L’episode between Juan Jesus and Acerbi is more than a question that remains in the field.
The clumsy declarations of football and federal leaders, grappling with the old buck-passing game. The social controversies between legions of fans attentive only to grist their own mill, to defend their colors and to reproach themselves for episodes of the past. The unfortunate exits of journalists and influencers, in a frantic search for attention and visibility. The lucid, precise, hard and heavy words of the victim, the banal and inappropriate words of the (un)confessed criminal. Meanwhile the carousel continues to turn, the show that must go on goes on, the slogans conceived and handsomely paid for are broken and trampled on by those who printed them on the shirt but also by those who beat their chest shouting “I would like. I cannot. Even if I could.”
The history of incidents of racism in Italian football is long and complex, so much so that speaking of “episodes” in the strict sense is in itself wrong. Racism in Italy is systematic, endemic and often latent, as it is in the consciences of a certain part of our country and the light-heartedness with which many have spoken about the latest case is proof of this. What happened on the evening of March 17 between Juan Jesus and Francesco Acerbi could be considered yet another grain to add to the rosary, yet another story of racism and discrimination that occurred in the stands and lawn of an Italian stadium, yet another fact to be indignant about and protest before the march of time politely accompanies it into oblivion. Instead, unfortunately, this episode has another value. During this brief reflection we will not dwell on the dynamics of the events themselves, nor will we talk about the gravity and importance of what happened. On the topic of racism, its phenomenology, its danger even in the world of sport you will find much better readings than this one capable of enlightening and training you. In these lines we limit ourselves only to launching a desperate cry of alarm, which adds to the obvious but not obvious condemnation of what happened on Sunday evening. Enough with the spectacularization of racism, enough with the trivialization of racism.
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During the day of March 18th what happens happened without fail every time an incident of racism occurs, regardless of the perpetrators or the severity of the event. It is what we described at the beginning of this reflection: the infinite swirl of opinions and commentators, posts and interviews, stances and condemnations, buck-passing and grand inquisitions, everyone trying to bring out their own opinion by jostling with that of others , each seeking to gain a strategic advantage over that of the others. In other words, the same unmistakable and inexorable process that we observe at the end of a match or a championship day is set in motion. Pay attention: in the excited hours of yesterday the tones, words and positions expressed by the highest representatives of the football institutions up to the most unknown of X or Facebook users were the same as when one finds oneself commenting on a mistake arbitration, a wrong choice by the coaches, a badly taken penalty. We begin to divide ourselves into factions, to base our opinion only on the basis of which teams and players are involved in the dynamics of the facts, to orient our thoughts in a stubborn and opposite direction compared to that of the user, the politician, theinfluencer or the journalist we can’t stand.
Only instead of commenting on Allegri’s poor choices or Lautaro’s errors from the spot, we talk about issues that only share the circumstances in which they occurred with football and football fans. We talk about racism with the same ease and light-heartedness with which we talk about football, to the point of making the episode itself just the excuse to slaughter each other again: Inter fans against Juventus fans, Lazio fans against Roman fans, supporters of this or that coach against fans of the personalities of the moment. We feel legitimated in doing this because the crime happened on a rectangle of green grass, backed by a freedom of opinion that quickly turns into freedom to spout bullshit, as long as it is favorable to our colours. And who cares if what happens more and more often on a football pitch or in the immediate vicinity is just the tip of an iceberg of immense suffering and unresolved issues much bigger than us or anyone else and which have absolutely nothing to do with football Nothing. The important thing is that my team comes out clean, or at least less dirty than its rivals. The important thing is that it is known that what happened was not my responsibility.
The result of all this is a trivialization, base and degrading, of the events that occurred, of the people involved and of the problems that emerged. Racism thus ceases to be a universal problem that concerns the entire Western society to become yet another chapter of a football rivalry, like the clash between Ronaldo and Iuliano or Muntari’s goal. In a country historically incapable of dealing with its own ghosts, trivializing the problem and reducing it to the usual identity logic does nothing but increase the problem, reinvigorating a vicious circle that feeds itself. Keep the racism out that’s fine, as long as that’s what racism is condemned of others.
So what happened between Acerbi and Juan Jesus becomes just a good opportunity to attack Inter and its fans, to discredit their values and question their Scudetto race. No one seems to care that in 2024 skin color is still considered derogatory, that the use of an epithet referring to skin color is “an insult like any other”, no one seems to be interested in the presence of hordes of journalists or presumed journalists ready to defend all this in the name of the fight against political correctness. TO no one seems to be at all interested in how Acerbi’s words the next day are, if not at the same level, of a gravity not far from those addressed to Juan Jesus the night before: dal victim blaming to the absurd inability to assume one’s responsibilities and simply apologize. The next day the hunt began for the precedent, for the 2011 episode or the 2014 declarations in which the parties involved were reversed, for the fact capable of overturning the blame or nailing the guilty.
Racism, even before everyone’s eyes, does not exist because of the racists they’re just the ones there, ugly, dirty and bad and the wrong color (of the shirt). Proving that Inter are wrong becomes more important than stigmatizing Acerbi’s behavior, just as we were quick to criticize and correct Maignan’s behavior in Udinese-Milan, to remember the Juventus insults to Mario Balotelli after the disgusting ones received from Vlahovic in Atalanta-Juventus last year. We could continue this list for a long time, but more than the length of the list of episodes that have involved our championship in the last year alone, what is impressive is the surrender and, indeed, the banality with which we are now almost forced to talk about it, the certainty of how that same list will soon grow again. As the creeping sensation arises that an increasingly large part of public opinion is waiting for nothing other than the occurrence of this event to add arrows to their bow, carry on their crusades against this or that team. Why deal with the problem of racism when you can hope for a player’s disqualification or penalty points for your rival?
Here the Acerbi case becomes paradigmatic of the limits and immaturities of an entire movement, of an entire country and what is most striking is the way in which the institutional and cultural leaders of Italian football refuse to guide and educate public opinion. It’s better to incite, it’s better to continue making controversy, it’s better to exploit the episode for a few clicks or a few more votes. The most important Italian sports newspaper today talks about three faults of Juan Jesuswhile the president ofFootballers’ Association blames busy calendars and tight schedules. If this is the attitude of the leaders, it is no wonder how rotten and unbearable the reactions of the base, of the belly of the country, are. And those who follow football only fleetingly become aware of the controversies between journalists and fans before they become aware of the event itself, which inevitably takes a back seat.
The fear is that little, very little will remain of what happened. The feeling is that Acerbi’s incredible lack of pragmatism and sobriety in his self-defense caused more of a stir, as did the total lack of practical sense on the part of those who should have advised him on a decidedly different line. What happened to Juan Jesus instead quickly became statistics, emptied of any form of meaning, it became folklore, it became rivalry and frustration. Maybe i social manager of the national team will come up with some awareness campaigns during the break, while in two weeks the captains of the Serie A teams will be kindly invited to read standardized press releases before the kick-off of the matches. And the circle will start moving again, stronger and faster than before. The show must go on and racism with it.