SimpleDon
Veteran Member
Okay, the title is written provocatively to gain views considering all of the racial threads that we have had recently. But many more people will open this than if it is entitled "Another Ice Bucket Challenge by famous people that you have never heard of."
In case you have been living under a rock for the last two weeks, presumably a rock labeled "Freethought," the Ice Bucket Challenge is designed to raise awareness, and money, of and for ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. This is of course of great personal interest to me because I have ALS, and I can assure you that it is an unpleasant disease. You die just a little bit every day.
A little background, these two are English football (soccer) players. The one on the left, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain prevented a ball from going into goal with his hand, a definite no-no in soccer. It is such a serious violation that the offender is shown a red card, meaning that he is sent off, his team has to play the rest of the match short a man, the player is not allowed to play in the next three games and the opposing team gets a penalty kick.
But the referee, Andre Marrinier, showed the red card to Kierne Gibbs instead, sending him off. It was a huge embarrassing mistake for Marriner, who further cemented his position as one of the worse referees in the English Premier League. And this is the top flight of football in England, the major leagues. And these two players are not unknowns, they play for the Arsenal, the London club that is one of the biggest and best football clubs in the world. And both play for the English National Team.
Do you think that the referee mistaking one for the other would have been considered a racial incident in the US? I really don't know. The question was asked of me by a British fellow on an Arsenal fan site. I couldn't answer him.
In case you have been living under a rock for the last two weeks, presumably a rock labeled "Freethought," the Ice Bucket Challenge is designed to raise awareness, and money, of and for ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. This is of course of great personal interest to me because I have ALS, and I can assure you that it is an unpleasant disease. You die just a little bit every day.
A little background, these two are English football (soccer) players. The one on the left, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain prevented a ball from going into goal with his hand, a definite no-no in soccer. It is such a serious violation that the offender is shown a red card, meaning that he is sent off, his team has to play the rest of the match short a man, the player is not allowed to play in the next three games and the opposing team gets a penalty kick.
But the referee, Andre Marrinier, showed the red card to Kierne Gibbs instead, sending him off. It was a huge embarrassing mistake for Marriner, who further cemented his position as one of the worse referees in the English Premier League. And this is the top flight of football in England, the major leagues. And these two players are not unknowns, they play for the Arsenal, the London club that is one of the biggest and best football clubs in the world. And both play for the English National Team.
Do you think that the referee mistaking one for the other would have been considered a racial incident in the US? I really don't know. The question was asked of me by a British fellow on an Arsenal fan site. I couldn't answer him.