CHICAGO - After a raucous annual general meeting in which athlete’s council delegate Seth Jahn stated racist and ignorant comments for several minutes with virtually no opposition or rebuke, the US Soccer Federation (USSF) diversity, equity and inclusion council stated that they would reach out to both Pro-Racist and Anti-Racist members for their next step.
“It’s important to hear a diversity of thought in our membership,” stated USSF spokesman Bryce Williams. “In an effort to become more educated on the subjects that Mr. Jahn espoused, we reached out to a few members that think apartheid was right, Nelson Mandela is a criminal, Barack Obama was born in Kenya and Ahmaud Arbery deserved to die in order to get their opinion on the opinions of Mr. Jahn."
No one in the soccer stratosphere was really shocked to hear bigoted statements happen within the purview of US Soccer, however Mr. Williams indicated that the Council was still committed to forward progress.
“US Soccer Federation supports a diversity of thought from the idea that everyone is equal and deserving of empathy and love to the idea that Black people cause all the crime in the world and slavery wasn’t that bad,” stated Williams. “Of course Black people deserve to share their experiences, but it also important to hear the other side of people who don’t think they exist. That’s the kind of sharing of ideas that’s important to us.”
While many people condemned Jahn’s statements, USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone said, “Seth has done a lot for our country and for our federation. And like I said before, just like the players have a right to peacefully protest, Seth has the right to voice his opinions. I’ll be honest with you, the speaker that it was on my side was really hard to hear. And so I couldn’t actually hear everything that he was saying.”
The Nutmeg News will have more on this as US Soccer announces a new, “Pride,” campaign that focuses on increasing the love one has for their own race whether white or other.
