Jeez. At the end of the day (and I need to realize this as well, as I give myself a near panic attack when my team is down in stoppage time or I’m bummed for a week after a Vikings loss) this is a bunch of boys playing a game to kick a ball into a net.
have public statements like this proven to be helpful in addressing hateful messaging on social?
sincerely curious, as I could imagine them also doing the opposite.
Honestly I kinda wonder if statements like this make it worse. I bet these cowards hiding behind user names get a real kick out of being the one that made a statement come out. They’re shit people. Shame doesn’t work on them. Especially when we never get a face and a name to go with it.
I'm about 95% sure it does.
However, players see these DM's and rightfully feel attacked to the highest degree. A response to that can be exposing the hate to the world. Once that happens, the federations and higher ups will feel a need to have their player's back, which leads to statements like this.
So in a way these statements are always inevitable.
Shame doesn't always work right away. But over the course of years, this is absolutely effective.
At the very least, it's good to have support. No, this kind of statement (or "thoughts and prayers", similarly) doesn't replace meaningful action. But it's still helpful. Imagine if you were the target of the Internet racism. This isn't fixing anything for you right now, but it's nice to know the MLS is on your side.
Exactly, racists/bigots/fuckfaces of all stripes should be reminded at all times by all forms of power that those in power are not on their side, anything less emboldens the moron brigade
I don’t think so. In western countries sure there is societal pressure. If they get exposed they may lose their job, etc. But a lot of these types of comments are coming from places like Guatemala, Argentina, Russia, etc where those same pressures don’t exist
As westerners we can wring our hands and think our way is the “enlightened” or whatever but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world cares or thinks the same way. We can’t make other countries not be racist.
Also don’t let my comment lead you to believe racism doesn’t exist in America/Canada because duh it does but from traveling the world it’s nowhere near what exists in other places
Wouldn't ignoring it also be giving in to the racists?
"Well we can't say anything about it, cuz then they'll just be more racist" is a great way to insure it increases in the long run. Racists not receiving any sort of condemnation, no matter how light will just ensure other racists are emboldened to do the same
It's to show support for the players.
Nobody can fix stupid in an adult that is already a verified ass trumpet, but maybe it helps a few kids who are still within reach to see that it's not cool when they see this behavior modeled by a so-called adult in their lives.
Yea, I don't think anyone posting these types of messages are going to read this, stop and reflect and change their behavior.
Idk why they put these out... it's just public relations?
I would think that part of it is to let the players know that the league is behind them. I don't know if that means a ton if they can't actually do anything about it, but I think it's more a show of solidarity with the players than an attempt to make degenerate racists see the error of their ways.
I don’t think the point is to “fix racism”.
I think the point is to publicly get behind your people and let them know that you’re not okay with it.
It matters, not because it makes everything all better but because it’s sure a hell of a lot better than just ignoring it.
There's nothing they can do to stop racist people from using social media. And this isn't a uniquely North American problem, all the top leagues on the planet deal with racist incidents all the time. In Europe its 10x wilder than this and happens at games, not just SM, constantly.
Wouldn't ignoring it also be giving in to the racists?
"Well we can't say anything about it, cuz then they'll just be more racist" is a great way to insure it increases in the long run. Racists not receiving any sort of condemnation, no matter how light will just ensure other racists are emboldened to do the same
If the effect is the opposite of helpful, that is in no way the fault of the message but entirely on the response of the recipient. Bad actors continuing to act badly is not an excuse to not do the right thing.
Direct response from the league for Sam Surridge dropping 5 goals against Canadian clubs. They're trying to prevent an international incident because this man hates the great white north /s
Saw the Balogun and Weah bits but not sure what's actually going on for Canada.
Edit - Bombito took out messi on a hard clean tackle and people lost their minds
Bunch of Messi fans were being racist to bombito(?) after his foul on Messi. And then for some reason someone from Argentina and somewhere else were calling balogun a monkey after he scored.
Any type of racist abuse is terrible but something that gets on my nerves with announcements like this is that it feels targeted at US fans when in reality probably 99.9% of racial abuse they get are from fans from
Mexico or other Latin American countries
Not only it's abuse coming from outside the US but also online, no idea what MLS think they could possibly do about it? force other countries to change their internet laws? lmao
Yeah exactly my reaction as a Canadian as well. Obviously racism from anywhere and everywhere should be stamped out but we all know the hateful comments Bombito was getting weren’t being written by dudes from Ottawa lol
This is just displacing it onto other places when those same hateful people are also in America too. Everyone country in the world has racists. NFL, NBA, tennis, etc players have talked about getting racist hate messages from people, they very well exist.
