{"id":20251,"date":"2014-12-03T06:46:23","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T12:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=20251"},"modified":"2014-12-03T06:46:23","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T12:46:23","slug":"british-soccer-star-apologizes-for-racist-anti-semitic-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/british-soccer-star-apologizes-for-racist-anti-semitic-post\/","title":{"rendered":"British soccer star apologizes for racist, anti-Semitic post"},"content":{"rendered":"

(JTA) — British soccer player Mario Balotelli, who grew up the foster son of a Jewish mother, apologized for a racist and anti-Semitic post on his Instagram page.<\/span>

On Tuesday, Balotelli apologized on Twitter for the post, which featured a photo of Nintendo computer game character Super Mario and read, in part, that the character “jumps like a Black man and grabs coins like a Jew.”<\/span>

Balotelli, 24, who plays for the Liverpool team, is nicknamed Super Mario. He is the son of immigrants from Ghana.<\/span>

He also was notified that he is being investigated by Britain’s Football Association under its strict anti-racism rules. Balotelli has until Friday to offer his explanation about the post.<\/span>

Balotelli’s apology tweet said in part, “I apologize if I’ve offended anyone. The post was meant to be anti-racist with humor. I now understand that out of context it may have the opposite effect.”<\/span>

The rest of the Super Mario post reads: \u201cDon\u2019t be racist. Be like Mario. He\u2019s an Italian plumber, created by Japanese people, who speaks English and looks like a Mexican.\u201d<\/span>

On Monday, following criticism of the post, Balotelli responded with a tweet that said, \u201cMy Mom is jewish so all of u shut up please.\u201d<\/span>

Jewish leaders in Britain criticized the Super Mario post as anti-Semitic and racist.<\/span><\/p>\n

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