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“No To Racism” campaign backlash

How can people be so blind?

no-to-racism

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Sadly, it seems that racism is rife in Italian football (soccer). The highest football division (Serie A) is in the news fairly regularly as one after another reported incidents of abuse are added to the long list of prior instances. Those within the main footballing authority, UEFA, have been scratching their heads on how to tackle this problem.1 However, the graphic designs recently launched by an Italian artist, to enhance UEFA’s anti-racism initiative, were not warmly welcomed, to say the least.

The artwork shows three chimps with coloured faces that supposedly represent different people groups. This includes variations in the colour and shape of their eyes although these differences are probably too subtle to have been picked up by most people. Evidently, artist Simone Fugazzotto believes that all people, regardless of their skin, have evolved from ape-like creatures. He explains the rationale behind the images as follows:

“I thought I’d make this work to teach that we’re all apes. So I made the western monkey -- white with blue eyes -- the Asian monkey -- with almond eyes -- and the black monkey in the middle, which is where everything comes from, this is what the evolutionary theory tells us. The monkey becomes the spark to teach everyone that there is no difference. It’s not that one is man and one is monkey. At this point, we are all monkeys … if they really feel the need to tell a black (player) that he is one.” 2

Now the monkey comes out of the sleeve’, as the Dutch proverb goes.3 Finally, here is someone who hits the nail on its head and, in so doing, reveals the double standard of the critics. The artist has incurred their wrath merely because he has reflected in his work the story that students are taught in schools and universities around the world: evolution. And keep in mind that he was actually trying to make an anti-racism point with his images! The fact of the matter is that, as CMI writers have been saying for a long time, evolution adds fuel to the fire of racial prejudice.4 In fact, some evolutionists have admitted as much. Evolutionary propagandist (and staunch anti-racist and Marxist) Stephen Jay Gould once said:

“Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1859, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory. The litany is familiar: cold, dispassionate, objective, modern science shows us that races can be ranked on a scale of superiority. If this offends Christian morality or a sentimental belief in human unity, so be it; science must be free to proclaim unpleasant truths.”5

Of course, science per se shows no such thing. Rather, it is the evolutionary indoctrination masquerading as science which implies a scale of superiority. Is it any wonder that after years of sowing this false teaching, we are reaping the harmful consequences left, right, and centre?

And the racism problem in sport is far from being a peculiarly Italian one; see this example from the Australian Football League. A few months earlier, a Dutch news article highlighted once again the pitiful state of mind of some football fans, who assault black players with monkey sounds and banana peels and hurl insults at them.6 It is bad enough that these things happen, but it is sad that the sporting bodies don’t really know how to tackle this problem, let alone the root cause. Dutch league player Urby Emanuelson remembers one incident vividly: “The supporters of the opposing team made monkey sounds to several black players … ” 

One of the players walked off in disgust and the rest of the team joined him in prematurely leaving the football pitch; the game was cancelled.6

The BBC and other media rightly highlight these issues but offer no solution either, since they are equally confused (see No monkey business here please, we’re the BBC!). Why are people perplexed if children behave like animals, when in the school classroom they are taught that, in fact, they are!7 This erroneous education is continued into adulthood (colleges, universities and the media) and consistently applied by ‘faithful students’ on the stands of many football stadia and elsewhere.

But that’s not all. These insults and other loathsome actions are directed at ‘black’ players of the opposing team while, typically, the players of their ‘own’ team are spared. This bias is also seen in other areas of the game. Biases have the nasty habit of making people blind to their own shortcomings.8 For example, I have repeatedly witnessed supporters screaming at the referee when he blew the whistle against the home-team, when clearly a foul was committed. These same people would gladly turn a blind eye to a player from their home-team pretending he had been fouled. You wonder whether they needed glasses or if they just fancied blaming someone for the lack of ‘spectacle’ on the pitch.

Rooting for biblical roots

The Bible teaches that we all come from the first man Adam (and later Noah).9 We are all members of one human family. However, a consistent application of evolutionary teaching implies that some human beings are less evolved than others. This fallacious doctrine does nothing to decrease the bad behaviours we see in sinful children, adults, and society in general (e.g. football supporters). If anything, it aggravates it.

Is there an antidote to this prejudice? Yes, there is! CMI has long argued that the only remedy is to proclaim the truth and authority of the Bible, particular its Genesis history, and expose evolution for what it is: a deceptive anti-God philosophy that has undergirded many tragedies in this world10 and stifled science.11

Published: 27 December 2019

References and notes

  1. No to Racism, UEFA.com; accessed 17 December 2019. Return to text.
  2. Sinnot, J., and Mezzofiore, G., Italian soccer anti-racism monkey artwork condemned as ‘outrage’, cnn.com, 17 December 2019. Return to text.
  3. This is translated from the Dutch “Nu komt de aap uit de mouw”. Essentially it means that the hidden agenda is now revealed. Return to text.
  4. Catchpoole, D., Do monkeys play football, Creation 29(3):12–14, June 2007. Return to text.
  5. Stephen Jay Gould, Ontogeny and Phylogeny, Belknap-Harvard Press, p. 127, 1977. Return to text.
  6. De Zeeuw, E., Emanuelson: ‘Racisme in het voetbal is heel moeilijk aan te pakken’, nos.nl, 16 May 2019. Return to text.
  7. Catchpoole, D., How to build a bomb in the public school system, Creation 22(1):17, 1999; creation.com/bomb. Return to text.
  8. Romans 3:23: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Return to text.
  9. Acts 17:26; Romans 5:12, 18; Genesis 9:18–19. Return to text.
  10. Focus, ‘The God Delusion’ and evolutionary teaching linked to tragedies, Creation 33(2):7–11, 2011; creation.com/focus-332#god-delusion-tragedies Return to text.
  11. Sarfati, J., Who’s really pushing ‘bad science’? creation.com/lerner, 26 September 2000. Return to text.