The idea that I plan on exploring is racism within the sport of soccer, specifically in the English Premier League. There are many racial events in the history of the Premier League but the three major turning points that I can identify are Eric Cantona’s incident versus Crystal Palace in 1995, Luis Suarez’s racial abuse against Patrice Evra in 2011, and the plethora of online abuse felt by Manchester United players in early 2021.
Eric Cantona’s incident was a significant turning point as his kick directed toward a Crystal Palace supporter who spread racial abuse of him demonstrated one of the first incidents of a player directly responding to racial abuse. This event was taken very seriously in England with many news outlets calling for Cantona to resign as a player for Manchester United. A few messages I could use for this turning point are the actual kick itself, the response of the media in newspapers, and the end results of the event (Cantona’s suspension and the supporter’s imprisonment.).
Luis Suarez’s racial abuse against Patrice Evra was a different type of racial abuse in that it was between two iconic players. This was a turning point as it showed that significant consequences would be given for racial abuse on the field. The event was taken seriously by the Football Association, the governing body for English football, and resulted in a suspension and fine. This event also divided the public as Liverpool fans, Suarez’s team, fought against it. Some messages I could use here are Suarez’s comments on this event, the FA’s ruling, and Liverpool’s announcement supporting Suarez
The online abuse felt by Manchester United players in early 2021 is not technically one event, but it marks a plethora of related events targeted at a few players specifically, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford. This event marks a turning point as most of the racist abuse from fans in the modern era is online. Messages I could use here would be the racist tweets themselves as well as media comments on the issue.
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I once again didn’t know about these events within popular soccer franchises and it is very enlightening to hear about them. The directed kick at a racist player that you described is very interesting and gave a pop-culture platform to systemic issues that needed to be talked about. Great topic, very interesting!
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I never knew about these events occurring in soccer so this is really eye-opening to see the things that have happened. You formatted and explained everything really well with the real-life examples you have used. Grat job.
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I think racism in the Premier League is a subject that is definitely not talked about as much as it should be. I thought directing the narrative at a Premier League player who was making such racist remarks was a great argumentative choice as well.