Maurice Edu Racially Abused By Own Fans at Rangers
Race, Soccer October 22nd. 2009, 2:30pm
Maurice Edu revealed yesterday he was the target of racist abuse from his own fans at Glasgow Rangers. Fans confronted him as he entered his car after Rangers’ mind-boggling 4-1 Champions League loss at home to Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni. Edu did not play in the match. It was not the first time it has happened.
Why does something unthinkable in the U.S. occur with such relative frequency abroad? There are a few explanations.
The simple premise is that Rangers fans are jerks. It has documented validity. These are the same fans who taunted former Celtic star Shunsuke Nakamura with “Nakamura ate my dog” chants and have an ethos grounded in hatred of Irish Catholics. The club profess to be hunting for the racist moron in their midst, but that’s like scouring for a redneck in Mississippi.
Another explanation is cultural. Racism was central to the British Empire, but the British Empire was not necessarily central in British life.
America had slavery on domestic soil well before its inception. In Britain, most did not experience black people, until waves of postwar immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. Looking for an American context, the incident resembles xenophobia over Mexican immigration more than slavery. That in no way excuses the Edu incident, but it, perhaps, explains why the less urbane would not see it as obviously inappropriate.
What happened to Maurice Edu would never happen in America, not today. We revel in the freakish athleticism of our African-American athletes. Our prominent columnists would never use flimsy unfounded research to buttress racial stereotypes.
37 Responses to “Maurice Edu Racially Abused By Own Fans at Rangers”
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October 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I’ve traveled to the UK, Germany, France, and Italy, and I can tell you that those places are far more racist and xenophobic than “ugly America”. It was downright appalling at times. It’s like that “In Bruges” scene where Farrell punches the Canadian because he thinks he’s an asshole American…times 10.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
its so hot when azn or black girls talk with a brit accent.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:38 pm
They are racist. End of post.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I vaguely remember a story after 9/11 about European soccer fans taunting American players by making airplane sounds and holding their arms extended like they were flying. Classy bunch.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Another reason to hate soccer in Europe. Needs a college soccer post.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I believe they are ranked 18th.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Another explanation is cultural. Racism was central to the British Empire
Well that’s a wonderful oversimplification of the truth.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Is this movie worth seeing?
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
They’re tOSU?
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
it would be a national story here if Sanchez heard racial comments as he was walking to his car.
Can you imagine if JaMarcus Russell got them in Oakland?
Or what about Alex Smith i San Francisco?
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
That’s for John Lennon!
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Tell that to Milton Bradley.
Cub fans are classy
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:52 pm
my head feels like a bowling ball.
last time I drink until 5am.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I am not sure why all the caveats and searches for deeper meaning are necessary. Racism, especially in a sporting context, is simply more accepted in Europe than in America. It is wrong and it needs to change.
Whether there is a root cause for their permissiveness is meaningless. This problem doesn’t show some sort of US superiority any more than does the US’s general lack of language skills show any grandiose inferiority. It is a piece in a very large puzzle, but excusing it away because there might be some sort of historical context is also detrimental.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
he’d get taunted for being straight?
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Europeans take sports, specifically soccer, WAY TO SERIOUSLY all the time. The joke here is that football is a religion but its nothing compared to the hooligans in Europe. I remember not to long ago a team was playing one from Israel so they thought it would be funny to bring huge Nazi flags to the game.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I thought it was tremendous.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
not him, but a black guy was shot and killed by white cops in the bay area on new years eve.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
/lived in europe for 3 years
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
i really liked it, but i wasn’t expecting too much since it wasn’t the first choice at blockbuster.
not crazy about the ending, but it definitely had some genuinely funny parts mixed into the dark subject matter.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
he takes more abuse for not wearing a darth vader mask when he plays
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:58 pm
I remember not to long ago a team was playing one from Israel so they thought it would be funny to bring huge Nazi flags to the game.
I used to have tickets at Stamford Bridge and when Tottenham came in, the whole stadium spent a good portion of the time hissing. They were taunting the “Yid Army” with sounds of a gas chamber. Not a word in the paper about it the next day.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Looking for an American context, the incident resembles xenophobia over Mexican immigration more than slavery.
I think that is a reach. Provide me an example where American fans have shouted derogatory chants at Mexican players during football or baseball games.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:04 pm
ND is not racist, they just suck dick.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Wait didn’t a bunch of Texas fans castrate and OU fan last year?
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
But they like soft, pretty, small handed men.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I believe they have a chance to move up come next week’s rankings.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
people who assume Europe is more accepting of different races hasn’t read their history books. The British Colonies were responsible for segregation in South Africa, which led to Apartheid, among many other acts of racism from South Africa to India.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Not sure you can get any higher than the #1 dick-sucking team in the nation. But if you could, ND would be the team to do it.
I think it was a few fans doing it to one OU guy. Not an entire stadium. But that was fucked up.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Wait didn’t a bunch of Texas fans castrate and OU fan last year?
They were both white.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
That was towards the “we don’t take it as seriously” point.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Gotcha.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Definitely. But that doesn’t translate into the domestic sphere necessarily. In 100 years historians might look back and say that are geo-political meddlings on other continents were the most important aspect of our society, that doesn’t mean people are shaped by it. Most people are completely ignorant of it.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I hear they play a game like this… but on ice, with sticks and a smaller net/field. Oh, and the players aren’t fairies either.
/just sayin’
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:26 pm
people who assume Europe is more accepting of different races hasn’t read their history books. The British Colonies were responsible for segregation in South Africa, which led to Apartheid, among many other acts of racism from South Africa to India.
Actually it was the Boers(descendants of the Dutch) who advocated and enacted the apartheit laws. Most of the South Africans descended from the British immigrants were much more liberal in RSA politics.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Just to clarify, an OU fan castrated a Texas fan at a bar in Oklahoma
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:00 am
Shortsighted and typically arrogant line that ignores that this is certainly the case MORE in the US OFF the field than on for sure than in MOST of Europe (not some of the places mentioned by the aforementioned commenter though). Take it from an Italian guy with a black girlfriend who could not go with her to MOST of the US without the jeers including much of Metro Philly. We deal with it and usually make a laugh out of it.
Accurate line and wonderfully delivered. You can substitute about half the US states for a similar or the same effect.
Totally. Fight on Celtic, whom they hate at the core due to their primarily Roman Catholic roots.
Brilliant sarcasm!