“If you have to clarify it beforehand, something is wrong”: some users commented.
Before the sixth-division match at Argentinos Juniors began, the team captain approached the referees and made a clarification no one expected: his teammates wearing the number 5 and the 1 are called “black” within the squad, and he wanted to avoid misunderstandings.
The referee responded immediately: “Be very careful about respect.”
For many, the gesture was exactly that: respect. An honest warning so that the players on the opposing team — several of them Afro-descendants — would not interpret the term as an insult.
For others, the intention changes nothing: if a word can sound offensive in that context, the solution is not to warn people, but not to use it.
Did the captain do the right thing by clarifying it, or does the mere fact of having to explain it already say it all?