Episode Summary In this episode, Danielle and Jenny begin with the joy, tension, and absurdity of international sports, especially soccer and the World Cup. Danielle reflects on watching Mexico and the United States play with Luis in Ciudad Juárez, her complicated love of competition, and the hope sports can offer in a time when the world feels increasingly unbearable. Jenny brings her own layered relationship to soccer, shaped by growing up with three older brothers who played seriously, and the two move between humor, memory, family, and the embodied experience of watching teams push themselves together. But the conversation quickly turns toward the contradiction of the United States hosting the world while treating the world as a threat. Danielle names the violence of border enforcement, denied entry for fans and referees, strip searches, racial profiling, ICE snatch-and-grabs in Kitsap County, and the expanding presence of GEO Group vans at the Northwest Detention Center. Jenny frames this contradiction through the question of hospitality: what does it mean to host the world while acting as though the world is dangerous, unwanted, or disposable?
“I just love the competition of it and seeing how far people can push their bodies and how far they can go. And I love team sports. I didn’t used to like soccer, but I’ve been watching World Cup games with Luis, who’s my partner. Since Mexico played the United States, we watched that game in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico together. And that’s one of the last times the U.S. won. We were down there, and I remember cheering and looking around, and Luis was like, ‘Don’t cheer. You’re going to get us in trouble.’”
“I started getting out of my skin this morning listening to stories about the international teams arriving in Mexico and being met with mariachis and food and dancing and celebration, and then hearing about teams arriving here and being locked in rooms, strip searched, cavity searched, and the best Somali referee being sent back. He can’t referee here, which is freaking insane. FIFA has its own problems, but this is the contradiction: we’re supposed to be hosting the world, and yet we’re treating the world like it’s dangerous.”
“I have a love-hate relationship with soccer because I had three older brothers and they all played soccer very seriously. Two of them went to state, one of them was first team all-state for Colorado. Every weekend was a soccer tournament. By the time I was old enough for my parents to ask if I wanted to play, I was like, ‘No, I hate soccer. I’m going to do dance.’ I still like that choice. I prefer dancing more than soccer, but soccer is the one sport where I actually know what’s going on and know the rules. Anything else, I just dissociate and have no idea what’s happening. I do like the snacks that often come with watching sports, though.”
“I saw the story about the referee not being allowed in, and it made me think about the question of hospitality. We are hosting the world, and yet as a nation, as a government, we are acting as though we hate the world. It’s such a weird time. I honestly would not blame countries if they said, ‘No, we’re not actually going to go at all.’”