In the wake of England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka being targeted with abhorrent online racial abuse, we need to completely rewrite the narrative around black success and failure says Charlotte Green, founder of Black Owned eXcellence network, The B.O.X.

It was impossible to avoid getting swept up in all the positive momentum around the England team’s rise to the finals of the Euros, and to feel the buzz of unity and good vibes all round the country. But as that final match approached, my one prayer was that this be an opportunity for the narrative to be changed around black players, and even black people.

Sadly, and as predicted, the racist abuse started the second Italy won. Driving home through Waterloo, my inbox filled up with messages from friends and social groups showing screenshots of the racist tweets in which Rashford, Saka and Sancho were vilified. 

‘There’s a double standard for black people when it comes to success’ 

Because for black people there’s a double standard when it comes to success. Everyone would have loved those three black players if we’d won the final, but because they missed the penalties, they get even more racial abuse than normal. And that’s the case for black people in general – unless we’re literally knocking it out of the park, achieving ten times more than our counterparts, we’re just not doing well enough in the eyes of the public-at-large. 

We urgently need to change the narrative around black success says Charlotte Green, founder of The Box

The think-tank British Future recently released the results of a survey showing that 1 in 10 people regard Englishness as a racial identity. In their minds, black people can never truly be English. In the past this statistic would have been way higher but nevertheless, that this many people hold such an outdated view makes sense of the public response when a black star is less than 125% perfect. In life and in work, black acceptance is based on your positive performance. As soon as you show your weaker side, you are quickly brought down. Occasional failure and struggle are not an option to you – you have to overachieve at all times.

These three young players exemplified excellence in a multitude of ways. All from humble beginnings, their rise to success has involved an element of struggle – yet between them there are excellent school exam results, inspirational talks for local kids and campaigns to feed underprivileged children. They are people who look for ways to pay it forward and help others from the same backgrounds. 

‘Successful black people need to be allowed to fail sometimes’

And, racists apart, I think the large majority of people in the country still hold them up as absolute heroes, which does feel like a real step forward. Tour dates for a right wing ‘comedian’ have been cancelled due to his racist tweets and an employee has been suspended from real estate firm Savills for the same reason. Petitions are being widely shared to get racists banned from football for life.

But creating a positive narrative around black people means celebrating the tryers as well as the successes in the black community. Rashford, himself moved to tears by the messages of love and support covering racist graffiti on the mural of his face in Manchester said that while he apologises for letting the team down, he’d never apologise for who he is. He shouldn’t even have to make such a statement. 

Successful black people need to be allowed to fail sometimes, whether running a business or taking penalties. This is why we have launched The B.O.X, an equity funding platform to celebrate and support black-owned excellence, and change the ecosystem in order to help black entrepreneurs overcome the boundaries and existing struggles to get to a place of greatness. We want to change the narrative around black success.

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