Blaming The Victim.

The ludicrous furore over Zinedine Zidane's headbutt and what may have prompted it appears to be over now and Zidane has confirmed that Materazzi did not racially abuse him. Why so many people were desperate to make out that Zidane must have been the victim of a heinous provocation is a mystery to me, Zizou is a great player but losing his temper has been a fairly regular occurance over the course of his illustrious career. He has been sent off more times than Vinnie Jones! Yet the media dragged Materazzi's reputation through the mud for the crime of being headbutted. I agree with the excellent Gabriele Marcotti when he writes:

Those people should be apologizing to Materazzi, the people who blackened his name by throwing out baseless accusations, the people who -- in their frenzy to figuratively burn someone at the stake -- accused an innocent man without a shred of credible evidence (and no, those lip-readers' fantasies do not constitute credible evidence), the people who ignored Zidane's teammate and possibly the French team's most intelligent and sensitive player, Lilian Thuram (a guy who knows a thing or two about racism), when he categorically said there "was no racial slur."

I hope Materazzi sues their behinds off and donates the proceeds to organizations that are serious about fighting racism in all walks of life.

The instant rush to condemn Materazzi on the basis of no evidence whatsoever was despicable. Thankfully not everyone blamed the Italian for getting attacked, the Los Angeles Times's Patt Morrison put the blame where it belonged, on George Bush:

Zinedine Zidane, who is of French and Algerian ancestry, head-butted an Italian player who insulted him. Although Zidane in an interview Wednesday would not say what words provoked him, a lip reader hired by the Times of London claims Marco Materazzi called Zidane "the son of a terrorist whore.''

That's pure trickle-down politics. From the White House to the soccer pitch, "terrorist" has "cooties" and "your mother wears combat boots" flat beat as the top playground potty-mouth slur for the 21st century.

Are there no limits to the Chimpenfuhrers wickedness?