Identifying the Idiots
Hi there, and welcome back to the blog. If this is your first time here reading a post on my site, then welcome. It’s always a pleasure to have new people on the site. Hopefully, if you like this article, we will see you back here for more in the future. I also want to welcome back those who are returning to the blog for this post. It is always lovely to have you, and I hope you enjoy this post.
I didn’t really plan on writing this post, and another was scheduled for this week, but I had to say something about the topic we will be discussing today.
This weeks topic is surrounding the UEFA Euro 2020 football final that took place last Sunday evening at Wembley Stadium in London. It was Italy against England, and Italy won it after a penalty shoot-out.
I would like to discuss what happened afterwards as three young England players missed penalties consecutively to give Italy the title. Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, three players all under the age of 24, the youngest Saka at 19-years=old. They all also happen to be black men who suffered a barrage of racist abuse on social media after the game.
It is utterly unacceptable that this is still happening in this day and age where young men who took on the most immense responsibility of their young sporting lives get subjected to racial abuse after missing in what is essentially a lottery penalty shoot-out.
The volume of racist messages sent to three young men under the age of 24 is staggering. How can anyone think this behaviour is acceptable? How can they think they can get away with it?
A mural of Marcus Rashford was also vandalised in Manchester after the final with racist messages that were quickly covered up by the council and replaced with kind messages by well-wishers in the days that followed.
Football is an emotional game, and while that is acknowledged, there is absolutely no need to send personal, threatening or racist messages to people for just doing their job. They are just disgusting and vile, and those sending them are no better. These awful, vile humans with nothing better to do than jump online and criticise these youngsters who had the courage and the conviction necessary to take the most crucial kick of their lives from the penalty spot.
Do these people think they could have done better? No. These people are a pure and utter disgrace to our society.
It was later reported in the media that a 50-year-old man was arrested for sending messages of a racist nature to one of the players. Imagine that? Someone more than twice the age of the three players sending abusive and vile messages through a social media app. A little bit of common sense should have prevailed, but he must have suffered a recent blow to the head and thought this behaviour was okay. Just disgusting.
People talk all the time about the game being gone due to bad VAR decisions or bad calls by the referee, but I believe that if a black player can’t go out on the field and have a less than perfect game without knowing that they will be subjected to this kind of abuse online afterwards then the game is already gone and has been for a long time.
A recent study has found that Marcus Rashford is the second most abused athlete on social media. The boy is 23-years-old. You see incredible idiocy on social media these days, and for a 23-year-old to have a stat like that is a massive shame.
This young man spent last summer ensuring that young kids had access to meals at school during the worst pandemic in a century when their living situation meant that meals at school were essential to the child and their family. He deserves to be hailed for life as a hero for this kind and unselfish gesture, not abused online by idiots with nothing better to do and who have done nothing for anyone.
Shame on the social media companies and these low lives who think they can get away with abusing a young athlete online.
Action needs to be taken immediately by social media companies; this can no longer fall on deaf ears. Proof of identification is a must for the future of the platform, and if not, it will fail in no time at all. Athletes will delete their profiles; sports teams will do likewise, quickly followed by companies, and advertisements will follow.
It is a matter of if and not when. Social media companies must not fail to take this abuse seriously. They must ensure that each user must provide some form of identification to obtain a profile on their platform.
We, as users of these platforms and the companies, both need to realise that this type of behaviour will not fly. We need to report and attempt to ban any user we see who posts public messages of a racist nature and permanently remove them from the platform. Companies also need to realise that these efforts are a stall at best. The biggest actions are to come from companies bringing in ID certification and permanently banning anyone who uses racist language or gestures online. It needs to stop NOW.
What do you think? What more needs to be done to combat online abuse and racism? Let me know in the comments below.
In closing, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope you liked it. I just felt this one was something I needed to say after the events of the last week. If you liked this one, I hope to see you back here for more blog posts in the future.
Until next time.
Warmest regards,
James.