McCLEAN CANNOT EXPECT ‘VICTIM’ SUPPORT
Derry man is entitled to be upset about abuse – but his comparison with black stars is insensitive
“Racism is much more pervasive than religious prejudice”
JAMES McCLEAN is allowed to be angry. Even though he has brought trouble on himself in the past, most recently with a tasteless and offensive joke involving a balaclava and a history lesson during lockdown home schooling, he has reason to feel resentment about aspects of his treatment in recent years.
McClean has heard some rival supporters say dreadful things about him because of his refusal to wear a poppy, as part of Britain’s annual descent into aggressive hysteria masquerading as commemoration.
And the abuse does not stop at the gates of a stadium; he has, as he reminded people this week, been harassed on social media, too, with hateful comments made about his children — to the point where he considered retirement, he revealed on BBC Radio Foyle yesterday.
His principled stand on wearing a poppy should have long ago started a wider discussion in British society about why what was once an elegant way to remem ber those who had died in the First World War, has mutated into a weeks-long festival of triumphalist show, in which anyone judged not sufficiently respectful of Britain’s military past must pay for their attitude.
The more immediate context for his comments on social media at the start of this week was the treatment of black players in English soccer, including his own Ireland team-mate, David McGoldrick.
McGoldrick and Wilfred Zaha highlighted racist comments sent to them on social media in recent days. These events were made more dispiriting by news that a 12-year-old was arrested in the Zaha case.
Racism in sport is an issue itself given wider illumination as part of the events in America last month following the death of George Floyd during his arrest by police officers.
Entitled as James McClean may be to feel he has not received sufficient support during his travails, his decision to complain that the attention McGoldrick and Zaha have received is much greater than any backing he has got, was insensitive.
Hierarchies of suffering should be warily regarded, and a situation in which a man receives death threats because he is Irish or Catholic is no better than one in which someone is threatened because they are black.
But what made McClean’s intervention more awkward was the fact that McGoldrick is a team-mate. That fact alone should have made McClean tread more delicately. It is possible to believe that the abuse both McGoldrick and McClean receive is abhorrent. They are not in competition for sympathy or justice, but McClean’s Facebook comments sorely lacked for deliberation. Of course, as soon as the post became widely circulated, it drew more bile down upon him. It is very easy to see why he feels hard done by; he very often is. He is deserving of more sympathy and understanding, particularly once poppy season breaks upon us, but using the reaction to other cases of abuse to complain about his own will not, one fears, deepen support for him. ‘And when I say attention, I’m not looking for attention, in my mind discrimination is discrimination, but it almost seems that one holds a higher precedence over another, and that’s what irritates me,’ McClean told a UK radio station on Tuesday. ‘I’m not asking for sympathy or looking for attention, I’m just asking for equality, that’s it really.’
He is unlikely to get much of it, and that reflects poorly on how he has been treated by soccer authorities over the abuse he gets.
It is understandable he feels his abuse is not taken as seriously as racist abuse, because it has not prompted the widespread reaction that racism cases have.
There are, though, other reasons for this, with racism a more pervasive problem in soccer than prejudice based on religion or ethnicity.
It is also true that McClean will not be seen as a victim by large swathes of the British sporting establishment — including parts of the media — because they don’t find him a sympathetic figure.
This is partly because of his firm views, but he did not help himself with the deeply stupid joke about teaching his kids history.
“Media don’t find him a sympathetic figure”
It was accompanied on Instagram by a photo of McClean wearing a balaclava as two of his children sat before him.
It was deleted, McClean was fined and the account was deleted, and it was only the latest social media controversy entirely of McClean’s own making.
‘It was supposed to be a joke and it didn’t go down as a joke and I understand the offence it might have caused some people,’ he said of the balaclava post.
‘Like I said, I’m no angel and I take responsibility for that. But the previous eight years of abuse, where has that been highlighted? It hasn’t been, it’s almost been brushed under the carpet.’
McClean said he was driving to training and listening to discussion of the racist attacks on McGoldrick and Zaha, and this prompted him to publicly wonder why his case hasn’t got more attention.
It deserved it, but the simple fact is it will not get it. That is partly because he is James McClean, partly because media attention is more attuned to racism than other issues. That clearly frustrates him deeply, but David McGoldrick may be frustrated, too, to see an Irish team-mate use McGoldrick’s story to highlight his own. It shouldn’t prove a big issue for Stephen Kenny as he prepares for the start of his tenure in September, but when that first squad convenes, McClean will have access to other stories of abuse.
In an interview given by Darren Randolph last month, the Ireland goalkeeper provided vivid proof that there is plenty of ignorance and dumb hate to go around.
Randolph talked in detail about the racism he suffered growing up in Ireland, and how it increased in volume when he was playing well on the sports field, with parents commonly responsible for it.
‘People now may not say it outright and openly like they did when I was younger,’ he said, ‘because I would play games and it wouldn’t even be coming from players, it would be coming from the parents on the sidelines.
‘It would be because I would be playing well, it wouldn’t be that I was just standing there and then I’d get a load of abuse.
‘It would always be when I am doing well, (parents) telling their sons to “Get that —”, I won’t repeat the word. But that goes on top of all kinds of stuff, spitting, you know what I mean?’
Randolph was recalling his childhood, but Liveline broadcast days of compelling testimony over the course of a week last month, in which people talked of the racism they encountered in this country, and continue to suffer.
Disgusting conduct has affected more than McClean within the Irish team, and McGoldrick’s is only the latest instance of that.
It all needs highlighting — and none of it should not be contingent on the identity of the victim.