Marcus Rashford speaks out after receiving vile racist abuse on social media

Marcus Rashford has responded to the vile racial abuse he received on social media by insisting he will not give trolls the ‘strong reaction’ they are looking for.

The Manchester United striker was abused following his side’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal on Saturday with users posting monkey emojis while one told him to ‘go back to the zoo’.

The 23-year-old is the latest footballer to be targeted this week after his team-mates Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial suffered abuse earlier this week. Chelsea’s Reece James and West Brom’s Romaine Sawyers also received racist insults on social media.

Marcus Rashford has responded to the vile racial abuse he received on social media

Rashford tweeted: ‘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.’ 

The forward went on to thank Arsenal for the special programme they made for the game which thanked the England international for his charity work in child food poverty.

Rashford thanked Arsenal for a special programme they made to honour his charity work

The Gunners programme had a picture of Rashford on the front with the heading: ‘Thank you Marcus. From everyone at Arsenal’.

Rashford has campaigned for free school meals and has brought about several Government U-turns which has seen poorer children provided for during school holidays.

In December, he was given a special award at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the year ceremony for his work efforts in tackling food poverty with charity FareShare.

United condemned the racist abuse Tuanzebe and Martial received earlier in the week and called on social media platforms ‘strengthen measures’.

One comment on Tuanzebe’s Instagram account read ‘DAMNNN N*****’ as well as several monkey emojis on a photograph of his United shirt and number, posted two weeks ago. 

A club statement read: ‘Everyone at Manchester United is disgusted by the racial abuse received by players via social media after last night’s game. 

‘We utterly condemn it and it is encouraging to see other fans condemn this on social media also. 

‘Manchester United has zero tolerance of any form of racism or discrimination and a long-standing commitment to campaigning against it through our All Red All Equal initiative.

‘Identifying these anonymous mindless idiots remains problematic. We urge social media platforms and regulatory authorities to strengthen measures to prevent this kind of behaviour.’ 

It was revealed earlier this week that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter will be handed fines for the abuse of footballers, if they fail to protect them under tough new rules drawn up by ministers.

This means they will have to deal with anonymous abusers so the police can take action, Sportsmail understands.  

Chelsea also strongly condemned the abuse of James on Friday night and insisted that something has to change.

The clubs said: ‘Everyone at Chelsea FC is disgusted with the racist abuse Reece James received on social media on Friday evening. 

‘This club finds racism and all forms of discriminatory behaviour completely unacceptable. We totally condemn it. In sport, as in wider society, we must create a social media environment where hateful and discriminatory actions are as unacceptable online as they would be on the street. 

‘We add our voice to those urging social media platforms and regulatory authorities to take stronger, more effective and more urgent action against this despicable behaviour. Something needs to change and it needs to change now.’ 

United’s Director of Communications, Charlie Brooks, said the club’s players are ‘sick’ of the ‘hate-filled’ abuse online and urged social media platforms to create verifiable and identifiable accounts so the perpetrators can be caught. 

Now, Culture Secetary Oliver Dowden has said the government will deliver regulation, which will allow companies to be held to account for abuse on the online platforms – and that will include forcing companies to tackle anonymous abusers. 

Jordan Henderson and Tyrone Mings have also held talks with Government ministers this week about tackling abuse in football. 

Kick It Out chair Sanjay Bhandari said this week: ‘We are disappointed that players are continuing to be subject to racist abuse on their social platforms, it is completely unacceptable.

‘We will continue to work with the football authorities, law enforcement and social media companies to try and rid football of hateful and discriminatory behaviour.’