While soccer isn’t really that big in the United States, it’s the dominant sport throughout much of the world. This becomes more evident during the World Cup. Living in Germany has allowed me to experience the world from a different point of view. Restaurants and bistros screen games outside for their customers. People of all backgrounds come together to celebrate and cheer. The large and diverse population of Germany finds common ground through soccer, if not anything else.
Social media platforms lit up in celebration when France won the World Cup final. While most of the posts were truly celebratory in nature, social justice warriors were out in full force. Khaled Beydoun, who describes himself as a law professor and author, tweeted, “Dear France, congratulations on winning the World Cup. 80% of your team is African, cut out the racism and xenophobia. 50% of your team are Muslims, cut out the Islamophobia. Africans and Muslims delivered you a second World Cup, now deliver them justice.”
https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/1018540593897705473
The tweet went viral, sparking debate and controversy. Currently, it has been shared over 214,000 times. It might come as a shock to people like Beydoun, but America isn’t the only country with citizens of diverse ethnicities. Leave it to an American social justice warrior to insult players on the French national team. Europe has always been light years ahead of the United States in terms of race relations. It shouldn’t be surprising that a national team from France isn’t all white.
Upon further inspection, his Twitter page shows that Beydoun is busy promoting a book he just released about “Islamophobia” in America. While that’s all fine and dandy and I agree that it’s important to spread awareness about tolerance, Khaled Beydoun was completely out of line attacking the French national team over its diversity. His earlier attempts at going viral tanked, including a tweet about how France doesn’t want immigrants unless they contribute to World Cup wins. He even suggested that France only accepts immigrants who can deliver World Cup victories. What?!
Luckily, many French Twitter users educated Beydoun on the fact that the players to whom he was referring are all French citizens, born and raised. Many French fans also pointed out that “African” isn’t a nationality and having black skin doesn’t always mean someone is from Africa. These facts illustrate the stunningly ignorant levels social justice warriors will stoop to for a book sale. Using a sensitive and serious issue like immigration to go viral for profit is disgusting. Pushing a political agenda like Beydoun did on another country during its time of celebration to sow division and discourse is disgraceful. These aren’t the type of “activists” I want representing my interests as a minority within the United States. As minorities, we don’t need to constantly point out what’s obvious to everyone watching. We are beginning to isolate ourselves by refusing to normalize diversity. How can minorities ask the world to accept groups when we are busy pointing out the differences ourselves? Congratulations to the French national team on their World Cup victory.
