Junior Stanislas has spoken about the difficulty of trying to explain racism to his twin sons after receiving online abuse.
The Bournemouth midfielder was targeted in the wake of the Cherries’ 1-0 Sky Bet Championship victory at Stoke on Saturday in which he had scored a late winner, prompting his club to condemn the attack.
Stanislas admits he has become all to familiar with abuse over the years and has twin nine-year-old sons, Alex and Jacob, one of whom has also been a victim.
"𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙪𝙥 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙮 𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙚-𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧-𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙡."— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) January 6, 2021
He told Sky Sports News: “In the past month, both myself and one of my sons have both had racial abuse, so I had to wake up in the morning and explain to them what had happened because they had to go to school and people might mention it to them.
“The difficult thing with my sons is that, with them being twins, they’re one in a million twins. One is my colour with dark hair and dark eyes, the other one has white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes.
“The sad fact of the matter is one of them has already seen racism and sadly will see it probably throughout his life and the other one, although they’re exactly the same race, will never see it or experience it.”
“We stand firmly with Junior and will continue to work tirelessly to educate and rid the game of all forms of discrimination.”#afcb 🍒https://t.co/LiPiDrDfIo— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) January 3, 2021
Stanislas revealed he only really considered the impact of the messages sent to him after sitting back and talking it through with team-mates.
He said: “It’s becoming a regular thing and although for me personally it’s the first time I’ve had online abuse, I’ve had it all the time growing up. I wouldn’t say I’m numb to it, but it’s becoming all too familiar.
“It was only when I sat back and analysed it with some of the lads that I saw how disgusting it was.”
The incident comes at a time when footballers have been taking the knee in support of the anti-discrimination across football and wider society, and Stanislas is eager to understand the motivation of those responsible.
He said: “It would be nice to understand and get the viewpoints of someone who is saying these things, what goes on and how their mind works.
“Just because someone is a certain skin colour, how do they have the right to say things about them even if we’re exactly the same but just have a different skin colour? It’s crazy really.”
