Bananas, racist?

[EvilRoy]

Or it could just be someone of the opposing side throwing whatever they had in their hand. Labeling as racism anything that could possibly be interpreted as such is very unhelpful.

Yeah mate your edl isn't racist because its the only thing you had clean

Some elaboration is required. I have no idea what an "edl" is.

I think he's referencing the English Defense League, probably specifically the face masks or insignia. The idea being, I think, that if you choose to act out or wear something symbolic of a particular viewpoint, then you implicitly endorse that viewpoint.

Yes this can happen accidentally (AVON offering Japanese women perfume was a big one), but these guys are fully aware of their own cultural context. The player posted the pic with the tag #weareallmonkeys, so we at least know what he thought.

 

[Mr. Eff_v1legacy]

Smart teacher, you probably should have paid more attention to what she said.

"Smart teacher"? Good lord. She ended the discussion without attempting to make any kind of an argument. "I'm right and you just can't see it" is not an argument.

I think you're just trying to be contrarian here. Throwing bananas and making monkey signs at black footballers is unfortunately a long running tradition in Europe, and it really is an unambiguous gesture. It's been happening for as long as black players have existed which, in itself is not as long as it should have been. John Barnes in the 80s was one of the first high profile black players in the sport and he had bananas thrown at him on a fairly regular basis, even by his own fans when he played for England.

I wasn't aware of that, nor this particular gesture's recurrent nature. That changes things completely. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

I wouldn't say racist but they are definitely sexist!

100% of bananas look like this

Spoiler: Phallic Object

And yet none look like vaginas!

Do you even equally represent?

 

[direkiller]

tage of Dani used to show him eating the banana.

Similar happened in Football in England recently, a referee (or match official) gave a punishment/penalty to the wrong player, presumably because the two guys look very similar to each other and he got mixed up which was which, but because they were both black, it was considered racist by lots of people.

Thats it?
Sheesh in Pro US football I have seen refs say the wrong team when giving a penalty, the wrong player happens about once a game.
(admittedly they all do look the same with helmets and pads on) and the official record is separate of the ref telling the stadium so it's a non issue.

It's so common it never makes it on sports clips funny reels.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Not just at a player, at a South American player. Countries said to have the banana as an economic staple. And he took it the best possible way.

 

[ThatDarnCoyote]

For our friends across the pond (NAmerica in particular):
- Imagine a sport where black players haven't been a massive influence since basically forever. So... ice hockey.
- Now, I'd like you to imagine one team has a black player.
- The moment he skates onto the ice, some jackass throws a bag of cotton balls onto the ice. A couple others in the bleachers make whipcrack noises and gestures.

So, basically, Joel Ward [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/post/racist-tweets-about-joel-ward-after-bruins-loss-to-capitals-is-another-ugly-mark-for-nhl/2012/04/26/gIQAjfZQjT_blog.html]. Only instead of cotton balls or bananas, it's BS on Twitter. Anyway, whether the throwing of the banana was racist or not (it most likely was), throwing stuff at people makes you an asshole anyway.

While I admire Alves' pluck, eating something some asshole throws at you seems like a risky idea. Next time they'll probably spike it with something. Cause racists are dicks like that.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

tage of Dani used to show him eating the banana.

Similar happened in Football in England recently, a referee (or match official) gave a punishment/penalty to the wrong player, presumably because the two guys look very similar to each other and he got mixed up which was which, but because they were both black, it was considered racist by lots of people.

Thats it?
Sheesh in Pro US football I have seen refs say the wrong team when giving a penalty, the wrong player happens about once a game.
(admittedly they all do look the same with helmets and pads on) and the official record is separate of the ref telling the stadium so it's a non issue.

It's so common it never makes it on sports clips funny reels.

It was kind of a fake-drama drama around it.

Because people just really poked fun at him for the mistake. I don't think the majority of people were actually suggesting he is racist. It's a real rarity to book (penalise) the wrong guy, so it would've been jumped on regardless, but there was this kind of 'so they all look the same to you, ey?' vibe around the whole thing.

I think it was quite light-hearted really and didn't last long in the media, but they always move onto something new so that's not surprising. There's a lot more serious s*** happening in football to worry about than a referee mixing up two guys.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

So okay, why is throwing a banana at someone considered a racist act?

Do you seriously not understand why throwing a banana at a dark-skinned individual might be considered racist? Are you totally unaware of comparisons to monkeys? Are you totally unaware at the MASSIVE racism problem that futbol is dealing with?

Gosh, everything is misconstrued these days! If someone is flailing his arms around like a certain species and throwing bananas at a person with darker skin, it could just mean that he simply behaves that way and wants the player to have a healthy potassium intake!

Heck, if someone is dressed up like a ghost yelling "white power!", it could just mean that he has an appreciation for the dead and the highlighting of white as an artist.