Moise Kean
Moise Kean, a 19-year-old striker for Juventus in Italy, was faced by the aggressive fans of Cagliari’s home stadium. He was racially chanted at by the home fans, being repeatedly called a monkey due to the color of his skin. In retaliation to this abuse, after he scored Juventus’ second goal in a 2-0 win, he stood in front of the very fans that verbally attacked him and celebrated in silence with his arms out in defiance of the racial ill-treatment he had suffered.
Fox Sports
.Surprisingly, the main perspective in this story is not that of the victim, but his coach, Massimiliano Allegri. Allegri states; “He should not have celebrated in that manner, He is a young man and has to learn, but certain things from the crowd also should not be heard. You need great intelligence to deal with these situations and should not provoke people. That, of course, does not mean the idiots in the crowd and the way they reacted should be justified” (New York Times). This is a point of view given by a coach that is surprisingly not completely behind his player in the face of racial abuse. Rather than supporting his striker completely, he gives the reasoning that the blame is also somewhat on him, for supposedly provoking the fans. This was also backed by another player from the team, Leonardo Bonnucci, who along with Allegri faced much criticism for his stance on the controversial issue. This is an imperative point of view that needs to be shown when discussing this subject. This also could serve as an important expression of how players and influencers stand against the problem, they can take a stand and be proud of who they are, defying those who express prejudice against them. This event is still proving to be a speed bump in European football's way to a racism free game as Serie A (the Italian league where this game took place) has decided not to fine or take action against Cagliari, giving the community little hope as to if change is really possible.
Russel Westbrook
Newsweek
The NBA is the biggest basketball league in the world by a long shot and even in a sport largely dominated by African-American men in terms of population and skill, some still face racism during their games. During a game against the Utah Jazz, Westbrook faced racial jeering by Utah fans. This fan has been banned from the stadium since the abuse happened, but in reaction to this abuse at the time, Russel Westbrook lost control and lashed out at the fan saying, “I’ll f*ck you up. You and your wife!” (NBA). Utah Jazz did show support to Westbrook as their star player Donovan Mitchell says: “Racism and hate speech hurts us all, and this is not the first time something like this has happened in our arena,” Mitchell said. “The Utah that I have come to love is welcoming and inclusive, and last night’s incident is not indicative of our fan base”. Existing in many sports, racism is an issue that is so widespread amongst fans and teams often react in the same way, banning people from games. This exhibits the limited array of solutions that teams have for these problems, that unsurprisingly aren’t doing anything. Although some may see this as an unwarranted reaction by Westbrook, this simply goes to show how dire the situations is and how much this effects the players.