I thought of 19-year-old Lauren James this week, and the national newspaper column she wrote days after she had received racist abuse on social media for the first time. I thought of the wider context, and of how few interviews she had given in her career before then. None in her first two years as a professional, given how protective her former club Manchester United were of their prodigious but young — James was still school-aged when she signed for them — talent. I thought of how James, who scored the first Manchester United Women goals in the Championship, in the FA Cup, in the Women’s Super League (WSL) and at Old Trafford, kept such a low profile in those early days compared to sporting prodigies of previous generations. I remember little to no advertising campaigns or magazine shoots.
Then her first public utterance was in response to racist abuse. “I didn’t plan to speak out about racism at this early stage in my career,” she wrote, “[…] but when it happens to you it is different. Honestly, at first I didn’t know how to deal with it.”
That piece was published in 2021. James’ debut World Cup two years later was marred by further abuse after her stamp on Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie, which led to her being sent off and banned for two matches. In December that year, James’ club Chelsea issued a statement condemning racial abuse directed at James after she appeared to stamp on Arsenal’s Lia Walti in a WSL game. Her manager at Chelsea, Emma Hayes, described James as “not in a good place”. Both Alozie and Walti begged their social media followers to stop.
Too late, already, to stop racism shadowing James’ career beginnings. No other female player of this generation has had to endure a level of abuse so consistent and so vicious. So much to carry at 22, but James wrote in that article in The Telegraph that by 19 she had long learned black women had it differently in all areas of life.
That point was proved again when, on Sunday, Millie Turner posted a photo of James after United’s 2-1 FA Cup win over Chelsea, the image showing the pair’s tussle for the ball that depicted James holding Turner in what could be perceived as being a headlock. As Turner held onto the ball, both players were subsequently booked. What followed in the comments, in the context of James’ young career, was depressingly predictable.
KAMMMMMOOONNNNNN pic.twitter.com/C3f8LHRJAs
— Millie Turner (@MillieTurner_) April 14, 2024
Turner’s intentions are really a moot point here and her defenders might argue her posts also showed her own role in the incident. What matters is that anyone who has paid attention to James over the past few seasons should have seen what was coming, and the power of Sunday’s photo when highlighted out of sequence. The pair were United team-mates when James spoke out in that first newspaper column. Enough black players have spoken on the reality of playing through the race and culture wars in this country. The immediate aftermath of the men’s Euro 2020 final (held in 2021) focused almost entirely on the three black England players who missed penalties. There have been enough warnings, for all of us.
Turner’s post, and her choice to highlight the photo again in an Instagram story, was just an accelerant. James — or whoever runs her social media accounts — subsequently unfollowed several of her England team-mates who interacted with the post.
On Wednesday night, James was a surprise absentee from Chelsea’s squad for their WSL match against Aston Villa, with a foot injury the reason given.
The response over recent days told us England’s most-gifted female player of a generation — possibly ever — is playing for a country that repeatedly chooses to remind her that, because of the colour of her skin, their love and acceptance is only ever conditional. Regularly, it is made clear that their adoration is far flimsier than the love they will reserve for everyone else.
Few in the women’s game will be able to relate to the pressures on James as England’s great hope — none of those who came before have experienced this level of publicity and scrutiny — and fewer still will understand what it means to do it all as a black woman. That must surely feel lonely, even after, as per a United spokesperson, Turner and James have explained their points of view to each other and view the incident as water under the bridge. International and club managers are said to be satisfied with those discussions.
Some say Turner bears no responsibility for the words of her social media followers; others have argued that any public figure, particularly one tasked with growing a sport, must accept responsibility and cannot be naive. Her club feels that she merely innocently posted a selection of pictures from a big game. Those who argue that the women’s game needs needle and rivalries and villains and banter, that Turner would be wrong to handle James with kid gloves, are blinkered in their own way to the stakes for James in this climate. We do not live in a post-racial society, and football fans have form for sending James a particular kind of hate.
At the last Women’s World Cup, the intersection between football, society and inequality was pronounced from the protests on the eve of the tournament to the kiss at the final. Invariably, James, willingly or otherwise, in a divided England, in a team whose senior women’s squads have featured few black players in recent years, as the country’s most exciting female footballer for generations, will remain at the forefront of that conversation, her treatment a marker for how far there is to go. That comes at a huge personal cost, and one that becomes heavier to carry with each post.
(Top photo: Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
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