By Alden C. Mayfield
The recent issue of racism in sports has a long and dark career. From ancient times when slaves, blacks, and non-citizens were used as mercenaries and gladiators at the whim and wish of their owners to the dawn of the modern era with the rise of professional sports in the U.S. and Europe, most sports weren’t color blind.
While several American Indians (Jim Thorpe [1888-1953], a multi-gold medal winner at the 1912 Olympics) and African-Americans (Jack Johnson [1878-1946], the first “Black” World Boxing Champion, [1908-15]) played professional baseball, football, boxing, and ice-hockey in the U.S. and Canada, it was rare for non-whites to play any professional sport in America, Europe or Australia.
While racism in professional sports has no doubt lessened greatly, recent incidents in European soccer suggest it is still a major problem. From the infamous racist slurs of Luis Suarez and John Terry in English soccer to the ubiquitous monkey and anti-semetic chants in Europe, it is clear that racism in sports is still a lingering and festering sore beneath the skin of public multi-cultural civility.
Who would have imagined that “Asians” would have become professional athletes in any sport let alone organize their own professional sport leagues?
What about racism in professional sports in Asia? Most Asian nations such as Korea, Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia and others have professional sports. For good reason, these professional leagues have a strict quota on the number of foreign athletes allowed to participate. For example, the Korean Volleyball League allows only one foreigner per team, while the Korean Basketball, Baseball, and Soccer Leagues allow more than one foreigner to participate.
While there have been a few high-profile cases of blatant racism against foreign professional athletes in the Korean Professional Soccer league, it would be interesting to take a candid survey of all foreign players in Korea in order to ascertain firsthand their honest perspectives on this issue.
I regularly attended Korean basketball games, that is, until this fan was a victim of degrading and disgusting “monkey chants.” A few years back, my son and I attended a basketball game between Electric Land Elephants and Samsung Electronics at the Sports Complex in Incheon City. At the time, I was a regular fan who supported and cheered for the home team, the Electric Land Elephants; I didn’t cause any trouble, nor was I a danger to anyone.
A few days later, my son and I went to an afternoon basketball game in Incheon, but before the game had started, one of the managers of the Electric Land Elephants began to rudely mock me with monkey chants as he was making fun of me for the last game when I was a bit too passionate in support of my home team.
I was absolutely shocked and at a loss for words. After a few minutes, I composed myself and confronted this racist manager, but he wouldn’t deal with his racist behavior. Instead, like a coward, he ran and hid in his little office. Next, we made our complaints known to another more senior manager, but he simply laughed and ignored us as he thought it was an innocent joke.
The next day, I tried to phone the Electric Land Elephants Office, but nobody wanted to deal with my grievance. I sent several faxes outlining the racist monkey chants of this manager.
To my utter surprise, there was no reply or willingness to resolve this serious problem of blatant racism from a Korean professional sport organization. As such I contacted the office of human rights in Korea, but they weren’t too eager to deal with this issue since they dealt mainly with racist complaints against Korean governmental organizations.
Several years have passed and I still haven’t received an apology for this racist behavior from a professional sport organization that must deal seriously with such customer complaints of racial discrimination.
If this racist manager had done the same thing to a Korean, the Korean fan would have sued this person for discrimination.
Such Korean professional sports organizations must not mock their fans with degrading and humiliating monkey chants. Aren’t the fans the ones who support and pay for the team’s salaries and not the other way around?
After this disturbing experience which left my son in tears, I vowed I’d never attend another professional sports event in Korea.
The writer is a resident of Incheon.