But when it comes to mistreating workers to host a sports mega-event, Qatar is not alone. Last week, the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams announced the completion of their new football stadium in Inglewood, which cost around $5 billion. Lost amid breathless accounts of the stadium’s amenities—it “shimmers amid palm trees and parking lots and a six-acre artificial lake” and “looks as if it arrived from another world,” according to the Los Angeles Times—was the fact that two workers died in the process of stadium construction and dozens others contracted Covid-19.
Workers Juan Beccera and Simon Fite died during construction, with Beccera plunging 110 feet from the stadium’s roof. A lawsuit instigated by Beccera’s family asserts that unsafe working conditions contributed to his death. In addition, at least 75 workers contracted coronavirus while rushing to complete the stadium, having fallen behind schedule. That’s not to mention the gentrification that the stadium project jump-started. African Americans in particular are experiencing the burden of gentrification and displacement in Inglewood. The stadium is slated to host the opening and closing ceremonies for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.
Of course, Qatar and Los Angeles are not exact replicas. However, when elites from a country or city decide to host a sports mega-event in the 21st century, or to build a stadium as a so-called revitalization project, they also agree to import a slew of social problems, from displacement, debt, and militarization to worker exploitation and even death.
Journalist Sarah Jeong’s “information-nationalism” ideology is relevant to pondering the dynamics thrumming through Qatar and LA. One of information-nationalism’s central assumptions is that “when your country acknowledges human rights abuses, you are made weak.” We see this in Qatar, which has been slow to recognize worker abuse, but also in LA, where homelessness is a humanitarian crisis in plain sight that is rarely discussed as such.
As Jeong notes, “When you play the game of information-nationalism, you don’t slander your enemies; you tell the truth about them, while hiding the truth about yourself.” This can create a delusional sense of self-forgiveness that enables the creation and maintenance of Davis’s “disposable populations”: In other words, it allows people in the United States to criticize Qatar but not look at Los Angeles. We need to spotlight atrocities committed abroad, of course, but also those that happen at home. As Qatar, LA, and the ongoing coronavirus nightmare show, the merry-go-round of self-delusion must eventually stop before everything unravels. Sometimes sports can be the place where people stand up and say, “No more,” where reality can get a foothold. Let’s hope that day comes sooner rather than later.
