Premier League star Wilfried Zaha says he was targeted with racist abuse on social media

By Sana Noor Haq, CNN

Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha says he was targeted with racist abuse on social media, following his side’s 2-0 win against Manchester City on Saturday.

Zaha, who scored in the sixth minute of the match to contribute to his team’s victory, shared screenshots of multiple racist messages he had received on his verified Instagram account’s story, preceded by a post where he explained why he wanted to share the abuse with his 1.1 million followers.

“This message isn’t for me to get a million messages saying we stand with you and it’s disgusting or about me getting sympathy,” he said. “I’m not here for all the nonsense that is being done instead of fixing the actual problem!”

“I don’t mind abuse because nowadays it comes with doing the job I do even though it’s not an excuse but my colour will always be the real problem but it’s fine because I’ll always be BLACK AND PROUD!”

“Speak to me when you actual [sic] take this issue serious [sic],” he added.

Zaha previously opened up to CNN about facing such abuse online, saying he’s “scared” to open Instagram due to the volume of racist messages he receives.

The social media platform recently launched a new tool that it said would automatically filter out abusive messages from accounts that users did not know.

Instagram did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

In September, fellow Premier League player Romelu Lukaku told CNN that social media CEOs need to meet with football stars to eliminate the abuse players are subject to online.

“I have to fight,” Lukaku said to CNN’s Amanda Davies at the time. “Because I’m not fighting only for myself. I’m fighting for my son, for my future kids, for my brother, for all of the other players and their kids, you know, for everybody.”

The-CNN-Wire
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