Racism in professional sports

Three weeks ago Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA team Los Angeles Clippers, caused a stir with racist remarks. Sterling told a female friend who had posted an Instagram picture of herself with former Los Angeles Lakers player Magic Johnson that it bothered him “that she associated with black people” and that he didn’t want her to bring any to his games. The taped conversation received wide public backlash as not only well known basketball players stepped up to criticize Sterling, but also sponsors of the basketball team distanced themselves from him. The players of the Los Angeles Clippers staged a silent protest in their next game, wearing their warm-up gear inside out to obscure their team logo.

Clippers players wearing their warm-up gear inside out

A few days after the incident, on April 29, the NBA issued a life-time ban and a $2.5 million fine (the highest allowable fine in the league) on Sterling. The ban prohibits Sterling from attending any NBA games, entering the Clippers facilities or being involved in any business decisions of the organization. Further it is discussed if Sterling’s wife Rochelle, who has served as a co-owner of the team since Sterling bought it in 1981, should take over the ownership and management of the Clippers. 

The Los Angeles Times columnist Sandy Banks also attracted public attention when she suggested in her column that Sterling might want to buy an NHL team since he won’t have to worry about black players in hockey. Hockey is still considered a traditional white sport with few black players making it to the big show. 

P. K. Subban

The players with a minority background that actually make it to the NHL are often targeted by racial slurs. Popular example is P. K. Subban, defenseman for Team Canada and the Montreal Canadiens, a team that currently plays their arch-rival, the Boston Bruins, in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Granted the fact that the rivalry between the two teams is one of the longest and most passionate in the whole league, it’s still disgusting to see that a lot of Bruins fans choose to focus on attacking Subban for his racial background. Hateful chants against a rival team come natural in a playoff-series, but booing a black player on the opposing team simply for the fact that he is black is unnecessary and distasteful.

However, racism is of course not only a problem in American sports. It has been a big issue in European sports, especially in football, as well. Monkey chants and other racial abuse occur more often than not in the top leagues in football in Europe. The most recent incident happened during a football game in Spain, when FC Barcelona player Dani Alves was targeted by a fan of Villareal who threw a banana at him. Alves reacted to the attack in a way that earned him praise from all around the world: he peeled the banana and took a bite. His teammate Neymar consequently posted a picture of himself eating a banana after the game, a move that was followed by many other footballers and went viral on social networks.   The man who had thrown the banana was later found and fined €12,000 as well as withdrawn his season ticket by Villareal. 

 

Footballers supporting Dani Alves

In my opinion it’s shocking that in the modern time we live in there are still people who continue being irrationally hateful against others based on their racial background. Professional sports organizations are something that should bring entertainment and joy in people’s lives and that should unite fans all around the world. However, instead of just cheering on their teams, some people seem to feel the need to discriminate against others even while watching their favorite sport. I think it’s sad that we live in a world where racism is still such a persistent issue that doesn’t seem likely to disappear in the near future.  

Sources: Donald Sterling's racist remarks

Clippers players stage silent protest 

Sandy Bank's suggests Sterling buying a NHL team 

Footballers support Dani Alves 

Roadtrip through Slovenia

Easter holidays are usually filled with visits of relatives and homework, but my friend Linda and I took the opportunity of having a bit free time to do a small road trip. We both didn’t want to spend three whole weeks at home and Linda had the idea that we could travel through Slovenia. Even though we both live very close to the Slovenian border we’ve never really been to the country aside from short trips to Dravograd or driving through on the way to Croatia. In addition to that it’s a very small country, so you can actually visit the most important places in a few days. We sat together, planned a route, organized a car and searched for accommodation on couchsurfing. 

