It’s No Room For Racism weekend in the Premier League, yet Friday’s brought us another story of racial animus in the lives of its players.
Aston Villa and England defender Tyrone Mings used his Twitter account to show a screen shot of a vile tweet calling him a hideous racial slur.
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Mings, 28, responded, “Please don’t feel sorry for us, just stand side by side in the fight for change. Social media isn’t getting any safer without it ...”
His club, of course, had his back.
It’s been a visible year for racism in football, incident after incident revealed how far we have to come as a society even after the George Floyd killing spurred a series of Black Lives Matter and anti-racism gestures throughout the sport.
Since the calendar turned to 2021 we’ve seen:
- English football’s governing bodies asking social media companies to find ways to curb racist abuse
- Valencia leave the pitch after a Cadiz player allegedly abused Valencia’s Mouctar Diakhaby.
- Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger reveal racial abuse and blame following the firing of Frank Lampard
- Marcus Rashford met racial abuse online following a Manchester United draw with Arsenal
Seemingly this won’t ever go away, but it’s alarming at how th hate doesn’t seem to have relented, as if there’s pride in the despicable views and no worries about putting them into the public and private space.