Lawyer Jason Spears, who is African-American, was among the many scores of fans who came and watched last weekend's match between Germany and Ghana. However, the first thing he spotted at the venue were a total of eight faces with blackened faces. What had gotten him more agitated was the fact that many people were lining up to the blackface fans to take photos with them.
"I was pretty upset. I was angry," Spears told BBC.
In his anger, the Alabama native took a photo of a couple of them whom he perceived to be Germans to taunt the opposition and shared it on Instagram.
Thus, the call for an investigation into rude fan behavior was born, considering the fact that FIFA recently adopted policies to curb racism and discrimination in the tournament.
However, to the furor of rights activists everywhere, FIFA said that it will not be bringing charges against German fans who wore blackface during the teams' match. A FIFA spokeswoman was quoted by the Guardian as saying,"There is no legal or factual element justifying the opening of disciplinary proceedings. But we abhor any insulting or discriminatory behavior and we strongly appeal to all fans, teams and officials to uphold that spirit."
BBC said following the world soccer body's decision on the blackface affair, further discussion about Spears' photo and the story behind it has been debated in media. Several critics think that the duo who blackened their faces might have been Swiss who were there to support Ghana, despite the clumsy gesture.
But if someone asked the Germans about their opinion on blackface, there is the question of whether there is a real intention to be racist about blackening one's face. German-Ghanaian filmmaker Mo Asumang, who recently made a documentary about race in the US and Germany, said that racism is deemed a funny thing by the Germans, but not to the extent of them being racist themselves. As Germans do not have access to the offensive Minstrel shows in the US were white actors then blacken their faces to play stereotypical black people, blackening your face is a traditional act in the country where there's a shortage of blacks.
BBC said that for example, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel was photographed beside some blacked up children during a Three Kings Day celebration, wherein it is tradition for some of the kids to color their faces black to represent one of the kings.
