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Raheem Sterling and complicity

As I'm sure many of you are aware, yesterday Chelsea fans were caught on camera racially abusing Raheem Sterling while he was chasing a ball over the by-line. After the match, Sterling posted a pair of headlines to Instagram with a comment tying his treatment by the media to the abuse he constantly hears from fans. The headlines he posted were both from the Daily Mail, because of course they were. The Mail and the S*n both love nothing more than to play into racist stereotypes, and Sterling seems to be a favorite target.

It would be great to think that mainstream racism directed at Sterling could be limited just to organizations like those two; we LFC fans are well aware of their many, many sins, and they both make very convenient scapegoats. However, to do so would be to ignore our (white fans') own complicity. We have a history with Raheem Sterling because of how he left. This 2015 column from James Pearce captures the mood around Sterling's departure: LFC fans weren't mad because he joined a rival or wanted money or trophies. We were mad because of some vague idea of "dignity and class"; reading between the lines, that sounds an awful lot to me like Sterling just didn't know his place, that a young Black man like him should just be grateful for whatever we deign to give him. It's not as blatant as the S*n talking about the blinged up house (or whatever the exact phrase was, I'm not looking it up) that he bought, I think that racism still underpins a lot of those criticisms.

In this moment right now, the many statements of support that I've seen from LFC players and fans for Sterling feel hollow. The traveling Kop are still going to jeer Sterling when we face off at the Etihad next month, and I find it hard to believe that racism doesn't permeate that. Luis Suarez tried to force his way out before the title challenge, then actually *did* force his way out; while I admit that it's mostly unknowable whether he would get the same grief that Sterling does at Anfield, based on his reputation amongst our fans I can hazard a guess. That is completely baffling to me.

tl;dr: AJ and Chuck been telling y'all.

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