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1] I had a Romanian employee who used the n-word. When I told her this was offensive and we (white people) do not fucking say that word even though some of our black coworkers use it freely, she was shocked.
2] She thought it was just a normal word that people use to refer to black people, she did not mean it in an offensive or derogatory manner.
(In a similar way I grew up around black immigrants and always used (their) racist slur for people of Indian descent. Since white people don't know the slur, i did not find out it was a slur until I was an adult! :o
3] back on track: i think it is absolutely right for two football teams to walk off the pitch because of a racist incident. Racism is endemic and should not be tolerated on a football pitch (or anywhere else).
4] At the same time, spare a thought for a person who is being villanized right now because someone went crazy over him referring to the color of somebody's skin in ROMANIAN.
5] Who's to say that this same referee, if arbitrating a team that has 10 black and 1 white player, wouldn't say "the white guy"?
6] Obviously the player who picked up the Romanian word negru and went ballistic reacted that way from a place of hurt and trauma, because racism has hurt and traumatized people!
7] Is the solution to never make a reference to each other's skin color, no matter the context? To be fair, maybe it is, but is it sustainable?
8] I don't have a solution (obviously) but in a world that is becoming more and more crowded, it is heartbreaking to see how we let the color of our skin tear us apart.
