Last night I was in the middle of it all, Trafalgar Square. Being a football fan in general, I could not miss the opportunity to celebrate our team and watch in our wonderful city, London.
Throughout this tournament there has been immense pride and unity across England. I felt so patriotic and invested. This squad in general have been doing the nation proud on and OFF the pitch. Not only talented individuals but extraordinary human beings.
I was in central London all day and had a great time in the moment, I foolishly let my guard down and chose to ignore that regardless of the outcome, people view me as Black and not British. An other. Football means a lot to this country and penalties are tense. So as a Black Brit, seeing Rashford, Sancho and Saka have their penalties saved immediately brought the future racism they will endure, to the front of my mind. As Italy won the Euros, me and other Black people (who I did not know) joined together and left in groups to stay safe. We knew this was not an environment for people like us and we needed to stick together.
I tweeted about my experience last night and whilst I received a lot of support, on the flip side I have a twitter full of racist abuse telling me to leave this country, calling me the n word and stating I shouldn't have been there in the first place.
What upsets me about this is England are one of the most progressive international teams. These are players that take the knee before a match and CONSISTENLY speak out to condemn racism and raise awareness for change. Not to mention on the pitch, these Black players have delivered for their respective club teams and England overall.
It was almost like a switch had been flipped, when these particular players are playing well, we can be tolerated and celebrated. The minute they made a mistake or did something they didn't like, they and Black people across the country become targets of abuse and racism. This is not surprising to our community, but it is to others hence me writing this article to highlight what we experience on different occasions.
I saw this quote scrolling through Instagram "People are colour-blind when you're winning but only see colour when you lose."
Witnessing racism and altercations on the street and on trains was quite overwhelming. I've seen things happen before but not as overt as this. Fortunately, there were so many allies in these public places. I have never witnessed so many people from different backgrounds come together against prejudice like that in person before. As scary as it was, it gave me a small bit of hope that those with such hatred in their hearts are decreasing and more and more people are educating themselves.
We are Black and we are British. Not an other. We are proud citizens in this country and like Sterling, Saka, Rashford, Sancho, Mings, James, Bellingham, Phillips, Calvert-Lewin and Walker, we deserve to have respect and basic human decency shown towards us.
This England squad have made me beyond proud. This was a formidable team tournament and they brought joy after the tough time we've had in this pandemic. I am so excited for the future careers of this entire team on and off the pitch. Sending extra love to Saka, Rashford and Sancho.
“Black lives matter. Black culture matters. Black communities matter. We matter.” - Marcus Rashford
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