Think and Write...

...with a nod to Bjelic and Baudrillard.

The issue of racism is one of perception. Orientalism, for example, is problematic because we in the west only understand the orient through the works of Western men who explored the lands during the colonial era. Thus, all knowledge created at this time of intellectual exploration, and all subsequent knowledge built off of the initial corpus, was written and interpreted from the hegemons perspective. This means that we only have a single, ideologically infused, perspective from which to analyze the data, to acquire and understand the information.

Reality is created through the relationship between the signifier and the signified: the signifier is the language that creates the object, the signified is our experiential understanding of the object (our understanding via interaction). In other words, we know it is coffee because we have language to define it (the signifier), we have our understanding of it through language (the signified), and the third component is its physical root / manifestation, the referent.

Hyper Reality is when reality becomes more real than reality itself. Said differently, this is when the signifier becomes the referent to its self. Reality in this context is totally detached from any actual physical reality. Mickey Mouse has no physical referent, rather it is real only because of its signifier: a drawing of a mouse. Yet, you can now go to Disney Land and chill with the Mouse, shake its hand etc. Hyper Reality occurs when the signifier tells us how to understand an image that has no referent.

We can watch a media image totally unconnected to the narrative, but assume it fits the narrative by virtue of its ‘representativeness’ of the the narrative, and through the language of the narration. In one news report the sniper is a Serb, but when the same image is recycled on another channel, the sniper becomes a Bosnian-Muslim. Thus our racism must also be only a flawed perception of this other. Our perception is not rooted in reality, particularly when our understanding of the other is created through portals of hyper reality such as mass media.

e-dialogue

The text below is a response to an email from a good friend in Maine. She was emailing me about my entry "Odds and Ends" in which I discussed my reaction to an interaction with a man in the street. My friend question whether the response was truly racist, or was it not more classist?

"To answer your question, re: "odds and ends", I tend to think of racism as being another term for discrimination, which can take place in many contexts (class, skin color, gender, etc.) so you are right to recognize a classist element to situation (what are you, a Marxist or something!! ;)). There is a huge financial gulf between myself and the Roma communities of the world and my prejudice towards this man is a general discrimination. I think I tended to focus on the ethnicity issue simply because it was the most obvious signifier for my response to this man.

I also know that as I was growing up in Paris, which has a significant Roma population, I was feed the stereotype of Roma as "Gypsies and thieves". Of course, this is just as much a classist mentality as a racist one.

What it ultimately boils down to is a fear of what is different from yourself, because in so many aspects of our childhood socialization process we are taught to discriminate against difference, against otherness (what ever form it takes). This was, in some way, the point I tried to make in my thesis, that by introducing team mentality and segregation through team colors, soccer (or any team sport) is encouraging a rigid, discriminatory ideology, and the physical (violent) element only enhances this type of hierarchy.

Certainly, the situation I found myself in vis-a-vis the Roma man could have happened anywhere, and it was not entirely his skin color that triggered my response. It was a combination of signifiers that made my mind assign him with the label of 'other'."

Odds and Ends

Travel clearly is good for the writer in me. I am glad to say that August was the second busiest month, in terms of entries, on this blog. :)

I was confronted by my own deeply repressed racism the other day. It was the day where I was wandering around suburban Beograd, searching for my dentist. I was going round in circles, 30 minuets late when a Roma man, who was going through the trash and extracting the recyclable materials, called me over. In my frustration, and embarrassment at being totally clueless about where I was going, I wanted to ignore him, but I didn't. I went over and he started rattling off in Serbian, and I didn't understand anything. Eventually we figured out what the other was trying to do, and he managed to give me directions (albeit to the wrong dentist). But as he was talking to me, I noticed that I was keeping a certain distance from him and that I had my hand over my wallet in my back pocket. I had done these things subconsciously, but I felt awful once I realized what was going on.

This man had reached out and tried to help me the best he could, and my immediate reaction to him was to condemn him as a thief. It made me think back to HON 299, because I think, in some way, this is the very learned reaction, totally artificial, that Dusan was trying to get us to recognize was part of us. The critical multiculturalist in me has now exposed the deeply subconscious suspicions of otherness, embodied by this Roma man. Now I am aware of this mechanism and hope that I can deal with it in future encounters with the other.

Hmm, is it racist of me to even describe the man by (what I am assuming) is his ethnic origin? I ask this because it feels like I am not looking past his ethnicity if I continue to use it for my social cues. Rather than being a "Roma" man, maybe he is just a man.

Odds and Ends

Amalgamated thoughts and experiences:

Went to the 'Marine House' again on Thursday. Every Thursday the US Marines open their doors to guests to use the pool and the Volley Ball court. Its a strange experience for me, because it feels like stepping into an American party; loud electric and hip hip music are played, the women, all of them Serbian and artificial, are under dressed and looking to hook up with beef cake US soldiers. Then there are the Marines themselves: loud, aggressive, stacked, and living in the moment. Some of them are ok, some of them are not.

