Rashford has shown the way, but football must throw its full weight into fight against racism

Natasha Pszenicki
WEST END FINAL

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Marcus Rashford is one of the busiest men in Britain. He is busy being a world-class  forward for Manchester United, apparently being the de facto leader of the opposition, and feeding the nation’s children, among other things presumably. It is therefore disappointing that he has now also been forced to take on the task of educating the country on its racism problem.

Over the weekend, the spectre reared its ugly head yet again. After receiving racist abuse online following United’s draw against Arsenal on Saturday, Rashford took to Twitter to respond. He described the abuse as “humanity and social media at its worst”, adding: “Yes I’m a black man and I live every day proud that I am.”

Greater Manchester Police are investigating the abuse and similar online hate comments directed at Rashford’s team-mates Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial in the past week.  

It follows the not-so-warm welcome back that the Millwall team received in December when they were booed by some of their own fans for taking the knee. Despite numerous campaigns and initiatives aimed at tackling racism in football, figures from inclusion and diversity charity Kick It Out show cases of racist abuse rose by 53 per cent between 2019 and 2020.

The latest episode underscores how courageous Rashford was to speak out about child food poverty — as simply to exist in the public eye as a black person is always accompanied by a certain level of abuse. No matter how uncontroversial and inoffensive, no person of colour is immune to racism. The idea that Rashford should “stay in his lane” and “stick to football” was a common complaint. No doubt he will have received similar comments after speaking out at the weekend. It seems that some people are happy to claim the success of black bodies excelling on the football field, but are less comfortable with black brains and black voices.  

Football has the potential to be at the forefront of progress against racism in this country — but it should not be left to individuals to tackle this problem alone. There needs to be long-term investment into black-led organisations tackling structural racism, and sport has a role to play in funding and amplifying these efforts. It is also time we dealt with the reality that it is not just racism in football that’s the problem, but rather racism across society in Britain, and the solutions must go hand in hand.  

Covid-19 has been waging a silent war on women. Over the weekend a study revealed that pregnant women attending scans and appointments alone are being told they cannot record or take photographs of their unborn child to show their partner. A survey by campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed found more than half of respondents attended scans alone and were also told that they could not record or take photos.  

There is a worrying trend of women’s medical concerns being pushed to the back of the queue. Earlier this month Caroline Nokes, who chairs the Women and Equalities Select Committee, said that check-up cancellations and women’s fears of attending GP clinics in the pandemic could mean up to 600,000 miss out on getting a smear test.  

Along with rising domestic abuse in the pandemic and careers taking a hit with added childcare responsibilities, this is another example of women bearing the emotional and physical brunt in times of crisis.

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