Back at you Jolly... good post.
You're right about the younger generation. A few years back, rather sweetly, we had to explain what racism was to our then 8 or 9 year old daughter who really couldn't get her head around why anyone would be racist (once she knew what it meant!). She really was agog and just couldn't understand why anyone would act that way. That said, I'm conscious that she's been raised in a relatively middle class bubble where most of the parents are generally better educated, which generally goes hand in hand with more liberal attitudes. To continue the sweeping generalisation, I think in some less well to do areas there's less of an enlightened view that's been passed down from parent to child over the last few generations, particularly in less cosmopolitan areas where there are fewer people of colour, and that's predominantly where the overt racism still exists (I'm thinking mostly of the type of areas where the BNP and formerly UKIP have previously done reasonably well in elections).
I must say as well, I've bitten my virtual lip a few times in the last couple of days on the topic of Sancho, Sako and Rashford in comparison to previous players who've **** up at tournaments. In particular I've seen one post doing the rounds listing Gary and Phil Neville, Beckham and Southgate among white players who've also made mistakes and not been abused the way the latest set of lads have. Are they kidding?!? Some of the abuse thrown at them at the time was horrific! It just wasn't racial in nature, but it was vicious and cruel and totally disproportionate to their "crimes".
I'm in no way excusing the racial abuse. Yes, all three that missed were black, but that's purely coincidental and in no way a factor in the fact they all missed. Unfortunately the mindset of the sort of morons who go to town on an individual will focus on the easy route to abusing someone, and in the case of Sancho, Rashford and Sako that has been their colour. Had it been Kane or Maguire who missed I'm sure they would have found something else to go for. There's just some nasty, stupid f***ers out there who give football supporters in general a bad rep.
Absolutely. Whether someone has a big head or a big nose, or a hair lip or ginger hair, the haters will always hate and always go for the easiest target. And the media loves to throw fuel on a story.