Marcus Rashford, Racism, Euro 2020- What happened?

To say that Euro 2020 was a rollercoaster of emotions would be a mere understatement. On 11 July 2021, the final match was played between the teams of England and Italy. Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka (members of England’s team) missed penalties in a shootout that would ultimately decide which team would take home the coveted trophy. Subsequently, the tournament trophy finally came to Rome after the Italian team scored a 3-2 victory following a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw in extra-time against the English team. Needless to say, citizens and supporters of Italy worldwide were thrilled and overwhelmed with pride, joy and happiness and those of England were understandably not.

In the case of world tournaments, every team represents a whole nation, every person in that nation. So, when a team is not able to achieve that coveted trophy or award or title due to some lack in their performance, strategy and execution, criticism of any team member’s performance are understandable and acceptable. Following the EURO 2020 finale, Marcus, Jadon and Bukayo were all subject to huge amounts of backlash and criticism. Things got out of hand when the aforementioned footballers, who are members of the black community, were subject to racist comments and remarks across social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

However, the final straw in the hat was when some incredibly disturbing elements of the society resorted to vandalism and they completely pervaded Rashford’s mural in his hometown of Manchester with what many believe to be distressing racist comments. The original vision for the mural, which emerged from a shot captured by Daniel Cheetham, was beautifully captured in colours by Akse, a well-known street artist with Withington Walls as a collaborating partner. Naturally, the mural was recognized as a ‘community street art project’. The artwork covered a wall that is not far from what Rashford called home growing up.

As asserted by ESPN.in, the first report of the vandalism was received by the Greater Manchester Police around 3 pm on 12 July 2021. Thankfully, the hateful and abusive messages were covered by black sheets within a matter of a few hours.

The flood of support, love, respect and solidarity that followed

What followed this heartbreaking incident was a flood of supporting messages. If you turn off Wilmslow Road and head onto Copson Street, a “road closed” sign in red would be the first thing that would catch your attention. This had to be placed because thousands of supporters and fans of Marcus, Jadon and Bukayo fled to Rashford’s honorary mural to express their love and adoration for the three footballers. A swarm of post its, paper cutouts in shapes of red hearts, flags of England, cards with the words ‘Marcus- our hero’ echoed the sentiment of solidarity and has been recognized as the unofficial symbol of the worldwide struggle against prejudice, bias, discrimination, bigotry and injustice.

What was heartwarming was the messages left by children aged under 10. They read:

"You are an inspiration to me and all young black people in Manchester. Don't let the hate get to you as you are such an amazing role model. Keep doing what you're doing."

Reggie, a mere six years old, stated, "Thank you for all our dinner."

Nine-year-old Dexter Rosier wrote, “I hope you won’t be sad for too long because you are such a good person. I’m proud of you. You will always be a hero.”

Needless to say, thousands of messages like the ones mentioned below echoed the same sentiment.

We love Marcus Rashford, Love always wins.

Marcus’ and the officials’ response:

The huge amount of love and support undeniably overwhelmed Rashford as he took to Instagram to express his gratitude and articulate his thoughts on the incident. He wrote:

“The messages I've received have been positively overwhelming and seeing the response in Withington had me on the verge of tears. The communities that always wrapped their arms around me continue to hold me up." In his passionate post, he added: "I've grown into a sport where I expected to read things written about myself. Whether it be the colour of my skin, where I grew up, or, most recently, how I decide to spend my time off the pitch.

"I can take critique of my performance all day long, my penalty was not good enough, it should have gone in but I will never apologize for who I am and where I came from. I'm Marcus Rashford, a 23-year-old black man from Withington and Wythenshawe, South Manchester. If I have nothing else I have that. For all the kind messages thank you. I'll be back stronger. We'll be back stronger."

The mural defacement was described as a "despicable, shameful act" by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

Ed Wellard, co-founder of Withington Walls Ed Wellard, co-founder of Withington Walls also stated the matter, " I've come out to fix what I could immediately and cover up what I couldn't and hopefully we will get the artist out to come and fix it. We dared to dream yesterday and our hopes were dashed but to wake up to this. This is more depressing. Racism seems to be more and more prevalent.

A personal note:

On a personal note, the whole situation is very heartbreaking indeed. While the wave of supporting messages is a clear indicator of the progress we have made in our fight and struggle against racism, we still have a long way to go. We, as a society, have to stop discriminating based on colour, race and ethnicity. The fact that an incident of such intensity occurred approximately a year after the Black Lives Matter movement that took place in the United States, is utterly disappointing. We, as a society, need to do better.

---