Footballer Jess Carter joins a long, long line of Black women in the public eye who have suffered a malicious, racist backlash. After England scraped through to the semi-finals of the Euros, in a tetchy match against Sweden that ended with perhaps the most nail-biting penalty shootouts in the history of the tournament, criticism online rolled in around her performance.
Though it’s not been publicised exactly what triggered Jess’s decision to step away from social media and call out the racist abuse that she had been receiving, at this point, we all know what types of comments and direct messages she likely saw. It will have been the most derogatory, the most offensive, the cruellest of slurs that every Black person in the UK hopes to sidestep, but often ends up slamming, headfirst, straight into. That reminds us that our humanity is always only a heartbeat away from being questioned.
Remember that Diane Abbott, the first ever Black woman MP in the UK, is currently at the eye of another storm around her conception of structural racism and antisemitism. And even in the last tournament, Lauren James had to publicly apologise after being vilified both for her red card and the subsequent racialised abuse she endured. It is fast becoming the normality that any prominent England woman player, striking out in the age of social media, will have to manage their match alongside their mental health, and it’s a disgrace. As far back as 2021, James, then a prodigious teenage talent still playing for Manchester United, wrote starkly about the racial abuse she received after a game.
“All because of the colour of my skin. It is mad. I'm proud of my skin, I love my skin colour. But when I saw the comments on my Instagram feed, it hurt,” she wrote.
We chatted to the England legend about heritage, the Lionesses, and the importance of grassroots clubs.
It has been upsetting to see the levels of scrutiny the Lionesses have been subjected to in this particular tournament. Over the past few years, women I know who work in the sport say the shift is palpable. But when it comes to abuse? Well, in the men's game, abusing your own players is part of the lore. Women's football has long been lauded as a more supportive space. It is fast being commercialised and highly monetised, with a 40% rise in broadcasting income for the WSL 2023-24, and that, frustratingly, seems to bring with it the ugliest parts of mainstream fandom.
“The bigger the game gets, the bigger the noise becomes, the more fans there are, but the more critics there are,” England veteran Lucy Bronze said at a press conference last week.
Jess Carter, at 27, makes up part of a generation of women's players who haven't had to be anything else but footballers. She didn’t have to work another job on the side, and she grew up with the visibility of the Women’s Super League. She is engaged to Germany’s Euros-hero goalkeeper, Ann Katrin-Berger, and has spoken beautifully about coming into her queerness. As one of only four Black women currently on the England women’s team, she remains a pioneer. It is devastating that all of her successes, and the benefits she has gained from this new era of women’s football, are being trodden on.
There isn’t a simple solution to online racist abuse and trolling. Some of the responsibility for this lies with tech platforms — for not enforcing stronger moderation policies. But some of it lies with the Football Association too. Creating a culture of football fandom that doesn’t tolerate racism, online or offline, must be part of the strategy moving forward.
That the Lionesses have decided to stop taking a knee before matches, a gesture that began in 2020, to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter, has been questioned. But I think that it is a smart strategy.
How can you fix structural or systemic issues with gestures of solidarity? Well, you can't. Ultimately, it reminds the FA that the ball is in their court.
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CEO of the FA, Mark Bullingham, has made a statement about the steps the organisation is taking: "Our priority is Jess and giving her all the support she needs," said Bullingham. “We strongly condemn those responsible for this disgusting racism. As soon as we were made aware of the racist abuse Jess received, we immediately contacted UK police. They are in touch with the relevant social media platform, and we are working with police to ensure those responsible for this hate crime are brought to justice."
And hopefully, behind the scenes, the Lionesses are working to build a campaign centring around real policies and protections that outlast symbolic moments.
The founders of Girls Watch Girls Play have got the intel.
A few years ago, I interviewed one of the first Black men to play for the England team; Nottingham Forest player Viv Anderson. He told me that back then, he was spat at, called names by his own fans, not because of his ability, but because of what he represented. The narrative now is different. The actions may be subtler. But the pain? The exclusion? That still lingers. The other difference is that Viv was told that he had to swallow the pain. To play through it, despite it, to not speak up. Jess has spoken out. And that can only be a good thing.
Whether or not it ends up coming home, Jess Carter needs continued public support. To counteract the backlash. And to hold her in the knowledge that her worth as a human is no more tied to her race than it is to her footballing abilities.