I had the (dis)pleasure of conversing with Dan, who had asked me to explain my job in small simple words because, as he put it, he only understands words he can spell. He then proceeded to suggest that "everyone in Serbia was really angry, but at least we weren't in Africa, because Africans were even worse than Serbs." Thanks Dan, and have a nice life. We will not be friends, as you are not interested in any of the counter arguments I attempted to offer.

I'm not sure if I have ever met such a blatant racist in my life before. It was a bit shocking to be honest. I thought, as I watched him consuming more and more alcohol, and become more aggressive, of the totalitarian character in the Republic. Old Joe from the Bronx had emailed me recently and told me to tick off the descending order of Plato's characters as I encountered them. Well, I have one down. I wonder how Dan feels today? Maybe he isn't showing it, but inside I bet he is torn to pieces. At least, if Plato was right, then that is how he feels.

~~

There was another protest the other day, this time it was on my street, right in front of the Foreign Ministry. The protesters managed to shut down Kneza Milosa and Nemanjina. We hadn't heard anything at work about this, so I was surprised when I saw my street shut off. At first it made me nervous because I could see a lot of Serbian flags waiving, and I thought it might be the SRS again. Instead it was a group of Serbian veterans from the Kosovo War in 1999 demanding back pay. Apparently these old boys haven't been paid yet! 8 years on, I might be a bit upset myself.

It made me think how refreshing it was to see people take to the street so often. Despite the fact that I disagreed with all of the causes of the various protests thus far, I like seeing people stand up for what they think is right. This is, of course, a dangerous thing and it invites the violence seen at the Karadzic protests. It also opens the door to a manipulation of the public by strong charismatic people (as Freud suggested). Yet, if all sides are reasonable, it places these issues into the public discourse in a way that it cannot just be ignored. I think America needs a little more social action. To often are big topics just glossed over because people don't take to the street, or if they do, then they do so in small groups, and thus they are marginalized and even ridiculed by the media.

~~

Off to Ada tonight to give S a farewell bash. He is a fell intern and heading back to the US on Sunday. Sadly though, my planned trip to Bosnia fell through as I am serious low on funds. But life is cheap here, and people generous, thus I will not starve.

The temperature hit 38C/97F today, and my God was that hot. Even just heading down the street to get lunch was brutal, not to mention the bus ride home after work. Sweat was running down my back the whole way. The weekend should be better, and tonight will be spent by the water, so it should be cooler.

Getting a handle on Multiculturalism

In late March of 2006 Nigerian Adebowale Ogungbure was playing for 4th division Sachsen Leibzig when he was subjected to racist abuse from some hooligan fans at the end of the game. This was not the first time he had experienced this, but instead of ignoring it as he usually did, he responded. He gave the fans a Nazi salute and made the Hitler mustache with his two fingers; a response triggered a physical attack by the hooligans and later his arrest by German police.

The justification for the arrest was that such recreations of Nazi symbolism is illegal in Germany, regardless of context. Though his arrest lasted less than a day, it throws up serious questions about the nature of German law, the racism of the supporters, and the powerlessness of minority individuals such as Adebowale. In a sense, the player was arrested for exposing the true identity of the abusive fans, and the repressive nature of German 'order'. If the law banning the Nazi salute is meant to remove this mentality/ideology from the culture, it has clearly failed. While overt Nazi-ism is not widespread in German society, it is clearly still a presence. According to the Spiegle article, this is particularly the case in the eastern states where the economy is stagnant.

From a critical multiculturalist perspective this arrest is symbolic of a conservative approach to diversity, which suggests that assimilation into the hegemonic culture is the path to stability and equality. For minorities coming into the system, they can only be integrated once they have thrown away their own heritage and language in favor of those used by the hegemon. What this is doing is repeating the narrative of European powers during their colonial periods, where they invaded foreign countries and set up institutions, laws, and schools reflecting the homeland. The native populations were only 'acceptable' as more than savages when they passes through the socialization of the new power, rejecting their native culture.

Even the liberal multiculturalist view is no more comforting. The liberal approach is to view difference as inherent and 'in-and-of-itself' rather than a product of any kind of historical context. Thus the problems in minority communities today are the result of people who simply won't "get over it." This allows a hegemonic culture to reject the need for real re-evaluation of their relationship to this community. By accepting diversity and affirming their support for it through cultural events and diversity days, the hegemon is able to maintain distance from a true understanding of the needs of that community.

So when a young black man exposes some white fans for what they really are, ethnocentric and nationalist, he is viewed as a threat to the system as a whole. His actions are not interpreted in a "performative" context, but as foolish, insulting, or inappropriate. He is then charged with "unconstitutional behavior".

