In my experience living and traveling in Europe the last several years, racist incidents like this are a series of limited but disturbing events that don't reflect a mass sentiment at all. Soccer is where Europeans vent a lot of their emotions, as the article notes, and they can do it as part of an anonymous crowd.
I didn't see that or hear that from people on the street or in shops or the gym.
That said, eastern Europeans are much more racist than the western side. I think they have had much less experience with nonwhite people, and we know how powerful ethnic chauvinism is in that part of the world.
I would compare this to the steady stream of church arsons in the US every year. Many, many incidents should tell us something, but it's a false correlation with mass attitudes, and only tells us about the wacko fringe.
I'm glad the World Cup is taking a pro-active stance to keep the fringe contained.
National Church Arson Task Force
In June 1996, in response to the increase in the number of reported arsons at houses of worship, especially African-American houses of worship in the South, the President of the United States formed the National Church Arson Task Force (NCATF). The NCATF is co-chaired by the Department of Justice's Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and the Treasury Department's Under-Secretary for Enforcement. This task force brought together the resources of the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; DOJ's Civil Rights Division; United States Attorneys' Offices; local prosecutors; the Community Relations Service; victim/witness coordinators; and other federal, state and local law enforcement officials in order to investigate fire, bombing and attempted bombing incidents that occur on, at, or near houses of worship property and that occurred since January 1, 1995. In June 1996, following the formation of the NCATF, the Attorney General directed all U.S. Attorneys to form local church arson task forces within their respective districts, each of which were to include representatives from the FBI.
As of July 6, 1999, 790 investigations have been initiated under the National Church Arson initiative. To date, 343 individuals have been arrested in connection with 259 church arsons. Of those 343, 68 were charged with federal violations and 275 were charged with state violations. Nationwide, 258 church arsons investigated by the NCATF occurred at African-American houses of worship. In the South, there have been 406 church arson incidents, 180 of which occurred at African-American houses of worship. |
