Luighi's cry must be the cry of all fans

When I joined the PCB (Brazilian Communist Party), an assistant from the high school student base, Carlos Telles, a big Flamengo fan, taught me that people become communists through their stomach, their heart, or their brain. In my case, two of the three reasons above made me red, one was my heart: I grew up in the Baixada Fluminense, in a poor district of Duque de Caxias, and although I never went hungry, even being poor, I saw many people suffering misery around me, and this always hurt me. Alongside this, through reading I developed a critical awareness.

I am an atheist, a materialist, and a dialectician. I became a communist at the same time as I lost faith in any and all divinity. My dose of irrationality has always been football, my daily dose of opium, to alleviate the suffering of alienation, but always setting limits for myself. The limit of not attacking or killing anyone because they wear a different jersey, the limit of not hating another person because they are my opponent—they are my opponent, not my enemy.

I became a Flamengo fan because I was raised in a 100% Flamengo-supporting family – my father, mother, siblings, and uncles. Flamengo became my only irrationality and religion, within the healthy limits I've outlined above. And I became even more of a Flamengo fan because the fans are called "ragamuffins," "vultures," and "slum dwellers." Being called "ragamuffins," "marginalized," "vultures," "slum dwellers," and discriminated against became a source of pride and a part of the Nation. Obviously, I separate the Flamengo entity, the Nation, from the successive right-wing boards of directors of the Leblon club. Flamengo is much bigger than that, and I have always been proud to wear the Sacred Mantle.

This pride is even greater because of the many Black players who have worn the jersey, from Domingos da Guia and Leônidas da Silva to the recent and valiant Vinícius Júnior, the most prominent anti-racist among active football players in the world. What has been happening in football is simply absurd. For every racist chant, for every offense on the field, the players should sit down on the field or leave. And the clubs of the players or fans who committed the crime of racism should lose the points from those games and play behind closed doors for many games, so that it hurts both their wallets and their conscience.

Vinícius is greater than just being the greatest in the world; he has the courage to confront racism. Vinícius comes from a nation proud of its favela roots and its rags. Luighi, from Palmeiras, follows the same path. With courage, the boy who was attacked during the game between Cerro Porteño and Palmeiras denounced the racism and was moved to tears. Che Guevara already said that what moves a revolutionary is love, feeling in one's own skin the punch delivered to the face of everyone. We should all fight and cry with Vinícius Júnior and Luighi.

So, we can't excuse the racist fascists who found it funny to call Luighi a crybaby during the penalty shootout that decided Flamengo vs. Palmeiras. No, today is not a day to celebrate winning the Libertadores title again, today is not a day to exalt the boys from Ninho, who, thanks to the orishas, ​​didn't do the same as half a dozen or four fans, who don't represent the action, did, insulting a young man who was a victim of racism.

It's impossible to sweep this under the rug and let it go unpunished just because I'm a Flamengo fan. We need to take drastic measures and demand punishment for the fans who did this and for my club, as well as for all clubs that commit acts of racism. It's a fact that they don't represent the Nation, which is proud to be a fanbase of Black people and favela residents! We are vultures and rags.

These acts of racism can no longer go unpunished. Racists will not get away with it.

We are all Luighi and Vinicius Junior.

Luighi's cry is more important than Flamengo's under-20 Libertadores double!