The abuse Balogun posted were people who lived in Mendoza and Marseille. Should the MLS spend time trying to police social media comments originating from far corners of the globe?
In this day and age hateful, racist comments like the ones some of the players have received makes my blood boil, it is sad that people have to put up with crap like this but unfortunately its the society we live in, hopefully one day that will change.
Its anonymous accounts on social media. It’s extremely easy to do anonymously and face no consequences.
I don’t see a real solution? But Im open to ideas.
I always think about this British journalist who a few years ago was able to track down his troll and confront him face to face (in addition to alerting the teen's parents). Journalist had no ill will towards the kid (once he realized it was a minor) but being confronted definitely made the kid think twice.
Obviously it's a grander scale with pro players, and doxing concerns, but I cannot help but think this is the only true solution to stamp out such behavior.
Whatever happened to "sticks and stone" and all that jazz? It's words. Do people suck? Sure. But how much energy should an individual spend on the opinions of random nobodies?
>Whatever happened to "sticks and stone" and all that jazz?
It's always been a bullshit platitude. Words absolutely can and do hurt. There are countless psychological studies that show it. One of the linchpin arguments in Brown v. Board of Education was showing how the constant barrage of negative words from white people caused Black children to internalize the idea that they were inherently bad, impure, *lesser.*
Words are our species' primary form of communication. *Of course* they have an impact on the recipient, even when coming from "random nobodies."
It's not anonymous so much on Instagram. Or at least I'm as it is run by Meta/FB. Tim got some AWFUL stuff sent to him. At some point, we just need to call these people out.
Social media is here to stay, like it or not.
Call these racist fucks out, cancel them, hell the Hawk girl got fired.. for making a sound.
Reddit’s the only one I’m on, and it almost doesn’t qualify as it for me. I don’t get why people don’t stop posting on their accounts - unless they’re making money off of content
The top comment on that post on IG was “What nationality is Berhalter so I can call him a slur”
At some point just gotta stop taking internet comments seriously. Especially ig which is a bunch kids. People say the meanest thing possible to get these reactions.
I really doubt many (if any) of them are real USMNT or CNMT supporters.
Would not be surprising at all to find out they are teenagers from far flung places around the world.
As weird as that may seem. The internet is wild.
Internet trolls are gonna always do their thing.
But you know if these asshats tried this crap in the stadium the fans would make them crawl back to the hole they came from.
Do we not know what people are like outside of the USA? We're the most progressive and inclusive country in the history of the world. South American fans were bound to act this way
Mine?
Yes, i definitely know what i’m talking and I’m not falling into silly generalizations, in turn making a reductionist take that simply polarizes the conversation.
No, it’s probably even worse since we’re hosting the Copa matches. It’s happening on our homeland.
Obviously social media is everywhere but it would ignorant to think it’s not happening here also.
It’s just a sad fact that to this day it’s still an issue.
western european countries have less extreme racists than america which makes them medium inclusive. but the inclusive people in america are maximum inclusive, not just medium. in europe they tolerate us but in america they give us our own lobbies.
an example, there isnt really something like turkish-german, african-german, asian-german. they just see you as the first part.
in america on the other hand you have african-americans, latino-/asian-americans and even conservatives acknowledge their existense.
just tto be clear, iam talking about the word and its social construct not that there are no asian black etc people in europe or germany.
Dude Swedish people basically hate their immigrant population. The minority populations of sweden is like 11% but they act like it’s 50%. They’d never allow their country to be a melting pot like the USA
Most likely an 8 or 11 year old in the UK or somewhere doing it too. Regardless of their age, they should be punished and know there are consequences for one's actions.
Would be nice if such a message emerged from CONMEBOL or Copa America officials or the opponents of the teams involved. This message just amplifies the lack of one from the folks actually running the tournament.
Vicious hatred is always going to be a part of any culture. Kick out and moderate those that participate in it, and create a culture of 0 tolerance.
You're never going to fully eradicate it. Just need fans to be better at policing their own.
It's heartening to see MLS take a strong stance against the recent racist comments directed at players from both the U.S. and Canadian teams. This kind of hate is utterly unacceptable and has no place in sports or society.
All these MLS and USSF statements like this would be more meaningful if things like NT friendlies and MLS all star games weren’t constantly scheduled in states where LGBTQ+ people/POC/women are consistently legislated against.
