Liverpool’s Luis Suarez is innocent: ‘negro’ wasn’t in the contract
DID Liverpool’s Luis Suarez racially abuse Manchester United’s Patrice Evra? The three-man Independent Regulatory Commission looking into the thing has yet to make a ruling. Meanwhile, while the IRC charges by the hour, The Telegraph reports that Suárez admitted using the term “negro” to Evra once, but states that this was not racially motivated. You see, Suárez’s says his use of the word “negro” was meant in the same way that Evra called him a South American.
Henry Winter writes:
Suárez, who will admit using the word “negro” once, will argue that it is a descriptive expression, and not deemed offensive in his native Uruguay, and that it is similar to Dirk Kuyt getting called “blondie” by the South American players at Anfield.
Like “negro“, blondie comes loaded with hundreds of years of persecution. One thinks of blondes being portrayed as dog lovers in the arcane film Legally Blonde, blondes as jihadis in the phrase “blonde bombshells”, and Blondie Bumstead (née Boopadoop), destroyer of families in Chic Young’s infamous cartoons.
It is Suarez’s bad luck that the people who negotiate contracts and advise South American footballers playing in the Premier League forgot to include a clause stating that calling black players “negro” or even nigger (Evra claims Saurez racially abused him “at least 10 times” during the match) makes you a pariah and leaves a indelible stain on your reputation. It might even be career suicide.
Blame the lawyers…
Posted: 16th, December 2011 | In: Sports Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
