Banana Insult: Dani Alves Wants Banana Thrower Punished
A banana insult has left Dani Alves furious. According to a report by Reuters via Yahoo! News, Alves wants the person who threw a banana at him during a recent soccer game to face consequences. Alves is making headline news today after calling Spain “very backward” in response to their approach (or lack thereof) towards racism.
As previously reported by Inquisitr.com, a racist Villarreal fan threw a banana at Alves as he was about to take a corner kick. Instead of getting angry, Alves did something unexpected. He picked up the banana from the field, unpeeled it, and ate it. Barcelona ended up winning the game against Villarreal which was an even better way to rub it in the fan’s face.
While the banana insult didn’t seem to bother Dani Alves at the time, he is now wondering why the fan wasn’t punished for his actions. Villarreal took action, banning the fan from upcoming games for life… but the country of Spain didn’t seek any legal action against the fan. Many people believe that there should have been some sort of subsequent charge brought against him — and Alves agrees.
Dani Alves told Brazil’s Radio Globo:
“If I could, I would put a photo of the fan on the internet so that he would be shamed. There is racism against foreigners. They sell the country as being first world but in certain things they are very backward.”
Alves’s Barcelona and Brazil teammate Neymar started an online campaign after the incident. Neymar has also been a target of racist actions in the past so this was something he really could relate to. The campaign has been backed by “dozens of footballers and Brazilian celebrities” and is represented on social media sites with hashtags “#weareallmonkeys” written in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Robert Lewandowski just uploaded this on his Instagram with the caption “We are all monkeys.” #notoracism #DaniAlves pic.twitter.com/TE9p5nD3Ms
— FutbolBible (@FutbolBible) April 29, 2014
Supporters of the campaign have been posting photos of themselves eating bananas and standing up to racism by taking on the very stereotype that plays on their race. While this has become sort of a worldwide phenomenon at this point, it doesn’t change the fact that Dani Alves (and plenty of other celebrities and athletes) are targeted by racist people on a regular basis. There are still people in the world who aren’t accepting of others and those people seem to still get away with things that they shouldn’t.
Dani Alves isn’t the only person who is upset by Spain’s lack of involvement in this case. FIFA has also taken a stand beside Alves, tweeting out that racism “cannot be tolerated.” Do you think the racist fan should have faced legal consequences for the banana insult?
[Photo: REUTERS/Albert Gea]
