(It’s) Coming Home?
Originally Written July 13th, 2021.
Home is often defined as someone's or something's place of origin, or the place where a person feels they belong (i). A place of rest, refuge and familiarity. However after Italy's penalty score tallied 3-2 against England, I felt my stomach drop. Not because we had lost the Euro's, but because the first response to disappointment was coupled with the colour of my skin. Within minutes of the last penalty taken by Bukayo Saka, the social media accounts of him including those of Marcus Rashford, and Jadon Sancho (the other penalty players), were flooded with racial abuse.
Why, in July 2021 - (a year after the seismic shift within domestic racial discourse since the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993), is the first response to the great feats that the England (Male) Football Team achieved to inspire community during the Euro’s within the U.K ignored?
Monkey emojis and derogatory language that I refuse to repeat, left these men at the brunt of the U.K’s racial tensions and post-match frustrations. Despite all three players’ work towards England’s success in the Euros - their faces prior to England’s loss were hardly posted on newspaper covers or media outlets. After Sunday, their faces were recognised as the poster scapegoat for lawless hatred. It was as if seemingly, these men could only be credited in their perceived failure.
I was also faced with the sad reality that football wasn’t coming ‘home’, for ‘home’ would suggest that Blackness had a home in England. That other ethnic communities had a ‘home’ in England. Moreover we had recently seen racialised scapegoating in racist Anti-Asian sentiments, which were held at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
‘Home’ would argue the so-called framework for race(ii) was intact, and that my life including anybody else who was Black or from an Ethnic Minority that night, mattered as much as that ball hitting the back of Italy’s net.
Black pain acts as a regulation factor, to dispel the validity in inequity. Blame is misappropriated as being synonymous with Blackness.
White anger is legitimised - therefore granting acts of violence like racism, or in-fact domestic violence an escape from accountability. It is treated as legitimate response, (as if racism or violence is a minor inconvenience) - to others. In a study by Lancashire Police, the number of domestic abuse cases reported in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cups surged by 38% on the days when England lost. Incidents increased by 26% when the team either won or drew a match.(iii) I fear the true amount after the Euro’s and Sunday’s game.
Some of the arguments used to dispel the racist abuse that Rashford, Saka and Sancho have faced, have been centered around their individual successes. The value (or lack thereof) attributed to Black lives as humans should never be dictated by our direct input to another.
This hinders the ability for Black lives to live a life worthy of acknowledgement, and space to occupy without fear of racial disparity.
Tokenistic hashtags, petitions and ‘condemnation’ (iv) of racist abuse after the fact, rather than allowing accountability and anti-racism to take precedence as a preventative measure, is why racism flourishes. Racism does not occur in certain instances or industries. Racism occurs full stop - and is detrimental to the livelihood of those who are victim to it.
The contradictory nature in which the very figureheads of government and media act, reflect the selective activism and blatant racism that continue to occur here in the UK. To be tokenistic and hail Jadon Sancho, Bukayo Saka, and Marcus Rashford as heroes, (whilst being actively responsible for the culture of ignorance and indifference to racism as we know it), leave me stunned.
I powerfully stand with and fully support Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho. You are inspirations to a generation, and have highlighted the resilience that is aspired to in adversity.
I also stand with the victims of racialised violence, abuse and trauma in football.
If you think that taking a stand against racism, and humanitarianism is "playing politics"(v), then your position is off pitch.
Originally Written July 13th, 2021.
Sources:
i) https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/home
ii) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-report-of-the-commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities
iii)https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/euro-2020-domestic-abuse-women-b1864404.html
iv) https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1414465103374729220
v) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/marcus-rashford-penalty-natalie-elphicke-b1882464.htm
