Alain Béral, the president of the National Basketball League, strongly criticized this Monday, March 6 on franceinfo, the “blackface” of three Portel supporters, present in the stands on Saturday with their skin painted black. An act that he describes as “racist” and “unacceptable”.
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“It is clear that the National Basketball League will never accept racist acts or invective in its arenas”, proclaimed this Monday March 6 on franceinfo the president of the LNB, Alain Béral, while three supporters attended the Le Portel-Roanne match in disguise and their skin painted black on Saturday. He recalls that this practice called “black face” East “an act considered deeply racist since the 19th century”.
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The Portel club qualified this weekend this controversy as “wrong interpretation”, ensuring that it was a tribute to Jacky Périgois, former assistant coach of the ESSM who left a few months ago for a new professional project in Martinique. But Alain Béral does not see it that way. “Do we hear these arguments? No, a racist practice is a racist practice”, replies the president of the LNB on Monday. Alain Béral wants “well at the limit imagine that the three people concerned did not have that in mind, but the result is the same”. For Alain Béral, in the face of general indignation, “there is at least a duty of reflection and information”.
“Something unacceptable”
The boss of the National Basketball League explains that this incident occurred while the Portel carnival was taking place and that “everyone was in disguise at that time”. This may explain, according to him, that he was “difficult to filter at the entrance when everyone is disguised for people who are not necessarily knowledgeable on the subject”. But whether it was a lack of discernment on the part of the supporters or an act “deliberate”, “whatever the answer, it’s something unacceptable”.
This accident will be followed by facts, promises Alain Béral. He assures that “two solutions” appear following this event: “explain and punish”. The president of the LNB thus affirms that “the steering committee will probably seize the Disciplinary Committee of the League at the beginning of the week, this committee will hear the parties and probably take a sanction decision against this action”.
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