Trevor Noah:
Your
"joke" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COD9hcTpGWQ) that “Africa won the world cup” because a preponderance of the
French players were of African ancestry, was in bad taste and explicitly offensive
to French national pride and sense of self. It’s a joke that implies,
incorrectly though, that biological ancestry per se makes for citizenship in
the 21st century. Your “joke” also can be rightly interpreted as
mocking African nations for their failure, so far, to win the World Cup.
The
French Ambassador was justifiably offended, and his written reaction to your
distasteful "joke" was cogent and, by and large, reflective of the
meaning of citizenship in the 21st century. Just to get you to realize the
wrong-headed nature of your joke, what if a South African national soccer team
that consisted predominantly of South African citizens of English ancestry were
to win the World Cup, would that suffice as a basis for someone in your
position to “joke” that that England won that world cup?
I urge you to read up
on the meaning of citizenship in the world of the 21st century. Here
is one more food for thought for you. Given that Barack Obama’s father was a
Kenyan but Barack Obama himself was born and raised (that is, acculturated) in
the United States, would that serve as a basis for you or someone in your
position to crack a “joke” that Obama’s presidency of the United States from
2008 to 2016 was “an African presidency?”
The fact that the French team that
won the 2018 soccer world cup reflected French citizenship diversity is a fact
that deserves our applause, not our derision in the guise of a joke. It hardly
needs to be pointed out that the success of that French multi-racial soccer
team does not imply that France does not have its own share of race relations
challenges/difficulties, just as a hypothetical world cup success of a South
African multi-racial soccer team would not suggest that South Africa does not
have its share of race relations deficits.
Finally, across
cultures and national boundaries, it’s an accepted social norm, at micro and
macro levels, to accord credit to whom credit is due. Even God expects us to
acknowledge and be thankful for God’s blessings upon us!
Your offensive “joke”
implicitly denied due credit to the nation of France for its hard-won achievement
of the Golden trophy for the Men’s Soccer World Cup of 2018. It took a herculean
journey to attain that victory after a worldwide competition. It was highly
insensitive of you to attempt to belittle that hard-won victory, as you did in
the name of a “joke.” You owe that nation an apology, not a naïve socio-historical
circumnavigating diatribe.
