Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford the latest victim of cyber racism

Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford is the latest Premier League player to be on the wrong end of cyber racism.

United and their big rivals Arsenal met for what was expected to be a goal-feast event. Sadly, it was the exact opposite and the game ended with the score even and the points shared between Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Mikel Arteta.

This stalemate is the Red Devils’ second in the space of a week and the third encounter they were unable to win. They’ve now only won one game in their last four Premier League outings.

Saturday’s hyped up United-Gunners clash saw Ole’s men put in an uninspired display. Arsenal looked the more threatening team and most adventurous of the pair.

Their performance deserved a goal while United’s deserved no points. But this obviously sparked an up raw on social media with some Man United fans taking it too far.

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Rashford one of three Manchester United players to be racially abused in the space of a week.

Midweek it was Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial following the Sheffield United loss and now Marcus Rashford. However, they are not the only players of colour and players in England’s top flight to fall victim to these social media bullies/keyboard warriors.

There have been countless occurrences and quite frankly, it is overshadowing one of the best EPL campaigns in the past four-five seasons. Thankfully, Rashford is a matured 23-year-old and responded in the best way possible.

He gave whoever the culprits were no airtime and no five seconds of fame by not reposting screenshots or anything that was sent to him by the cyberbullies or cowards – whatever you prefer.

He politely spoke of his proudness of being a young man of colour and followed it up with a touch of class and a little bit of humour – posting a picture of him inside the Emirates Stadium with Arsenal’s matchday programme, which thanked him for everything he has done.

Rashford’s tweet read:

"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 hereI’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.In nicer news, @arsenalthank you for the match day programme, really lovely touch that was appreciated. Although I would have felt better if we’d taken the 3 points. (Via: @Marcus Rashford MBE)"

Accounts removed and further action waiting for those hiding behind their social media accounts

It is being said that further action will be taken against those who were racist towards the striker. Besides them deactivating the accounts responsible for the racial slurs, there will be in-depth investigations that will take place.

"A company spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, said: “There is no place for racism on Instagram and we are committed to removing it when we find it. We have taken action in this case by removing accounts and comments and are continuing to investigate.“We know there is more to do and we will continue to work closely with clubs, players and football authorities to investigate instances of discrimination and collectively tackle this issue.” (Via: Sky Sports)"

There is no room for racism! Let us stamp out racism together and stop judging based on colour. Let’s hope that this plus the indecisively poor decisions by VAR can stop spoiling an amazing Premier League campaign.