I'm not your friend, buddy!

- Qué pasa, amigo?
- Je ne suis pas votre ami, mec.

So I've been fascinated the past few weeks with the saga of Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra. Not so much with the players, or the events that took place on the field that day, but with the comments I read that follow various articles, or are posted to Facebook pages.

For those of you who aren't sure what I'm talking about, Luis Suarez, an Uruguayan fútbol (soccer) player for Liverpool, was accused of using a racist slur towards Manchester United player, Patrice Evra, from France. Both players it seems have admitted to taking part in an exchange, with Suarez using either "negro" or "negrito," and Evra saying "sudaca." As far as I can tell, sudaca has its roots in Spain, and is generally considered a derogatory slur towards South Americans. In Uruguay, negro and negrito are commonly heard used as terms of endearment, often crossing racial boundaries. Suarez is citing this as his defense, saying this was not racism, but a cultural misunderstanding; he was hit with an 8-game ban and a £40,000  fine.

Whew...all caught up?

For me, a lot of what I read about this reminds me of something one would see in South Park, just imagine everyone on the football pitch:

The point is, it's all about context. I can confirm that negro/a and negrito/a are indeed used as terms of endearment quite often here. I'm never going to use them, since I would never feel culturally capable. I've also spoken with enough Uruguayans to know that most know better than to travel to another country and casually throw these words around.

What I've found somewhat surprising are responses I've been reading in support of Suarez. A large majority confirm that the terms are "not racist" in Uruguay. But many responses begin taking it to another level, directing comments to Patrice Evra. These are just two samples from Facebook:

"Patrice Evra es lamentable los complejos que sufres...Siendo REALISTAS, tu piel y raza es NEGRA, NO ERES blanco, asiático, latino... Asi que ACEPTALO Y SE FELIZ..." / "Patrice Evra, your complex is regretable...Realistically, your skin and race are BLACK, YOU ARE NOT white, asian, latino...So ACCEPT IT AND BE HAPPY..."

"si es NEGRO, que quieren? que le diga blackie? negro maricón jugá al futbol o volvé a la jungla!!!" / "he is BLACK, what do they want? that he says blackie? black fag play football or return to the jungle!!!"

These are not the sentiments of everyone, and the latter is extreme, but also not infrequent. There are those that are understanding of the penalty, but confused and concerned that Evra was also not hit with a ban for his derogatory slur. 

Mostly it's made me hyper-aware of my own sensitivity to the terms. I've grown accustomed to hearing them used, but they're not casual terms that go unnoticed to me either. I've also not really taken a stand on any of this through this post. There are people I'd like to hear from over it first, and I imagine it will be a topic that will come up over the next few days.

Anyway, just something for everyone else to join me in thinking about...right, buddy?