Manchester United fan Rachel Riley is under fire today after responding to a Twitter user who called her a glory hunter by pointing out he’s an Arsenal fan living in India, and so it’s ironic for him to be accusing her of glory hunting.
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Here’s the exchange:
no.every man utd fan is like that.plastic.gloryhunter
— Supriyö Banerjee (@supriyoarsenal) August 10, 2020
Says Arsenal fan in India. https://t.co/FBYByJFVt8
— Rachel Riley (@RachelRileyRR) August 10, 2020
Because it’s 2020, people interpreted Rachel Riley’s response as a racist attack and are now demanding that she apologise. Here’s some of the reaction:
What’s the issue with him being from India, Rachel?
— Met. (@AFCMet) August 10, 2020
This is incredibly disappointing. Why mention he’s from India at all? Subconscious racism?
If his heart loves football & somehow Arsenal (COYS). His ❤️ loves football & Arsenal
Can English people not be as valid a fan of US sports teams than Americans?
I don’t get this Rachel.
— J. Ward (@Jaydub77) August 10, 2020
Holy shit! You should be apologising for this disgusting racism instead you’ve doubled down.
— ashok kumar (@broseph_stalin) August 11, 2020
Nice comment from someone championing anti-hate campaigns
— Eddie (@JogaBonito888) August 10, 2020
Rachel Riley doesn’t think Indians can be true fans pic.twitter.com/0TA48LL4wP
— Trust the Process (@WoonTang_Clan) August 10, 2020
I’m from India and it’s about 3 at night I’m awake watching United play for my passion for the sport. If you have a problem with a troll it’s fine. If you have got a problem with where he’s from then you are probably racist. Racism towards Asians goes unnoticed anyway.
— Rashford Señior (@rashfordsenior) August 10, 2020
This just shows what a consonant vowel consonant consonant you actually are.
— Martin Ⓜ The Red (@MartinTheTopRed) August 11, 2020
You do know this is racist??
— MAJID (@ArsenalAtHeartt) August 10, 2020
This is disgustingly xenophobic
— (Free Dalot) (@thefreshfavela) August 10, 2020
Yikes. Probably not the reaction Rachel Riley was expecting, but you know how it goes these days – people will look for any and every reason to call you a racist or a bigot and shame you all over the internet.
Riley addressed the backlash in another Tweet:
For the wilfully obtuse…
It might be considered ironic, for someone supporting a club half way around the world, to call someone else a “plastic glory hunter”.
End of.
— Rachel Riley (@RachelRileyRR) August 10, 2020
I mean it does seem pretty obvious that she was making a point about someone calling her a glory hunter because geographically she isn’t from the same place as the team she supports. Given that the guy calling her a glory hunter lives THOUSANDS of miles away in India and supports Arsenal, it was pretty ironic and hypocritical.
Put it this way – if someone you knew from London was a Liverpool supporter they’d get called plastic or a glory hunter and that would be fine. However, replace ‘London’ with ‘India’ and it suddenly becomes a racist comment. That doesn’t seem right, does it? Context matters, surely!
Then again, it wasn’t that long ago people were accusing Rachel Riley of being one of the biggest trolls on the internet. So maybe the cynicism isn’t completely unwarranted.