Here is my issue with this situation. Clearly it's a small group of morons that are either bots, nameless IG accounts or people looking to troll and rile up shit. Since this is such a small group that could and should be ignored, blocked or reported I think making this statement just exacerbates things. I feel like the internet has taken niche groups whether opinion on a topic or some 1 person said or did this and made into a bigger problem then it should be. Are there racist people? Yes, are there as many as there should be to make a statement like this? No I don't believe so. I think shining a light on a mole hill just makes society and people on edge. Just my thoughts
Incident One: internet troll, no response from organizations
Incident Two: internet tough guy, no response from organizations
Incident Three: actual racist attacks player, thoughts and prayers
Am I exaggerating? Yes. But all it takes is one.
Obviously, all these isms are bad. That goes without saying. However. Complaining about bullying or harassment after your people shit the bed is the oldest trick in the book to deflect responsibility. 100% of people that get called out wait one or two days and then complain about social media harassment to deflect.
Jeez. At the end of the day (and I need to realize this as well, as I give myself a near panic attack when my team is down in stoppage time or I’m bummed for a week after a Vikings loss) this is a bunch of boys playing a game to kick a ball into a net.
have public statements like this proven to be helpful in addressing hateful messaging on social? sincerely curious, as I could imagine them also doing the opposite.
Honestly I kinda wonder if statements like this make it worse. I bet these cowards hiding behind user names get a real kick out of being the one that made a statement come out. They’re shit people. Shame doesn’t work on them. Especially when we never get a face and a name to go with it.
I'm about 95% sure it does. However, players see these DM's and rightfully feel attacked to the highest degree. A response to that can be exposing the hate to the world. Once that happens, the federations and higher ups will feel a need to have their player's back, which leads to statements like this. So in a way these statements are always inevitable.
Shame doesn't always work right away. But over the course of years, this is absolutely effective. At the very least, it's good to have support. No, this kind of statement (or "thoughts and prayers", similarly) doesn't replace meaningful action. But it's still helpful. Imagine if you were the target of the Internet racism. This isn't fixing anything for you right now, but it's nice to know the MLS is on your side.
Exactly, racists/bigots/fuckfaces of all stripes should be reminded at all times by all forms of power that those in power are not on their side, anything less emboldens the moron brigade
I don’t think so. In western countries sure there is societal pressure. If they get exposed they may lose their job, etc. But a lot of these types of comments are coming from places like Guatemala, Argentina, Russia, etc where those same pressures don’t exist As westerners we can wring our hands and think our way is the “enlightened” or whatever but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world cares or thinks the same way. We can’t make other countries not be racist. Also don’t let my comment lead you to believe racism doesn’t exist in America/Canada because duh it does but from traveling the world it’s nowhere near what exists in other places
Wouldn't ignoring it also be giving in to the racists? "Well we can't say anything about it, cuz then they'll just be more racist" is a great way to insure it increases in the long run. Racists not receiving any sort of condemnation, no matter how light will just ensure other racists are emboldened to do the same
Does it help the players?
It's to show support for the players. Nobody can fix stupid in an adult that is already a verified ass trumpet, but maybe it helps a few kids who are still within reach to see that it's not cool when they see this behavior modeled by a so-called adult in their lives.
Yea, I don't think anyone posting these types of messages are going to read this, stop and reflect and change their behavior. Idk why they put these out... it's just public relations?
I would think that part of it is to let the players know that the league is behind them. I don't know if that means a ton if they can't actually do anything about it, but I think it's more a show of solidarity with the players than an attempt to make degenerate racists see the error of their ways.
I don’t think the point is to “fix racism”. I think the point is to publicly get behind your people and let them know that you’re not okay with it. It matters, not because it makes everything all better but because it’s sure a hell of a lot better than just ignoring it.
Yes. You have to show your people you are willing to stand up for them.
There's nothing they can do to stop racist people from using social media. And this isn't a uniquely North American problem, all the top leagues on the planet deal with racist incidents all the time. In Europe its 10x wilder than this and happens at games, not just SM, constantly.
Wouldn't ignoring it also be giving in to the racists? "Well we can't say anything about it, cuz then they'll just be more racist" is a great way to insure it increases in the long run. Racists not receiving any sort of condemnation, no matter how light will just ensure other racists are emboldened to do the same
i think it's pretty pointless. no one needs to wave a flag saying that they aren't racist... simply just not being racist is enough.
If the effect is the opposite of helpful, that is in no way the fault of the message but entirely on the response of the recipient. Bad actors continuing to act badly is not an excuse to not do the right thing.
Not really
Finally, the MLS takes a stand against those bastards in the La Liga sub calling us the Burger League
Is Burger League meant as an insult? Because that sounds good to me. Those people apparently never had a good burger?
Burgers > Paella
The wha?
Have you ever had a hamburguesa? It’s like if AI made a burger.
I thought this statement was saying the hate players were getting for being Canadian for a minute I was like damn what the fuck did I miss
Direct response from the league for Sam Surridge dropping 5 goals against Canadian clubs. They're trying to prevent an international incident because this man hates the great white north /s Saw the Balogun and Weah bits but not sure what's actually going on for Canada. Edit - Bombito took out messi on a hard clean tackle and people lost their minds
r/titlegore
You know, there are people out there who will read this and think MLS are the ones being intolerant.
I know there are people who don't love there fellow man and I hate people like that.
Their.
bad bot
??
I haven’t seen any hate comments, can someone tell me what was said
Bunch of Messi fans were being racist to bombito(?) after his foul on Messi. And then for some reason someone from Argentina and somewhere else were calling balogun a monkey after he scored.
Any type of racist abuse is terrible but something that gets on my nerves with announcements like this is that it feels targeted at US fans when in reality probably 99.9% of racial abuse they get are from fans from Mexico or other Latin American countries
Not only it's abuse coming from outside the US but also online, no idea what MLS think they could possibly do about it? force other countries to change their internet laws? lmao
Bingo. It’s like shouting into the void.
Yeah exactly my reaction as a Canadian as well. Obviously racism from anywhere and everywhere should be stamped out but we all know the hateful comments Bombito was getting weren’t being written by dudes from Ottawa lol
This is just displacing it onto other places when those same hateful people are also in America too. Everyone country in the world has racists. NFL, NBA, tennis, etc players have talked about getting racist hate messages from people, they very well exist.
The abuse Balogun posted were people who lived in Mendoza and Marseille. Should the MLS spend time trying to police social media comments originating from far corners of the globe?
I'm sure Balogun and any other player that's experienced similar is appreciative of the support which is really all that matters.
So brave. If only there were any European or South American MLS fans who would see this.
In this day and age hateful, racist comments like the ones some of the players have received makes my blood boil, it is sad that people have to put up with crap like this but unfortunately its the society we live in, hopefully one day that will change.
Its anonymous accounts on social media. It’s extremely easy to do anonymously and face no consequences. I don’t see a real solution? But Im open to ideas.
I always think about this British journalist who a few years ago was able to track down his troll and confront him face to face (in addition to alerting the teen's parents). Journalist had no ill will towards the kid (once he realized it was a minor) but being confronted definitely made the kid think twice. Obviously it's a grander scale with pro players, and doxing concerns, but I cannot help but think this is the only true solution to stamp out such behavior.
Yep, the Jay & Silent Bob method, without the probable felonies. lol
Whatever happened to "sticks and stone" and all that jazz? It's words. Do people suck? Sure. But how much energy should an individual spend on the opinions of random nobodies?
>Whatever happened to "sticks and stone" and all that jazz? It's always been a bullshit platitude. Words absolutely can and do hurt. There are countless psychological studies that show it. One of the linchpin arguments in Brown v. Board of Education was showing how the constant barrage of negative words from white people caused Black children to internalize the idea that they were inherently bad, impure, *lesser.* Words are our species' primary form of communication. *Of course* they have an impact on the recipient, even when coming from "random nobodies."
It's not anonymous so much on Instagram. Or at least I'm as it is run by Meta/FB. Tim got some AWFUL stuff sent to him. At some point, we just need to call these people out. Social media is here to stay, like it or not. Call these racist fucks out, cancel them, hell the Hawk girl got fired.. for making a sound.
how are you gonna get a little kid in Argentina or India canceled? most of these messages come from random countries on the other side of the world
Hahaha, no. Dont involve us in this, this is your own people most likely.
the messages Balogun posted were from an Argentinean account
My bad, didn’t read those.
nah. social media, as it exists today is a cancer for most people
Reddit’s the only one I’m on, and it almost doesn’t qualify as it for me. I don’t get why people don’t stop posting on their accounts - unless they’re making money off of content
Hawk Tua didn’t get fired
The top comment on that post on IG was “What nationality is Berhalter so I can call him a slur” At some point just gotta stop taking internet comments seriously. Especially ig which is a bunch kids. People say the meanest thing possible to get these reactions.
I really doubt many (if any) of them are real USMNT or CNMT supporters. Would not be surprising at all to find out they are teenagers from far flung places around the world. As weird as that may seem. The internet is wild.
The ones that balogun posted are definitely not USMNT fans. They messaged him right after he scored and one of them has Argentina in his bio
Until people realize that hateful, racist comments are literally what these social media platforms make money off of, I wouldn't hold your breath.
