On Our Media’s Peculiar Obsessions: World Cup Edition

By Charles C. W. Cooke

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

 

That bizarre Washington Post piece on the lack of black players on Argentina’s international soccer team has been updated to note that:

 

Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this piece noted that roughly one percent of the Argentinian population was Black according to a 2010 government released census. While the number of Black people cited was accurate, the percentage was actually far less than one percent and the piece has been amended to state that.

 

Okay. But why, exactly, was this piece written in the first place? The Post states that:

 

As fans keep up with Argentina’s success in this year’s World Cup, a familiar question arises: Why doesn’t Argentina’s team have more Black players?

 

That’s not actually a “familiar question.” It’s a weird question. And it didn’t “arise,” passively; it was asked — by the person who wrote the piece.

 

It was then answered in the second paragraph:

 

In 2010, Argentina’s government released a census that noted 149,493 people, far less than one percent of the country, was Black.

 

See how simple that is? Question: “Why doesn’t Argentina’s team have more Black players?” Answer: Because, as of 2010, “far less than one percent of the country, was Black.” There are eleven players on a soccer team, and 26 in the squad. In 2010, the population of Argentina was 40 million, and the number of black Argentinians was 150,000. This means that black Argentinians are about 0.375 percent of the population. Soccer doesn’t work like this of course — and it shouldn’t — but if one player out of the starting eleven on the Argentinian national team was black, that would make 9.09 percent, which would be 24 times greater than the proportion of Argentinians who are black. The chances of such an outcome occurring by chance is basically zero — and certainly not sufficient to warrant random bystanders wondering what on earth is going on with the makeup of the team.

 

What a strange set of obsessions we’ve developed here in the West.