Lionel Messi’s Argentina have been called out for their ‘lack of black representation’ at the World Cup.
Messi dragged his nation kicking and screaming to a historic victory in Qatar, beating France on penalties in the final to lift the coveted World Cup trophy.
The win sent the country into raptures as millions flocked to the streets of Buenos Aires to celebrate.
Seeing Messi, at 35 years of age, essentially complete football while wearing the blue and whites stripes of his Argentina was pretty special – but not everyone was happy with what they were witnessing on the pitch.
American media personality Joe Budden has criticised Argentina for their ‘lack of black representation’ at the World Cup in Qatar.
“Shoutout to Messi and them,” he said on his Joe Budden Network podcast.
“Argentina won, right? I caught the end of it and it was spectacular. They had a penalty-off. It was stressful.
“But black people was like ‘that’s strange’.”
Which is when Budden’s co-host intervened, saying: “Ain’t no black people playing for Argentina.”
“All the pictures of the Argentinian people and there ain’t no black representation. So people thought that was peculiar.
“Based on what I’ve read, they had a nice black demographic. And now that demo is not being represented anywhere.”
Although he didn’t name the source, Budden then pulled up something he’d clearly found online which went into detail about Argentina’s history.
“Argentina’s black population has been systemically removed and erased in a whitewash effort,” Budden said.
“It is widely reported that the president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874 undertook a covert genocide that wiped out the Afro-Argentinian population to the point that by 1875 there were so little black people left that the government didn’t even bother registering African descendants in the national census.
“During his term, the president instituted highly oppressive and deadly policies to eradicate black people. He segregated the black community from European descendants, placing them in squalor with no decency infrastructure and healthcare.
“This genocide also constituted the forced recruitment of Afro-Argentines into the military, mass imprisonment for minor or fabricated crimes and mass executions.”
Budden’s co-host then chimed in, adding: “Everything you read just there, what’s the difference in the ghetto?
“They segregate you. They put you in a s***y part of town where all of the resources are minimal or lacklustre in the hopes that you’ll all get the f**k outta here.
“We’re just so good at adverse conditions that we just thrive through it, but there ain’t no difference.
“They lock n****s up, send them to war. They did all of those things to get cheap labour and free labour and have you in f**ked up situations.”
The video gained plenty of views, being seen almost 55,000 times on Facebook alone.
But that said, people in the comments section weren’t necessarily agreeing with Budden and Co’s points.
One person commented: “Argentina is a country, not a Netflix film.”
While another added: “This was hard to listen to…”
As a third asked: “A these guys joking?”
