Let’s Talk About Racism In Football And Social Media
Every football club in the Premier League will have racist fans. Whether your team battles for relegation, top 4 or the league there will be a small minority of fans with a racist outlook on life. That is unfortunately the world we live in, where there is difference hate tends to be close by. While football can be considered society in microcosm, as fans I feel we need to discuss the thing that is plaguing the beautiful game – Racism In Football.
So, of course Manchester United dropped points yesterday against a well organised Wolves side. It happens in football. You’re not going to win every game and your not going to blow teams away in every tie, that is just football. Paul Pogba missing what could have been the game winning penalty was frustrating we were all frustrated and when the red mist drops we tend to vocalize how we feel and search for a medium to release our anger upon, in this case Paul Pogba.
Rightly or wrongly, Paul Pogba is considered the face of the Manchester United team which is why he is on the end of some harsh criticisms from fans and pundits alike. Again, sometimes the criticism is rightly justified; “he goes missing during games” ,”Pogba is inconsistent” and “Paul Pogba should’ve scored that penalty” are all valid reasons to get on Pogba’s back but to then bring in the colour of his skin is the real disgrace. Says more about the person tweeting than Paul Pogba himself.
Racism is a cancer within football and like cancer coming across a cure will be and is very difficult. However the first thing we need to do as fans is reaise this is a nationwide problem within the beautiful game, and perhaps even a global one too. We’ve seen countless situations such as the Raheem Sterling incident last season and more recently the Tammy Abraham and Paul Pogba incidents which took place on social media. The natural tendency for a football fan is to resort to our tribal nature and ridicule certain fanbases for their respective incidents and use it as an oppurtunity to get “one up” on that club, this is part of the problem.
Admittedly, we have all done it. Just last week I saw a tweet of a KKK ceremony where someone had edited it and put the “Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea!!” chant over the top. I found it funny and retweeted it. Which was probably the wrong thing to do in hindsight as that is part of the problem. I used it as a reason to say “your clubs racist, mine isn’t ha ha haaa”, ignoring the fact that a 21-year-old had just been abused by his own fans online for missing a penalty. Sometimes it does take these things to hit closer to home for us to really appreciate their severity. We need to be UNITED against racism not divided. When one fan decides to abuse any player because of their colour, the fact that a player was abused racially should be highlighted not the club involved.
As for the social media platforms, that were used to voice racist remarks towards Paul Pogba, Tammy Abraham or any player that might have been subject to any sort of abuse online, they must do more. I don’t think that the derogatory terms really reflect the true nature of the keyboard warriors in the main. I feel because it is so easy to create a faceless account that is basically untraceable, people get a buzz off creating news and gaining attention for their comments. The same people go unpunished and continue to do the same things. I personally agree with Harry Maguire’s sentiment, make it harder to make untraceble accounts and the cowards have nowhere to flourish.
Do not like any racist posts and do not retweet any racist tweets, simply report them and get on with your day. The attention is why the trolls feel the need to post racist remarks, don’t give them the light of day and we will take a step, however small, to the a true beautiful game.
Founder, Editor, Writer.
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William Bitibirihttps://www.downthewings.com/author/wilzinho21/
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William Bitibirihttps://www.downthewings.com/author/wilzinho21/
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William Bitibirihttps://www.downthewings.com/author/wilzinho21/
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William Bitibirihttps://www.downthewings.com/author/wilzinho21/
