How To Defeat Racism

Chelsea's draw with French champions, Paris St. Germain (PSG) in the Champions League round of 16 was hardly an earthshaking piece of news but incidents leading to the run up of that fixture stole the headlines.

A black Frenchman of Mauritanian descent wanted to catch a train home to meet his family after closing from work but he was not allowed to enter the train by Chelsea supporters who pushed him out repeatedly after the black Frenchman otherwise known as Souleymane S. tried hopelessly to enter the train filled with Chelsea supporters who were on their way to watch the PSG-Chelsea game.

The Chelsea fans then went on to chant "We are racists, and that's how we like it". Poor old Souleymane S. had to wait for the next train to go home. Funny enough, had an amateur cameraman not caught the shameful incident on video and sent it to The Guardian newspaper, this atrocity would not have been exposed because Souleymane did not disclose the incident to anyone because he felt embarrassed sharing such with members of his family.

Of course, after the show of shame was reported by the media, key figures in England condemned the incident including the likes of Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, British PM David Cameron and Chelsea football club. Chelsea football club creditably, acted swiftly and have identified 5 of the fans involved in the mess and have quickly taken disciplinary actions against the fans identified.

Souleymane called for the English fans involved to be arrested and thrown in jail for what they did to him. Well, French authorities have said If any of those identified to have pushed him out of the train ever set foot in France, they would be arrested. This and many more of such acts of racism probably go unreported in France and all over the world despite many high profile cases involving players like Mario Balotelli, Prince Boateng, Kevin Constante, Dani Alves and so on being reported.

The point I want to highlight is this: racism can be defeated but it won't be defeated with the model we have in society today. The first step in defeating racism is to realise that racism can never be eradicated totally. If we come to accept it as a fact of life that we humans are imperfect and will continually do crazy things for the most stupid of reasons then we would have won half of the battle.

The second step is to collectively as individuals, deny the racists their power. Racists persist in their actions because they get attention and their actions often provoke negative reactions from their victims. If their targets begin to ignore and snub their foolish actions and not allow the racist behaviour of the racists to hurt them, the racist loses his power. 

The government of course and all other institutions such as clubs should still sanction identified offenders but sanctions rarely change an individual's heart. It is only when a racist realises that he is making a fool of himself rather than he or she mocking a perceived inferior race then will there be a change of heart of a racist, barring any divine intervention.

This isn't a popular model for the tackling of racism but it is more effective than sanctions and education.