The U.S. men’s national soccer team has ditched the red, white, and blue in favor of a rainbow flag in order to “bring attention to social issues” while it plays in stadiums built by slave labor.
The USMNT decided to change the colors on the shield logo, replacing the red stripes with the colors of the gay and transgender (and Black Lives Matter) “pride flag.” Coach Gregg Berhalter suggested Qatar has “made strides and there has been tons of progress” but that the country has more work to do to be more inclusive. Therefore, the USMNT will make the pride flag part of its normal uniform.
That will show those intolerant Qataris who are also supposedly making “tons of progress.”
The abused migrant workers who built the stadiums get no mention from the U.S. team, just as the United States and the international community cared little about this fact when headline after headline detailed how slave labor was being used by Qatar. There will also be no mention of other oppressed minorities, apparently. Non-Islamic religious observers can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for any form of public worship, including displaying religious symbols. That applies to Christians. The Qatari government also peddles antisemitism through school textbooks.
This doesn’t interest the USMNT too much, though, because that does not satisfy woke sports media and activists back home. Whether there will be a mention of Iran giving death sentences to protesters and subjugating women is anyone’s guess. (Iran is in the same group as the U.S., and the Iranian team was facing pressure to dump players who were sympathetic to protests against the regime).
But hey, at least the USMNT will make a brave stand by wearing a logo with slightly different colors for all two months that it cares about what is going on in Qatar. Its brave and bold stance is temporary, but the gushing media headlines will last forever.
It would be nice if we could have a patriot U.S. team that calls attention to human rights issues without sacrificing American imagery. It would be nice if they called attention to all the issues in the World Cup’s host country, including slave labor and religious persecution, and not just the ones that play well in American woke corporate media.
Of course, it would also be nice if that team could win more than a couple of games and be a true World Cup contender. Some things, apparently, just aren’t meant to be.
* Article from: The Washington Examiner