Hurty words and the reaction to them is something that has quite frankly dogged this new ‘online’ millennium of ours. However, there is a line to be drawn, and that’s when people are singled out for being not what they say, but for the very core of their existence which they have no control over, in order to cause the sort of distress that does not deserve to be and cannot be managed.
Context is king, which this why so many vintage TV shows are now labelled as politically incorrect or ‘inappropriate’ these days – when in actual fact – most if not all were written to mock the bigots they portrayed.
For example, Love They Neighbour is still frowned upon by many, yet the white racist protagonist Eddie Booth in the show was consistently portrayed as the perennial loser, a fool who was always revealed as a fool in every single episode. The moral of the story was ‘don’t be like Eddie, he’s a desperate individual that nobody in their right mind would wish to be confused with. His black neighbours were fair nicer, and more successful human beings.
Alf Garnet became another intensely divisive TV character, yet the Anti-Semitic bigot was in real life a Jew – playing the part of a man he’d not wish to share a lift with in real life. Again, the idea was to utterly ridicule another morally grotesque Mr. Magoo.
Nasty people using social media are not actors on a stage. They are angry stupid people who are incapable/wholly disinterested in producing a cogent critique. So if they don’t like you, then they tell you are a [insert something horrible] that matches what their tiny, incapable brains have decided will hurt.
Recently there’s been a fresh trend of black players receiving racist abuse on social media platforms, and clubs are discussing temporary boycotts as a response.
Given that during the last US elections it was virtually impossible to post an opinion that opposed the legitimacy of the Biden win on Twitter without being shadow blocked, banned, or receiving patronizing on-screen messages such as ‘do you want to read the full article before retweeting?’ And that on Facebook, the ‘Community Standards’ algorithms automatically dish out bans for certain words, irrespective of context, so the platforms can be programmed to act – when they feel inclined.
Clubs and players must stay, and the platforms must up their game for the simple reason that the victims of the abuse ought not to have to retire from the field of play in order to find respite from a nasty minority. The platforms are making so much money, so they have the resources. Whilst boycotts would highlight the problem, they would in no way solve it. We’re beyond raising awareness.