Manchester United blogger Flex Alexander was subjected to vile racist abuse last week and the abhorrent actions of the individual in question shouldn’t be overlooked
Manchester United blogger Flex Alexander was subjected to vile racist abuse last week and the abhorrent actions of the individual in question shouldn’t be overlooked Manchester United blogger Flex Alexander was subjected to vile racist abuse last week and the abhorrent actions of the individual in question shouldn’t be overlooked
A couple of days before Wednesday’s seismic US election result, a rather unremarkable social media football clip had a remarkable ending.
The cameras were already rolling with Manchester United blogger Flex Alexander, outside Old Trafford, doing a piece to camera when a dark-haired woman leant into shot for a good-natured heckle.
Flex laughs, as he often does with his ‘anything goes’ approach to interviewing fans outside the country’s football stadia.
As founder of United fan channel, United View, 25 years ago he is used to broadcasting with the jeopardy that any supporter at any time could become overwhelmed by their emotions.
What he could not have expected was what happened next.
The woman leans into shot again and says into the microphone he is holding: ’N*****s out!’.
Flex’s smile drops and his face contorts into an understandable frown as he, like the viewer, tries to work out whether she really did say what thought she’d said or not.
In fact, a good many viewers rewound to clip to ascertain whether they too could believe their ears. Did she really say that? She did. Before being dragged away.
You can understand Flex’s stunned reaction. I’ve been there myself. You are trying to process what just happened.
Whether it is racism or not, we’ve all at some time or another been in a moment when someone has crossed the line verbally – or physically – and been rendered speechless with incredulity.
A thousand things must have raced through Flex’s mind at breakneck speed – from whether he should have given a mouthful back on camera to whether he would have come off as the aggressor as a result.
YouTube viewers registering their disgust immediately sought to send the clip viral in order to discover her identity.
It is unclear whether they have yet succeeded.
But Manchester United’s England defender Harry Maguire posted his support in response to another clip, two days later, within which Flex expressed his incredulity and thanked fans from a variety of clubs for their support.
If football is to clean up its act, however, the incident should be taken no less seriously than if a professional footballer had been subjected to the same abuse.
Any club of which the female heckler is a fan should take as draconian an action to address the incident as they would had she aimed the slur at a player.
It is the culture around football, social media and our society – which has empowered individuals to conduct themselves with such impunity.
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Image:
Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA)
Not that we would condone it at all but it was the boxing legend who said: “Social media made y’all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.”
Recent events have left so much of sport and our society at the mercy of those who believe they can cross such lines with their chests.
Had that been a player insulted as Flex was, there would have been outrage. Rightly so. We tell ourselves and each other that nobody should be subjected to that so often, that we convince ourselves it won’t happen.
Hopefully the individual concerned will feel shame, embarrassment and remorse when the long arm of the law not slow to catch up with those who believe they can act in any way they like on social media.
The culprit wasn’t a knuckle-dragging hooligan wearing braces, a white t-shirt and steel-capped boots. She wasn’t someone who appeared to make Flex instinctively watch his back.
To reiterate, she was a twenty-something, seemingly unobtrusive brunette.
Her conduct, however, should remind us that hate doesn’t have a description. It comes in many guises. And each time it has to be treated with the same amount of zero tolerance.
Mirror – Sport
