A huge scandal is emerging in French football (soccer) as coach, and national sports hero Laurent Blanc is accused of installing quotas limiting the number of 'dual-nationals' in the country's youth training facilities.
What are Dual-nationals you say? The polite way of stating 'people of colour.'
If you look at the current make-up of the French national football team the majority of the squad are players from African or Middle-Eastern descent, including stand outs like Flourent Malouda, Samir Nasri and Karim Benzema. And of course, the greatest French player of all time, Zinedine Zidane's parents found their way to France from their native Algeria. While the make-up of the squad reflects the multicultural make-up and history of the country, as many of the players' parents originated from nations that France had previously colonized, large portions of the French populace were nonetheless perturbed. These sentiments were possibly best crystallized by popular French politician and Nazi sympathizer Jean-Marie La Pen who has publicly bemoaned the number of Black players on the French team.
Perhaps most disturbing are the reaction of French officials upon the discovery of their plan. Instead of denying or apologizing, national team management sought to downplay the talk of quotas in baffling terms:
"Some of the things said are unacceptable, but they are not racist comments. However, the talk about the race quotas can be labelled discriminatory because they deal with the ethnic origins of the players."
Could you unpack what that means? Me neither, although it sounds awfully apologist to me.
Racial tensions in France are no secret, culminating in the 2005 riots in and around the slums of Paris by citizens of North African Arab, Algerian, Tunisian, and Moroccan descent. Said riots forced the government to call a three month state of emergency, and brought the underlying racism in French society bubbling to the surface. For years people of colour have been discriminated against in France, often denied employment as soon as prospective prospective employers see their African or Middle-Eastern last names. Studies have shown that when identical CVs were sent to French companies with European versus African or Muslim sounding names, the 'ethnic' Cvs were systematically excluded.
Ironically, the model for multiculturalism may be a neighbouring country with a substantially more checkered past in regards to racial harmony, Germany. When you look at the racial make-up of Germany's national team, they field a team nearly as diverse as the French. But rather than bemoan their multiethnic past the German squad and country seem to embrace it. The result? Consistent and substantial success on the international stage. (Although to be fair, while the French have endured some embarrassing outings on the national stag, they've also had a great deal of success).
There may be other reasons why the German country have been more accepting of their squad; even though the German squad may be ethnically diverse, most of their players are nonetheless Caucasian or light-skinned. But another factor may be that since World War II, government have made a concerted effort to snuff out pockets of organized racism before they can gain a foothold in German society, such as outlawing tributes to the nation's Nazi past, and anti-Semitic propaganda. German football teams also take a more active stance against overt racism in the stadium than most countries, banning racist banners and immediately ejecting fans that engage in taunts.
Of course no system is perfect, but it's clear that trying to maintain the illusion of racial homogeneity or trying to placate the bigoted minded within each country's populace does no good to the nation's psyche, or chances of success on the field. Maybe in this way, we can all strive to be a little more 'German'.
