If you can't beat racism, eat it. That's what
thousands of people on social media are doing, inspired by footballer
Dani Alves eating the banana hurled at him on the pitch.
Tens of thousands of people around the world are going "bananas" over a tweet
by Brazilian footballer Neymar. On Sunday, the Brazil international and
Barcelona forward posted an image of himself on Instagram with a cheeky
smile and a banana, side by side with his toddler son. Under the
picture was the hashtag #weareallmonkeys, in English, as well as in
Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan. Neymar's picture was inspired by fellow Barca player and Brazil international, Dani Alves - who had a banana thrown at him on the pitch in a match against Villareal. Alves kept his cool, picked up the banana, peeled it and ate it, prior to taking the kick. Neymar's tweet seemed like a deliberate attempt to turn eating a banana into an anti-racism meme - he has over 10 million followers on Twitter and 4.6 million on Instagram.

Monkey noises and throwing bananas are used the world over as a racist gesture at football matches, with mixed race Dani Alves himself previously victimised. By turning the banana from a symbol of racism to a symbol of defiance, will the current trend make a difference? Tom Conn, a Spanish football fan, echoed many others on social media when he tweeted that "in one single action, Dani Alves did more to fight racism than any UEFA/FIFA 'Say No to Racism' has ever done".
Reporting by Bruno Garcez BBC
2 comMENTS:
Rabbi Eliezer Stauber is from the Kehilat Yaacov Orthodox synagogue of Copacabana. He tells The Rio Times, “Most of the Jews who live in Brazil are descended from European Jews and a lot of Brazilians likely have Jewish ancestry.”
Please, never forget that white people also live in Brazil.
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