Marcus Rashford: Man Utd striker receives racist abuse following draw with Arsenal
Written by News on 31/01/2021
Marcus Rashford has described racist abuse he received following Manchester United’s 0-0 draw against Arsenal as “humanity and social media at its worst”.
Rashford took to his Twitter account after Saturday’s draw at the Emirates to call out the abuse but refused to take screenshots of the messages as “it would be irresponsible to do so”.
He said: “Humanity and social media at its worst. Yes I’m a black man and I live every day proud that I am. No one, or no one comment, is going to make me feel any different. So sorry if you were looking for a strong reaction, you’re just simply not going to get it here.
“I’m not sharing screenshots. It would be irresponsible to do so and as you can imagine there’s nothing original in them. I have beautiful children of all colours following me and they don’t need to read it. Beautiful colours that should only be celebrated.”
A company spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, said: “There is no place for racism on Instagram and we are committed to removing it when we find it. We have taken action in this case by removing accounts and comments and are continuing to investigate.
“We know there is more to do and we will continue to work closely with clubs, players and football authorities to investigate instances of discrimination and collectively tackle this issue.”
Chelsea defender Reece James, West Brom’s Romaine Sawyers and United’s Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial have also been targeted this week.
Manchester United have confirmed that the insults were of a similar nature to those received by the club’s other players earlier in the week.
Greater Manchester Police say they are taking the incidents extremely seriously and are investigating thoroughly.
A statement released on the force’s Twitter account said: “Nobody should be subject to such abuse and it is deeply upsetting not only to those who suffer it, but to all those who come across this awful language too.
“These hateful words have no place anywhere in our society whether online or otherwise.”
The Football Association has vowed to work with the Government and social media platforms to eradicate racism from the game.
A statement released on the FA’s official Twitter account on Saturday said: “We are united with all of football in our abhorrence of any racist abuse. This is not acceptable in any part of society.
“We will continue to work with the rest of the game, the government and social media platforms to remove this – and all elements of – discrimination from our sport.”
Speaking on Friday about the earlier incidents involving Tuanzebe, Martial and Sawyers, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters had said: “Tackling online hate is a priority for football, and I believe social media companies need to do more.”
Relating to the abuse of Sawyers, West Midlands Police said a 49-year-old man from Kingswinford, near Birmingham, was questioned in custody on Friday evening.
‘Rinse and repeat cycle over online racism’
Manchester United director of communications Charlie Brooks says the club have held encouraging talks with social media companies recently but insists more still needs to done to tackle online racism.
“In stadiums it’s been stamped out and no right-thinking United fans would stand for that – they would clamp down on it,” he said.
“It’s encouraging because you see fans do that on social media as well, but it’s very hard when you have racist trolls who, even if they are tracked and their accounts are closed down, can open a new account.
“We’ve had good dialogue with social media companies. They’ve gone and improved monitoring, they will close down accounts when they see it, they will work proactively with us and with the Premier League.
“But ultimately if people’s accounts are closed down and they can open a new one straight away and carry on, then we’re in a rinse and repeat cycle here.”
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(c) Sky Sports 2021: Marcus Rashford: Man Utd striker receives racist abuse following draw with Arsenal
