Hate is the nemesis of our time. It has become one of the fundamental tools of the “emotional society”. The fixation of its mechanisms, thanks to the amplifying power of the media, has been consolidated as an indistinct consensual vision of the logic of the system: that feeling that there is only an “irrational truth” fundamentalism and no option to interpret it.
Thus, this social contempt is activated, which is consolidated through repeated expressions in an uncritical way in the contexts of daily life. The Real Madrid player Vinícius Junior has systematically suffered manifestations of racism in Spanish stadiums. It had to be Lula Da Silva, from the G7 summit in Hiroshima, who drew attention to the European institutions about the hate messages received by the footballer, especially in the Valencia-Real Madrid match: “Was attacked. He was called ‘monkey’. It is not possible, in the 21st century, to have such strong racial prejudice in so many football stadiums.. It is unfair that a poor boy who has done so well in life, and who may become the best in the world, is insulted in every stadium in which he plays,” said the Brazilian head of state.
The most stark cynicism came as a response from the vice president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas. “Measures will be taken. There is no place for racism in our societies,” he clarified. It’s curious. One wonders if measures will also be taken so as not to close our eyes and let hundreds of thousands of sub-Saharan emigrants die in European waters and coasts. For Schinas, this humanitarian tragedy is not institutional racism or xenophobic genocide. Nothing consoles the wretched so much as the prolongation of their miseries.
These forms of racism so widespread in societies and in European football are based on the idea clearly subtracted from the supremacist theory of the Great Replacement, according to which the white European Catholic population is being replaced by people of non-European origin, specifically by Arabs, Africans, and Latin Americans. Very suggestive forms of reasoning and mental schemes available to everyone. But you don’t have to go that far.
Just a few days ago, a part of the Argentinos Juniors fans reminded Boca supporters of their status as “little balls”. Something so naturalized, so commonplace, that it no longer surprises or condemns. When a behavior is repeatedly considered normal, there is a tendency to normalize it. This is how expressions, slogans and messages of hate naturalized by a part of the citizenry and the political class are disseminated, feeding the rage infested in the dehumanization of the other. Like the always touching Miguel Ángel Pichetto, that neoliberal “poltersgeist”, who left us these days a pearl of deep visceral hatred: “The conurbano is an unviable territory. It is full of Paraguayans, Bolivians, Peruvians and Venezuelans. There are things here that nobody analyzes, that are not politically correct (…) And they solve it this way: they send them to Argentina. Barbarian, and we take charge of the social adjustment”.
Sometimes you have to ask life for just a little more life. It is necessary to banish that neurotic conviction that the other is a threat. In the semblance of all disappointment we always have the hope of amassing a new world, a better world, a social space for intimate and collective growth, an instrument of dialogue, consensus, shelter and tomorrow.
Journalist. Former player of Vélez, clubs in Spain, and World Champion Tokyo ’79