Edison Cavani
Kaieteur News – Things took a nasty turn for Manchester United frontman Edison Cavani last week. He wanted one word posted that cost the Uruguayan player US $ 137,000 and a three-match suspension from the UK Football Association.
We share this foreign story of what we originally learned to be a verbal mistake, only to learn that what happens is less of a verbal mistake, and more like one of the debris verbally misinterpret that. It is also intended to assist here, with our own sharp and sensitive racial issues, in getting our head around, realizing, and making reasonable decisions about what would be considered degrading and worse, as in a charge racist.
Addressing this should help to gain clarity and honesty with our own views, conversations and approaches.
Praised for an article from an online vehicle called AFP dated January 1 and entitled, “Uruguayan language academy irate over Cavani’s ‘negrito’ sanction” (AFP, January 01), the following details are inside back to the curtains have now emerged. The combined fine and suspension for including the ‘negrito’ player in a social media post. The British FA found the comment “offensive, abusive, inappropriate and brought the game into disrepute.”
That is certainly baffling, but which, when placed in the context of Uruguayan use among family and friends, adds a different focus to all of this. It definitely transforms Mr. Cavani’s sin, which is thought to be so extreme that he is a cardinal, into something that looks more and more like being blown to ridiculous proportions. We are now quoting in part from the same AFP article.
On Friday, the Academia Nacional de Letras Uruguay said that the words “negro” or its small “negrito” – similar to “gordo” (fatso) or “gordito” and “flaco” (thin one) – are commonly used as endearment terms. Limitations, indeed, that should make one Ms Meryl Streep wistful for her brighter days, one would hope is not a firing offense. “In Spanish Uruguay, for example, in couples or friends, between parents and children, one often hears and reads phrases like … gordito, negri, negrito …” the academy said in a statement.
As we take this all in, and introduce them to readers of this paper, we ask our fellow citizens to do several things. To be truthful and honest; and not to excuse some of this world hypocrisy. We believe that the British FA in this particular situation involving Mr Cavani acted urgently, that the prestigious football body had overreacted.
In this country, we will not engage in the fraud of pretending that racist slugs (more harmful than ‘negrito’) are no longer part of our daily exchanges. Words also start with a different spell ‘n’ roll, enjoying heavy usage among friends, especially the younger, faster crowd, and others like gang members or wannabee criminals. Words that serve as part of our public exchanges, and which are part of the daily give and take, especially among intimate relationships. The same standard is at work in its application to slave-traders, who came from another continent, and with the singular distinction of no chains. In this case, the word begins with ‘c’ and still enjoys much use here. One hesitates to say popularity, because it is also considered to be blindfolded to those outside someone’s inner circles, or by one of a different ethnicity, with every intention of being either degrading or hurtful .
And in other Guyanese social contexts, there is still some humor to be read about those identified by their aliases, which span a spectrum that spans from ‘fatman’ to ‘fineman to’ stupidman. ‘Then there’s that foreign import’ emigrant ‘and the nightmare of the old regular wake house, like in’ jumbie ‘or’ baccoo ‘or’ ole higue ‘and so on.
We are certain that there are a range of others that would cause doubling over, or offending (right or wrong), or lead to darker intimidation due to closet lifestyle orientation. This is real life, regional and Guyanese style. This is something that can only be legislated against so far, this may have been somewhat overshadowed but, again, it cannot really be completely removed. We do not anticipate that the local ERC will reach for his handcuffs on those things that, when properly contextualized, are largely harmless.
The key is that it must be limited to friends and family. We believe that the British FA has overreacted. This should be reversed, as Mr Cavani’s compatriots insist.