Black England Soccer Players Speak Out Against Racism on Social Media
Credit: Unsplash
The players condemned comments that were made after the Euro 2020.
The final game of the European Championship 2020 soccer game was held this past Sunday. In the end, the England team was defeated by the Italy team with a final score of 3-2. While soccer riots are, unfortunately, nothing new following a big loss, this particular loss exposed an extremely ugly facet of soccer fans: the various Black members of the England team were beset by extremely racist, incendiary remarks on the social media profiles. Not only have the comments themselves drawn much blowback, but a lot of that blowback has been directed toward the social platforms themselves for not doing anything to curb racist language.
“Their responsibility to the wider community goes far further than their valuations or what their shareholders may get from their companies,” said Shaka Hislop, a former West Ham United and Newcastle United goalkeeper and a founding member of campaign group Show Racism the Red Card. “They play a role in our culture, they play a role in our communities, and they have to recognize that.”
One of the players who received hateful messages, Bukayo Saka, said that he sincerely wishes no one, adult or child, would ever have to be subjected to the kind of comments he received. “I knew instantly the kind of hate that I was about to receive and that is a sad reality that your powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages,” he said.
— Bukayo Saka (@BukayoSaka87) July 15, 2021
“There is no place for racism or hate of any kind in football or in any area of society and to the majority of people coming together to call out these messages, by taking action and reporting these comments to the police and by driving out the hate by being kind to one another, we will win,” said Saka.
