Tyrone Mings: ‘I’m no longer surprised when a football fan calls me a n****r’ Exclusive interview: Bournemouth defender reveals the sheer scale of racist abuse that black footballers are regularly subjected to online

Tyrone Mings is strong enough not to let the racist abuse affect him. Nor the death threats that come with it, directed at both him and his family. But the Bournemouth defender does not want to bring up a child in a society where it is acceptable for hundreds of thousands of racist posts to litter the places online where people spend so much time every day.

If racist terms were graffitied on building walls, or promoted on posters put up in the corridors of a school, they would be removed immediately; if one person yelled racist slurs at another at a train station those nearby would be disgusted and possibly intervene.

“Clearly people think they can get away with things on social media that they wouldn’t get away with on the street,” Mings tells i when we meet at a coffee shop on the outskirts of Bournemouth. “If someone was racist to me in the street, you’d be a lot more shocked. Which is strange, because social media is real.”

Creeping back

Anti-discrimination campaigner Lord Herman Ouseley, who has been fighting racism for decades, fears that it is “creeping back into the game” due to “the wider elements of society driving hate” — but is it any wonder when the hate and bile is so freely available in digital spaces where children, teenagers and increasingly adults live?

‘They only do it because social media gives them a voice and a screen to hide behind’

It is such a regular occurrence for Mings that he is no longer shocked when a stranger sat behind a keyboard somewhere in the world replies to one of his posts with the word ’n*****’. He knows his experience is minimal compared to such players as Paul Pogba, of Manchester United, or Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling, but he tasted that level of exposure last season, and it was bitter.

Mings was accused of stamping on Zlatan Ibrahimovic during a game against Manchester United. The striker retaliated by elbowing him in the head. Mings has always denied intent, but was retrospectively banned for five matches. Ibrahimovic got three. United manager Jose Mourinho lambasted him at half-time. In Sky’s studios Gary Neville branded it “a cowardly act”. That was nothing compared to the acerbic response on social media.

Too easy

“I got thousands of messages,” Mings, 24, recalls. “Thousands and thousands and thousands on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Private messages. Personal stuff: derogatory terms, offensive language, you’re this and you’re that, you shouldn’t be alive, this is what’s going to happen to your family. It’s far too easy to target people on social media.”

Last December, five days before Christmas, Mings showed i one post where a Twitter user called him the N-word. “You’ll see the majority of replies to that sort of thing is positive – people defending me, or criticising the other person,” Mings says.

“But there are some that are just completely pathetic. I show my friends occasionally and they’ll read through it and be like, ‘How are people allowed to get away with stuff like this?’ My family are worse. This is also what people don’t realise: my mum will read comments, it might not affect me but if it affects my mum – and it’s upsetting – that’s not right.

“I feel they only do it because social media gives them a voice and a screen to hide behind.” Bournemouth asked if Mings wanted them to take his case further.

A spokesperson for Twitter said: “Hateful conduct, in all its forms, is a violation of the Twitter Rules. We have introduced more than 20 changes to our policies, product, and processes in the past 12 months, all with the aim of promoting safety and a positive user experience. If anyone feels threatened, they should report the material to our support teams immediately.”

But while Twitter insist it is the user’s duty to report violations of their rules, Mings believes the onus should fall upon the social media companies and the authorities, not individual players or celebrities.

Repercussions

Kick It Out chairman Ouseley raised his concerns in light of Liverpool’s 17-year-old striker Rhian Brewster bravely telling the Guardian last month of seven incidents of racist abuse he had experienced in the game. Since then, the Football Association has opened an investigation into accusations Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino racially abused Everton defender Mason Holgate; Newcastle have placed under-23 coach Peter Beardsley on leave while they investigate several accusations of racism from youth players (Beardsley denies the allegations); Juventus’s Blaise Matuidi has spoken out against racist abuse he was subjected to in Serie A. Last month, Sterling was racially abused and assaulted outside Manchester City’s training ground.

