Racism..a handshake enough to fix the problem?

Seep Blatter: “I would deny it. There is no racism," he said. "There is maybe one of the players towards another – he has a word or a gesture which is not the correct one. But the one who is affected by that, he should say that this is a game. We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we shake hands, and this can happen, because we have worked so hard against racism and discrimination."

The comments above came from Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, which is the governing body for soccer around the world. When these comments came out, they raised a lot of controversy. Whether or not racism still exists in the soccer world is up for dispute, although most people would argue that racism is 100% still a prominent issue in soccer everywhere. Again, this issue can be debated, but it is not what I want to discuss. For me, Mr. Blatter’s comment that a “handshake” at the end of a game will solve the problem of racism in the event that it occurs is completely idiotic and naïve.

Racism of any form does not go in one ear and out the other. The fact that Sepp Blatter, a powerful man in charge of the world’s most popular sport in which racism is still prevalent, is quite troubling. For players and victims of racism, his comments are insulting. Sepp Blatter is not a soccer player and is not subject to racism while competing on the soccer field. It seems easy for him to make these comments as a spectator, but if he was the victim of racist remarks, would a handshake be all that he needed as an apology? I don’t think so.

In the 2006 World Cup, Zinedine Zidane was the victim of racism and his perpetrator was a man named Marco Materrazi. After the comments, Zidane was not open for a handshake to make everything better. Instead, he gave Materazzi a solid head butt to the chest. This is the reality of racism. It is not acceptable and no handshake will ever suffice as an apology. The bottom line is that racism has no place in soccer, sports, and life. As the leader of such a powerful and important organization, Sepp Blatter needs to be more stern in solving the racism situation and not so naïve to think that racism is such a miniscule infraction that it can be resolved with a handshake.

-Noah Nudell