He’s fed our children. He’s done so much for this country. He’s only 19. He took the penalty under immense pressure. These are just a few of the reasons that have been thrown about over the past few days as justifications as to why Rashford, Saka and Sancho don’t deserve to receive the racial abuse that they have done since missing the penalties in the final of the Euros on Sunday.
As I’m sure many of you reading this probably did, I sat in my local pub on Sunday - on edge - praying that we wouldn’t be going to penalties. Unfortunately, as we all know, our prayers didn’t work. As the only person of colour in the pub I’m sure that I viewed the penalties in a very different way to my friends and fellow England supporters. Because my first thought when Rashford, then Sancho, then Saka missed their penalties wasn’t what this meant for us in the tournament; it was that I knew that it would be used as fuel for the many racist people within the country. It would be an excuse for them to once again show their true colours and be out in full force, loud and proud of the fact that the 3 England players who had missed their penalties were POC. I knew what was to come whilst the majority of those around me probably hadn’t given it a second thought, or perhaps they hadn’t even considered that this was a possibility.
I ask you all to read and then re-read this statement: They do not deserve to receive racial abuse PERIOD.
Yes, Rashford has done an amazing and unbelievable thing for the struggling families and hungry children of this country. And yes, Saka is only 19 and Sancho is only 21 and both of them stood up in front of millions of fans, took on unimaginable amounts of responsibility and pressure and did their best. None of these achievements can be taken away from these men. But ultimately the point still stands: they weren't abused for missing their respective penalties, they were abused because of the colour of their skin. And the above mentioned statements are not justifications as to why they don’t deserve to receive racial abuse. None of these men deserve to be racially abused, and they certainly do not have to earn the right not to be treated this way. They don’t ever have to prove themselves in order to be treated in the same way and with the same regard as their White counterparts.
I can guarantee that had the roles been reversed, Kane and Maguire wouldn’t have been racially abused had they missed.
The worst part of this is arguably the fact that there are persistent cries and claims from this country that it is “no longer racist" and that it has “overcome racism”. Yet the abundance of racist comments on Marcus Rashford’s Instagram post, that ultimately forced him to remove the post, say otherwise. The vandalism that a mural of him in Manchester was subject to says otherwise. And the thousands of people unknowingly upsetting POC through posting and sharing these “justifications” says otherwise.
I understand that the people sharing these posts and views do not believe themselves to be racist and I’m not at all saying that I believe them to be either. But I do wonder whether they can be actively anti-racist when their first thought isn’t that these men don’t deserve to be racially abused simply because they are people, and the colour of their skin doesn't come into play. Instead, to some extent, they think that a reason or justification is needed. None of these men deserved or deserve to be attacked because of the colour of their skin, a factor that they have no control over. It is crucial that we recognise that Black people and POC do not have to deserve, or earn the right, to not experience racism.
Expressing and sharing this point of view, my point of view as a POC seeing these posts, is my way of being actively anti-racist and I hope that it helps others see how certain messages, despite their good intentions, can sometimes also convey messages to POC that they may not even be aware of.