apparently the Uruguayan government has condemned the FA for this ruling. The FA's bigotry/incompetence is literally causing an international incident :D
 
omnomnom said:
Im not sure how you can call The FA bigots or incompetant here.
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By telling someone from a foreign country that is using their own language that we have decided that what they said in a language that isn't english is offensive enough that we are banning them. We are deciding that a non english word was offensive even when its not offensive in the language it is actually from. You're essentially saying that anyone speaking spanish and using the term Negrito is being racist. You are deciding that because it bears a resemblance to an english word that we deem inapropriate, you have broken the rules severely enough for punishment.

If this was anything other than a pathetic attempt to virtue signal then the FA would have spoken to Cavani about it and that would have been that. He literally took the post down straight away and apologised if he caused any offence. This is clearly not a racist incident and to suggest otherwise and to punish him so severely is frankly ridiculous.

3 match ban, £100k fine and "face to face education".

Not a single person has attributed any malice to what he did.
 
fez said:
By telling someone from a foreign country that is using their own language that we have decided that what they said in a language that isn't english is offensive enough that we are banning them. We are deciding that a non english word was offensive even when its not offensive in the language it is actually from. You're essentially saying that anyone speaking spanish and using the term Negrito is being racist. You are deciding that because it bears a resemblance to an english word that we deem inapropriate, you have broken the rules severely enough for punishment.

If this was anything other than a pathetic attempt to virtue signal then the FA would have spoken to Cavani about it and that would have been that. He literally took the post down straight away and apologised if he caused any offence. This is clearly not a racist incident and to suggest otherwise and to punish him so severely is frankly ridiculous.

3 match ban, £100k fine and "face to face education".

Not a single person has attributed any malice to what he did.
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He has already done Villa and will not be missed against Burnley and Watford so will be hungry and back for the Pool game anyway. Master stroke :p
 
Fubsy said:
That rule is there to punish racist behaviour. It's just been used to ban a player in a way that in itself is not culturally sensitive.

He shouldn't have pleaded guilty though, as in the FAs history books he's now a racist that made racist remarks.

Has this rule and ban done anything to end racism in football? Or highlighted how good the sport actually is if this is the only "incident" this season?

Edit: also, how is it an 'aggrevated' breach, is that literally the mention on a skin tone? Then, are the FA saying to ignore skin tone as that's the opposite of what the BLM movement want. What a mess.
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Doubt the FA is going to open up their training and disciplinary processes to the public.

But I'd expect something along the lines of cultural and racial and disability and sexism guidance to have been given out. Inclusivity stuff, the image we want, the words and actions we want from representatives.

That would greatly undermine an ignorance excuse and just leaves the player with an incompetence excuse. Maybe there's an argument about who was incompetent(team? agent? player?) but the player is responsible.

Perhaps the FA is adding in aggravated breach on the grounds of it not being word fumbling but confident use of a word they have previously penalised a player for.
 
fez said:
By telling someone from a foreign country that is using their own language that we have decided that what they said in a language that isn't english is offensive enough that we are banning them. We are deciding that a non english word was offensive even when its not offensive in the language it is actually from. You're essentially saying that anyone speaking spanish and using the term Negrito is being racist. You are deciding that because it bears a resemblance to an english word that we deem inapropriate, you have broken the rules severely enough for punishment.

If this was anything other than a pathetic attempt to virtue signal then the FA would have spoken to Cavani about it and that would have been that. He literally took the post down straight away and apologised if he caused any offence. This is clearly not a racist incident and to suggest otherwise and to punish him so severely is frankly ridiculous.

3 match ban, £100k fine and "face to face education".

Not a single person has attributed any malice to what he did.
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Again, how is the FA biggots? The word is offensive here...The FA didnt decide that but "little black person" is offensive here and its Cavani who needs to recognise that.

LOL at the idea that a foreign word cant be offensive by the way.
 
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