Opinion – Sandro Macedo: Long live the black sportsman

The Corinthians women’s soccer team is an event, a force of nature. In the Libertadores semifinal –I said in the semifinal, not the pre-Libertadores–, the team nicknamed “the Brabas” beat Uruguay’s Nacional 8-0. EIGHT TO ZERO, which, according to the mathematicians, is more than 7 to 1.

However, the headline of the Brazilian trampling was another case of racism. When scoring the sixth goal, with a penalty, Adriana was called “monkey” by a rival. The team was outraged as Adriana returned almost in tears to midfield. Arbitration did nothing.

According to the website of the Observatory of Racial Discrimination in Football, with this one, there are already 51 cases of racism involving Brazilian football in 2021 alone. Considering that this is November, this number will easily surpass the mark of one case per week.

Interestingly, not all cases go to trial in the sports courts. Many stop at “he said, he said”.

These numbers only show the moment of failure that we live as a society. The Observatory, by the way, observes other cases of discrimination besides racial, such as homophobia or xenophobia.

Racism, which is a crime, should be extirpated from any segment, but in sports it seems to make even less sense. Imagine your team, what you support in Brazil, without any black player: did you get stronger or weaker?

This week, a Pakistani-born cricket star revealed in the UK that racism had ruined his career – he played for an English team and left the sport early.

What if all black people decided to abandon the sport because they couldn’t stand racism any longer?

How about Brazil without Neymar, Vinicius Jr., Marquinhos, Fred, Casemiro, Gerson and co?

How about a Brazilian without Gabriel Barbosa, Bruno Henrique, Weverton, Keno, Jair, Gabriel Sara, Miranda, Marinho etc? It’s funny?

On November 9th, the best player in the world, the Golden Ball, will be announced. I don’t know who will win, but the best player in the world for three years now isn’t Messi, or Cris Ronaldo or Lewandovski, it’s a black player, and a Muslim, Mohammed Salah, from Liverpool.

How about watching the wonderful Champions League without Salah, Mané, Lukaku, Rashford, Mbappé, Ansu Fati, Sané, Kanté, Pogba, Depay, and many others?

And F1? Lewis Hamilton proved at Interlagos last weekend that he can enter any list of the best of all times – he received the banner of black Rebeca Andrade, the greatest gymnast in the history of Brazil. This is not Hamilton’s first outstanding year in the category. The first of its seven titles was in 2008.

So successfully, who has Hamilton opened the door to? How many black drivers appeared in F1? None. How many black mechanics are in F1? In an interview with Mariana Becker, on Band, the English driver said that they are trying to improve diversity within their team. Even though the biggest driver of the day engaged in the cause, Mercedes managed to increase only from 3% to 6% the presence of blacks in the staff. I don’t believe that in other teams, without a Hamilton, the situation is better.

That’s why, on the eve of Black Awareness Day, this white journalist, whose biggest sports idols are black, supports the awareness of the white sportsman, the white player, the white fan, the white judge, the white leader… Every day.