Solidarity is essentially unity.

People feel the same on subjects and come together to take

action on their common interest. Where I have seen solidarity being shown this past month
has been in professional soccer. A recurring theme that is happening at games all over the
world is racism. The fan base for certain teams is using racism to jeer at the opposition to the
point that it is embarrassing to the home team. Some games have even just stopped before the
final 90 minutes due to the players not wanting to participate in a disgusting environment like
that. Multiple players from different leagues, such as the Premiere league in England or Serie A
league in Italy, are experiencing the same racial slurs during their games due to being African
American in a predominantly white league.

A couple weeks ago, Raheem Sterling, one of England’s best national players and arguably the
Premiere league’s best winger, urged his voice on this racism that keeps occurring. When he
was playing for England against Bulgaria, racial abuse was occurring so frequently that the
game had to stop twice to control it. The Bulgarian crowd was warned that they would have to
be evacuated from the stadium if the abuse kept occurring. Eventually, the captain for Bulgaria
tried to tell the crowd to stop what they are doing and to abstain from the racism. Multiple
England players and staff members were just visibly upset, along with some of the Bulgarian
team. In the near future though, the Bulgarian prime minister demanded that the president of
soccer in Bulgaria be resigned for allowing this to occur in the country. Shortly after, Sterling
thanked him on social media for joining him and helping him fight against the racism he
experienced during international play. Also, many other players such as Romelu Lukaku, Paul
Pogba, and Tammy Abraham are experiencing racial abuse because of their skin color.
Eventually the president of European soccer stepped in and announced that if this continues,
there will be consequences to multiple fan bases and the league itself.

Solidarity impacts my life just about every day. It has helped me make many friends by sharing
common interests, along with helping me find my role in society. There are always going to be
differences amongst people’s thoughts, feelings and actions, but this allows me to learn from
people. When keeping an open mind about things I generally do not agree with at first, I can
learn from others’ points of views on things. This allows me to become a better person,
appreciate the ideas and differences among people, and simply allows me to meet more
people. Overall, solidarity has impacted me by allowing me to learn from others, to learn with
others, and by shaping my friendships throughout my entire life.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/sports/soccer-racism-england-bulgaria.html