Steven Goff of the Washington Post has linked to a disturbing video, apparently taken by a fan at the Columbus Crew-New England Revolution match over the weekend. The Revs' Kheli Dube scored a goal off a rebounded penalty kick. Between the obscentities there is a clear racial epithet (the n-word if you must known) thrown out there.
Europe in particularly has struggled and continues to struggle in some areas with racist fans and racial epithets thrown about regularly. (Thierry Henry in particularly has been a crusader against this kind of behavior). While there is no doubt racism in America and racial problems in sports both in the past and now, this is the first time I have heard of it in the MLS.
This kind of behavior by fans in unacceptable. I don't want to call this a slippery slope to hooliganism, but this is not a good development for American soccer. Fans get rowdy and fans get nasty sometimes, that is all part of the passion about soccer that I love. But people have to take some responsbility for themselves and their actions.
This is clearly not the work of the Columbus Crew, but they need to step up and do a little investigating. From the camera angle, it should not be too hard to narrow the possible culprits to a small universe of idiots.
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