Marcus Rashford has spoken out about online racist messages he received after Manchester United’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal.
There has been a spate of racist abuse directed at Premier League footballers in recent days, with Chelsea’s Reece James calling for change after he was subjected to discriminatory comments during the week.
On Friday, West Brom alerted the police to messages sent to Baggies midfielder Romaine Sawyers, with West Midlands police since having confirmed the arrest of a man in relation to the incident.
Rashford: ‘Humanity and social media at its worst.’
The Man United striker is the latest player to reveal that he has been the target of racist abuse, but refused to share a screenshot of the message as it “would be irresponsible to do so.”
“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,” Rashford wrote on Twitter.
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.
— Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) January 30, 2021
The 23-year old was awarded an MBE last year due to his campaigning for disadvantaged children to receive free meals in school.
The FA have condemned all racist abuse directed at players, saying they will work with “the government and social media platforms to remove this – and all elements of – discrimination from our sport.”
There have been calls in recent times for social media platforms to require a form of identification when signing up to cut down on the abuse being directed at players from anonymous accounts.
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