Sweden has parliament elections today (September 19th) and before the elections one of the major topics has been "Sverigedemokrat" party which is openly racist. They have got great amount of resistance and unfortunately some of the people who don't share their narrow-minded opinions about immigrants went too far as one of them attackted the leader of this party and engraved swastika to his forehead. While this kind of actions are wrong, it has been wonderful to see majority to disagree with them and starting campaigns against them to make sure they won't be in the next government. Even Swedish athletes have decided to raise their voice for tolerance.
Swedish sports stars: Stand up against racism.
Several of the biggest sports stars encourage their fans not to vote for a xenophobic party in parliament elections with an open letter.
Hockey legend Börje Salming is one of the stars and he believes that team sports counters racism.
- There you learn to respect everyone, otherwise you won't be there, he says to Expressen.se.
The beloved athletes are asking their fans not to vote for a xenophobic party.
"Sport is about brotherhood, to fight for every victory, but to always respect each other and never ever look down on anyone because of their color, origin or name. Racism and sports do not mix, the same should apply to the rest of society.", they write among other things in their open letter.
Several stars have signed
A couple of dozen athletes have signed the letter. For example Peter Forsberg, Carolina Klüft (track and field athlete, maybe the best heptathlon-er (?) there's ever been) and legend Börje Salming.
- There is no one who is better than anyone else. One is fair to everyone, that applies in sports, says Börje Salming who thinks it's important to counter racism.
- I think it's so obvious that we must respect each other, but not everyone thinks that way, he says.
Börje Salming is positive about team sports counter racism and xenophobia.
- Absolutely, we should learn to be fair to each other and it leads you to live your life right.
Do you think it would be better to see Sweden as a team?
- You have to hope that Sweden can become a team and be just/fair towards and kind to one another.
Link to the original post.
I often complain that athletes have usually nothing interesting or important to say but this is very important. I usually can understand people with very different kinds of opinions - or at least respect their opinions but racism is something I don't get. I find it very unfair to judge people by qualities that are determined by genes (skin colour) or by furtune (where you were born). Those things tell nothing about one as a person. It is sad how many people fail to realize this and keep thinking their race and/or nationality is somehow better than anyone else's. Because it's not. We born equal. And we sure as hell are all equal in front of death.
