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Sports

German Team Combats Racism by Turning Everyone Black in Team Photo

Uhhhhhhhh.....

[Rubs temples for 25 minutes, takes deep breath]

So, a soccer team in Germany did this on purpose and posted it on their own Facebook account. It's still there. For what it's worth, Deinster SV had good intentions; the gesture was meant to show support for two of their own players, Sudanese refugees, who were racially harassed at a local Easter celebration in their town. One of them, Emad Babiker, was then later "pushed to the ground and beaten" in the altercation.

The caption on the post reads "Violence against refugees is pathetic. Emad and Amar, you are one of us just like everyone else and we're happy you are with us." The team's coach, Soenke Kreibich, supported photoshopping the team picture, saying "It should make it clear that Emad and Amar are an inherent part of our team, and not a minority on whom you can use violence to let off your personal frustration."

Europe has a much different history with this stuff than, say, the United States, but it's still remarkable that this idea passed through an entire sports organization and made it out into the world.

[BBC]