My kids shouldn’t have to suffer racial taunts
James’ dad reveals anger and sense of powerlessness
TOO MANY parents in English football are suffering the pain of Nigel James.
The father of Chelsea’s Reece, below, and Manchester United’s Lauren is yet another rendered helpless in the face of the racist abuse from which they cannot shield their offspring.
Both players received online abuse within a week of each other – between the end of January and the first week of this month.
Beyond condemnation there is nothing their clubs can do, while the social media companies continue to stick their heads in the sand.
Instead Nigel, along with the other parents, is resigned to rising above it to ensure it does not consume his family.
Speaking to The Conversation podcast, he said: “You do want to fight back. And when you hear something about your child it hurts you. You feel anger and there is nothing you can do.
“You’re sort of in limbo.What do you do? Who’s going to help? Who’s going to support them?” Reece shared a screenshot of the monkey emojis and the messages referring to his “dirty black skin” on Instagram earlier this month.
Lauren, who also received emojis, labelled the taunts directed at her “boring” and called on Instagram to deal with the issue.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich – whose side visit Southampton today
– has written to every player at the club, expressing his solidarity and promising to commit more funds to the fight against racism.
United recently issued a joint statement with Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton to hit out at the lethargy of the social media companies. In the meantime, the James family will continue dealing with it in their own way. “We try and push it aside as if it’s not happening,” added Nigel. “That’s the way we try to deal with it as a family. You keep talking about it and the authorities are not doing anything about it. “Eventually, you don’t want it to start affecting your kids.That starts going into their performances and everything else in life.
“It’s something we’ve tried to dust off and move forward. I don’t know if that’s the right thing. “But if I’m going to protect them, then sometimes we have to deal with it like that.”