Streamer IShowSpeed, born Darren Jason Watkins Jr., became the center of a viral controversy after facing racist abuse from Argentina supporters during the country’s World Cup Round of 32 match against Cabo Verde on July 3.
According to multiple outlets covering the incident, Speed was live streaming from the stands at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami while wearing a Cabo Verde jersey when a fan seated behind him used a racial slur and told him to “go home.” Reports also indicate a fan could be heard telling him to “go cry at the zoo,” a phrase widely flagged online as carrying racist undertones.
Video of the exchange spread rapidly across social media, with Speed’s calm response, using a barking hand gesture before returning his attention to the match, drawing praise from viewers even as backlash toward the fans involved intensified. Argentina ultimately advanced past Cabo Verde 3-2, ending the debutant nation’s tournament run.
The incident has since fueled a broader conversation online about anti-Black racism in Argentina, one that a widely shared Instagram reel has attempted to unpack in detail. In the video, a creator who identifies as half Argentine and half Brazilian argues that Argentina’s reputation as one of the “whitest” nations in Latin America was not accidental, but the result of deliberate historical policy.
The creator points to the 19th century Blanqueamiento, or “whitening,” campaign under President Domingo Sarmiento, which subsidized mass European immigration specifically to dilute the country’s Black and Indigenous population, alongside claims that Afro-Argentines were disproportionately used as frontline soldiers during wartime and left especially vulnerable during Buenos Aires’ 1871 yellow fever epidemic.
The creator also references Argentina’s vote against a United Nations resolution recognizing the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity, one of just three countries to do so.
A separate video making the rounds features an elderly Black man in Argentina describing his own decades of activism. Speaking about his experience, he said that while visibility around racism in the country has improved over time, acknowledgment alone hasn’t solved the deeper issue.
“What has improved is visibility,” he said. “Before, they said there wasn’t any, that it didn’t exist. Now it’s more visible. Things are better, but there’s still a long way to go.”
Together, the viral clips have pushed a wider audience to reckon with a history many say has long gone unaddressed, using Speed’s experience at the World Cup as an entry point into a much older conversation.
