Paul Pogba Racism
I don’t like the term black.
I find it hugely problematic on many levels.
But the fact that I don’t like it doesn’t change the fact that we still use the terms black and white to divide humankind into categories.
These categories are hardly equal.
Despite our best efforts to make it so, black is not the same as white. Black means less than white.
In last seasons’ transfer market Paul Pogba was hot property and hot debate.
At the time, the purchase of a footballer for £90 million was record breaking.
Would he be worth it? How good was Paul Pogba? Was he worth the £90 million fee?
Because black means less than white, people we call black have to be more than people we call white in order to be regarded as equivalent.
Paul Pogba was going to have to be better than good to be good enough for the £90 million he cost.
Low and behold, by the end of the first half of last season, football media had already began to write off Paul Pogba.
One news article heralded him as the “£90 million mistake”.
Many Manchester United fans had already decided that he was a mistake. He simply was not better than good and certainly not worth £90 million.
Paul Pogba had no pre season warm up and he hadn’t played in the premier league for four years. He still was just 23 years old.
The expectation however was that he must be astronomically better immediately because of his astronomical fee.
We pretended that we expected Paul Pogba to be better than good just because of the fee.
We pretended that we didn’t expect Paul Pogba to better than good because he is a person we call black.
Paul Pogba repeatedly responded to criticism of his performance in press conferences and interviews.
Not only did we discuss amongst ourselves that we think he’s not better than good, we made sure that he knew about it too.
The pressure was on. He was under immense pressure to be better than good.
How did Pogba respond?
Paul Pogba Racism
Like a boss. He kept his head down and got on with it.
Paul Pogba did not see himself as victim. He focused on his work and simply got
on with it.
Paul Pogba’s positive attitude towards life is inspiring for everybody.
By the end of last season people were comparing him to the legendary
Paul Scoles. Now, during pre season, people are already questioning if he is at Barcelona level. He is still only 24.
I could have called this article the Floyd Mayweather effect. Or the Serena Williams effect.
From the moment Floyd Mayweather began dominating world boxing he became hated.
If you watch the rise of Floyd Mayweather you see that there was quite a buzz around him during his come up.
As soon as Floyd Mayweather started to dominate, and let us know about his domination too, we started to hate him.
How did Floyd respond?
Like a boss. He put his head down and he didn’t make himself a victim.
He stuck to his game plan and built his own supportive network.
He is now the richest athlete in history, and he is inspiring many other people we call black to aim higher and do it big.
I’ll never forget watching Serena Williams at the French Open probably about 15 years ago now.
As a kid I single handedly witnessed in absolute disarray her vehemently get booed or sarcastically applauded by a ferocious crowd after every single rally.
When she missed her first serve the crowd applauded. Loud.
I could not believe my eyes.
One of the commentators dismissed it as anti-Americanism. It was around the time George Bush was in power.
The other commentator however found it so appalling that he called it racism, slammed his mic down and left the commentary box.
That same day I watched the News. To my absolute horror I listened to the News report headline on Serena’s match.
I kid you not, the headline said, “Serena Williams gets booed at the French Open today as she barely managed to shake her opponents hand”. They then showed her briskly shaking her opponents hand. She had just been booed for an hour and lost the match, of course she wanted to get off the court. Asap!
Paul Pogba Racism
Tears came into my eyes.
I had never witnessed such a blatant, systematic and institutional level of racism in my young life ever before.
From that day forward my trust in the News died.
“If they could lie about something as benign as sport what else could they lie about?” I remember asking myself.
I must admit I still haven’t fully recovered and I’m incredibly suspicious of News reporting. In fact I do not even watch the News these days.
Regardless of the fact that I was victimising Serena Williams, she herself did not.
In my eyes this is why she is a champ. This is why she remains on top.
She put her head down like a boss and focused on her shit.
We can learn a lot from these athletes we call black.
We can learn a lot about the power of keeping a positive mental attitude, despite all odds.
Paul Pogba Racism
Peace. Dopeness. Love. Light
Paul Pogba Racism
