I Find It Interesting...

[duane1969]

...that liberals present Europe as a beacon of perfection and idealism, yet it appears that Europe is still one of the strongholds of racism. Here in America the issue of racism rears it's ugly head when a white cop kills a black person. In Europe racism rises to the top when a black guy kicks a soccer ball. Here in America the racist wear white hoods, in Europe they wear soccer jerseys. So what gives? Why is Europe so "perfect" yet they can't even stand to see a black guy play soccer? http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/22/sport/...html?hpt=hp_c3

[JustAlex]

I guess this thread is aimed for a liberal like me.

Well, let's do this....

First and foremost, Europe is FAR from anything perfect.

In the past, I've made many assertions that Europe....or better said, Western Europe leads America in Health care, education, infrastructure, and they generally live longer lives and are happier.

But that alone doesn't make them better or perfect, those are just some things I noticed.

As for racism, you won't get no argument from me, I know very well how racism is still prevalent in European soccer.....especially Spain and Italy.

And I know how xenophobic many European countries still are.

But, what do you want me to say?

That America isn't racist as well? Because it obviously still is.

That we're not xenophobic? Yeah, tell that to the MILLIONS of Americans who literally want to deport every immigrant.

Some years ago ESPN ran a story about European soccer racism, and they said one of the factors why it's still alive is because many European countries didn't have their versions of Jackie Robinson or Bill Russell, they didn't go through a civil rights era.

That is NOT an excuse, but I do believe it's one of the contributing factors.

[ajcorleone]

I guess their is just bad all over not just in America. Funny not long ago we had someone who made it sound like America was the worst place on earth. And since this fella was a claimed world traveler he appointed himself an expert on the subject. But we see sad stories like this and it reminds us that there is good and bad everywhere PERIOD.

[Star_Cards]

I'd assume that anyone's comparisons to Europe would be of specific aspects and not everything. Obviously different countries have different pros and cons. I haven't heard people stating that everything in America is substandard to everything European. Also, I'd assume that it's rather difficult to lump all of Europe into the same classification on all topics across the board. I'd assume that some countries have better race relations than others and the same goes for any other various topic.

[pwaldo]

I guess their is just bad all over not just in America. Funny not long ago we had someone who made it sound like America was the worst place on earth. And since this fella was a claimed world traveler he appointed himself an expert on the subject. But we see sad stories like this and it reminds us that there is good and bad everywhere PERIOD.

If you are talking about the guy I think you are he was very vocal that America was one of the best countries for race relations in his travels and that there is still a ton of racism around the world. And I totally agree with him. Anybody who says that America is the most racist country on the planet clearly hasn't traveled anywhere. Europe and Asia are awful and Africa isn't much better. The only reason you don't hear about America being more advanced than those places in regards to race is that the people who always scream racism at everything are usually the same people who push the America is the worst crap. So they are never going to say anything good about America but at the same time they will NEVER leave to go to another country that they say is "better" than America. They will just stay here and enjoy the benefits while soothing their conscience by saying how much they hate it and suffer on a daily basis by staying here instead.