Zouma And The Cats

Before I was able to come back online yesterday, I had been offline for days, so I actually missed the genesis of the whole Zouma fiasco. When I did come online yesterday, it was still the trending thing. So, who's Zouma and what happened?

The Man Kurt Zouma

According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Zouma, 'Kurt Happy Zouma (born 27 October 1994) is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club West Ham United and the France national team. Zouma began his career at Saint-Étienne, making his professional debut aged 16, and going on to win the Coupe de la Ligue with the club in 2013. Zouma joined Chelsea for £12 million in January 2014, but was loaned back to the French club for the remainder of the season. In his first full campaign in England, Zouma helped Chelsea win the League Cup and the Premier League. In July 2017, Zouma joined Stoke City on loan for the 2017–18 season. This was followed by another loan move to Everton for the 2018–19 season. Zouma represented France at several youth levels, up to under-21. He made his senior international debut against Denmark on 29 March 2015.

Zouma's parents emigrated to France from the Central African Republic. His older brother Lionel plays in the same position and his younger brother Yoan is also a defender. Zouma is named after Kurt Sloane, Jean-Claude Van Damme's character in the 1989 film Kickboxer, while his middle name Happy reflects an African tradition of using positive words as middle names. Zouma is married to Sandra, with whom he has three children.' As of today, he plays for West Ham United.

The Incident/Scandal

On the seventh day of this month, three days back to be precise, a footage emerged of Zouma hitting and kicking his cat for defecating on his bed. According to him, the cats are fine, nothing happened to them afterwards, despite his actions.

Since the incident, fire, hay and brimstones have been falling on Zouma. His club and the RSPCA(A body responsible for prevention of animal cruelty in UK) has both condemned him. His club decided to fine two weeks wage! That's a whooping $500,000! This money will be donated to animal charities. Adidas has cancelled his sponsorship deal as well. Other sponsors of the player and/or the club have either cancelled their deal or are consulting on how to do so.

The Hypocrisy/Double Standard

I won't even try to sugarcoat this. I am not one to ever get violent with anything or anyone and I vehemently oppose violence of any kind as best as I can, but the man kicked a cat, his own cat, not somebody else's. He was wrong to treat the cat that way, but I'm sure it was an isolated incident. If he was cruel to animals, he wouldn't have gotten one for a pet in the first place. This is what everybody wants his head for.

What Zouma is experiencing today is Neo-racism. The reason everybody is crying fire and brimstone is because he's of African descent. White players have done worse and gotten off with a pat on the back, just because. We have seen white players done worse thing to humans, we've seen them rape, assault and abuse women and still get a pass, they still have the full support of their club and fanbase all through it, but Zouma kicked a cat and his club was among the first group to cancel him, and they have continued to do so openly on the media.

We have seen white players, fans and official who were being outright racist on the pitch get the full backing of the league, their club and so on. They get to walk without any sort of reprimand or anything. The incidents are buried and cancelled like it never happened, but Zouma kicked a cat and everyone, from the fan to the league has dragged him to the slaughter and are already butchering his life and career apart. In this era on the cancel culture, the disguised behavior of racist is becoming really appalling.

The outcry when Greenwood was exposed to have sexually and physically abused his girl was nothing compared to this, neither did Manchester united publicly reproved or shame him. I could just keep spinning names and acts, but I don't need to,,because we all know the truth even if few of us are willing to say it.

Last I check, Greenwood girlfriend's life matter more than that of a cat because she's human, but I guess people think otherwise because the guy who hurt the cat is less than the cat in their eyes and Greenwood is more valuable than his girlfriend.

Zouma was wrong to have kicked his cat, but the racist outcry that has followed is even more evil. My hearts goes to Zouma, I hope you get through this and get back stronger, and to the cats of course, I hope you guys are restored to you friend and happy place soon.

Thanks for reading