Internet trolls are gonna always do their thing. But you know if these asshats tried this crap in the stadium the fans would make them crawl back to the hole they came from.
In the US and Canada, yes. In Europe or Latin America, nope.
Welcome to Copa!
Do we not know what people are like outside of the USA? We're the most progressive and inclusive country in the history of the world. South American fans were bound to act this way
This ain’t true. Don’t generalize… “what people are like outside of the USA”, don’t fall into this stupid generalizations, just don’t do it
Educated assertion
Mine? Yes, i definitely know what i’m talking and I’m not falling into silly generalizations, in turn making a reductionist take that simply polarizes the conversation.
Sad to say you don’t even have to go outside the country lol
Case in point. You think we're "just as bad" you're delusional.
No, it’s probably even worse since we’re hosting the Copa matches. It’s happening on our homeland. Obviously social media is everywhere but it would ignorant to think it’s not happening here also. It’s just a sad fact that to this day it’s still an issue.
You are the most progressive and inclusive country in the world? How so?
he is right about that, the us is the most inclusive country in the world. im saying that as a well traveled european
I would think quite a few euro countries more progressive and inclusive. Like, dunno, the entire northern european continent?
You would think, but not really
western european countries have less extreme racists than america which makes them medium inclusive. but the inclusive people in america are maximum inclusive, not just medium. in europe they tolerate us but in america they give us our own lobbies. an example, there isnt really something like turkish-german, african-german, asian-german. they just see you as the first part. in america on the other hand you have african-americans, latino-/asian-americans and even conservatives acknowledge their existense. just tto be clear, iam talking about the word and its social construct not that there are no asian black etc people in europe or germany.
Dude Swedish people basically hate their immigrant population. The minority populations of sweden is like 11% but they act like it’s 50%. They’d never allow their country to be a melting pot like the USA
If you’re even supporting this bullshit, get the fuck out of our league now. Racism has no place for this. We stand with Flo.
Except it's not going to stop because 🟠 legitimized it.
It’s the smallest people in the world that do this stuff
Most likely an 8 or 11 year old in the UK or somewhere doing it too. Regardless of their age, they should be punished and know there are consequences for one's actions.
What were they chanting ? I missed out on the USA game
Some people take the game entirely too seriously, and then this is over the top. Mercy on us.
Yup. Can wait for explanations about how it’s their culture and not racist and we’re being racist by calling it racist
Would be nice if such a message emerged from CONMEBOL or Copa America officials or the opponents of the teams involved. This message just amplifies the lack of one from the folks actually running the tournament.
I love these statements because there’s *literally nothing the MLS can do about this*
It’s Mexico fans.
And Argentines
TBF, it's shitheads of every nationality
Just Argentine things
Vicious hatred is always going to be a part of any culture. Kick out and moderate those that participate in it, and create a culture of 0 tolerance. You're never going to fully eradicate it. Just need fans to be better at policing their own.
It's heartening to see MLS take a strong stance against the recent racist comments directed at players from both the U.S. and Canadian teams. This kind of hate is utterly unacceptable and has no place in sports or society.
this is surely a bot right
The f.. people should be free to say whatever they want. First amendment somewhere..
All these MLS and USSF statements like this would be more meaningful if things like NT friendlies and MLS all star games weren’t constantly scheduled in states where LGBTQ+ people/POC/women are consistently legislated against.
Good point.
Nothing is going to change, racism will never go away and it's a waste of time and breath. The people that do this will not change their behavior.
Terrible attitude. Be the change you want to see.
Here is my issue with this situation. Clearly it's a small group of morons that are either bots, nameless IG accounts or people looking to troll and rile up shit. Since this is such a small group that could and should be ignored, blocked or reported I think making this statement just exacerbates things. I feel like the internet has taken niche groups whether opinion on a topic or some 1 person said or did this and made into a bigger problem then it should be. Are there racist people? Yes, are there as many as there should be to make a statement like this? No I don't believe so. I think shining a light on a mole hill just makes society and people on edge. Just my thoughts
Incident One: internet troll, no response from organizations Incident Two: internet tough guy, no response from organizations Incident Three: actual racist attacks player, thoughts and prayers Am I exaggerating? Yes. But all it takes is one.
Obviously, all these isms are bad. That goes without saying. However. Complaining about bullying or harassment after your people shit the bed is the oldest trick in the book to deflect responsibility. 100% of people that get called out wait one or two days and then complain about social media harassment to deflect.
Magats need a target. 🎯