‘If Colin Kaepernick can take a knee and risk his NFL career and Eni Aluko be in parliament and talk about her racial issues, everybody should hopefully feel like they can follow suit as well’

Mings has had no issues at Bournemouth, but in the Championship with Ipswich he was twice targeted by opposition supporters of a club he does not want to name: once called a “n*****” as he warmed up on the touchline and another time repeatedly subjected to racist taunts at left-back after injuring an opponent in a 50-50 challenge.

“Player-to-player I think the numbers would be really low, which is positive, credit to the organisations, like Kick It Out, who do great work and have done over the years, to get to the stage now where in 2018 numbers are impressive,” Mings says. “But if you look at fans and social media and those numbers there, there’s certainly a lot more that can be done in terms of punishment. Someone might go on Twitter and write a racist tweet and get banned from Twitter. OK, they’re banned from Twitter, I’m not sure Twitter is their whole life. If they are found to be guilty of that then it should come with repercussions from the police. If it happened on the street it would.”

Normalising behaviour

Leaving racism to fester and stew forever online has the frightening potential to normalise that behaviour elsewhere in society. “For as long as people can have a voice on social media people might start to see that as normal,” Mings says. “I used to think it was mainly kids who were looking for a reaction. Some of the time it’s well-educated adults who are sending them.”

Mings adds: “This needs to change. If you look at racism in general dating back decades and decades to when it was really prevalent. They obviously had to start somewhere, trying to sort out the problem. If they could do it that many years ago with influential figures, people standing up for what’s right, there’s absolutely no reason why, with the amount of technology available today, the same thing can’t happen. It might take a long time, nobody’s doubting that. But it’s something that needs to be addressed.

“Could it creep back in? Definitely, nothing is ever impossible.”

From Brexit to Trump

Why do so many people feel comfortable being racist online? Ouseley touched upon wider elements of society driving hate. A staunchly anti-immigration rhetoric has permeated everywhere from the Brexit campaign to US President Donald Trump (and everyone is connected to events across the Atlantic by social media).

“There’s no wonder some people feel like immigration is a bad thing, when every day there are stories from big news outlets about immigration,” Mings says.

‘There would be some people who live in England who feel everybody should be 100 per cent English… that’s where racism stems from’

“Immigrants living in a £2million council house in London for £200 a week. It’s not their fault. People feel like that’s the immigrant’s fault. For wanting to come to England for a better life? There have been stories about immigration not working. People coming here illegally, or an immigrant committing crimes. Extreme situations: killing people. That small scale of immigration that doesn’t work is then blown up by the media and people feel like it’s all the immigrant’s fault, it’s all this and it’s all that and they’re taking jobs. When really nine times out 10 they probably work harder than most of us anyway, because of the hunger to succeed and that desire for a better life.

“In terms of America, Trump, immigration, Brexit; everybody has an ideology on what their ideal world looks like and if something doesn’t fit into that it’s very easy to abuse someone because of that. There would be some people who live in England who feel everybody should be 100 per cent English, everybody should be speaking English, you shouldn’t be able to wear burkas. People have really strong views on it, which is where racism and discrimination stems from, if someone is into that ideology. In society, if newspapers are highlighting it then people will feel like: why can’t I talk about it? Why can’t I share these views? If thousands of immigrants are coming into the country, and living in our houses and doing cheap labour to take away jobs from us, what chance have people got of stopping it, if huge outlets are doing it?”

The start of something?

Politics, sport and racism collided spectacularly in 2017. Trump attacked NFL star Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee to highlight police brutality against black people in America. Chelsea striker Eniola Aluko took on and defeated the Football Association at a parliamentary hearing and was at the centre of a racism cover-up scandal that scorched the governing body’s reputation.

They have two more things in common. “Unfortunately, those two people got punished for it and it’s had a negative affect on their careers, by them ultimately feeling what is right and speaking up for what they believe in, which isn’t right,” Mings says. Kaepernick is unemployed, while Aluko has not played for England since she first raised her grievances about the conduct of former manager Mark Sampson with the FA.

“They might’ve been the start of something,” Mings adds. “If you look at historical figures who try to change people’s opinions and change the course of the future, you have to start somewhere. It starts with drastic action and people follow suit. If Colin Kaepernick can take a knee and risk his NFL career and Eni Aluko be in parliament and talk about her racial issues, everybody should hopefully feel like they can follow suit as well.”