Of Fascism, Racism, Di Canio and the apparent collective ignorance of the Sunderland FC Board
Paolo Di Canio- I am a fascist, not a racist. I give the straight arm salute because it is a salute from a 'camerata' [comrade] to 'camerati'. The salute is aimed at my people. With the straight arm I don't want to incite violence and certainly not racial hatred." .
This was Di Canio's reaction to his infamous salute in a derby win over Roma in January 2005 *what part of the game is that*
This statement is errorneous as Fascism and Racism are not mutually exclusive. Either Di Canio is a liar or is just another ignorant Sports person. I'd love to stick with the latter- based on the way he has conducted his affairs ( at least in Public) since the incidence. But as the saying goes, ignorance is not an excuse
Mussolini's (who was the Chief Protagonist of Fascism) views on Race: he justified colonialism in Africa by claiming that the spiritual and cultural superiority of Italians as part of the white race, justified the right for Italy and other powers of the white race to rule over the black race, while asserting that racial segregation of whites and blacks in its colonies.
It claimed that Fascism's colonial goals were to civilize the inferior races and defend the purity of Western civilization from racial interbreeding (sic) that it claimed would harm the intellectual qualities of the white race
Hitler and Mussolini: The German stamp in the pics box below shows the two. The text at the top says "Two peoples and one struggle." They believed in the superiority of the Aryan Race, were anti-Semitic and Racist
The cost of the Second World war to Sunderland:
The British still remember the terrifying German Luftwaffe air raids during the Second World War
Sunderland’s shipyards were crucial to the war effort. As the naval fleet and merchant vessels fell victim to the enemy’s submarine attacks, Sunderland played a crucial role in building new ships and repairing damaged ones. The strategic importance of the area meant that those who lived there were under constant threat of bombing.
In May 1943, Sunderland was the target of a series of heavy raids. The last major raid (the 35th) of the war in the North-East caused the highest death toll. Eighty-four people died and 221 were injured in Sunderland
In an article which appeared in the Sunderland Echo, the raid of 16th May 1943 was described as “one of the worst raids of the war”.
A graphic picture of the danger and destruction is painted in a newspaper’s coverage: “Showers of incendiary bombs as well as high explosives were dropped and these caused several fires, some of which burned furiously for a considerable time.”
During the war, the traditionally male-dominated environment was home to a new type of worker: women. In order to keep the yards running at maximum capacity, women were called in to help.
Obviously, the Sunderland FC Board had collective amnesia or were just as ignorant as Paolo Di Canio
Never mix sports with politics- is what Di Canio's supporters would say. I say Bollocks!! 6 million Jews died at the hands of Hitler ( whose main collaborator was the Fascist Mussolini) One shudders at the thought of what these lots would have done to blacks if they weren't stopped by the Allies. In this context you'd agree that "Never mix sports with politics" is just inconsequential semantics!!
Di Canio shouldn't have done what he did back then, the Sunderland Board should have had more sense. That way we won't have be stuck in this CouldaWouldaShouldaville
I don't know how all these will end, I don't see any happy ever after endings
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. ~Abraham Lincoln
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