But what of the fans who set Adebowale off? The club president said simply it was a on off incident and put it down to fans getting over excited.

Thinking Matters Abstract

Title: Soccer in Politics: Identity, Power, and Nationalism

"The appeal of soccer to individuals of all cultures, genders, and ethnicities has made it the world sport. This popularity has not come without a price however, as most places with soccer cultures also see violence and discrimination.

Creating a theoretical framework based on theories of nationalism, power and identity will set the stage for this paper, after which a historical narrative of soccer focused on its colonial legacy will be constructed and analyzed. These two elements will provide a picture of a sport used to create myths of national superiority and to stir up tensions. Then, by studying cases of discrimination towards fans and players from “other” communities in Europe, the paper will place the modern game within the historical and theoretical narrative. Emerging from this is a sense of a society still repeating these racist and colonial narratives, through the import of foreign players under suffocating contracts, and the establishment of normative identities.

Left to consider are the questions of how so many international organizations can hold soccer up as panacea for social and economic problems and if the paradox of a sport that unites as it divides leaves the possibility of soccer as a performance of resistance?"

Through the looking glass ~ 1/30/2008

"There is only one place in the world where North and South meet on an equal footing: a soccer field at the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil. The equator cuts through the middle of the Zerao stadium in Amapa, so each team plays one half in the South and the other half in the North." -Eduardo Galeano

My friend Simon (firesidehistory.blogspot.com) sent me "Upside Down" by Galeano, and I found the above quote almost immediately. But, as much as I am enjoying the text so far, I am struck by problems of such ideological polarization. Galeano offers great criticism of the western liberal model, both economic and political, but can't really provide an alternative. I see this so often in these radicalized texts.

So far Peter McClaren's essay on critical multiculturalism, and Denzin's Performance Ethnography are the best in providing a method to subvert problems of race, culture, neo-colonialism, yet again, they fall short in providing a view of how to handle the fall out of change. While it would be great to say its a simple as dismantling systems, I think the collapse we would experience would be even worse.

Again, this is what I like about Denzin and McClaren, they are offering a personal view of internalizing power, thus it is closer to the Daoist view of power in self control and not doing, rather than doing. Because it is impossible to control everybody, and also it is highly paradoxical to even try, we control ourselves, and let others choose of their own "free" will.

Can soccer be used to "promote" or expose this world view? Can a team sport ever be so individualized? Can soccer and its divisive nature be used to subvert political and economic power systems? Can it turn racism around on itself?

Nationality and the round ball ~ 1/23/2008

After the meeting I wrote about below and a subsequent email response from Dr. V, the issue of nationality and soccer has been on my mind. While this will not be the focus of the project, I think it is a question worthy of some discussion in the text. Europe in general is going through some serious redefinition of its idea of nationality and the meaning of national borders, and this effects the game equally.

As Dr. V put it, the "foreign" player may suddenly lose this identity when the EU expands its borders to include the "foreigners" home land. Essentially, his or her identity has become politically meaningless and is only a personal experience. The questions to ask are, how does this change a persons relationship to their home, to their new home, to the people in their new home? I could only speculate on this without actually gong out there, but worth noting no-the-less.

On a national level, more and more players with immigrant histories and parents are playing for the adopted home nation. With names like Castro and Gonzales in the German team this becomes apparent. Also the case of Ashkan Dejagah is case and point. He is Iranian by birth, but was raised in Germany and currently plays for VFB Wolfsburg. He caused controversy this past year when he refused to play against Israel. He was quickly accused of anti-semitism, to which he responded the decision was ment to protect his Iranian family in Tehran. But he also displays nationalist tendencies towards Iran, and has "Tehran" tattooed on his wrist.

So what does "nationalism" mean in this context? In Dejagah's case, he is playing for the German national team, and yet appears to be sympathetic towards Iran, identifying himself as such. Perhaps on this level of sports, nationalism is rather meaningless in the face of fame, success on the field, and a chance at winning a World Cup. It becomes a business decision for players. The young immigrant from a nation without much soccer power choses to play for the rich European state because they will potentially go farther (as a player).

On the other side, the European countries soccer associations (like the DFB, FA, etc) are simply taking the best players they can within the legal restrictions. Clearly they are not concerned with national identity as such; perhaps the assumption is that once a player puts on the national kit, they could be nothing but loyal. It is true that legally they will never be allowed to play for another country after their first national cap.

If soccer is really nothing more than a business, then there is nothing wrong with such arrangements. To suggest otherwise can also border on racism. How can you say England or Germany, Italy or Spain should have only ethnically "pure" nationals playing on the national side? Not only is that a very questionable statement, but also totally unrealistic in a multicultural society. The popularity of soccer, and the national teams place in the national psyche does however mean its evolution effects the popular view of national identity. When this is challenged (by having "foreigners" as part of a national symbol for example) there is often a negative backlash.