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Sports Watch by Dinith Pathi: Social media “cowards” and racial abuse

10 Aug 2021

      [caption id="attachment_154659" align="alignleft" width="422"] An England fan waves a smoke bomb in front of a line of police officers monitoring England supporters standing on the edge of Trafalgar Square during a live screening of the Euro 2020 football final between England and Italy, in central London on July 11, 2021[/caption]

Social media has already showed the world its power, the good, and the bad, and it is so in sports too

While social media has brought about a lot of good, it was always going to be used by unscrupulous elements for their own gain as well. The latest sickening trend in social media is the fact that the so-called sports “fans” are hiding behind social media anonymity to direct racial abuse at sports persons.

This has reached such a level that there has been a clamour from various sources to regulate speech on social media. Whilst this might very well defeat the very idea of having social media itself, the conduct of some users might eventually bring about this change, going forward.

This abuse has specially been prevalent on social media during high-profile sports events. This has become a fashion now where, during most high-profile events, some “trolls” would start some comment or the other, and it would then escalate to a level where the players, especially the players of colour would be targeted for abuse.

This was the case with the just-concluded Euro 2020 football tournament in England. When the England team lost the final match on penalties, there was a tremendous amount of abuse directed at the players through this medium.

Racial abuse

Racial abuse is abhorrent in any form and use whatsoever. No person should be targeted for his or her skin colour, religion, looks, sexuality, or any other forms of discrimination.

But whilst, unfortunately, this might sound good on principle, in actual fact it happens too much in society. In some cases, even us, whilst thinking that we don’t have any discriminatory bone in our body whatsoever, might have “unconscious bias” towards a certain discriminatory aspect. This is where it is very important that all people educate themselves regarding this latest dividing factor in society.

In the Euro 2020, after England lost the tournament, as mentioned earlier, the players were targeted. Whilst all and sundry condemned it, unfortunately it took a rather political turn as well as some players directly took aim at the government and its conduct for the abuse directed towards the players.

Before the tournament started, Priti Patel, the British Home Secretary had said she “did not support” those engaging in “that type of gesture politics”, when asked if she supported stars taking the knee.

“Taking the knee” was a gesture where the players went down on one knee before the start of any match for one minute against any type of discrimination in sports. And she further said it was up to fans whether they booed the gesture during England’s Euro 2020 campaign.

Condemnation of Ministers

But when the abuse was directed at the players after the tournament, all the Ministers in the government, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself, condemned it in the strongest possible terms. When the Home Secretary also headed up figures slamming the racists by saying, “Players who have given so much for our country this summer have been subject to vile racist abuse on social media. It has no place in our country and I back the police to hold those responsible accountable.” Her words struck an immediate chord particularly with some England players, who did not hold back on their criticism of her.

Replying to the Tweet, the England defender Tyrone Mings said: “You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ and then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens.”

The comments by Mings come as his team-mate Marcus Rashford said he was left ‘close to tears’ after well-wishers covered graffiti sprayed on his Manchester mural with loving notes in the wake of his Euro 2020 penalty heartache. A mural of Rashford in Greater Manchester was defaced in the hours following the final, but locals responded by covering the graffiti with messages of support for the 23-year-old striker.

Even England Captain Harry Kane sent his own message to those behind the vile racist abuse of England stars in the wake Euro 2020 final defeat by saying: “We don’t want you.”

Universal condemnation

The condemnation of this abuse was not limited to England itself. Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Barry who turned her back on the US flag during the national anthem has weighed in on the racist abuse directed at England soccer players, saying that fans ‘only love us when it benefits them’.

The 32-year-old Olympian tweeted on Monday (9) that the racist abuse of three black players; Marcus Rashford, 23, Jadon Sancho, 21, and Bukayako Saka, 19, had faced was a ‘heartbreaking situation’ following their defeat in the Euro final.

For that matter, even some football players from other countries weighed in, with their thoughts. Kylian Mbappe, the French striker, had reportedly reached out to Marcus Rashford offering empathy to the England forward after his penalty miss in the Euro 2020 final. And according to The Athletic, Mbappe messaged Rashford after the Wembley final to offer his support and advice for the Manchester United forward.

Conclusion

There will always be hateful elements in sports. There will also always be “cowards” who don’t have the courage to say what they want to say, without the anonymity of social media.

Whether this should be made a criminal offence, as some have suggested, is another discussion for another day altogether.

But, on the other hand, even today at this moment of time there has to be some penalty for these “undesirables”. What and how it should be done is a matter for the authorities to decide.

 

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