Rashford responds to racist abuse: ‘I’m proud to be black’
Marcus Rashford has described racist abuse he received following Manchester United’s 0-0 draw against Arsenal as “humanity and social media at its worst”.
Rashford took to his Twitter account after Saturday’s draw at the Emirates to call out the abuse but refused to take screenshots of the messages as “it would be irresponsible to do so”.
He said: “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.”
Chelsea defender Reece James, West Brom’s Romaine Sawyers and United’s Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial have also been targeted this week.
Manchester United have confirmed that the insults were of a similar nature to those received by the club’s other players earlier in the week.
The Football Association has vowed to work with the Government and social media platforms to eradicate racism from the game.
A statement released on the FA’s official Twitter account on Saturday said: “We are united with all of football in our abhorrence of any racist abuse. This is not acceptable in any part of society.
“We will continue to work with the rest of the game, the government and social media platforms to remove this – and all elements of – discrimination from our sport.”
1:38 Speaking on Friday about the earlier incidents involving Tuanzebe, Martial and Sawyers, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters had said: “Tackling online hate is a priority for football, and I believe social media companies need to do more.”
Relating to the abuse of Sawyers, West Midlands Police said a 49-year-old man from Kingswinford, near Birmingham, was questioned in custody on Friday evening.
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