There is a wonderful article in the Sunday New York Times about the controversy over a boys soccer program in Clarkston, Georgia. The story looks at a boys soccer program called the Fugees — short for refugees. The Fugees are indeed all refugees, from the most troubled corners — Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burundi, Congo, Gambia, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Somalia and Sudan. Some have endured unimaginable hardship to get here: squalor in refugee camps, separation from siblings and parents. One saw his father killed in their home. The Fugees, 9 to 17 years old, play on three soccer teams divided by age. Their story is about children with miserable pasts but also one about the challenges facing resettled refugees in this country. More than 900,000 have been admitted to the United States since 1993. The Fugees’ coach, a woman volunteering in a league where all the other coaches are men, some of them paid former professionals from Europe, she spends as much time helping her players’ families make new lives here as coaching soccer. The Times reports that some town residnts, opposing players and even the parents of those players, hurl racial epithets and make it clear they resent the mostly African team. In a region where passions run high on the subject of illegal immigration, many are unaware or unconcerned that, as refugees, the Fugees are here legally. “There are no gray areas with the Fugees,” said the coach, Luma Mufleh. “They trigger people’s reactions on class, on race. They speak with accents and don’t seem American. A lot of people get shaken up by that.”
KJ
