When the cheers turn to violence

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LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 11: England players watch from the center line as Harry Maguire of … [+] England (not shown) take England’s second penalty kick in a penalty shootout in the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship final between Italy and England at Wembley Stadium on 11 July 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Eddie Keogh – The FA / The FA via Getty Images)

The FA via Getty Images

Since early June, many have retreated to the UEFA Euros, eagerly awaiting games as a way to reconnect with friends after being separated for so long due to COVID-19 and to celebrate (or sympathize together) . It was a time to celebrate and cheer together to support the team you feel aligned with.

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The final, on July 11, was a highly anticipated match between Italy and England. Both teams were incredibly worthy and eager for victory. However, it has become very evident that not all English fans will be civilized enough as we had hoped or hoped for. Even before the match began, Twitter was inundated with videos of a number of English fans vandalizing Leicester Square (with a noted police absence, especially given their handling of Sarah Everard’s vigil), with one man standing outside PC World completely naked mocking and many fans skipping turnstiles and skipping COVID checks at Wembley Stadium.

Many watched the final moments of the penalty shootout gasping for air – excited and nervous at the same time. In total, Italy won with England missing 3 penalties by Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka. Surely the common reaction is to be upset, to get rid of her, to congratulate the other team, to be proud that England have come this far and to move on. That was the main response from many, but what we’ve seen since the game ended has been a wave of racist vitriol against these three young black men.

Football is just a sport, many see it regularly as the ‘beautiful game’, but there is a very clear problem with the behavior of rude and racist fans, especially among English fans. After the sanctions ended, these footballer social networks were inundated with monkey emojis, racist slurs and many people threatening violence against blacks, using the N word. The message was clear: this group of fans will only consider these 3 black men to be British if they win. What embarrassment. As Mesut zil said when he resigned from the German national football team, I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose.

It’s far too practical for these groups of England supporters to do this and willfully forget that they would have been happy to cheer if these three men had scored.

Are we also forgetting that Marcus Rashford helped feed millions of poor and hungry children in the UK last year? Jadon Sancho has opened new football pitches for young people in South London. Bukayo Saka is only 19 years old, blazing his own trail as a fresh new voice for football youth.

Are we somehow trying to say that a penalty makes us more proud of them than all of that? Because that would be a ridiculous idea. It’s important to note that whatever phenomenal work these men have done, they don’t deserve this treatment and neither do their teammates. No one does. Black people don’t have to be superhuman or exceptional for us to be against anti-black racism.

There is no responsibility

But why does this keep happening? This continues because there is no accountability and there are no repercussions. We have seen the Prime Minister and Home Secretary speak out against this racism, but both have fueled it with their policies and have actively spoken out against the England team for taking the knee against racism, willingly saying that they were supporting the fans who hooted the team. What is that other than showing blatant support for those same racists they now condemn?

All of this is just not good enough. It’s very easy to say that these people don’t represent England, but it’s too common to be so obtuse. That’s why bands like Show Racism The Red Card and Kick It Out exist. It is believed that these kinds of racist people are separate from everyone else, but it is clear that they are in our workplaces, teaching our children, working in hospitals, etc. It’s rooted.

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In order to deal with this, there has to be honesty around why we are in this position and how it needs to be changed. The only way to do this is to have a clear impact on hate online and to have leaders who speak actively by matching their words with their actions. These performative statements do nothing.

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