A Black man in Paris said he was accustomed to experiencing racism, but what happened to him at a train station this week has forced him to consider bringing charges against a mob of white soccer fans from England that blocked his way onto a subway car.
The victim identified only as Souleymane was attempting to board a Paris train before a professional soccer match between Chelsea of England and Paris St. Germain when a gang of Chelsea fans blocked the entrance for him to enter. Worse, they chanted, “We’re racist, we’re racist and we like it that way.”
The incident was captured on video.
“I wanted to get into the car but a group of English fans blocking me and pushed me away,” he said to the French newspaper Le Parisien. “I tried to force the passage, I again tried to return. In the scramble, I lost my phone.”
The man, 33, said he could not comprehend what the mob was saying, but he knew it was about his race.
“They told me things in English,” he said, “but I did not really understand the meaning of their words. I do not speak a word of English.
“I understand also that they were attacking me because of the color of my skin. You know, I live with racism, I was not really surprised by what happened to me even if it was a first in the subway.”
After about six minutes, Souleymane said the gang finally left on the train. “I took the next metro and went back home without telling anyone,” he said, “not even my wife or kids. What would I have told my kids? That daddy was pushed in the metro because he’s Black?”
He said he was unaware the ordeal had been captured by someone’s cell phone video.
“I didn’t know I had been filmed,” he said. “Talking about this now encourages me to lodge a complaint with the police.
“These people, these English fans must be found, punished and must be enclosed. What happened should not go unpunished.”
Chelsea has suspended three people from attending matches at Stamford Bridge and will issue life-time banning orders if there is deemed sufficient evidence of the fans’ involvement.
Jose Mourinho, manager of the Chelsea team, said he was “ashamed” of the fans involved. “The (players in the) dressing room reacted as I did—with disappointment.”
Many European soccer fans exist in a culture of racism. There have been countless racists incidents at games, including yelling racial slurs at Black players and even throwing bananas at them. Opposing players have been cited for uttering racial obscenities at Black players.
“If it is deemed there is sufficient evidence of their involvement in the incident the club will issue banning orders for life,” the English Premier League leaders said in a statement.
French League (LFP) president Frederic Thiriez said his organization was considering filing a civil suit. “Football must fight racism on a daily basis. It’s a priority. And it’s in the name of that priority that we wish to file a civil suit. I welcome the English authorities and Chelsea FC’s reactivity who are at our side in that fight.”
Chris Ramsey, the only Black manager in the Premier League of soccer, said of the incident: “Those views are reflective of everyday life. . . Racism is not something that gets totally eradicated. It gets shuffled about. . . It’s a crime of a civil nature.”
