Signs of intolerance towards minorities were recently reiterated from the governor's office in the U.S. state of Florida and the stands of a Spanish stadium.
By Roberto Morejón
Signs of intolerance towards minorities were recently reiterated from the governor's office in the U.S. state of Florida and the stands of a Spanish stadium.
The ultra-conservative Ron DeSantis, who intends to challenge the no less retrograde Donald Trump for the Republican Party's candidacy for the U.S. presidential elections in 2024, exhibits as "endorsement" his frenetic policies in Florida.
Without having judicial lawsuits on his back like his adversary, the real estate magnate, DeSantis boasts of his extreme positions, as his contender usually does.
The Florida governor unleashes culture wars against those he calls progressive or left-wing exponents, in areas such as racial justice, which he believes should not be taught in schools, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Among the banners raised by DeSantis are his calls to transform the education system in the southern state, because, in his opinion, what he calls "indoctrination", that is, teachers' attempts to explain to their students concepts of modern life, should be limited.
But the Republican who controls the Florida governor's office also has emulators in the Old Continent.
This was highlighted by the discriminatory incident against the Brazilian soccer player Vinicius Júnior at the Mestalla stadium, where the Real Madrid player once again received racist aggressions from the fans.
The outcry was immediate. The Brazilian president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, was very graphic in his expressions on the matter: "We cannot allow fascism and racism to take over the stadiums".
Part of the international press emphasized that this is not an isolated fact because they recalled the structural racism prevailing in publics and institutions of the First World, as advocated in laws on foreigners.
Non-governmental organizations have denounced that the mass media of the industrialized North feed the prejudiced imaginary, especially in the face of what they consider as danger, i.e., the arrival of boats with illegal immigrants.
The Vinicius episode and the excesses of Ron DeSantis are two expressions of the advance of the extreme right in industrialized societies that, with supposedly nationalist discourses, try to hide their hatred of diversity.
