To begin with, Mario Balotelli is a controversial football player to say the least. His actions often prove just that, with his name being discussed often for the "wrong" reasons.
A few days ago "Super Mario" (as his nickname is) posted a humoristic picture on his Instagram account. He used an old graphic of the well known Nintendo character Super Mario to pass an anti-racist message. The graphic (shown below) is not new and has been used by many people in the past. The post though was not considered anti-racist by many people and was said to include insulting and racist views!
Balotelli was forced to delete his post after the reaction of people who did not like the graphic or to say at least they did not see it in a humourous way. This action of course has been noticed by the English Football Association (FA) which may put Balotelli into an even more difficult situation!
Balotelli's reaction extended into a reply via his twitter account (seen below) expressing his apologies and that he had no intention to insult anyone.
This insinded can be view in various ways and raises several questions about athletes, Social Media, and people's perception and reaction on various issues.
1) Would the reaction be the same by people if it was not Balotelli and someone less controversial or less known athlete?
2) Does the graphic actually contain racist messages or is it simply a humorous anti-racist message?
3) Was Balotelli's intention to be controversial once again or did he had a good intention that went all wrong?
In my professional opinion (and everyone is entitled to agree or disagree of course) things are a bit like this:
1) People's reactions vary according to who posts what. Balotelli's controversial history makes him an easy target to anything he does. This graphic has been going around for a long time and has been shared by many people.
2) The graphic contains a humorous anti-racist message. We have to bare in mind though that what is acceptable or not, humorous or not, racist or not, changes over time as societies and their perceptions change too. So what was humorous and anti-racist 10 years ago may not be considered the same anymore.
3) I believe Mario Balotelli's intention was not to be racist. There are many ways to prove just that with Mario. Despite his obvious intention to pass an anti-racist message we come to the conclusion that he did not consider the possible reactions.
What has to be a key finding here once again is that Social Media when used by athletes, who have millions of followers and shape opinions, have to be taken more seriously. Social Media can be a powerful tool for everyone but especially famous people like athletes are. We have seen in the past similar cases with devastating results for athletes. One has to be extremely careful what they post on Social Media even with the best intentions! Professional help is always the best way to avoid this kind of traps.
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