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Lilian Thuram battling Cristiano Ronaldo for a head ball during the 2006 World Cup.

Harvard Gazette: "Making soccer everyone’s game"

June 6, 2018

Lilian Thuram became a Parisian at age 9 in 1981, moving to France’s capital from his native Guadeloupe. It was also the year he “became black,” the former international soccer player said through a translator, because that was when he realized “being black was seen negatively.”

As the World Cup nears, organizers are bracing for possible incidents of racism at the competition’s 12 Russian stadiums. In the months leading up to one of the world’s most watched sporting events, the host nation has seen a rise in racist and anti-gay chants at soccer games, according to a recent...

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