维尼修斯的抗争：当绝世进球被种族主义的阴霾笼罩

What should have been a night for the football world to celebrate a stunning goal — Vinicius's strike was absolutely magnificent and deserved to dominate every sports front page — instead became something far uglier.

Yet once again, the sport was dragged into that foul swamp it seemingly can never crawl out of: alleged racist abuse, the inevitable denials, flimsy excuses, and the astonishing ignorance of people who should know better.

For Vinicius, this suffocating script is nothing new — in fact, this marks the 20th serious incident of alleged abuse in his professional career.

The latest accusation occurred at Lisbon's Estádio da Luz, just minutes after Vinicius scored that earth-shaking goal, when Benfica's Argentine midfielder Gianluca Prestianni was accused of directing racist abuse at him.

Although Prestianni vehemently denied it, Vinicius received strong backing from his teammates, especially Kylian Mbappé, who explicitly told the media he heard the racially charged word repeated five times.

And after the match, Benfica manager José Mourinho's comments pushed the controversy to a staggering new low, essentially blaming the player himself for provoking the incident.

Mourinho stated in an interview that while these genius players can create beautiful moments, unfortunately Vinicius wasn't content with just scoring that incredible goal — implying that when you score, you should celebrate in a "respectful" manner.

Mourinho then put forward a logically indefensible argument, claiming that Benfica could not possibly be a racist club simply because Eusébio, the greatest player in the club's history, was Black.

Such rhetoric marks not only a cognitive regression but also reflects a deep-seated pathology in current media discourse — particularly in Spain, and now apparently in Portugal too, where public opinion seems perpetually stuck in the same dead end.

"Yes, they did insult him, but he should have behaved better" — this has become the eternal refrain whenever Vinicius faces abuse.

This line of reasoning attempts to sever the abusive act from the victim's response, as if they aren't part of the same causal process — a logic that is utterly absurd.

When Vinicius bravely confronts the jeering from the stands, his attitude is often interpreted as arrogance, provocation, and inappropriate behavior.

Yet this intense reaction is actually consistent with the source of his protest against racism — an ongoing struggle for survival in a hostile environment.

As Frantz Fanon wrote in his enormously influential 1952 work "Black Skin, White Masks": "The Black man must work twice as hard just to be accepted as human."

Perhaps for Vinicius, this heavy psychological burden has transformed into anger, tension, and body language that from the outside may seem somewhat excessive.

But if we try to examine things from his perspective, from the inside, these behaviors can be seen as nothing more than pure survival instinct.

When the Spanish media demands that Vinicius restrain himself — "just play football and keep quiet" — this points precisely to what American sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva defines as "racism without racists."

It is a cultural framework that doesn't directly insult, but instead deflects by blaming the victim's reaction, thereby maintaining a certain structural bias.

Vinicius has become a global symbol of the fight against discrimination — he is not only fighting for himself but is working to force authorities to tighten protocols and take substantive action.

The hostility directed at Vinicius is real — it is not a fabricated victim complex, but is backed by specific names, dates, and court verdicts as iron-clad proof.

The recent clash at the Estádio da Luz marks the 20th accusation of abuse during his time at Real Madrid — a number that is staggering in itself.

His journey has taken him to stadiums across Spain where he has faced insults at every turn, and even outside the grounds, he has not been spared.

He once witnessed a black mannequin dressed in his jersey hanging from a bridge — a scene laden with horrific lynching overtones — and had to testify in court about it.

He has seen Valencia and Mallorca fans receive suspended sentences for racist abuse, largely thanks to La Liga's efforts to ensure such behavior no longer goes unpunished.

It should be noted that for a long time, the judicial culture took a lenient and even permissive attitude toward so-called "industry language" and "banter" in football.

If we review a chronology of the incidents he has endured, it makes for deeply depressing reading.

As early as October 2021, during the El Clásico at Camp Nou, a fan hurled racist abuse at him as he was being substituted, but the case was ultimately dropped because police could not identify the perpetrator.

Then in March 2022, Mallorca fans directed monkey chants at him and yelled at him to "go pick bananas."

At the time, authorities expressed "outrage" and called the behavior "despicable," but deemed it not of "criminal significance," and ultimately no substantive action was taken.

Even more shockingly, on the Spanish football show "El Chiringuito," the president of Spain's Football Agents Association, Pedro Bravo, actually advised Vinicius to "stop acting like a monkey."

Although he later apologized on social media, claiming his wording was unfortunate and that he only meant to use the phrase metaphorically for "fooling around," the remarks caused enormous outrage in Brazil — yet still no consequences followed.

In September 2022, Atlético Madrid fans sang racist songs outside the stadium, and prosecutors likewise filed no charges.

Then things escalated further — in January 2023, an effigy dressed in Vinicius's jersey was found hanging from a bridge in Madrid.

Four members of an extremist fan group were sentenced to 14 to 22 months in prison, though the sentences were later reduced to fines and restraining orders — but this at least indicated a shift in judicial attitudes.

Over the following months, similar incidents occurred one after another, with perpetrators mostly receiving extremely light punishment or no consequences at all.

If there truly was a turning point, it came in May 2023 at Mestalla Stadium, when Vinicius directly confronted fans in the stands after being subjected to abuse.

During added time in that match, he was sent off after striking Valencia goalkeeper Hugo Duro in the face during an altercation — that moment of chaos became the focus of global attention.

It wasn't until June 2024 that three fans involved in the abuse were sentenced to 8 months in prison and a two-year stadium ban — the first criminal conviction of its kind in Spanish history.

When he returned to Mestalla in March 2024, he was met with stadium-wide boos, and his response was two goals and a raised-fist celebration.

Sometimes, he doesn't even need to be present at a match to feel the racist hostility.

Just 11 days after his return to Mestalla, before the Champions League match between Atlético Madrid and Inter Milan, racist chants targeting him rang out outside the ground again, and Real Madrid promptly reported the incident to the hate crimes prosecutor's office.

A mere five days later, at Osasuna's home ground, chants of "Vinicius must die" were heard.

On September 29, 2024, four people were arrested for anonymously inciting a hate campaign on social media and insulting the player during the Madrid derby.

The most recent incident came in February this year during the Copa del Rey semifinal against Real Sociedad, when the referee halted the match under anti-hate protocols — cameras caught a fan making monkey gestures at Vinicius during the stoppage.

Even last month, during Álvaro Arbeloa's managerial debut in the Copa del Rey against Albacete as Real Madrid's head coach, a group of fans directed racist abuse at the Brazilian.

Now, we must once again confront what happened in Lisbon.

You might ask: why does Vinicius continue this seemingly endless cycle of reaction and fight?

Why not choose to look the other way?

In June 2024, after the racists who abused him in Valencia were sentenced to prison, he gave a resounding answer.

Vinicius wrote on social media: "Many people told me to ignore it, and others said my fight was pointless and I should just 'play football.'"

But he immediately followed with: "However, as I have always said, I am not a victim of racism — I am the executioner of racists."

"The first criminal conviction in Spanish history is not for me — it is for all Black people."