It’s easy to hide behind a computer and insult someone. With the way in which technology has progressed over the last decade-plus, we have all experienced that in some way. Plenty of things are said over Twitter and Facebook that can be fluffed off or considered an inappropriate joke, but the line needs to be drawn when it comes to racism. That’s exactly what happened in England when two 17-year-olds were arrested for posting racist content on Newcastle United forward Sammy Ameobi’s Twitter page.
According to The Guardian, Ameobi posted a picture of his black Nike cleats on his Twitter page with the caption, “There will always be a place in my heart for the all blacks.” For whatever reason, some moronic follower decided to respond by tweeting, “Your hand is nearly the same colour nigger.”
Ameobi wrote back that it’s “sad to see some people are still racist nowadays” and then reported the incident to the Northumbria police. Police arrested two 17-year-old men on Thursday on suspicion of malicious communication. Newcastle’s manager, Alan Pardew, said it’s important that a precedent be set showing that type of behavior will not be tolerated.
“We represent the local community here and when something like this happens we have to react strongly,” he said. “We will not tolerate any type of behaviour like that.”
People should be held accountable for making racist and idiotic comments like that more often. The world of social media has created an avenue for racism to be thrown around for absolutely no reason without consequences. If someone thought they might be arrested for doing it, it would stand to reason that we would see less of it.