Our planned route through Slovenia

We started our trip on Saturday morning and our first destination was the city of Bled. It’s a small town in the northwest of Slovenia and it is known for its beautiful lake. The weather was great that morning, so we walked around the lake, took a stroll through the town and relaxed a bit in the grass. Unfortunately the water was a bit too cold to take a quick bath. When we went back to our car we faced the first obstacle of our short trip: we wanted to set up our GPS system, but discovered that it didn’t work in Slovenia. Luckily Linda and I are both fans of the old fashioned way of navigating with a map while traveling, so we had bought one at home before we started our trip. We reached our second destination the city of Ljubliana without any problems, but finding the apartment of our host Jaka was a bit more difficult. However, after driving around for a bit and with his directions we eventually arrived there. Our host Jaka was a friendly guy who showed us a bit around the city center before we went to get some dinner. Afterwards he took us to his favorite spot on the banks of the river Ljubljanica. We had a beautiful view on the water and sat there and talked for a while until it got too cold and he decided to take us to his favorite bar close to his apartment. Tired from driving the whole day we only stayed for one drink and went to bed quite early. The next morning Jaka showed us the flea market that takes place every Sunday in Ljubljana and we had lunch before we moved on to our next destination, Koper. 

 

View on the Tromostovje (Triple Bridge) in Ljubljana and the river Ljubljanica

Koper is a small seaside town in the southwest of Slovenia. While it was still sunny when we departed in Ljubljana, it started to pour down during our drive to Koper. We met outside the town in a parking lot with our host Anja, who took us to her house from there. Although it was still raining outside Linda and I wanted to go to the sea and Anja had the crazy idea to go swimming, so we drove to her favorite beach and jumped into the water. The first dive was freezing cold, but after staying in the water for a minute it wasn’t as terrible anymore. The water actually wasn’t as cold as I had assumed it would be before jumping in. After our icy bath we returned home, took a shower and went out for a drink with Anja and her friend Katja.  Even though we had planned to only stay for one or two hours, the evening eventually ended around midnight, because we had so much fun. The next morning we said our goodbyes and drove to Piran, a small town only twenty minutes from Koper. It’s probably the most beautiful seaside town of Slovenia, but unfortunately it was still raining, so we didn’t stay too long. 

Piran

After Piran we set off to Škocjan to visit the caves there. We were a bit early, because we originally had thought we would spend more time in Piran, so we relaxed a bit in the car, before going on the tour though the caves. The first part of the caves wasn’t too exciting, especially because our tour guide stopped every few meters to explain something – in Slovenian and English – but the second part of the caves, where the underground river Reka flows through was great. All in all the whole experience took us two hours, so we were a bit late at our next destination, the city Novo mesto. The whole day had been so exhausting that we decided to stay at the house of our host, Christian, cook something and watch a movie.

We actually didn’t see much of Novo mesto, because the next morning we immediately took off to Celje. For the first time on our trip we didn’t take the highway, but chose a route on smaller roads. In Celje we met with Klemen, a guy we knew from couchsurfing as well, and he showed us a bit around the city. He took us to the castle of Celje from where we had a breathtaking view on Celje and its suburbs and told us about the history of the town. Fortunately the weather was a lot better that afternoon, so we were able to relax a bit in the sun before moving on to our last destination Maribor.

The castle of Celje with the city in the background

We arrived in Maribor late in the afternoon, strolled through the city, went to the river banks of the Drau and had a coffee in a small, charming café. After that we went back to our car and started driving towards Austria. We came to Dravograd on our way to Carinthia, where we originally had planned to stop for some ice cream, but it was quite late when we got there and the weather was rainy again, so we just passed through. 

All in all, the entire trip was as great as both of us imagined it to be. We had some troubles in the beginning with the broken GPS system and the weather wasn’t as perfect as we would have hoped, but we met an awful lot of new people and saw some incredible places. It’s funny that you can actually travel through a whole country in just four days – although you could probably spend more time in some of the cities we only spend a few hours in. I learned a lot new stuff about Slovenia and realized how little I had known about it although I spent my whole life living only about twenty minutes away from the Slovenian border. I really hope Linda and I manage to visit some other neighbor countries of Austria in the summer.