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The story of the 2006 World Cup has
been the resurrection of France. After a lackluster performance
in its first two games, the French team shocked the football
watching world--otherwise known as "the world"--by
upsetting Spain and then dethroning Brazil, the second time in
three World Cups the French have knocked off the global kings
of "the beautiful game."
While hundreds of thousands
of people celebrated on the Champs-Elysées following France's
stunning turn-around, not everyone was feeling the joy. Proud
racist and leader of the ultra-right wing National Front, Jean-Marie
Le Pen, could not resist defiling the moment. Le Pen decried
France's multi-ethnic team as unrepresentative of French society,
saying that France "cannot recognize itself in the national
side," and "maybe the coach exaggerated the proportion
of players of color and should have been a bit more careful."
Le Pen and others of his ilk
do not recognize themselves in a team whose leader is of Algerian
descent--Zinedine Zidane--and whose most feared striker is black--Thierry
Henry. Le Pen used to torture Algerians for the French military
in the 1950s and it turns his stomach that his team reflects
France's (and Europe's) colonial past, with players from Cameroon,
Guadalupe, Senegal, Congo, Algeria, and Benin among other countries.
Le Pen's efforts to use the
pitch as a battleground for his Neanderthal views about immigration
and Islam have not gone unanswered. After his latest comments,
France midfielder Lilian Thuram said, "Clearly, he is unaware
that there are Frenchmen who are black, Frenchmen who are white,
Frenchmen who are brown. I think that reflects particularly badly
on a man who has aspirations to be president of France but yet
clearly doesn't know anything about French history or society....
That's pretty serious. He's the type of person who'd turn on
the television and see the American basketball team and wonder:
'Hold on, there are black people playing for America? What's
going on?'"
Thuram went on to say, "When
we take to the field, we do so as Frenchmen. All of us. When
people were celebrating our win, they were celebrating us as
Frenchmen, not black men or white men. It doesn't matter if we're
black or not, because we're French. I've just got one thing to
say to Jean Marie Le Pen. The French team are all very, very
proud to be French. If he's got a problem with us, that's down
to him but we are proud to represent this country. So Vive la
France, but the true France. Not the France that he wants."
In addition, the immensely talented Henry has started an antiracist
campaign called Stand Up Speak Up. Henry pushed his sponsor Nike
to produce black and white intertwined armbands that demonstrate
a commitment against racism. So far, they have sold more than
five million. "That's important in making the very real
point that racism is a problem for everyone, a collective ailment,"
Henry said to Time Magazine. "It shows that people of all
colors, even adversaries on the pitch, are banding together in
this, because we're all suffering from it together."
Henry's campaign has resonance
because Le Pen does not have the market cornered on racism in
the sport. So-called fans, throwing banana peels and peanuts
at star players of African descent, have plagued European soccer
this past season. For much of the World Cup, such assaults did
not occur. But before the June 27th game against Spain, the French
coach, Raymond Domenech, said Spanish fans were "making
monkey chants" as the French team left their bus. The incident
evoked memories of an outrageous racist diatribe against Thierry
Henry delivered by Spanish coach Luis Aragones to "inspire"
his team before a match against France a couple years ago. When
Franch defeated Spain last week, it was more just desserts for
Aragones and another bitter pill for Le Pen.
Thuram and Henry are continuing
a proud tradition of recent years, as players from "Les
Bleus," as the national team is called, have consistently
spoken out against those like Le Pen who cannot countenance a
non-white French team. Le Pen made headlines before the 1998
World Cup for saying that France's multi-ethnic team was "artificial,"
and was mortified when Zidane and Henry did something no previous
Frenchmen had accomplished-won the World Cup, a triumph that
was widely celebrated as a victory for multiculturalism. While
Le Pen was campaigning in the presidential elections of 2002,
the French team issued a statement denouncing the politics of
the National Front. Delivered by Ghanaian-born captain Marcel
Desailly, the statement read: "The players in the French
team, from diverse origins . . . are unanimous in condemning
resurgent ideas of racism and exclusion." Desailly's statement
further condemned "attitudes that endanger democracy and
freedom as intolerable and indefensible, particularly in a multi-ethnic
and multi-cultural France." Zidane amplified this message,
calling for a huge vote against Le Pen.
It is paradoxical that a victory
by France, a country with as grisly a colonial past as any European
power, could be a cause for celebration by immigrants and fighters
for social justice. But as last year's "suburb" riots
and mass youth demonstrations have shown, there is a battle over
the future of French politics and by extension, the future of
Europe. Anti-Arab and Moslem sentiment is by no means monopolized
by Le Pen and his cronies on the far right. Whether or not they
defeat Italy for the title, the astonishing success of France's
multi-ethnic team presents another vision for the future of the
continent.
Dave Zirin is the author of "'What's My
name Fool?': Sports and Resistance in the United States."
Contact him at whatsmynamefool2005@yahoo.com.
John Cox is an assistant History professor
at Florida Gulf Coast University.
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