Made of the Wright stuff, unlike a young man from Tralee

IF THE young fella from Tralee is ever charged with threatening to kill and racially abuse former Arsenal and England player Ian Wright, chances are that the blame will fall back on the 56-year-old soccer legend.

That’s the way things work in a world where unearned advantages like the colour of your skin are still very potent.

People will argue that Wright should be well able to take a bit of hassle, that he lives in the lap of luxury with a net worth of about €20m, and has a great life as a soccer pundit – anyway, that abuse from Tralee came via a private message that he didn’t need to publish online for the whole world to see.

Wright, pictured, started off with what American feminist and academic Peggy McIntosh describes as ‘unearned disadvantages’.

The son of Jamaican immigrants to the UK (think Windrush), Wright had a tough young life and his soccer career wasn’t plain sailing either.

But, eventually, he made the grade in a big way through talent and hard work.

There’s no doubt that all along Wright’s skin colour attracted negative vibes, up to full-frontal racism. That’s certainly what happened in the case of the young Tralee man who flew into a rage against Wright over a goddamn FIFA game he was playing on PlayStation.

The litany of disgusting abuse, including the dreadful ‘n’ word, plus the threat to put Wright on his ‘death bed’ by coughing on him if he got the coronavirus, is truly astonishing.

Now Wright has made a statement to police in Britain and the gardaí have already interviewed the young man. The DPP here is to decide if charges are proceeded with.

If that happens the sympathy, for many, will fall in favour of the Tralee man; sure it was only a bit of madness, sent via a private message, he’s only a lad and didn’t mean it anyway. That kind of thing.

And, in that way, the truly horrible reality of latent and actual racism will be excused.