emre the intellectual football racist

oh no, i am not going to wallow in that simplistic media guagmire debating "whether turkish nationalism is racist or ethnicist". like atoms that form a molecule and molecules that form a mole, all particularisms accrue and attach to complementary particularisms. just as a mole reacts differently from constituent molecules in different circumstances, the resultant particularism at times may even seem to exclude some constituent - the hottest dixie soldiers fought under the old glory along with 'em yanks and even the "niggers" toward an american victory in two world wars. see what i mean? no? go back a decade then and look at rwanda; the end 20th century showdown of colored racism between the tutsi and the hutu.

i just want to touch on the case of emre belezoğlu, a turkish footballer playing in england for newcastle united. i heard of emre when he made front pages due to allegations that he voiced racist remarks about his teammates. he is supposed to have called a black player a nigger (or negro) and racially insulting an arab player. he reportedly defended himself saying he is a muslim and therefore cannot be a racist and that the word "zenci" which corresponds to negro or nigger in turkish is not an insult. actually, he is mostly right on that latter one - zenci is part of a relatively upper class vocabulary and is not necessarily insulting. however, turks' lack of differentiation intervenes in favor of racism in a worse form: black and colored people come from the south, and hence are assumed to come from arabia, more familiar because it is the land of pilgrimage. thus, they are called arabs. arab, can be and is used very commonly as a derogation.

my favorite is not that however: emre said in defense "my best friend has black skin". poor ballhead, he does not know that in the unspoken language of discourses, he has thus sung the rhyme chanted by all notorious whites accused of racism: "some of my best friends are negroes..."

well, i don't know what kind of football he plays but i am willing to bet he has not read as many books in his life as the goals he has scored this half season in britain.