There have been many instances of racism associated with Lithuanian basketball over the past decade. A 2008 story published in the Baltic Times cited a study that accused the former Soviet state of claiming to be highly tolerant, but that tolerance is normally only contained within the confines of basketball. However, that same article conceded that the Baltic nation has been named least tolerant of any country in the European Union.
In 2012, an undercover police officer arrested a Lithuanian fan for making “monkey chants” during a game against Nigeria at the Summer Olympics in London. Yet another Lithuanian fan was caught giving the Nazi salute at black game stewards at the London Summer games.
Despite that, the government has tried to dissuade the notion of racism being a cultural norm in the country, releasing a wildly popular anti-racism video in 2015. But reality always has a sickening way of crashing in on sleek P.R. campaigns inducing digital “feels” that ultimately amount to nothing.
Can you imagine how ridiculous it would be for a team president of a professional team to say his team his lame because it has too many black people? Well that’s exactly what’s going on right now as Gedvydas Vainaukas of BC Lietuvos Rytas was straight wilding with the racism during a videotaped interview with a FIBA.com reporter.
“We’ve always held a stance that there shouldn’t be more than two black players on the team,” Vainauskas said. “What happened was that coach Tomas Pacesas likes to play with black players — to control them, to teach them, to tutor them — and we ended up with four players that are black. All of a sudden, they came together to form … how should I put it … a sort of a gang. It cannot be that way; no more than two black players — I can say that from my 23 years of experience in the business. Teams, don’t ever have more than two black players … (smiles) Because that’s when bad things start to take place.”
Gangs? Bad things?
So Lithuania has a problem with roving gangs composed of black professional basketball players? FIBA.com writer Simonas Baranauskas reports that the original content of the video was edited out. The rabid racial troglodyte did release a limp-wristed apology. But who’s going to read it? I hope brothers on his team watch their backs and look to find better employment opportunities with the quickness.
