Europe is considered to be the most educated, civilized and developed continent in the universe. Unfortunately, recent inhumane acts by some Europeans have weakened this narrative, to say the least. Valencia’s white supporters recently took racial insults against famous footballer Vini Jr., chanting monkey slogans. This isn’t the first time a footballer has faced racism on the field.
Time and time again, Europe is showing hatred toward black players. Mario Balletoli, Samuel Eto, Drogba, and even Mollato players like Danie Alves have been the victims of racial discrimination in different European leagues.
Why are the Europeans or the whites abusing black players? Is the ghost of racial superiority still haunting the whites?
Quite long ago, Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem titled ‘White Man’s Burden’. Kipling, through his poem, has glorified the magnanimity of white skin. The poet’s sole motive was to show the whole world that the whites were born to civilize the non-whites. The whites also assumed that people outside Europe were barbaric, savage, irrational, and uncivilized. They have even designed fake narratives about the color ‘black’ and Africa. From the colonial era to date, the same racist mindset is at work, on the football stadium and beyond.
Like White Man’s Burden, Brahmanism in South Asia has debased cultural practices that divide people into different castes and sub-castes. The castes determine the cultural and social values of people. For instance, people born into thread-wearing castes (high castes) get certain privileges, whereas the lower castes or the Sudras (Untouchables) have to face caste-based discrimination throughout their lives. People have even lost lives or faced torture over caste matters. Few years ago in Nepal, some ‘high-caste’ people killed Navaraj BK along with his five friends in west Rukum for BK’s attempt to marry a ‘high-caste’ girl.
This caste superiority of the Hindus has started its journeys abroad. In particular, the Hindus of Nepal and India are showing casteist colors in Europe, America, and Australia by following in the footsteps of their ancestors’ ‘ill-conceived’ Brahmanism, which states that only the thread-wearing (Thagadhari) caste is rational and pure whereas other castes, especially the Sudars, are ‘impure and irrational’.
The Dalits based abroad are finding it hard to get into relationships, get rooms, land jobs and attend social gatherings, mainly due to a casteist system and Brahmanism prevailing in Nepali and Indian diasporas. In its 2016 survey report, Equality Lab, a US-based NGO, stated that at least one in four Dalits in the USA has faced verbal or physical assault, and two out of every three said they have faced discrimination at work. A case in point: In early 2020, Prem Pariyar was almost at a breaking point over targeted harassment, discrimination, and exclusion by the dominant caste group’s students at his alma mater, the California State University in East Bay, the United States (Al-jazeera).