Originally Posted by
Crimson Dynasty
I'm going to play Devil's advocate here just a little bit and push back just a tad on this.
Yes, it was the same word (or a derivation of it, rather than the exact same word), but are you really certain that it was used in exactly the dame way?
By this I mean, what was the context?
Let's not forget the exchange between Suarez and Evra was in the context of a heated confrontation between the two and the culmination of a back-and-forth that had been going on between them throughout that game.
There was no way, in retrospect, to have painted it as nothing but meaningless or friendly or "harmless banter" between two opposing players in the field - in much the way some had tried to paint it as - and insofar as Suarez tried to claim that it's normally a term of endearment in South America (and yes, it is), that argument just could not fly in the context of where and when he was using it then.
Further to that is the fact that Suarez and Evra are of different cultural and national dispositions with both coming from countries with different histories in racial issues - as well as different social contexts for racial relationships in the present.
Even being generous to Suarez and the culture from which he came (which Cavani also happens to come from being his countryman), he should have been sensitive or not more sensible in his use of that term to someone from a different country that has racial issues and with both in another country that has fraught racial issues itself. (South America has it's own racial issues and was the second largest epicenter of the Atlantic Slave trade, but the fact that the term can be and is used as a term of endearment there whereas it never would be in most other parts of the world, should tell you that they've come to a different way of dealing with those issues)
Now coming back to the Cavani situation, I'll fully disclose that I have no idea what the exchange was like between himself and the other person (hence why I asked for the context).
If it was not in the midst of a confrontation and was indeed just "banter" between two people of (South American) Latin descent wherein that term can't be perceived as being an insult or a slur, then you can't argue that it was the same at all like the Suarez and Evra situation. And likewise I don't believe the punishment should match .....just because........"Manc".
Society has to have higher standards than that, I believe.
I think the League in general mishandled that situation (the Suarez-Evra situation) as did our own club, just like I believe Evra (harmfully) over-played the victim bit in it in a way that's really harmful to the wider fight against racism.
Likewise I also believe a lot of people over-reacted with the Silva-Mendy situation last year when he was banned for 3 games, since we all knew the context of that one as well and it definitely was not an argument nor said in spite or malice.
There are situations where people and players are racially abused and where the racist perpetrators should be banned and buried beneath the dirt. But going after "soft" targets just because you're worried about the perception or backlash if you're not being seen to be equally tough on all - I (personally) believe is just more harmful in the overall cause than helpful.
Nuance is necessary.
Context matters.
Silva should have been punished, but more for ignorance than for malice or ill-intent.
Perhaps Cavani should be punished and banned too if it's uncovered that it was in the midst of a heated argument and he threw it in there to belittle the other person (in which case you don't get more racist than that)
And perhaps it might turn out that while the exchange was fairly non-belligerent and innocuous, he should STILL be punished but more for his ignorance in not knowing how harmful the term is in a different context in which he know is in, and even then the punishment should fit the crime, and not some (long held "grudge") standard of punishing everyone equally, regardless, just because the word was used, or just because he's a Manc (player) and now is the time to get them back.
This is a bigger issue than that.
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