Racism Abounds at World Cup

There have been a lot of reports about FIFA and the EU taking steps to curb violent racist outbreaks at the World Cup this year. What a shame that this is even an issue. Not that the US is a glowing example of stellar race relations. But, as one report I heard last night rightly stated, Europe has never had a civil rights movement, and many Western (re: white) Europeans still see themselves as superior to people of other races. And football fandom seems to be a venue of choice for people to "safely" act out their racists sentiments, albeit sometimes on their own teams' players.

Take the example of Marc Zoro, an internationally renowned footballer from the Ivory Coast who still gets bananas thrown at him on the field and monkey calls made at him. He left a game in April when the crowd's racist chants became too much for him to endure.

French footballer (and major hottie) Thierry Henry has joined with Nike to do a PSA about combatting racism complete with accompanying wristband. (When will the wristband thing end??) But it's going to take a lot more than PSA's to tackle this problem. Europe, you've been red carded.

"Who could hate me? I'm so hot!"