Racism & Basketball

[by Kris SANTIAGO] - Usually, I don't touch serious fields like this one here, but due to the actuality, I wanted to give you my thoughts to this delicate topic.

Growing up in a multicultural household (Moms from the Balkans; Dad from Mexico), I had only little problems to adjust to the German life (I grew up speaking Serbo-Croatian first, then learned German pretty fast while playing with kids from other ethnical backgrounds like Turkey, Italy, Croatia and so on..) but experienced, although being fully integrated into social life, racism during my early years playing (European) football on a local team.
Being kid, I never thought that my coach wouldn't let me shoot penalties (The German kids would so. Kids with other ethnical backgrounds weren't respected although they contributed a lot to the team's success.) or never congratulated me for being a good player (...which I was. Honestly. I led the team in goals and later transferred to youth team with a professional attitude.).I realized year after, that the Coach did not only dislike me but all "foreigners" (Which we were called) on the team. He is now leading a right-wing protest-group which is against the building of a mosque in their neighborhood.

I also remember talking to a Nigerian baller who played in FYRO-Macedonia in the late 90's and told me about his experiences there.
When he visited a Sudanese player in Sofia (Bulgaria), they went out to have a drink but never made it to the bar. Both were hunted through the city by skinheads and Heavy Metal-fans who emerged from a metal-show in town and spotted the tall African guys on the street.
They ran for their lives and could escape with minor injuries.

When I heard the news about Marcus Faison in the Ukraine ( http://orangeukraine.squarespace.com/journal/2008/1/20/skinheads.html )
and the stuff that happened to Hollis Price in Lithuania ( http://www.ballineurope.com/countries/lithuania/hollis-price-victim-of-a-racist-attack/ )
, I remembered the story of the above mentioned Nigerian player. To hear such stuff really drives me mad and leaves me speechless.


It's also kind of weird to know, that Pini Gershon, who is also having Bulgarian roots, is going to coach the national-team with an African-American player on the roster after he made those remarks about African-Americans (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2001/07/07/sobask08.xml).

The Balkans and Eastern Europe in general always have been a difficult place for dark-skinned people (That includes also Indians and South Americans...) as most lesser-educated and sophisticated locals there compare them to Gypsies (They are considered as thugs and thieves) who are living in the areas for years and were always discriminated. There is no excuse for this; just trying to show off where this blind hate derivates from and how these prejudices are integrated in the society there and also in other parts of Europe like Spain, Italy and so on…

I have to thank MTV and all other music television stations as well as radio shows as they are airing a lot of rap and R&B music in Bulgaria for some years now.
The influence of American music changed things there, as the younger generation adores musicians as well as sports-stars no matter what skin color they have.
I remember hanging out with Priest Lauderdale in 2002 in a club in Sofia and he told me how much he enjoyed life there and that he never experienced any problems and was treated like a king.
If you walk down Vitosha Blvd. (Sofia) these days, you will see different kind of nationalities and ethnicities getting along with each other, so I guess things got better there, while in other Eastern European countries things got reportedly worse by time. There are more cases, not just only in the east, but also in Spain (http://www.ballineurope.com/countries/spain/police-clash-in-tenerife/ ), the United States (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_15_17/ai_66380066 ) or Canada (http://www.ryersonline.ca/articles/1633/1/RyersOnline-Top-10-Basketball-coach-and-racism-allegations---8/Page1.html ) while in other countries, players already thought they were verbally attacked and it happened to be a misunderstanding (http://toomuchrodbenson.com/page0/files/812adc8c592a2153e597e1d1d34eb29f-83.html )
…

The actual case, why I was touching this important topic is a mail of an Armenian-Egyptian player who left Egypt because he was not paid the money he was promised to. That is maybe not a big deal as it happens in many leagues around the world, but the reason why he was not getting any money was, because he was Christian.

Ruben, who I know for quite some time, ran into problems while playing the game he loves. http://www.eurobasket.com/ARM/ARM.asp
According to him, his coach was quoted saying "I don't want any Christian players on my team…" and did release two Egyptian (Christian) players prior to Ruben's arrival.
Being the best player on the team, it was hard for the coach to argue against Ruben, but when the team did not fulfill their financial obligations to the player, which is a very common thing in Egypt, Vesmadian did something unexpected for the team and went on a strike after playing successfully there and after getting different reasons by the club for staying unpaid.
That was the right moment for the coach to take the whole religious thing to another level and he bashed off against Vesmadian where he could.

It's sad to hear such things happening around the globe, not only in Europe or Africa, but in any place where the ignorance and arrogance of a few people in charge leads to the mistreatment of athletes and humans in general terms.

I know from a player from the US, that in Qatar, some teams treat players basically like slaves, not like human beings, because they (management) are used to treat the people that work for them in the household the same way and were taught, that non-Arabians where not as worthy being respected than Arabians.

Its tough to swallow your pride if you hear such stuff and play on like nothing happened, and I know many players do not talk about their experiences simply out of fear of being asked: ""Why did you not leave then?" Instead they are keeping calm and waiting for the payment to move on to a better place some day.

I would love to see more national basketball federations assisting players in such situations and having a person hired they can talk to, and that may assist a player (i.e.) to sue and charge those who are acting racist towards a player or anyone involved. Right now, the only chance a player might have is to contact the media or leave the team/league to avoid more harassment.

Finding solutions for racism in general is tough, but I think it's good to see players with different backgrounds being used by the club to promote basketball by visiting schools and other institutions for children and letting them know, that they are not any different from them, even if they have another color of skin or religion. This may have to be intensified and also forced by FIBA and the governing national bodies in smaller and lower leagues around the globe to teach the next generation about the game and equally about the richness of different cultures and that there is no place for racism in the heart of a basketball player.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comment box below, as I would like to know your opinions and maybe experiences regarding racism in the world of hoops.