Now this will be very controversial post, and probably many people will read it the way they want it, not the way I meant it, but I will say it anyway. I've always spoken my mind
Now it's the moment where you say "ok it's gonna be good...".
First of all, let me just start by saying that it was very controversial post the CN did and they are far from saints. To me that defending of fascists is much worse, because it's not just "game talk".
But in any case that racism talk was going on many times here on the forums. Let me ask you this. Do you have any friends, or family members who support milan or jube? Well I did. I have one of my cousins who supports milan and the other (who died unfortunetly many times ago) who was my best friend and was a die hard supporter of jube. Now, if any of you (like me) call milan or especially jube any names, like scum, like jube, like thieves, scream "juve, juve, vaffanculo" during derbies etc... while at the same time you have someone close to you who supports that team like us... how do you reconcile that? Isn't that offensive towards those people close to you just the same (even if they are not aware of it, because it's enough that you're aware of it)? Or maybe... when you're at the stadium during the derbies with jube, you start chanting something anti-jube or anti-jube fans (in the "spirit" of the derbies, or in the heat of a moment, call it what you want) who are there at the stadium and when you come home and you sit there with your friend or member of a family, do you behave the same?
If you're here, talking shit and trash about jube, milan and then talk privately with your friend who is a fan of one of those teams, don't you do the same? Isn't that offensive?
Do you know how many jube fans are offended by the words of our "C'è solo l'Inter" or many things Prisco said? Like those words about what do you do with your hands after you shake them with juventino and milanista? Are you mean to tell me he was treating every juve fan he encountered in his life like a thief?
What about the players who trash talk? I'm sure many of you know the phrase. You can have guys who everybody around them say they are fantastic, nice people privately, but then during the matches on the field they can be nasty like hell. Remember Matrix and what stuff did he say to zidane? Now was it acceptable, or not? He did say some pretty nasty shit there towards him, to get him out of control and to make the opponent in a disadvantage. Very nasty stuff about his family member. Now do you believe after the game he had the same opinion? Many if not most italians did not have any problem with that, correct? Now why is that? Maybe, because italians have culture of talking trash when it comes to sport, either sarcastic (when talking edgy with your friend privately, remember Valentino Rossi's interview after out 0-4 trashing of milan?) or more forcefully during matches, but it ends there. It's just words, it doesn't turn into something more (for some it does, but those are fierce hooligans).
What I'm trying to say here is that unless you never offend or say anything disrespectful towards those teams or their fans, you are doing exactly the same thing, just in a lesser (granted, much lesser imo) extend. Now if that's not the case, then it all comes down to the line you are setting. For one person, when they scream "juve merda" is too much. It's already offensive and he won't say that and when somebody else says that, that person is not nice. For another "juventino pezzo di merda" is too much. For some other, even "jube" word is crossing the line. Everybody has a personal, subjective line of "how much of a trash talk towards, epsecially, your biggest rival" that is willing to set somewhere. Those racists chants are falling under the same category, but... probably 99% of people (not suprising) or more have it behind that line that they set. Same for me.
Going back to what they said in this statement. I think they said what I just mentioned above. The principle of "what is done in vegas/during the match stays in vegas/during the match". I think that's what they meant. The difference is they have this line set very far away (too far for me and most of the people), but in principle, when they say stuff like "that's only game talk, in private we would never say that", I believe that and I think that's exactly what I've explained above. How we can be so "angry and combatant" during the matches (especially derbies) but then after the match is over we're again best buddies?
Also, about this racism stuff. That's a little off-topic here, but I always was fascinated about name-calling everybody racist in recent times. Can somebody (logically) explain to me, how somebody can be a racist who for example has a friend with different skin color to his own? Is it even possible? I doubt that was the case during the slave-era in USA. Same thing about football teams today. How can a fan be a racist, if he is supporting, chanting pro-chant to a player of his own team, and who never would scream anything towards that player? Do you remember how Etoo'o was welcomed on the CN? Not 1 racist chant, instead they treated him with smiles, chants, like a king. Now how is that possible if CN is full with racist pigs, who want nothing more than to just create another USA of 1800s?
To me, that would be analogous to a nazi-fashist skinhead who indeed is a racist and has a hatred towards people of different skin color, who at the same time had a friend who was black. I mean, that doesn't compute to me and till this day I wonder how this theory can be correct.
Now I'm not saying there are no racists there today, I'm sure there are. It's just that actions (slave-owning, not allowing people of different color to use your facilities, treating them like second category people) are what matters in the "racist debate" to me, not words. Words at the most can be offensive, moronic, stupid, idiotic etc.
Lastly, let me reiterate. If I were there, and I were countless times on Curva Nord supporting the team, I wouldn't scream any of the chants like that for sure. To me that's too far. I did however screamed "vaffanculo" a lot
Just my 2 cents. Hopefully that post will not be understood in the wrong way and I won't be called racist now, which is so often done these days.