(ThyBlackMan.com) “If now the world of culture bends itself towards giving Negroes and other dark men the largest and broadest opportunity for education and self-development, then this contact and influence is bound to have a beneficial effect upon the world and hasten human progress. But if, by reason of carelessness, prejudice, greed and injustice, the black world is to be exploited and ravished and degraded, the results must be deplorable, if not fatal-not simply to them, but to the high ideals of justice, freedom and culture which a thousand years of Christian civilization have held before Europe.”–W.E.B. DuBois, To The Nations of the World
One of the most brilliant and important figures of the past two centuries, W.E.B. DuBois, recited those words on July 25, 1900 at the convention meeting site, Westminster Hall in London. His words were part of the closing address at the first Pan-African Convention, which showed how Africans across the world were affected by injustices and systems of oppression regardless of their location. While America gets a lot of deserved criticism and shame for their historical treatment of Black people, there are several countries in the world that have an ugly history of treating people of African descent terribly even if they were born in that country. Unfortunately, the world’s most popular sport, known as soccer in America but futbol globally, has been an example of the world’s bigotry towards African people.
On July 11, 2021, the UEFA Euro 2020 Final was a championship soccer match between England and Italy that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, England. England lost a tough match to Italy in a penalty shootout loss but the bigger news was the treatment of some members of England’s team. After the match, three of England’s players who missed penalty kicks, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, were subjected to racial abuse on social media. It comes to no surprise that Rashford, Sancho, and Saka are among the few Black players on England’s team. The social media abuse to the men was so terrible that England’s Football Association, UEFA, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and even Prince William condemned the racist abuse. The racism did not unfortunately stop there as a mural dedicated to Marcus Rashford in Manchester was also vandalized following the loss. He did get a lot of support regarding the mural and got emotional about it.
After some investigations, the story of the racist abuse after the UEFA Euro 2020 Final ended with four people being arrested for the comments. Sadly, social media and online are where some of the vilest comments are made regarding Black and African people anywhere. Even though Rashford, Sancho, and Saka represented England as soccer players, there were people that decided to use ignorant, bigoted comments to them online while bypassing the humanity of the men. Of course, there are plenty of times where soccer fans and other soccer players in the world have directed anti-African racist comments towards African soccer players. One of the more underreported stories during the Tokyo Olympics was when Germany’s Olympic team walked off the pitch during a test game against Honduras after Jordan Torunarigha, who is Black, was allegedly racially abused by a Honduras team member. It is good that there was team solidarity for Torunarigha but it is a sign of ignorance, hatred, and even jealousy that so many African soccer players playing for other countries continue to be targets of racism.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines