The abuse spray-painted across a depiction of the footballer is open to interpretation
On Wednesday of the week before last I filed one of my supposedly funny “columns” for last Sunday’s Observer. I wanted to write a personal pastiche of feel-good op-eds about England’s near victory in the Euros and reference how Boris Johnson government’s calculated culture war tried to draw the squad into its sights, as surely as it had Enid Blyton, a picture of the Queen in a room where a dozen or so postgraduates have a kettle and Horrible Histories.
I found a photo online said to be of the vandalised Marcus Rashford mural, taken before it was covered up by locals because of reports it was racist. The seventh word of the eight-word screed looked to me like the word “black”, although it was partially obscured by the right testicle of an ejaculating penis and testicles combination that had been sprayed over the word, presumably by the same sloppy artist. In these volatile times there is a need for absolute clarity!
