Black FIFA fans should not have been rooting for Argentina to win Sunday’s World Cup Final, honorary Oscar recipient Samuel L. Jackson declared on Instagram.
Jackson, who played Stephen, the manipulative head house slave in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, reposted a viral meme that features a photo of the character. The text of the post reads, “Dear Black People: Please do not cheer or root for Argentina to win the FIFA World Cup. Argentina has historically been one of, if not the most racist countries in the world.”
It continues, referencing Jackson’s pictured Django character, “If you are a Black person cheering for Argentina, this is what you look like to me. We hear you loud and clear.”
Argentina lost the match to Spain, 1-0, before Jackson recirculated the post.
The star, who was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Award for his breakout role in 1994’s Pulp Fiction, has called out racism throughout his career, which spans 54 years and over 100 films. In 2023, he slammed Donald Trump as a racist “redneck” while promoting the Marvel series Secret Invasion.
“When I grew up in segregation, I knew which white people didn’t want to be bothered with me, and I knew how they felt about me,” he told Rolling Stone at the time.
“When I see Trump, I see the same rednecks I saw when I was growing up who called me ‘n-----’ and tried to keep me in my place,” he added. “That’s what the Republican Party is to me. They’re doing it to young people, gay people. They don’t care who you are. If you’re not them, you’re the enemy.”
Jackson’s take on the historical racism in Argentina traces back to the erasure of the country’s Black population through deliberate census omission and state-sponsored policies that tied caste placement with skin color following the abolition of slavery.
