Didn’t that blog / concept jump the shark a couple years ago?
While the post was amusing and somewhat accurate, it’s not really fair to white people. There has long been a subset of American white people (partnered with a lot of non-white Americans from soccer-loving countries) who are fanatical about soccer, and only very recently has there been a spread of interest about the World Cup and the European leagues to a more casual set of fans.
Since even before the 1994 World Cup, American soccer fans have been predicting soccer fever would eventually sweep the nation, and it never did. The mainstream sports media has always turned its nose up at the jogo bonito, and while ESPN has been able to ride a rising wave of interest in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, this is the first year where it’s been heavily promoted and mainstream sports journalists have been jockeying to cover the event.
The problem with categorizing the World Cup as something related to whiteness — other than the fact that billions of non-white people (as well as millions of very white Europeans) will be following the World Cup with closer interest and higher fervor than anyone in America — is that nothing in that post truly describes anything that makes sense to ascribe to a race, culture, or archetype. Camping? Yes. Liking Bob Marley? Makes sense. Picking your own fruit, Vespas, and Conan O’Brien? Clever, definitely. But the diversity of the American audience that will be following the World Cup is simply too broad — and the percentage of casual World Cup fans who are white too few — for this to be reasonably tied to white people.
JD
World Cup? White people? Well, there are non-Americans who are white, of course. 😉
I’m reminded of an old political cartoon, from the ’94 Cup in fact, where Uncle Sam, surrounded by cheering fans of multiple nationalities, had a bored look on his face and saying “I don’t get it.”
I’m also reminded of the best day of my European Politics class, where our guest speaker was an author who wrote a book about precisely why soccer never caught on in the United States. I found it fascinating.
kcatnd
“our guest speaker was an author who wrote a book about precisely why soccer never caught on in the United States. I found it fascinating.”
Do you recall the name/book? I’d like to check it out.
gahrie
I just want to note that I was playing youth soccer in this country as far back as the early 70’s.
JD
“Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism” by Andrei Markovits
That blog is hillarious and it is amazing how closely the white people on my Facebook feed match the blog’s portrait of white people. Do the white people on my Facebook feed love Obama? Check. Do they love New York, SF, and Seattle? Check. Farmer’s markets? Check. Tree huggers? Check. The Wire? Check. Soccer? Yup, they’re the only Americans who do.
It’s like someone surveyed all the stuff white people in my NYU MBA class like, and put the list on the web.
RT @whelliston Stuff White People Like #133: The World Cup http://is.gd/cyBWf
Didn’t that blog / concept jump the shark a couple years ago?
While the post was amusing and somewhat accurate, it’s not really fair to white people. There has long been a subset of American white people (partnered with a lot of non-white Americans from soccer-loving countries) who are fanatical about soccer, and only very recently has there been a spread of interest about the World Cup and the European leagues to a more casual set of fans.
Since even before the 1994 World Cup, American soccer fans have been predicting soccer fever would eventually sweep the nation, and it never did. The mainstream sports media has always turned its nose up at the jogo bonito, and while ESPN has been able to ride a rising wave of interest in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, this is the first year where it’s been heavily promoted and mainstream sports journalists have been jockeying to cover the event.
The problem with categorizing the World Cup as something related to whiteness — other than the fact that billions of non-white people (as well as millions of very white Europeans) will be following the World Cup with closer interest and higher fervor than anyone in America — is that nothing in that post truly describes anything that makes sense to ascribe to a race, culture, or archetype. Camping? Yes. Liking Bob Marley? Makes sense. Picking your own fruit, Vespas, and Conan O’Brien? Clever, definitely. But the diversity of the American audience that will be following the World Cup is simply too broad — and the percentage of casual World Cup fans who are white too few — for this to be reasonably tied to white people.
World Cup? White people? Well, there are non-Americans who are white, of course. 😉
I’m reminded of an old political cartoon, from the ’94 Cup in fact, where Uncle Sam, surrounded by cheering fans of multiple nationalities, had a bored look on his face and saying “I don’t get it.”
I’m also reminded of the best day of my European Politics class, where our guest speaker was an author who wrote a book about precisely why soccer never caught on in the United States. I found it fascinating.
“our guest speaker was an author who wrote a book about precisely why soccer never caught on in the United States. I found it fascinating.”
Do you recall the name/book? I’d like to check it out.
I just want to note that I was playing youth soccer in this country as far back as the early 70’s.
“Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism” by Andrei Markovits
http://www.amazon.com/Offside-American-Exceptionalism-Andrei-Markovits/dp/069107447X/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275508713&sr=8-11
That blog is hillarious and it is amazing how closely the white people on my Facebook feed match the blog’s portrait of white people. Do the white people on my Facebook feed love Obama? Check. Do they love New York, SF, and Seattle? Check. Farmer’s markets? Check. Tree huggers? Check. The Wire? Check. Soccer? Yup, they’re the only Americans who do.
It’s like someone surveyed all the stuff white people in my NYU MBA class like, and put the list on the web.